FORMER Trafford councillor Neil Taylor came under fire from furious football fans on social media, after they mistook him for his namesake and Wales footballer, whose challenge had left Ireland's Seamus Coleman with a broken leg.

Welsh left back Neil Taylor's challenge has been widely condemned as reckless and many fans looked to vent their anger on Twitter.

But they inadvertently directed their vitriol towards former Liberal Democrat councillor Neil Taylor, rather than the Wales and Aston Villa defender, following the goalless World Cup qualifier between the Republic of Ireland and Wales at the Aviva stadium in Dublin on Friday.

He was inundated with of messages condemning him for the tackle and saying he should be ashamed of himself - and over the weekend the story went viral and there were more than 100,000 messages sent.

The messages started coming through as Neil and wife Sandra were enjoying a 10th wedding anniversary meal at the Hilal restaurant in Timperley.

Neil and Sandra are not football fans and at first had no idea what the messages were referring to. But when he realised, Neil responded to the messages with humour.

He said: '"My name is Neil Taylor but I do not play or like football. Tonight I went out for a curry and beer.......I have no connection with a football player called Neil Taylor."

Neil, who used to represent the Timperley ward on Trafford Council, later added: "1: I do not play football 2: I don’t even like football 3; I was in a school footie team aged about six (we lost every game)."

He even tweeted a photo of himself as a child and said: "Here is Neil Taylor when he was little. No aspiration to play football. Would grow up to enjoy curry and beer, oh and chips. "

He told Messenger: "There were threats coming through about what people would like to do to me. but I thought 'let's have some fun with this'.

"It didn't spoil the meal. I could see the funny side of it.

"But it is one of the most bizarre stories that I have ever been involved with."