Now 78 years old, it was thought that Jean Bell might knock non-league boys' football on the head at the end of this season, and in doing so bring the curtain down on 45 years of being the heart of Bellford Rovers. It transpires that walking away mightn't be so easy. "Since I got in touch, would you believe, the remarkable Jean has turned around and said that she wants to give it one more season," Dean Farrington, a former player of Bellford, the team Jean founded in 1980, tells BirminghamLive . Jean has been the backbone of grassroots football in Birmingham for almost half a century without perhaps receiving the wider recognition her efforts and achievements have merited. Previously a caretaker at James Watt Primary School in Handsworth, Jean has spent her Sundays coaching, transporting and fundraising, all so that young boys around the city can be a part of a team and have football to look forward to at the weekend. The fruits of those efforts are represented in the achievements of some of those lads in the professional game, too. "When I was 11, back in 1991, she used to run the Birmingham Boys' League - she was the secretary," Dean explains. "My mom and dad took me over to Jean, and she was my first manager. At a time when it wasn't maybe as diverse or inclusive, we had a lady managing the boys' team - and my other coach was also a woman. "I'm 45 now, and I've known her since I was 11. She's been doing it for 45 years and she's still doing it at 78. She has found it difficult this year, but she needs recognition before she quits." It's safe to say that Jean has changed the childhood of many boys in the city over a period spanning five decades, keeping them on the straight and narrow and going out of her way in order to ensure that her team are kitted out, are able to attend games and have the voice of encouragement from the touch-line. "She has no sponsors or anything," Dean adds. "It's amazing how much Jean has done for so many people, in the 80s and 90s, in Handsworth, keeping a hell of a lot of lads off the streets and out of jail by playing football. She used to run around the whole of Birmingham, picking up lads in a minibus and taking them all over. "She takes teams from a young age, all the way up to under 18s, and then she starts again with another team, then you carry straight on into adult football. The love and respect and admiration so many people have for her is incredible." Bellford have had some notable names, as mentioned, pass through their ranks during Jean's time; former West Bromwich Albion defender and current Port Vale boss Darren Moore is perhaps the highest profile. He still asks about Jean whenever he is in Dean's company. Former Aston Villa defender Zat Knight, too, is another high profile former player. "In the 1980s and 1990s, she produced so many pros who went on to play professionally - Mooro, Zat Knight, Reuben Hazel, Terry Fleming, Paul Hall. She took Darren Moore, and Chris Curran, to Torquay in 1990 as they were going to turn pro," Dean reveals. "Bellford are in the Festival League and they have been since I was a kid. We won the county cup final and went unbeaten, winning the league as well, when I was 17. We have been in the festival league since 1998 and Jean continues to oversee it." Jean received recognition at the Birmingham Sports Awards at Villa Park back in 2014, when she was awarded the Volunteer Of The Year gong, but Dean reached out to BirminghamLive , 11 years on, to ensure she receives the acknowledgement she deserves having continued in earnest with Bellford, just at a time when it crossed her mind to call it a day. He adds: "A few years ago I nominated her for a Birmingham Sports Award - Mooro even came - and she won the volunteer of the year award. She hasn't had any recognition considering how remarkable she is. She lost her second husband and she spends more time doing it now, because it gives her something to focus on." It sounds as though the highly respected and much admired Jean isn't ready to call it quits just yet.