FRIENDS last night paid tribute to a children’s football coach who they said gave 100 per cent to everything he did.

Clive Pratley, of Brambling Way, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, was found dead about 3.50pm on Monday in a car parked in a layby near The Barley Mow pub in Clifton Hampden.

The 47-year-old former BMW factory worker spent eight years as coach of Oxford Blackbirds youth football teams in Blackbird Leys.

Police are treating the death of the married father-of-one as unexplained but do not believe it was suspicious.

Oxford Blackbirds club secretary Kevin Trendell said: “He was a great guy and is going to be sorely missed.

“He was a brilliant coach who gave 100 per cent each and every time and in everything he did.

“Clive was always outgoing and a good laugh.

“He was a very good friend outside football as well and we took our level one coaching course together.

“He was very good with the kids and a great bloke.

“But he was very much a family man. The death has shocked us all. A lot of us know his family and club members are offering them our support.

“We will do anything we can for them.”

Mr Pratley, who leaves behind wife Diane and son Craig, 16, recently stepped down as a coach at Oxford Blackbirds.

He worked at the Cowley car factory, now owned by BMW, for 25 years.

Friends said he was a keen fisherman and avid Chelsea football fan.

Four years ago he helped raise £1,000 for raincoats for players in his Oxford Blackbirds under-9s team by getting his head shaved.

A police spokesman said officers were called to the Long Wittenham Road, between Long Wittenham and Clifton Hampden, at 3.50pm on Monday.

They found a body in a car parked in a layby a short distance from the Barley Mow pub.

Scenes of crime officers closed the road for about three hours to launch an investigation into the cause of his death and to remove the car and body.

Mr Pratley was formally identified by family members yesterday and an inquest into the cause of his death was due to be opened and adjourned at Oxford Coroner’s Court today.

A spokesman for South Central Ambulance Service said they were called to reports of a man who suffered neck injuries and he was declared dead at the scene.