Book Review: The Great Football Conspiracy: A comedy thriller novel by Jonathan Last

On 18 April 2021 the football world went into meltdown when 12 clubs (AC Milan, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid) announced the creation of a European Super League (ESL). There was a universal outcry from FIFA and UEFA, clubs, governments, the media and fans, who saw what the ESL for what it was, a closed shop for those invited, who perceived themselves as the ‘biggest’ clubs, motivated not by the interests of the global game but by greed. The opposition was so vociferous that within three days, only Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid remained still in support of the project. What it showed was that there was a widespread belief that the ESL went against the integrity of the game, and that fans still had a part in making their views know in affecting decisions.

You may well be thinking what has got to do with Jonathan Last’s book, The Great Football Conspiracy? Well the premise of this, sub-titled, A comedy thriller novel, is centred around a plot that looks to change the game and its principles forever – sound familiar! The books synopsis details that it is ‘The Da Vinci Code’ meets ‘Fever Pitch’, no small claim indeed, given Dan Brown’s thriller has sold over 80 million copies worldwide and Nick Hornby’s seminal book on Arsenal has sold over a million copies in the UK alone and spawned two films.

In reality, where this book has similarities to The Da Vinci Code is that the central characters in both novels try to solve a number of clues as they race around various locations. For the cities of Europe in Dan Brown’s book, read a number of London football stadiums including Chelsea, Fulham, QPR and Wembley. Last obviously knows his venues as his descriptions of these grounds will be familiar to those fans who call them home. Another similarity between the two is also in respect of the characters and trying to work out as a reader which can be trusted as the ‘good guys’.

The links to Hornby’s Fever Pitch are less obvious, given it is biographical rather than fiction. However, Last does display throughout The Great Football Conspiracy an understanding and knowledge of the game, its history and what it is to be a fan.

Yes there is humour within the book and yes it has the feeling of a thriller, but at the heart of it is a message about the importance of fans and their part in the traditions of the game. The ESL project has shown that there is and perhaps always be a threat to football, but it would be good to think that as The Great Football Conspiracy shows there will always be custodians of the game, whether administrators or fans, who will uphold the integrity of what is and should always be, The People’s Game.

(Independently Published. November 202. Paperback 297pages)

 

 

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Book Review: Andrew Watson, a Straggling Life: The Story of the World’s First Black International Footballer by Llew Walker

The first question that many people will ask in first picking up this book is, ‘who is Andrew Watson?’ Author Llew Walker addresses this in the Preface to this well researched and diverse read, with the following:

Andrew Watson is a sporting and cultural icon: a black footballer who succeeded despite the conventions and morals of Victorian society. He was a footballing pioneer when the love affair with the beautiful game was taking its first few steps. Yet, at the end of his career, when he fell from the public gaze, he disappeared and eventually became lost to history.

To describe Watson as a sporting icon may seem a very bold claim, but when you look at his list of accomplishments (verified by research undertaken by the Scottish Football Museum), then the statement is more than justified. This sees full-back Watson acknowledged as the first black player to:

  • Represent a British football team internationally
  • Captain an international football team
  • Play for the Scottish national team
  • Captain the Scottish national team
  • Win a major cup competition
  • Play in the English FA Cup
  • Hold the role of a football club administrator

So the question is then why did Watson and indeed his contemporaries vanish from the pages of football history? The author believes that it was essentially down to two main things, firstly, until recently, research into football was not seen as legitimate territory for scholarly research and secondly, Watson and his generation were all amateurs and as professionalism took over the game, so their code, their memory faded, and by 1975 The FA removed the word ‘amateur’ from their rule book.

Given this it is all the more remarkable that Walker is actually able to tell Andrew Watson’s story, but the author does acknowledge that, some interpretations have been made on the available facts. However, ultimately Walker hopes that, this book will inspire further research and discussion…and perhaps one day we will know all there is to know about the world’s first black international player. For now though, readers must content themselves with this book which does explore not only Andrew Watson’s life story, but also is a piece of social history.

In terms of format, following the Preface, there are eight chapters, with the book rounded off by Appendices which include Watson’s family tree and details of his playing record. The first two chapters, A Man of Colour and The Game, give an understanding of the climate in which Watson grew up in terms of the attitudes towards those of colour and the early years of Victorian Football and the rules that governed it. The remaining six chapters then focus on Watson, titled Origins, Education, Estate, Footballer, Mariner and Gentleman. These as their titles infer provide a look across Watson’s life in a wider sense, and not simply as a footballer.

Therefore, within Origins, readers get an insight into the Watson Family and his relatives, before moving onto a chapter focusing on his education and Watson’s progression to Glasgow University. Estate sees the twenty-one year old Watson receive his inheritance and invest in a wholesale warehouse business and latterly into Parkgrove Football Club, where his football story really begins and leads into the chapter aptly named Footballer.

This chapter covers ninety pages, the largest of the book, and follows his career and the clubs he played for in Scotland and England, including, Parkgrove, Maxwell, Queen’s Park, Bootle and Corinthians, with details also of his three appearances for Scotland, when his first against England in 1881 saw Watson captain the team. Author Walker is able to establish through press reports the skill and regard that Watson was held in as a player, both in Scotland and England. Indeed, the Scots were the innovators of the playing style of the time, and this saw the influx of players such as Fergus Suter (portrayed in the 2020 TV series The English Game) cross the border to change the way the game was played in England and contribute to the process of the ‘professionalisation’ of the game.

After ending his playing career at Bootle in 1888 Watson, having completed the required studies, took up a career as an engineer aboard various merchant ships, which necessitated long stretches of time away from his family. This part of Watson’s life is detailed in the chapter Mariner which surmised that he retired around 1905 in Liverpool. The final chapter Gentlemen, muses as to why Watson decided after retirement to move away from family and friends down to Kew in London, where he died in 1921. Walker also ponders in these final pages how Watson in being an absent father had affected the lives of his children, who themselves did not have any offspring with the family line seemingly coming to an end in 1975 with the death of Henry Tyler Watson.

Finally, there remains the question of the curious phrase, a straggling life, included in the title of the book. In the Preface Walker details how a newspaper article of 1888, reacting to Watson’s playing retirement had used the phrase, possibly with the implication that Watson had wasted his talents, but for Walker it was instead the inspiration for this accomplished book, as it suggested there was much more to the world’s first black footballer.

(Pith Publishing. February 2021. Hardback 256 pages)

 

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Book Review: We’re not Leeds, We ARE Leeds by Dave Rowson

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, European football was a regular attraction down at Elland Road, as Leeds United won the Fairs Cup twice (also runners-up once) but included controversial losses in the finals of the European Cup Winners Cup (1972/73) and European Cup (1974/75). Apart from an appearance in the UEFA Cup in 1978/80, the Elland Road faithful had to wait until 1992 before European football became a regular fixture down in LS11 once more.

Author of We’re not Leeds, We ARE Leeds, Dave Rowson had gone to the infamous 1975 European Cup Final against Bayern Munich in Paris with his father, as a teenager, so beginning his connection with trips abroad to follow his team, and which Dave was to pick up again in 1992/93.

We’re not Leeds, We ARE Leeds, charts a number of trips undertaken between 1992 in Stuttgart and concluding in 2002 in Florence, where the UEFA Cup tie against Hapoel Tel Aviv was played. Now if as a reader you are expecting an analysis of the games or indeed details about the tourist sites of the various locations across Europe for the fixtures, then you will be disappointed.

Instead this is the tale focusing on the tales and travails of members of the Leeds United Supporters Club, Harrogate and District Branch, (of which the author was a founding member), as they follow their team in a European A to Z from Anderlecht to Zurich. Given this, the book provides a useful background on the history of the branch and a number of its members for reference, who loom large in the stories that unfold.

These trips abroad were not the official trips organised by the Elland Road club, but instead were organised by Dave Rowson, gaining the nickname ‘Rouse Tours’, with those going wanting more time before and after the fixtures in the various locations. This time was usually spent finding the cheapest accommodation, bars and nightlife in general (and of course getting to the games – most of the time!), which leads to, as can be imagined, a variety of mishaps and at times ingenious and not so genius ideas.

Yes, the book contains tales of alcohol fuelled episodes, which in its most extreme case led to the author being in the wrong place at the wrong time in Germany, but underpinning it is also a story of friendship, loyalty and what it means to follow your team. Indeed, the title of the book We’re not Leeds, We ARE Leeds, was borne out of the 1998 trip to Maritimo, where, as ‘Rouse’ informs readers, “it was a statement that summed up how we all felt about following Leeds. How it truly felt to be a Leeds fan amongst the Leeds family at some far-flung away game in Europe.”

This helps to explain one of the two reasons the book was published. Firstly, with Marcelo Bielsa getting Leeds back into the Premier League, fans hope that the next step will be seeing European football return under the lights at Elland Road and therefore the book is in part, “for those who have not had the pleasure of following Leeds in what they have missed and what could await them in future.” The second is that a donation will be made from book sales to Alzheimer’s Research UK as part of a campaign to raise funds and awareness of Alzheimer’s and in particular the plight of ex-QPR and England international Stan Bowles. More details can be found on the Facebook page @StanBowlesHarrogateLUSC

You can buy the book via the following link: DB Publishing

 

(DB Publishing. April 2021. Paperback 192 pages)

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Book Review: Matchday by Ross Paterson

Matchday is Ross Paterson’s second entry into the world of writing, having released an eBook, Before 2012, in September 2014, telling the tale of five fictional stories of British sporting defeats. One of those five features football and is an imagined Intercontinental Cup game set in 1978 between Liverpool and Boca Juniors.

Now in 2021, Paterson, a self-confessed keen football and sports fan, takes up the pen once more and returns with a solely fictional football novel. The book takes readers back to the beginning of the English Premier League in 1992/93 backed by satellite TV station Sky and their slogan, “It’s a whole new ball game”. Whilst Sky dominated the air-waves, RTV (a fictional broadcasting company) take their first steps into live games showing one Premier League game a week, with a trio of ex-players as their pundits, Dave Massey, Kevin Sheerman and Craig MacLeod. With ratings low, the station needs to liven up its panel and decide to take on ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers’ centre-forward, Clyde Benjamin, who as an outspoken, controversial and confrontational figure, provides the required spice. As Paterson acknowledges these four central characters, “are composite figures drawn from famous players and pundits…who even after retirement from the sport…are still competitive” and will be eminently recognisable by readers.

The book has three main plot lines, all involving Benjamin. The first sees him seek to oust the other three pundits and destroy their careers, with the second an ongoing dispute with Middlesbrough striker Steve Collyer and the third involving a disgruntled fan from Benjamin’s playing days at Molineux. These all combine to provide an entertaining comedic novel which does not hold back from the macho posturing of the football world, and has a sense of the writing of Tom Sharpe, with a bawdy style and humour that plays out in a slightly chaotic world that will certainly grab readers attention.

Matchday is very much a reflection of Paterson’s view of football where “the whole matchday experience for me, as a fan, involves some laughter – be it with your mates going to the game, in the crowd or aimed at away fans. There is humour in football and the book tries to deliver some of that.” He also shows an undoubted knowledge of the game as the book blends fact with fiction, although at times, this could be dealt with in a more seamless manner. There is a serious point to the book as well, with Paterson having a black central character in Benjamin, providing observations on the mixed messages that football can give out in relation to racism, and these should not be ignored as being part of the story.

Football fiction is not an easy genre to pull-off, but Paterson does a good job in an entertaining romp that certainly leaves the door open for a possible sequel.

(Independently Published. April 2021. Paperback 195 pages)

 

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Book Review: Black Boots and Football Pinks: 50 Lost Wonders of the Beautiful Game by Daniel Gray

I have already waxed lyrical (twice!) about Daniel Gray’s football books on this site (Saturday, 3pm: 50 Eternal Delights of Modern Football and Extra Time: 50 Further Delights of Modern Football), so to head off any claims of sounding repetitive, I will clarify from the get-go that once more I am about to wax lyrical. But it’s simply impossible to do otherwise, such is the joy and brilliance of Gray’s writing, so forgive me indulging one more time.

Unlike Gray’s other two books which meditate on the delights of modern football, Black Boots and Football Pinks takes a slightly different approach, as signified by its subtitle – 50 Lost Wonders of the Beautiful Game. Indeed, this is a book that celebrates the nostalgic, a time before football became the slick, commercialised beast of modernity, where shirts were tucked in and Teletext ruled (those under 30 may need to google it). As per the style of his other books, Gray’s fifty titbits take the form of perfectly sized missives on each of his chosen themes, and it’s one of the strengths of Gray’s writing that he uses these shorter-form compositions – for that is what they are – compositions, rather than essays – which ensure that the subject matters remain vibrant and full of life rather than becoming drawn out and laborious. Gray knows his football-fan readership want action-packed, end-to-end drama, not a staid 0-0 draw of a book and that’s exactly what this format gives. It also allows for a clarity and intensity to the writing, in which every word matters and does its job. There is no waffling or rambling here, no digressing or circumlocution, just perfectly formed written showpieces, which once again illustrate Gray’s brilliant skills as a wordsmith.

In terms of the themes of chapters, they offer a smorgasbord of throwbacks to football’s not-so-distant past, but depending on your age, some of these may seem utterly implausible – shabby training grounds, really? – or sail completely over your head – pixelated scoreboards, what sorcery is that? For other readers, these lost wonders will be as clear as yesterday – ramshackle dugouts and radios bringing the scores from elsewhere – and will bring a sense of nostalgia, of simpler times. And whilst a lot of Gray’s highlights are largely consigned to the footballing dumping ground these days, some of them still make a rare appearance and when they do, it’s all the more magical. Step forward Kieran Tierney, a master of old-school shirt etiquette, who rigidly tucks his shirt in each match, whilst around him, team-mates and opposition go for style over substance. Step forward too, Igor Akinfeev. Who? you may ask. CSKA’s goalkeeper. Why him? you may probe. Because he is that rarest of modern footballers – a one-club man (so far), with over 600 appearances for the Russian outfit and a tenure of thirty years, spanning his youth career. Fortunately, we haven’t lost terrible goal kicks or foul throws either, nor have they lost their appeal for fans. And this season’s FA Cup also delivered us one of the other great joys of football of old as highlighted by Gray – homes with views into grounds – thank you Marine AFC. How we all longed to be sat in those back gardens in the middle of January. And for better, or worse, depending on your outlook, we haven’t entirely yet lost luxury, superfluous players. I can think of several to have graced the Premier League in recent years, and a few still who epitomise Gray’s description: ‘He had no exact position, no duty other than creation. His game was not rounded; his tackling was grim. He had no function beyond entertainment.’ Yes, there are definitely some players who fit the bill.

In contrast, paper tickets and player brawls are certainly somewhat waning traditions. The former, which once bloated scrapbooks, now replaced, as with most things, with an electronic version – e-tickets, whilst the latter, perhaps not missed by the puritans, has largely been eroded with players who are wont to drop to the ground at the slightest touch rather than square up to their ‘aggressor’, with ‘brawls’ usually consigned to the side-lines or tunnels these days. Of those lost wonders Gray pinpoints, the dearth of old-fashioned wingers is a particular source of sadness, so too the lesser-spotted big man/little man combination up front, which provided many an entertainment, and goal in days gone by. And don’t even get me started on multiple cup replays. Yes, teams bemoan the hectic schedule, but what fan doesn’t want to see a six-match thriller(?) played over 17 days with nine goals added to the mix (admittedly, there were two 0-0 draws in there), a la Alvechurch and Oxford City in the longest FA cup tie in history in November 1971.

But whether it’s genuinely extinct phenomena, like Ceefax, disappearing traditions like ‘home away, home away’ or dormant but potentially revivable aspects like understated goal celebrations, whether it’s traditions that fans are glad to see the back of or those they rue with undisguised displeasure, readers will find much to consider, recollect and reminisce on in Gray’s fifty themes. And what makes this book all the more interesting is the question of how it will age, that’s to say, just how will football look in five or ten years. Will black boots have made a comeback – will black be the new, er, black? Will loan moves return to being something of a rarity? Will goalkeepers decide to once again wear hats? And will players stick around at clubs for more than five minutes? Or will there be new lost wonders? Perhaps VAR – or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. But whatever the future, Daniel Gray has once more hit on modern football’s zeitgeist and captured for fans, regardless of their age or history, the quirks of football’s recent past in his truly accessible and engaging style.

Jade Craddock

(Bloomsbury Sport. October 2018. Hardback 160 pages)

 

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Book Review: Naughty Boy by Eddy Brimson

Eddy Brimson is a talented boy.

He can count amongst his many attributes, award-winning comedian, best-selling author, actor and film maker.

His latest offering is a novella, Naughty Boy, which as the Introduction inform readers, started life as screenplay. Its journey continued as Brimson sought to turn the screenplay into a book, but along the way spawned a one-man play which received critical acclaim at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, before the novella release in March 2021.

At just 120 pages, it is a tightly written piece, which Brimson acknowledges is influenced by George Orwell who in Why I Write, championed the value of making every single word count. And it is an incredible achievement that in just under twenty-five thousand words, Brimson is able to pack in so much.

The central character is Joe, who narrates throughout, in a storyline that begins and ends at a mental institution, sandwiched between a weekend away watching his football team with his mates. It is a heady mix of drink, drugs, sex and violence, all told with an authenticity born out of Brimson’s knowledge of football fan culture. Indeed, the pace is such that as a reader you feel the adrenalin rush and flashes of anger cursing through the character.

However, there is so much more to this novella detailed within the dialogue, as the author uses Joe to explore various themes. Prominent amongst these, is the idea of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’, whether this is associated with the class structure and politics within this country, those locked away in institutions or indeed rival football gangs. The idea of morality is also challenged as Joe deals with certain situations by meting out his own ‘justice’, whilst maintaining that those in high office can be equally questionable in handing out moral judgements.

As a reader it leaves you to question whether we all ‘play the game’ to some extent to suit our own needs. Are we all essentially self-centred, doing certain things that are morally wrong, but justifying it to ourselves to avoid the guilt – or are we just all naughty boys and girls?

(March 2021. Paperback 120 pages)

 

 

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Book Review: Cambridge Rules – Written In Stone | Interpreted Worldwide | Brought Back to Cambridge by Neville Gabie and Alan Ward

Back in November 2016 Axis Projects Publishing released Breaking Ground: Art, Archaeology and Mythology. This beautifully constructed book, both in terms of words and images, looks at the story of an abandoned football ground, reclaimed by nature and the remarkable work to carry out an archaeological dig on the site of Bradford Park Avenue’s former home. The results of an initial excavation in November 2013 and another two years later are recorded in the book and accompanying DVD, which deservedly was shortlisted for the 2017 William Hill Sports Book of the Year. Now just over four years later, Neville Gabie and Alan Ward, who collaborated on the Bradford book, return with another equally creative football project.

It’s premise, is that 165 years after a group of Cambridge University students first played football with a set of rules akin to those of today on Parker’s Piece in Cambridge, the City Council commissioned an artwork to celebrate the ‘Cambridge Rules’ and acknowledge the importance of the location in the birth of the game.

The book, which cleverly is produced as a scale model of the artwork that adorns Parker’s Piece in Cambridge tells the story of the 1848 rules, and the creation of the art from the initial block of stone quarried from Portugal, through its splitting and engraving in Halifax, to the laying of the stones not only in the United Kingdom but Brazil, China Egypt, India and Kenya.

As with the Bradford book, this publication goes beyond simply the physical edition, which is beautifully illustrated and written throughout, with a number of QR codes placed on the pages, so that readers might experience, for example, the song sung before every Barcelona home game. Additionally, there is an accompanying website which can be found at: www.cambridgerules1848.com which provides further details about the project and is also a hub for football stories for fans from across the world. And that is where this book and its content is also a winner in its reflection of football with its roots in England but reflecting the spread to become the global game. One stone, split into nine and spread across the world.

It would be remiss to not also mention that the book details its collaboration with Street Child United which uses sport to bring street children together in a safe space. Ahead of the world’s biggest sporting competitions, like the FIFA World Cup, they put on international sports events, specifically for street-connected children, and the 2018 Football event in Russia is featured in the book.

Once again this is another excellent multifaceted book from Axis Projects.

For copies of the book go to: www.axisgraphicdesign.co.uk/product/cambridge-rules-1848-neville-gabie-alan-ward

 

(Axis Projects. January 2021. Paperback 800 pages)

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Book Review: Lower Mead 1921 – 1991: The history of Wealdstone FC’s iconic former home by Roger Slater

Roger Slater is a long-time fan, former secretary and board member of Wealdstone FC. As a writer he has been involved with a number of books for the club including, The History of Wealdstone FC, Off The Bench – A Quarter of a Century of Non-League Management and Behind the Season, as well as providing material for the Wealdstone match day programme, and various websites. He was also co-author of, And sometimes the dog was busy! with Fergus Moore.

His excellent catalogue has been added to with his latest contribution to The Stones story, this time focusing on Lower Mead, the home of Wealdstone from 1921 to 1991. Its release in 2021 acknowledges what would have been 100 years for the club at the ground.

This A4 sized, glossy production, tells the story of the ground and its changes from hosting its first game in September 1922 against Berkhamsted Town to its last competitive fixture in April 1991, in a Southern League Premier Division fixture when Cambridge City were the visitors.

The focus of the book is on the development of the ground from the inaugural season in 1922/23, through to its sorry demise in 1990/91, with an interesting range of photographs, plans and newspaper clippings, adding to the informative text.

What is evident is that the ground was seen as something central to the community, as it developed down the years, adding a main hall, billiard room, committee rooms etc. as well becoming a focus for a range of events. And it was therefore interesting to read of the range of events that Lower Mead hosted including the local fete, dog shows, a pop concert, a weekly market and other sports such as lacrosse and rugby league.

With the club turning professional in the early 70s, it came under increasing financial pressure and combined with some financial mismanagement from the owners and subsequent legal problem, despite success on the field with the 1984/85 ‘double’ triumph of league title and FA Trophy win, within six years The Stones had to leave their iconic and spiritual home of Lower Mead.

This is a book aimed squarely at the Wealdstone faithful, but will also be of interest to those interested in football grounds and their history. It is though a sobering story of the maladministration that can occur. As football fans we should never take our home grounds for granted.

(Published by CAMS. March 2021. Paperback 56 pages)

 

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Book Review: Soap stars and burst bubbles: A season of Yorkshire football by Steven Penny

This book from Steven Penny was born out of his record of matches he attended during the 2002/03 season, documented on his website www.tyketravels.co.uk and which focuses on the game below the top four professional leagues in England. The book produced at the time proved popular but then went out of print, so prompted by repeated requests since, it was republished in February 2021.

Structure wise the book follows a timeline from August 2002 through to May 2003, and within each month, each game attended is afforded its own chapter. Given this format, it would be all too easy to fall into the trap of this being another book which just provides match reports, team line-ups, scorers etc. Penny’s great advantage that as a journalist he provides an interest story within each game, so that readers get interviews with players, managers, club officials and fans, which gives a wider perspective on the clubs featured, the realities of football at this level and some interesting tales indeed.

One such gives rise to part of the title of the book, with Helen Worth (soap star, Gail from Coronation Street), the Honorary President of the Ossett Albion club back in 2002/03 featured in the opening chapter. Another features a Goole supporter who was banned from attending matches at their Victoria Pleasure Grounds venue, but still bought a season-ticket!

The book very much focuses on life in non-league with trips to games within the Northern Counties East League dominating, however, this is supplemented by games featuring Yorkshire clubs, in the Northern Premier League, Humber Premier League, Northern League, and Central Midland League, as well as County Cups and the FA Vase and FA Cup. There are a handful of trips to watch games in the top four divisions, but in the main are not experiences that Penny enjoys, and his love for the non-league game which affords him his living as a journalist is evident.

Penny had intended that there would be a follow-up, in which he revisited and updated events at the various clubs he had taken in back in that 2002/03 campaign, however the global pandemic has had other ideas. Instead, his intentions are that a second volume will be produced once football at all steps of the National League System returns, with visits to completely different clubs to those featured in Soap stars and burst bubbles, and further down the line a third book, re-visiting and updating clubs’ stories from the first two volumes.

Reviewing this republished version, eighteen years after its first publication, it is evident that any follow-up will have many tales to tell and be able to reflect on much that has changed. For instance, there are clubs featured from 2002/03 that are no longer with us, even a new club in the form of Ossett United, from the merging of Albion and Town, and others that have either plummeted through the divisions or have equally soared to new heights. Fingers crossed that 2021/22 will see an uninterrupted return of football allowing Penny to tell the stories of those changes and bring fans once again more entertaining tales of his travels.

(Victor Publishing. February 2021. Paperback 267 pages)

 

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Book Review: Dundee Goalkeeping Greats by Kenny Ross

When this review was written in March 2021, Kenny Ross held the positions of Chairman of the Dundee FC Supporters Association and Official Club historian. These posts and his support for the Dens Park club since childhood has seen his love and knowledge for his beloved Dark Blues produce a number of books including, Dundee: Champions of Scotland 1961-62, Dundee FC On This Day: History, Facts & Figures from Every Day of the Year, Dundee Legends and Dundee’s Hampden Heroes. Additionally he was co-author with Jacqui Robertson for, It’s All About the Memories, an account of the traumatic, yet ultimately inspiring, 2010/11 season when the club went into administration. Ross has added to his catalogue with, Dundee Goalkeeping Greats published in September 2020.

This glossily produced book pays tribute to the men who have donned the Number 1 jersey for The Dee, from the clubs very first goalkeeper in their founding season 1893, Bill McKie through to Kyle Letheren from the Scottish Championship winning squad of 2014/15. Twenty six ‘keepers make it into the book, with a short chapter dedicated to each, detailing their careers and the reason for inclusion. The book is completed with a nod to the times before substitute goalkeepers were permitted and a chapter on those outfield players who has the dubious pleasure of ‘going in nets’ and lastly a comprehensive statistics section, which makes interesting study.

For fans of The Dark Blues, the various custodians will no doubt bring back memories and reflect the highs and lows of the clubs history down the years. So readers will find within the pages of the book, the inclusion of Pat Liney, who kept goal when Dundee won their only (to date), top-flight Scottish League title in 1961/62, Bert Slater who performed heroics in the run to the European Cup Semi-Finals in 1962/63 and Rab Douglas who won the Player of the Year trophy on three occasions and was inspirational on and off the pitch in that clubs dark period of administration in 2010/11.

For this Englishman, who admits to a limited knowledge of the game North of the Border, this was a really interesting read, with great snippets informing of Dundee’s formation, the Scottish game in general and the players and managers who have graced Dens Park. For example, it was a surprise to learn about Bob Shankly, brother of legendary ex-Liverpool manager, Bill, Julian Speroni who had three years at Dundee, before his time in the English Premier League with Crystal Palace and Scottish International Bill Brown who spent a decade between the posts at Dundee before becoming part of the Spurs ‘double’ winning side in 1961/62 and the European Cup Winners Cup victorious side the season after.

The best books are produced with passion and interest in the subject matter and Ross has undoubtedly achieved this with this great tribute to Dundee’s goalkeepers down the years.

(Kenny Ross. September 2020. Paperback 114 pages)

 

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