book review – Page 13 – FOOTBALL BOOK REVIEWS (FBR)

Book Review: FOOTBALL – The Golden Age: Extraordinary Images from 1900 to 1985 by John Tennant

The title makes the big claim that it is portraying ‘the golden age’ of football and then sets about trying to prove it in glorious black and white. Now I was alive in 1985 and can confirm that the world did not suddenly spring into colour in 1986. Why isn’t there a single colour photo used? High art or just to save money? There are, though, some great photographs, but whether they combine to prove the ‘big claim’ is hard to say. Unless, that is, there is something golden about not having modern technology and facilities.

Being much more about the peripherals of football, you will search long and hard for ‘extraordinary images’ of the great players doing great things in an actual match. No George Best working his magic, no Dixie Dean, no action from England’s win in ’66…

All of this, John Tennant admits to in his Foreword. Strange how he wasn’t willing to make a stand and insist on the book being called, to use his own words, “The seemingly inconsequential moments that every fan cherishes.”

That said, the book is a lot of fun. The captions are crucial, but it is still interesting to consider how photographs can lose their cultural significance over time and how much more explanation is needed as the years go by. Two examples stand out; people of a certain age will perhaps need just a little bit of help to figure out why the players are observing a minute’s silence at Craven Cottage in November 1963 whilst the American flag is being flown at half-mast (Page 116). People younger than that certain age will probably shrug in puzzlement even when it is fully explained to them before switching their gormless attention back to their beloved phones. The second is on Page 130 – Who is the bald guy in a track suit trying to stop two players swapping shirts? Is he hoping to snaffle one to sell on eBay? It is none other than Alf Ramsey in the process of getting George Cohen to unswap his shirt with an Argentinian ‘animal’ in 1966. Forgotten by time? Possibly. But, did it contribute to the Falklands War? More than possible.

It is pointless trying to say which are the best. That’s far too subjective, but here is my Top 20, in page order.

Page 23 – Yeovil beating Sunderland in the FA Cup, 1949. Nothing unusual these days in that result. but a shock then. The picture of the cheering fans is completely eclipsed by two boys wrestling on the pitch-side. It brings back memories of an expression which is splendidly un-PC and completely absent from Google, ‘like two boy scouts in a sleeping bag!’
Page 45 – Pools winner, 1930s. An absolute beauty! On the facing page is a delighted pools winner grasping his cheque but this image is of a sour-faced old geezer with a Hitler moustache who is about as happy as Mein Fuhrer would have been had he been summoned from his bunker for such a promo.
Page 60 – Edward, Prince of Wales (destined to be an ex-king) kicking off a match, 1923. Like the photo on Page 23, it’s the small detail that is priceless. As the dapper Royal swings a leg what we notice is that in his right hand he is toting a gun. Now if you want to see someone kick off with real style, great balance and not a single gun, turn to Page 332 where the Hon. Irene Lawley shows how it’s done, fur-trimmed coat and all (1916)
Page 126 – Cardiff City crowd, 1921. There is something stunning, perhaps even shocking to modern spectators that blokes would climb on to the roof of the unfinished stand. There are dozens of them in the photo. It probably needs pointing out that matches weren’t always all-ticket, seats guaranteed. Another along similar lines is on Page 301 (1945) only this time they have an actual roof to sit on and watch the game.
Page 130 – the World Cup shirt non-swap, 1966. See above about the Argy bargy. (Sir) Alf said, ‘Our best football will come against the right type of opposition—a team who come to play football, and not to act as animals.’ Or use the Hand of God?
Page 164 – Hackney Marshes, 1962 (although some sources say the 1950s). A rightly celebrated aerial view of literally dozens of games taking place. It really is a great photograph. The mystery is, how come whoever took it failed to get any credit for it?
Page 182 – Boy being passed to the front, 1930. In a forerunner of crowd surfing the kid in question is a West Ham fan, but it happened everywhere in the ‘good old days’.
Page 189 – the new stand at White Hart Lane, 1934. A nice contrast with the computer designed super stadium built to replace this old ‘new’ stand.
Page 237 – The FA Cup being taken on the London Underground, 1964. An astonishing picture of Ron Greenwood casually chatting to someone on a tube train whilst holding something on his lap shrouded in a blanket, intended to completely fool all would-be thieves. It can only be a miniature statue of Christ the Redeemer or the FA Cup. Contrast this with the photo on Page 254 of One European Cup, One swimming pool, One Liverpool manager (Joe Fagan) and Two armed Italian guards, stationed there presumably to keep an eye on Fagan.
Page 241 – Leicester City players take lunch together twice a week to help boost team spirit, 1949. Looks like a Sally Army soup kitchen.
Page 256 – Annual street football game, Atherstone, 1914. Again, someone steals the picture. Despite the lively scene in a time when almost all men wore hats, it is the kilted, uniformed Scot with the mighty sporran that catches the eye. ‘Let the wind blow high…’
Page 259 – German players doing the Hitler salute at White Hart Lane, 1935. The little man is referenced again! There is also a photo of a Zeppelin hovering over Wembley, 1930 (Pages 34-5) to remind people of a time when we weren’t best buddies with our (for now) EC partners.
Pages 308-9 – Mothers with babies queue at Gateshead Town Hall for Cup tickets, 1953. A really atmospheric photo of an orderly queue of folk and, in the foreground, ranks of parked prams.
Page 315 – Greaves bathing with injured shin, 1966. A photograph of THE finest striker of all, as Rodney Marsh asserts in the Introduction, although the book never tries to support this claim with any goal mouth action featuring a man who scored 466 times. In the days before substitutes, the shin injury to Jimmy Greaves cost him his place in the World Cup Final. Here, he is shown in the bath (pretty grotty looking, it is too) with his injured left leg resting on a chair that has been plonked in it! Jimmy doesn’t look very happy with life.
Page 333 – England Ladies v France Ladies, 1925. Having reviewed the photograph somewhere in the region of 40 or 50 times, I am slowly coming to the conclusion that the lingering French Kiss between the two captains prior to kick off was not fully justified.
Page 342 – Unidentified goalkeeper practises kicking, 1939. Perhaps the closest sporting likeness in terms of ungainliness to this unfortunate image of a headless goalie, athletically showing the worst of himself immediately post kick, is when Inzamam ul Haq ingloriously straddled his stumps the time he ‘couldn’t quite get his leg over’.
Page 354 – The England squad at breakfast, a day before the World Cup Final, 1966. A superb study of nervous young men. Has ever a more thought-ridden spoonful of cereal been eaten than Bobby Charlton’s? Peter Bonetti must be thinking about the nightmare game he is going to have in four years’ time against West Germany, Martin Peters is pensiveness plus, whilst Geoff Hurst looks accusingly straight at the camera. ‘How dare you intrude?’
Page 357 – The Anfield boot-room, 1980. The legendary place where so many trophy wins were plotted by Paisley, Fagan et al. The photo is a nicely balanced composition that captures the main men in a relaxed manner which is quite an art with a camera using a flash for indoors.
Page 366 – Booby Charlton recovers in a Munich hospital, 1958. Of course you need the back story but, once you have it, the picture of a bewildered young man is heartbreaking.
Pages 378-9 and just to show that they could have done it all along, the final photograph is a double page spread and a magnificent one, too. It is of the 1954 FA Cup Final as Ronnie Allen scores a penalty equaliser for West Brom v Preston. It has everything since it is a long-range image of the scene. The penalty action can clearly be seen, with the ball entering the net, the goalie diving the right way but in vain and Ronnie Allen watching keenly. We also have almost all the players in shot, mostly standing calmly with hands on hips. We have a large section of the Wembley crowd in clear focus, the whole length of the famous turf and the West Brom goalie, looking away from the action and clutching one of his posts, too nervous to look.

It is a good book, as it stands, but why couldn’t we have had lots more of such great pictures of the ‘Golden Age’?

(Most of the images are from Getty, followed by Popperfoto, Science & Society Picture Library and Topham Picturepoint)

Graeme Garvey

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Book Review: A Life Too Short – The Tragedy of Robert Enke by Ronald Reng, (translated into English by Shaun Whiteside)

The disastrous performance by Loris Karius for Liverpool in the Champions League Final against Real Madrid is just another reminder of the vulnerable role of the goalkeeper, someone who is always walking a tightrope between would-be hero and scapegoat for any failure. The worst thing is that the goalkeeper himself believes this. No such self-doubt seems to exist with attackers like Cristiano Ronaldo. All the glory is his, any failure is somebody else’s fault – every single time.

With this summer’s World Cup in Russia raising the sport’s profile ever higher, it is worth reflecting on the Winner of the 2011 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award because it is probably the most poignant reminder that, for all the general excellence of the modern footballer, it is still a game played by humans, not computer-generated robots. Led by the media, we demand everything from them, conveniently forgetting that they are real people often with brittle egos.

Robert Enke is perhaps the best modern example of the pressure all this puts on a person and his suicide in 2009 rocked the football world. He was a talented, German international goalkeeper who attracted the admiration and interest of both Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho but his increasing anxiety and depression drove him to kill himself aged 32 when a place at the World Cup in South Africa appeared to be beckoning.

A book about the man was inevitable after the sad event but, ironically, the author Ronald Reng had been by chosen by Enke himself years before to pen the goalkeeper’s biography and they had become friends. Therefore he had a large amount of material at his disposal as well as access to those closest to Enke.

This very closeness has both advantages and disadvantages and the book itself is actually something of an oddity. It is well-written by Reng and, presumably, the translation by Shaun Whiteside is good but an added irony lies in the fact that its special interest comes from his ‘life story’ being actually his death story. The reader is aware at all turns that it is about a man whose depressive nature finally drove him to suicide. Therefore, the very detailed accounts of his ups and downs both on and off the football pitch tend to become rather tedious, as if they are helping to skirt around what the book should be centred on. Also, it asks a great deal of the reader’s patience as there is an inclination throughout to try spotting the fault lines in Enke’s life, the things that might have led to his depression. Was it being a temperamental and insecure goalkeeper that drove him over the edge? Was it his poorly daughter’s short life and death? Should he have quit football years before and found another, more stable career? Questions present themselves but are seldom directly addressed as there is always a sense that Reng is putting off as long as possible the build up to the final catastrophe.

The many insights into his character and depression which Reng gives us are gained to a lesser degree from his family and colleagues, to a much greater degree from a few intimates but it is mainly his wife, Teresa, who understandably provides the closest perspective. If the world runs on a belief in luck, as those within the narrative seem to feel, it is hard for people with less talent than he had to see how ‘unlucky’ he was. But happiness with him is always fleeting, pushing back the ever-threatening blackness. A major accomplishment of this book is to show how we should not have envied his life even without that final desperate act.

The story only becomes gripping in the final pages, once it is evident Enke had decided to end it all and had adopted a degree of calm resignation that contrasts strongly with the rising panic of those closest to him. We can only speculate how helpful watching ‘Titanic’ two nights before he died was to his peace of mind and how wise it was for his wife to take him to an exhibition of preserved corpses the day before he stepped in front of an express train. Reng chronicles these but makes no direct link. Enke left a wife, a recently adopted daughter, seven dogs and a bewildered nation as the pressure of performing, and potentially making mistakes, in front of a global audience became too terrible for him to contemplate any more.

The beautiful game, we remember, is not played by fantasy footballers but by people.

Graeme Garvey

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Book Review: Proud to be a Baggie – A pictorial history of West Bromwich Albion fans by Dean Walton

The 2017/18 season could not be described as one of the best for West Bromwich Albion (WBA). Not only did they suffer relegation from the Premier League whilst Black Country rivals Wolves leapfrogged them after being promoted, but Baggies legend Cyrille Regis unexpectedly passed away in January 2018.

Before he died Regis had provided the Foreword to Dean Walton’s Proud to be a Baggie, in which he said how playing for the Albion transformed his life and paid tribute to the fans who have followed the club at the Hawthorns down the years. They are apt sentiments for the book, since the focus is a photographic exploration of those who have watched WBA from the 1950s through to the 2010s.

The various images record the ups and downs and the triumph and the tears of the Albion faithful during that period, but also provide much more as they also tell the story of the changing face of football – from the black and white stills showing fans packed on terraces wearing flat caps in grounds long since demolished, to the colour images of Premier League Asia Trophy games in all seater stadiums in the Far East.

However, the real interest is with those moments in time from the era prior to the social media age, when taking pictures involved a camera and then waiting for them to be developed. Amongst these pre-camera phone days gems are a set of pictures from a snowy Anglo-Italian Cup tie in Brescia where just 196 brave souls witnessed Bob Taylor hit an eighty-seventh minute winner in December 1995.

There is some text which accompanies the images to give some background to the game and event featured which is helpful, but the decade by decade summaries provided are so brief that in order for them to be useful they would have to be expanded.

Of course, this book is aimed at Baggies fans, but anyone who follows their team will appreciate this collection, as the pictures of fans attending pre-season fixtures in far-flung and sometimes obscure places, as well as fancy dress outings, and those days of joy and despair are common to all in the football family.

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Book Review: Manchester United in Tears by J. Paul Harrison

The Munich Air Disaster that took place on 6 February 1958 will forever be part of the history of Manchester United and in the period since the tragic event, it has been covered in documentaries, TV dramas, music and most especially in books.

Manchester United in Tears by J. Paul Harrison (published by Austin Macauley) is the latest addition to hit the shelves. Harrison’s approach to the oft covered subject is to undertake the “story of this eventful season…on a day by day, match by match basis, providing a fascinating insight into the world of football in the 1950s.” There is no doubt that the book covers the season on a linear basis, with the emphasis on the games and events surrounding the Manchester United first team, the reserves and its youth team, during the 1957/58 campaign. This is a credit to the author and the research carried out to provide such a detailed picture.

However, in reading the book it feels as though it is stretching a point to say that it provides “a fascinating insight”. There are some interesting details, such as the fact that players like Bobby Charlton, who whilst being first team players at Old Trafford, were also turning out to play in the Armed Services representative games throughout the season. Yet the nature of match reports, followed by results, whilst informative, is rather dry and as a result unfortunately struggles to convey or indeed take the reader, “back to that black and white era…when football was still fun.”

Then, after all the detail that the book delivers from Harrison, it ends in an abrupt way with a one-page piece of conjecture about United’s fortunes if the crash hadn’t happened and which frankly adds nothing to the story. The overriding feeling is that this book attempts to do too much, in trying to focus on the context of the Club during the season, the disaster and the wider view of football in the 1950s, but yet doesn’t achieve any of these strands fully.

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Book Review (Part 1): World in Motion – The Inside Story of Italia ’90: The tournament that changed football by Simon Hart

It’s probably because so much is hinted at in the title that he couldn’t resist the temptation. Plus there is a striking cover picture of Gazza, as I recall. A successful book, like a baited hook, attracts and then captures the reader. I think it could be true in this case but I really don’t know yet since someone has got my review copy and won’t give it back!

It might come as a surprise to avid readers about World Cups that a particular hotbed is the bus depot of the East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS) in Pocklington. I base that claim on the Missing Book Mystery.

All began well as I met the esteemed FBR top man in York to collect my copy of ‘World in Motion’ and for, ok, one or two beers. Whenever we meet, we always talk about football so there was plenty of speculation between us as to what Simon Hart had to say and why he thought it was the ‘tournament that changed football’. I noticed envious glances being shot at the book by other customers as it rested on the seat next to me in the Guy Fawkes Inn, those glances being presumably drawn by the action pic of Gazza. Clearly, the cover is well-chosen.

The Final of Italia ’90 – spoiler alert, West Germany won – was at the Stadio Olympico in Rome, pretty close to the Vatican, which is apt in a way because here comes a confession. I had actually made a start on the book on the (last) bus back to Pocklington. The usual things; check out the author, Simon Hart, and the publisher, deCoubertin Books from footie mad Liverpool. Chapter headings and general layout all seemed sound, providing a clear narrative structure. I put it on the seat beside me for the remainder of the journey. You know how it is, though, what with the steady engine hum and slight rocking motion of the bus, I might, just might that is, have drifted off a little. Whatever, when the bus stopped at the depot in Pocklington, I got off but the book didn’t.

I figured there would be no problem in calling round for it at the next opportunity and when I did so was greeted in a polite and friendly manner whilst somebody whizzed off to look for it. There’s a hint of Camberwick Green about the town but it was soon to seem more like Hot Fuzz. They said that though they were certain it was somewhere in the depot – and here comes the Missing Book Mystery part – the book had mysteriously gone missing. They were full of apologies and promised to find it for me. This they attempted to do with some vigour.

In an appeal to the purloiner, EYMS, I understand, launched the biggest poster campaign since Chairman Mao gave everyone in China a sheet of A4 and a red crayon – but still to no avail, the magical pull of ‘World in Motion’ has proven too potent a force. Some driver has been so hooked (see above) that he simply can’t let it go, or it won’t let him go. I am left wondering precisely what has struck a chord in the book thief’s psyche? I suppose the first thing is that, for a country bus driver, the ‘World in Motion’ part of the title chimes with his life, never still, always on the go. But deeper and darker, maybe, is that he absolutely has to know. Drawn by the eye-catching cover like others before him, he has been forced to look inside, the only place to discover the ‘inside story’ about what exactly happened that ‘changed football’.

One or more of those reasons might account for why it went but why has it not been returned? I understand EYMS even offered a temporary Book Amnesty but that also failed. Perhaps he can’t bear to share and it has been snaffled home to take pride of place in a small trophy cabinet? Possibly a surreptitious read is taken whenever the driver stops for his lunch break, tucked away somewhere deep in the Yorkshire Wolds? It could be that Simon Hart’s narrative, as he chronicles that defining tournament, has entranced him. After all, Hart is an experienced sports journalist who has been to the past five World Cups.

But what if it’s a, dare I say it, conspiracy and several drivers are involved in a cover-up? What if they all are? What if…

EYMS and I have had to concede that the review copy has found a permanent home elsewhere. But I will not be beaten. However, I have learnt my lesson and my second review copy will be arriving safely by post. Its contents must not be revealed on the packaging, though, lest it proves too enticing a prospect for the postie this time and the whole, ‘Can we have our book back?’ process starts again.

Part 2 Review

Graeme Garvey

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Book Review: We Know What We Are by Dawn Reeves

When you think of subjects at the centre of a novel, football clubs and their local council, are not the most obvious that spring to mind. However, the reality is that as recently as last year, Championship side Millwall almost lost its stadium to a sinister development plan instigated by the local Labour council. Indeed, the further you delve back, the more ‘interesting’ deals you come across, such as the missing £10million pound loan from Northampton Borough Council that was due to finance the building of a new stand at Northampton Town. Football and local councils – institutions bound together, both prone to dodgy deals and the oft lingering whiff of corruption, as potent as any matchday smell of burgers and fried onions.

With this in mind, author Dawn Reeves constructs a cracking novel which focuses on a fictitious Midlands football club nicknamed The Welders and its relationship with the local council, in a plot which encompasses a number of strands and characters. One plotline has a troubled teenager looking for her brother, an ex-Welders player, who disappeared around the time of the rebuilding of the football ground, financed of course by the council. The newly elected council leader gets involved in the girl’s desire for answers, as the council faces financial meltdown under a Chief Executive for who the football club has been his life. Underlying the book throughout are the relationships between the characters as the themes of power, trust, deception and loyalty are explored.

In addition, Reeves also provides a convincing picture of the workings of local government, as the modern-day struggles of local authorities in having to balance its books and prioritise services is touched upon. Indeed, the contemporary world of football is also explored, where despite the multi-million existence of the elite clubs, fans are taken for granted and the women’s game and that at grassroots level has to made do and mend.

Finally, returning to Millwall, mentioned in the opening of this review, the faithful at the Den are known for their song, “No one likes us, we don’t care” and could be said to have a similar sentiment to that of the refrain of the Welders faithful, “We know what we are”. Reeves uses this as the book title and maybe has done so not just to reflect the club anthem, but as something that the characters may come to reflect on.

This book certainly knows what it is – an engaging page turner.

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Book Review: Glove Story – The Number 1 book for every goalkeeper, past and present by Rob Stokes, Derek Hammond and Gary Silke

This wonderfully crafted 148-page book is a collaboration from Rob Stokes, a former Waterlooville goalkeeper and passionate memorabilia collector and the Got, Not Got book duo, Derek Hammond and Gary Silke.

Having donned the gloves and stood between the posts in my younger days, this was a book that made me smile at every turn of the page and brought memories flooding back, not only of my own days in the number one jersey, but in watching the semi-professional and professional game down the years and to this day.

Amongst the pages, readers will be treated to just about everything you wanted to know about ‘keepers including the development of gloves, shirts and accessories, anecdotes from famous custodians, and a whole cornucopia of goalkeeper related ephemera.

My own personal favourite section covers the development of goalkeeping gloves, with the journey from adapted gardening gloves, through the green cotton basics and the early experiments with table-tennis pimple additions, to the present-day latex creations that are de rigueur for anybody between the sticks at every level of the game.

It has made me yearn for those days when I was the last line of defence.

I simply can’t recommend this book enough.

Note: The book is written in support of the Willow Foundation, a charity set up by ex-Arsenal and Scotland goalkeeper Bob Wilson, which provides Special Days for seriously ill young adults. More information can be found on their website: www.willowfoundation.org.uk

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Book Review: The Queen of Cups: Part 2, by James Durose-Rayner

So that’s it. The final whistle. The trilogy that has brought readers, I Am Sam, itv seven and The Queen of Cups has concluded.

Throughout all the journey, author James Durose-Rayner has maintained a winning formula which has seen the fictional world of central character Lee Janes mix with the factual football world, focusing on Arsenal FC across the decades. In the first book, I Am Sam, Janes existed in a high-paced chaotic setting which was a whirlwind of dodgy deals and a revolving door of women. By the final part of the trilogy, Queen of Cups: Part 2, the central character has lost none of his roguish charm, but now occupies a more settled space both in his personal and business life, which is reflected in the tempo of the writing of both parts of the Queen of Cups.

This change in Janes can be put down to one person, whose influence grew as the trilogy continued – that being his wife Emily, known as ‘M’. Her influence though is not simply on her once-errant husband, but on all those that she meets. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the title of the final parts of the trilogy could be viewed as a reference and indeed a tribute to ‘M’, as a typical set of tarot cards gives the definition of the Queen of Cups as the following: she is nurturing, caring, compassionate and sensitive. She is a good wife and a loving mother as she is emotionally secure and can connect on an emotional level with others. No intuition is more powerful than that of the Queen of Cups – all traits displayed by the latest Mrs. Janes.

On the flip side however, if the reader was looking for an oblique football reference within the final part’s title, then it may be found in the featuring of the management years of Terry Neil at Highbury. The term ‘Cup Kings’ is one familiar to football fans down the years, so has Durose-Rayner inverted this to the Queen of Cups, pointing the finger at the Gunners who from three FA Cup Final and one European Cup Winners Cup Final during the Neil years, achieved victory just once, despite a wealth of talent such as Alan Hudson (who is wonderfully depicted), Malcolm MacDonald, Liam Brady, Graham Rix and Frank Stapleton.

And that has been one of the strengths of the trilogy in that the strands of reality and fiction engage the reader through different storylines. The personal lives and the emotional journeys of the main characters run comfortably alongside the well-researched insights into the events at Arsenal. The characters and the world they inhabit is all very believable, and for all the bloke-ish banter and humour, the reader also gets to see their vulnerability and sensitivity.

Like the central character Lee Janes, there is more to this trilogy than first meets the eye.

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Book Review: Cup Football An Exploration by Neil Cotton

Author Neil Cotton is a self-confessed Cup-fanatic, which came about from the first ever football match he attended, which was a 1994 Coca-Cola League Cup at The Dell between Southampton and Huddersfield Town.

Cotton’s proof of this love affair opens his book, Cup Football An Exploration:

“Alone on Platform One of a deserted Fratton Station isn’t a place I’d ordinarily choose to be at 10pm on a weekday night. It’s cold…and salvation in the form of my train home is forty minutes away. Why am I here? The blame lies squarely at my love of cup football in all forms. This was the impulse which brought me to Portsmouth’s Fratton Park to see Gosport Borough taking on Sholing in the Final of the (2014/15) Hampshire Senior Cup, an occasion few football fans – even of the clubs concerned – would cross for.”

This authors dedication and fascination with the cup format comes across in this informative, well researched and thought provoking book. Whilst there will other books which offer definitive guides and records to cup competitions, this is an interesting view across the cup spectrum whether that be County Cups or World Cup Finals.

In the early parts of this book, Cotton talks about the significance of the early County Football Associations and the importance of the County Cups and the World’s most famous competition, the FA Cup, before the formation of the Football League. He also interestingly highlights the social importance of the numerous Hospital Cups that took place, some of which have survived to this day.

As well as detailing the introduction of the League Cup, Cotton also touches on competitions from the 70s and 80s which saw companies such as Texaco and Watney’s become early sponsors of new cups. There are also looks at formats such as the Anglo-Italian Cup (in both its professional and non-league guise), and the Anglo-Scottish Cup, which will be remembered by fans of a certain age.

The study though isn’t confined to these shores, as the author looks at the significance of a post-war Europe and the introduction of the various club competitions, the European Cup, European Cup Winners Cup and Inter-City Fairs Cup and how these have changed in the modern era.

Cotton finishes the book with a chapter titled, The End? It is an interesting conclusion to the book and this review won’t detail here his suppositions, and hope instead that readers will but the book to discover them for themselves. This is a recommended read for anyone interested in the game looking for an overview of the development of Cup Football.

Note: Self-publishing is a brave and sometimes costly enterprise. However, it can lead to some issues with respect to the amount of time attributed to things such as the area of proofreading. In the case of Cotton’s book, a more detailed proofread would have picked up on the typos and, from a personal perspective, the overuse of the semi-colon. In addition, the inclusion of a chapter index and a reference section would have been beneficial.

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Book Review: The Bottom Corner – A season with the dreamers of Non-League Football by Nige Tassell

“Everyone loves an FA Cup upset: a smug Premier League team being knocked out by plucky underdogs.”

The quote above is taken from the back of the book and highlights an interesting point, in that for some football fans and indeed the wider public, Non-League teams only come to their attention when the FA Cup takes place each season. And it that respect it can lead to a clichéd view of clubs where Non-League means games played in front of one man and his dog on pitches barely better than those found in your local park.

In The Bottom Corner Nige Tassell spends the 2015/16 season revealing stories from the Non-League pyramid to show the realities of life below the Premier League and the Football League. Format wise it covers the season from August to May, with each chapter looking at a different theme, various clubs, players, managers, volunteers and fans alike.

However, there are two teams which are constant threads which run through the book which tell the story of their respective seasons. The first of these is Tranmere Rovers who in the 2015/16 campaign found themselves in the National Conference (the top league of the Non-League pyramid), after 94 years in the Football League. The other is Bishop Sutton, a side from the Western League based near Bristol, from what Tassell labels as the ‘bottom corner’ of the pyramid.

Both can be classified as Non-League, but at very different ends of the spectrum. Rovers with a set-up and ground that wouldn’t disgrace League One, anxious to regain its status amongst the elite 92, whilst Sutton struggle to get a squad together and avoid the heavy defeats that have defined its recent history since being denied promotion due to being unable to meet ground standards. It perfectly illustrates that the Non-League structure mirrors that of the professional ranks and that of the ‘haves and the have nots’.

Besides the story of the ups and downs of Tranmere and Bishop Sutton, Tassell brings the reader interesting tales from other teams, such as Salford City, where some of the ‘Class of 92’ from Manchester United bring the club into the national conscious through a BBC documentary and an epic FA Cup run. Also, there is Hereford FC, born out of the ashes of Hereford United, and their incredible campaign which ends with a Wembley appearance in the FA Vase Final, as well as clubs doing things differently – such as eco-friendly Forest Green Rovers and the supporter owned FC United of Manchester.

It is a book rich with characters, such as those who referee, others who act as scouts or the many administrators of the game; all for the most part volunteers, playing their part in keeping football going beneath the professional ranks.

The Bottom Corner perfectly demonstrates that there is so much more to Non-League Football than its ‘fifteen minutes’ of fame that occurs during the FA Cup each season. It is a game that is a million miles from the bloated money sodden and hyped world of the Premier League, but it doesn’t mean that it is without quality or passion, or that the wins and losses are any less painful or that the fans are any less passionate and the managers and club staff any less committed. The dreams and emotions in the Non-League pyramid are as real as you can get.

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