book review – Page 8 – FOOTBALL BOOK REVIEWS (FBR)

Book Review: What You Think You Know About Football is Wrong: The Global Game’s Greatest Myths and Untruths by Kevin Moore

Kevin Moore, or we should say, Dr Kevin Moore, as the bio information on the dust jacket of What You Think You Know About Football is Wrong, informs readers, “was the founding director of the National Football Museum, which he led for over 20 years. An internationally recognised researcher and writer on football history, he holds a key role at the International Football Institute…He is Special Advisor to the Linzi Football Museum in China, and the Fanattic Sports Museum, Kolkata, India” – all in all, he knows a bit about The Beautiful Game.

His book What You Think You Know About Football is Wrong: The Global Game’s Greatest Myths and Untruths, is a wonderful pocket-sized compendium which pulls no punches in debunking fifty of football’s ‘facts’ that have become down the years entwinned as ‘truths’ by the media, fans and the like.

For instance, Moore uses extensive research to back up his views that, the Germans do not always win on penalties (Chapter 28), that football hooliganism is not the ‘English disease’ (Chapter 34) and that the Premier League is not exciting – it’s increasingly dull and predictable (Chapter 48). In addition he is not afraid to give his opinion on a range of other topics, such as his brutally honest belief as to why Wembley is not a world-class stadium, and never has been (Chapter 42) and his assertion that Sir Alex Ferguson is not the greatest ever manager in English football (Chapter 49).

As a reader for me the most rewarding parts were those that presented information I had not previously been aware of, so Chapter 5, FIFA does not make the rules and never has, Chapter 13, Cambridge and not Sheffield is the home to the world’s oldest football club and Chapter 33, The FA did not ban women’s football in 1921, were amongst those that have enhanced my understanding of the game and its history.

Overall, it is a real pick-up, put-down book, one intended to, and without doubt succeeds in, creating discussion which can be the fabulous starting point and source of debate for fans as they travel to and from games, or indeed pre and post-match with a pint.

As a well know football song goes, And if you know your history, It’s enough to make your heart go woah-oh…

(Bloomsbury Sport. October 2019. Hardback 240pp)

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Book Review: Shots in the Dark – A Diary of Saturday Dreams and Strange Times by David Kynaston

Within the field of football writing, the diary concept is nothing new, with countless other fans putting pen to paper recording the fortunes of ‘their team’ week-in, week-out, home and away, come what may.

Shots in the Dark – A Diary of Saturday Dreams and Strange Times, looks the part, front cover resplendent in red and blue (Aldershot Town’s colours), with a football added for good measure, back cover featuring an Aldershot rosette replete with a miniature foil replica of the FA Cup, and the cover spine also striped in that way old fashioned football scarfs are with bars of colour. Inside too, the reader is reassured that this is going to be a football diary, as when opening the book, the endsheets mimic a scrapbook with old action images, programme covers, and match tickets adorning the pages.

However, content-wise it is a bit of a different story. In order to understand why, lets consider a number of factors, starting with the author. The book publicity tells us that, “David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951 overlooking the football ground. He was seven and a half years old when he added his first Aldershot Town FC match in the early months of 1959. So began a deep attachment to the game and a lifelong loyalty. He estimates that he has seen his team play close to 500 times.” Again, affirmation to any reader that this is no fair-weather, armchair supporter, with interest only in the Premier League and Champions League. This is a fan who has seen his team spend its years in the lower reaches of the Football League before going bust in 1992, only to see the phoenix club emerging and working its way through the non-league pyramid to claim a place in the Football League in 2008/09 before dropping back into the National League in 2013 once more in financial difficulty.

What the book PR also tells us is about Kynaston’s day job – “A professional historian since 1973, he has written extensively on post-war Britain; on the City of London; on cricket and on the private school question.” So set against this image of a man happy to stand or indeed sit amongst fellow fans in football grounds around the country, is a person of intellect, one with a wider view of the world beyond the ninety-minutes of a Saturday afternoon. And inevitably these two major parts of Kynaston’s character collide in creating Shots in the Dark.

Kynaston may have set out with all good intention in making the 2016/17 season of his beloved Shots (the nickname of Aldershot Town), the focus of the diary, but with his professional historian hat on, this was never going to be feasible given the football season started only a few months after the UK Brexit vote in June 2016 and the USA Presidential elections in November of that year. Indeed, he acknowledges this in one of the opening entries of the diary, dated Tuesday 02 August (2016), “a diary has implicit rules. Mine are that…it is not just about football (how could it be otherwise at this extraordinary political moment?)”. Indeed in a number of instances throughout the diary, the phrase “football orientated” is used, so reinforcing that early entry in August that the book covers more than just musings of the game.

This does though mean that at certain phases of the book the Aldershot story is well and truly pushed into the background, the prime example being the Trump v Clinton race for the White House. As the build-up to the day of the election draws near, more and more of the entries are given over to what will happen and once Trump become President, Kynaston continues in the same vein.

The reality is that any diary is a record of events, experiences, opinions and even predictions (a nod to the diary title – a shot in the dark, i.e. an estimate or guess). Readers will get to know about Kynaston the fan, which has provided a life-time experience following Aldershot and the solidarity and tribalism that it brings – his Saturday Dreams. On the flip-side, there is the diarist, as the liberal thinker, dismayed by the rise of the right and its influence across the globe – in Strange Times. It is not a run-of-the-mill football diary and as the saying goes, never judge a book by its cover.

(Bloomsbury Publishing. August 2020. Hardback 272pp)

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Book Review: Jarrod Black – Guilty Party: Another Unashamed Football Novel by Texi Smith

This is the third book from Texi Smith featuring his character, Jarrod Black, following on from Introducing Jarrod Black (book one) and Jarrod Black – Hospital Pass (book two). Guilty Party picks up after the finish of the season which had been concluded at the end of the second book and immediately explodes into life in a fast-paced opening which sets the scene for the third instalment of the Australian international player, continuing to ply his domestic trade in the north-east of England.

Stylistically it is a return to the short sharp chapters of Introducing Jarrod Black, which keeps the reader engaged as the scenes move on in quick-fire fashion, which has overtones of a televisual style. Smith continues to display once again his knowledge of the game and mixes fact and fiction to create an authenticity around how clubs function and the characters within it.

There is a change though in the plotline, as Guilty Party is something of a whodunnit, which Smith skilfully and believably handles, and as in the previous books, there is a Roy of the Rovers feel about this latest adventure, with the feel-good factor retained around the central character. Indeed, as a reader, the authors pride and love of his home city Newcastle and its team, is evident through his portrayal of Black.

As with Hospital Pass, there is a double-meaning in the title of Guilty Party, which will become evident to readers. To say anything more about it, would be to spoil the plot!

Have Texi Smith and Jarrod Black got another winner here? Absolutely. It’s a read that will hook you in and be difficult to put down.

(Popcorn Press. May 2020. Paperback 306pp)

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Book Review: A Tournament Frozen in Time – The Wonderful Randomness of the European Cup Winners’ Cup by Steven Scragg

The European Cup Winners’ Cup (ECWC) competition came into being in the 1960/61 season, and as its title suggests qualification was attained by being the winners of a countries domestic cup. Despite its creation after the first European Cup competition in 1955/56 and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup which also began in 1955 (before it morphed into the UEFA Cup in 1971/72) and therefore being the youngest of the three competitions, it was though seen as the next most prominent after the European Cup. It continued until the 1998/99 season with the final playing of the tournament between SS Lazio and RCD Mallorca at Villa Park, home of Aston Villa, the last of the 39 Finals.

If Willy Wonka did football tournaments, then it would undoubtedly be the ECWC, a competition that was a fabulous mix of the eccentric, the magical, the unexpected and the sometimes bizarre, which is brilliantly captured in Steven Scragg’s book, A Tournament Frozen in Time – The Wonderful Randomness of the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

Rather than take the chronological route within the book, Scragg creates chapters which look at the history of the competition in terms of the countries or regions that took part in the ECWC, so for instance, Italian clubs participation is captured within the chapter titled, Forza Italia, whilst Robbie and the Purple and Whites, Plus Other Adventures Through the Low Countries, looks at how the sides from Belgium and the Netherlands fared during the thirty-nine seasons of the tournament. The exception are those which look at the 1980/81 campaign, Everton’s triumph in 1984/85 and Sir Alex Ferguson’s two cup wins with Aberdeen (1982/83) and Manchester United (1990/91). What this allows is that the story of the ECWC is able to be told in its own right, but also intertwined to the wider footballing context, so that its relationship with both the European Cup (and later the Champions League) as well as the UEFA Cup is presented.

What the reader is also given are stories that justify part of the author’s subtitle for the book, The Wonderful Randomness. Even from its inaugural season, there was something ‘different’ about the ECWC, in that for that 1960/61 the Final between Fiorentina and Rangers, was played over two-legs and was never to be repeated with all subsequent Finals a one-off at a neutral venue. Additionally, the trophy presented to the first winners, Fiorentina, was replaced by a different design for the remainder of the tournaments existence. Unlike the other two European competitions, there was never a period during which a team came back and was able to successfully defend the trophy and indeed never had a Final in which both sides were from the same country. It was a tournament littered with teams from all corners of Europe, some unlikely due to the current UEFA formats, ever to get near a European tournament again.

But readers may ask, if this was such a wonderful competition, why was it ended? Scragg addresses this by detailing how the change in status of the European Cup to the Champions League, was part of the process, as was the breakup of the former Communist bloc, necessitating the introduction of a Preliminary Round to the competition, as well the fact that attendances for the Finals were invariably poor. This included just 3,208 witnessing the 1963/64 Final in Brussels, 4,641 for the 1973/74 Final in Rotterdam and in 1992/93, just 37,393 strewn around the ‘old’ Wembley in its 100,000 capacity days, as Parma beat Royal Antwerp.

As a football fan, my view is that the demise can be traced back to when the so called ‘big-clubs’ in Europe, unhappy with the European Cup knock-out format, wanted a change so that they would be not only be part of an expanded tournament but of one bringing increased TV revenues. For me, there is nothing special, season-on-season, of another Champions League tie featuring Barcelona v Real Madrid (or indeed any combination of the repeat qualifiers) and as for the farce of the 2018/19 Final in which neither of the finalists (Liverpool and Spurs) had won the League – well just don’t get me started. Unfortunately, this is the reality of the greed and money that has infested our game both at home and abroad and at the cost of the romance that the ECWC gave us, such as Italian giants Napoli up against the Welsh minnows Bangor City in 1962, in a tie which required a replay in a time before the away-goals rule was introduced. That game is though just one of the many wonderful stories to be found within the pages of Scragg’s homage to the tournament.

What more can be said? Well, to paraphrase the words of Willy Wonka, “If you want to view paradise, simply look at this book and view it.” It is without doubt a wonderfully researched and written book and is a rightful nominee in The Telegraph Sports Books Awards 2020 (within the football category), and is a must read for anybody wanting to discover about a lost treasure in the football world or for those of us of a certain age, a most magical trip down memory lane.

(Pitch Publishing Ltd. September 2019. Hardback 288pp)

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Book Review: Rhapsody in Blue – How I Fell in Love with the Great Chelsea Team of the Early Seventies by Neil Fitzsimon

Chelsea Football Club were founded in 1905 playing their homes games at Stamford Bridge, which they still do, to this day. Up to the First World War, The Blues were very much a yo-yo club, as they bounced between the First and Second Division, but did make an FA Cup Final appearance in 1914/15 losing 3-0 at Old Trafford to Sheffield United. After the war and the resumption of football and up to the start of the Second World War, Chelsea continued to drift between the two divisions, leaving their best performances for the FA Cup as they appeared in a number of Semi-Finals.

It wasn’t until 1954/55 that the club made its mark in the English game, when they won the First Division title for the first time. However, it was not a success that The Blues built on and in 1961/62 they suffered relegation back to the Second Division, only to bounce straight back up the following season under Manager Tommy Docherty. It was to see the club have up to that period its best years, with players coming through the youth set-up and the League Cup won in 1964/65 after a 3-2 aggregate win over Leicester City. The club then also made it through to the 1966/67 FA Cup Final against Spurs, going down 2-1 to their London rivals. Docherty was sacked in 1967 heralding the start of the era under Dave Sexton, with Chelsea at the centre of the ‘swinging sixties’ with celebrity fans and the bars and clubs of the Kings Road the places to be.

Neil Fitzsimon’s book, Rhapsody in Blue – How I Fell in Love with the Great Chelsea Team of the Early Seventies, picks up the story of the Stamford Bridge club, as the author attends his first games in SW6 during the 1968/69 campaign and charts the success of the early 70s. In that period Chelsea won the FA Cup in 1969/70 after a replay against Leeds United and in the following season picked up the (now defunct) European Cup Winners Cup, also after a replay against Spanish giants, Real Madrid. The Blues made it to a third cup final in 1971/72 only to lose 2-1 to unfancied Stoke City in the League Cup. As the author details and believes, from that point the club suffered a decline that was only halted in the 1990s with the advent of the Premier League and the financial backing of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, that has subsequently brought unparalleled success to Chelsea.

Fitzsimon’s focus though is not only of that four or five year period back in the late 60s and early 70s at the Bridge and the stereotypical view of grim northern teams, but also of his formative years growing up into a young adult and the nostalgic days of playing football in the streets and on local pitches, Subbuteo football tournaments and of travelling to games with his mates. This is undoubtedly a tale of a time never to be repeated as money and the media has changed the professional game and the matchday ‘experience’ beyond recognition and for Fitzsimon’s the loss of the innocence of youth.

Stylistically, it is written in a very conversational and at time laddish manner, with vignettes of varying length covering from a football perspective, the highs and lows of the cup triumphs at Old Trafford, Athens and Wembley, other memorable games Fitzsimon attended, as well as his observations and memories of homelife, friendship and growing-up. There is a passion in the text that demonstrates and captures the love that fans have for their club, whether in the biased admiration of their own team or the sometimes illogical dislike of opposition teams. For those of a similar age to the author, so much of the book will ring true with their own experiences of the time and for younger readers it will give a view into a life and a sport that was different in so many ways to that of the current generation.

As an aside, is there a story behind the choice of title Rhapsody in Blue? The Oxford Dictionary definition states: a popular musical work for piano and orchestra by George Gershwin. It combines jazz and classical music and was first performed in 1924 by the band of Paul Whiteman, with Gershwin at the piano. The film ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (1945) was about Gershwin’s life. Much is made that of the fact that football in the 70s was very physical, with every successful club having its ‘hardmen’, with Leeds United having, Norman Hunter, Peter Storey at Arsenal and Tommy Smith at Liverpool. Chelsea though were seen as a flare team, with Alan Hudson, and Peter Osgood, but the reality was that they had their share of those who could dish it out such as Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris and David Webb. The Blues were in fact a combination of the two styles of the 70s, as with the musical Rhapsody in Blue was described as a combination of jazz and classical. Coincidence? Given Fitzsimon’s background as a songwriter maybe it isn’t.

(Pitch Publishing Ltd. April 2020. Paperback 224pp)

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Book Review: Park Life – Four seasons of Rhondda Football by Peter Roberts (Adolygiad llyfr: bywyd mewn Parc – pedwar tymor o bêl-droed y Rhondda gan Peter Roberts)

As this review is being written it’s approaching mid-June 2020, a time usually in the UK when the cricket season is in full flow as footballers take their rest before the new campaign begins in earnest in August. Not this year. The global pandemic COVID-19 has brought all that we know to a standstill and life may never be quite the same again.

Whilst the financial pressure of the SKY TV contract has effectively forced the hands of the English Premier League and Championship clubs to return to playing behind closed doors in the coming weeks, the rest of the football pyramid has had to shut up shop, with leagues now decided on Points Per Game or voided altogether. It is once again another example of the major difference between the elite end of the game and the rest.

Therefore, it was timely and refreshing to read Peter Roberts’ Park Life – Four seasons of Rhondda Football. This book explores the realities of what some call ‘park football’ and others, ‘grassroots’, depending on your viewpoint. It is the story of a club linked as many others are around the country to working men’s clubs or pubs. In this case, the Maindy Conservative Club in Ton Pentre, becomes home to Maindy Con FC.

As a reader and an Englishman not familiar with the geography of South Wales, it was interesting to find out about the Rhondda Valley, as the book introduced teams located in the two valleys – Rhondda Fawr (large) and Rhondda Fach (small) who provided the opposition for Maindy Con in the Rhondda Valley Sunday League – and the areas beyond as the team participated in the South Wales Intermediate Cup.

As the book title suggests it focuses on the first four seasons of the fledgling club and thankfully, Roberts has heeded the phrase, ‘less is more’ in ensuring that each season isn’t laboriously described in minute detail. Instead the highs and lows are captured with humour and are enough for the reader to understand the characters and culture of football at this level. Therefore you will read about players who despite a game on a Sunday won’t forgo their Saturday evening pints, of games played on ageing AstroTurf surfaces and grass pitches which are either dry and bumpy or fields of mud. Then there is the issue of whether you or your opponents will have 11 players and if the referee will appear.

The is football in the raw, where you pay for the privilege and without club and league volunteers it wouldn’t happen. Where a few beers afterwards are as much about the experience as it is about the ninety minutes just played. This is about comradery, community, and a culture that those who have ever played at this level will recognise. However, post COVID-19 how many teams and indeed working men’s clubs will fall by the wayside as the economic impact hits in the coming months? Only time will tell.

For now though enjoy this tale which as the author puts it himself is, “a celebration – of those Sunday League footballers; a million miles away from the pampered prima donnas of the Premier League, but whose defeats are just as painful and whose successes are every bit as glorious.”

Wrth i’r arolwg hwn gael ei ysgrifennu, mae’n agosáu at ganol Mehefin 2020, sef amser fel arfer yn y DU pan fydd y tymor criced yn llifo’n llawn wrth i bêl-droedwyr gymryd eu gweddill cyn i’r ymgyrch newydd ddechrau o ddifrif ym mis Awst. Nid eleni. Mae COVID pandemig byd-eang-19 wedi dod â’r cyfan a wyddom i sefyll ac efallai na fydd bywyd yn union yr un fath eto.

Er bod pwysau ariannol contract teledu SKY, i bob pwrpas, wedi gorfodi uwch gynghrair Lloegr a chlybiau’r bencampwriaeth i ddychwelyd i chwarae y tu ôl i ddrysau caeedig yn ystod yr wythnosau nesaf, mae gweddill y pyramid pêl-droed wedi gorfod cau siop, gyda chynghreiriau wedi penderfynu ar bwyntiau bob gêm neu wedi’u chwydu’n gyfan gwbl. Mae unwaith eto yn enghraifft arall o’r gwahaniaeth mawr rhwng pen elît y gêm a’r gweddill.

Felly, roedd hi’n amserol ac yn braf darllen bywyd Parc Peter Roberts – pedwar tymor o bêl-droed Rhondda. Mae’r llyfr hwn yn edrych ar realiti’r hyn y mae rhai yn ei alw’n ‘ bêl-droed Parc ‘ ac eraill, ‘ llawr gwlad ‘, yn dibynnu ar eich safbwynt. Dyma stori clwb wedi ei sefydlu gan fod llawer o rai eraill o gwmpas y wlad allan o glybiau a thafarndai dynion. Yn yr achos hwn, mae Clwb Ceidwadwyr Maendy yn Ton Pentre, yn dod yn gartref i Maendy Con FC.

Fel darllenydd ac englynion nad oedd yn gyfarwydd â daearyddiaeth De Cymru, diddorol oedd cael gwybod am Gwm Rhondda, gan i’r llyfr gyflwyno timau wedi’u lleoli yn y ddau Gwm – Rhondda Fawr (mawr) a’r Rhondda Fach (bach) a gymrodd ran yng nghynghrair Sul Cwm Rhondda-a’r ardaloedd y tu hwnt i’r ardal lle bu’r Maendy yn cymryd rhan yng Nghwpan canolradd De Cymru.

Fel y mae teitl y llyfr yn awgrymu, mae’n canolbwyntio ar bedwar tymor cyntaf yr egin-glwb, a diolch byth, mae Roberts wedi gwrando ar yr ymadrodd, ‘ Mae llai yn fwy ‘ o ran sicrhau na chaiff pob tymor ei ddisgrifio’n fanwl fel cofnod. Yn hytrach, caiff y Prifardd a’r iselyddion eu cipio gyda hiwmor ac maent yn ddigon i’r darllenydd ddeall cymeriadau a diwylliant pêl-droed ar y lefel hon. Felly, byddwch yn darllen am chwaraewyr sydd, er gwaethaf gêm ar y Sul, yn gwrthod eu pintiau nos Sadwrn, o gemau a chwaraewyd ar hen arwynebau AstroTurf a lleiniau glaswellt sydd naill ai’n sych neu’n anwastad neu’n gaeau o fwd. Yna, mae’r cwestiwn a fydd gennych chi neu’ch gwrthwynebwyr 11 o chwaraewyr ac os bydd y canolwr yn ymddangos.

Mae’r pêl-droed yn y Raw, lle rydych chi’n talu am y fraint a heb wirfoddolwyr clwb a Chynghrair ni fyddai’n digwydd. Lle mae ambell gwrw wedyn yn gymaint am y profiad ag y mae am y 90 munud jyst yn chwarae. Mae hyn yn ymwneud â comradery, y gymuned a diwylliant y bydd y rhai sydd erioed wedi chwarae ar y lefel hon yn eu cydnabod. Fodd bynnag, post COVID-19 faint o dimau ac yn wir, clybiau’r dynion gwaith a fydd yn syrthio ar fin y ffordd wrth i’r effaith economaidd ddod i’r wyneb yn y misoedd nesaf? Amser yn unig a ddengys.

Am y rheswm hwn, er eu bod yn mwynhau’r hanesyn hwn, sydd fel y mae’r awdur yn ei rhoi ei hun, yn ddathliad – o bêl-droedwyr y gynghrair ddydd Sul; miliwn o filltiroedd i ffwrdd o’r prima donnas boddio faldodwyd o’r uwch gynghrair, ond y mae ei drechiadau yr un mor boenus ac y mae eu llwyddiannau bob tamaid mor ogoneddus. “

(Y Lolfa. November 2019. Paperback 128pp)

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Book Review: The Cumberland Senior Cup 1886 to 2019 by Barry Hoggarth

The 2019/20 football season in England, is one that won’t be forgotten in a hurry, but not for glorious goals, stunning saves or indeed fans in stadiums reduced to tears in triumph or in tragedy. It will always be one where, and as I write, no games have actually taken place in the Premier League or Championship in England to complete those competitions yet, the twists and turns of title wins, promotion and relegation was achieved either behind closed doors or by Points Per Game. In the non-league world for clubs in Step 3 to 7, the season never existed, with the results expunged from history. Whilst the FA harbours hopes of completing the FA Cup for this season, County Cups are unlikely to have that luxury, with many forever left with the competition uncompleted.

One such is the Cumberland Senior Cup, which can trace its history back to 1885/86 when Carlisle claimed the trophy after beating Workington. The 2019/20 version had reached the Semi-Final stage with Workington AFC due to host Workington Athletic and Penrith visiting Cleaton Moor Celtic. The scale of the current crisis is put in perspective when you consider that the Cumberland Senior Cup was played for throughout the duration of the Second World Cup, with the only break coming during the First World War with no competition in 1915/16, 1916/17 and 1917/18. 2019/20 now looks likely to be added to that list.

As with the book, The Wessie – A history of the West Riding Senior Football Association Cup, a look at the Cumberland FA’s competition by Barry Hoggarth in The Cumberland Senior Cup 1886 to 2019 is a real labour of love (as detailed in his interview with FBR), and one that provides a valuable record of a cup with a 134 year history to date.

Content wise, the book contains a full list of the winners and runners-up from the first final, with a timeline which provides brief details of the competition since its inception, up to the 2018/19 final. Thirty of the finals are then picked out with greater detail provided on them, featuring newspaper reports of the time, which are interesting in themselves for the language used to describe the game at that time. The book is then completed by some cameo pieces, including the tragic death of a player, John Fisher, following an incident at the 1886/87 final between Workington and Carlisle, a page dedicated to the various guises of the trophy down the years and a wonderful section of photographs of players, teams and medals from the history of the competition, many from the authors own collection.

Whilst the recording of the competition on a fact and figure basis are interesting in themselves, there are some other little gems that emerge within the books pages. There is for instance, the occasion from the 1951/52 competition when a young John Charles played for the 67^th Training Regiment in the early rounds of the cup, whilst he was doing his national service. Interestingly, Charles, who was to go on to be a Welsh, Leeds United and Juventus legend also appeared in the West Riding Senior FA Cup, whilst with Leeds United. There are also mentions of other players who went onto great things, such as ex-England and Newcastle United star, Peter Beardsley, who played and scored in the 1979/80 final as Carlisle United overcame Penrith 3-2.

Football in the 21^st Century has unfortunately come to be all about the Premier League, the Champions League, Sky TV, and the unhealthy amounts of money that swill in the confers of those that sit at the top table. Thankfully, we have books such as this offering by Barry Hoggarth to remind us all of the Victorian roots of the game and of a history of football that shows it existed long before the 1992/93 season and the monster that is Premier League.

(North Press Printers. December 2019. Paperback 144pp)

The book can be bought directly from the author priced at £15 including postage and packing, contact details are:

Mobile: 07791 956711

Email: hoggy63@msn.com

Twitter: @hoggy082

Facebook/messenger: Barry Hoggarth

Also available on eBay (search Cumberland Senior Cup) priced at £16.

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Book Review: The Football Shirts Book – The Connoisseur’s Guide by Neal Heard

When it comes to winners and losers in the beautiful game, forget the trophies, the players, the managers, we all know the real competition is in the shirts. And this is a competition all fans get a say in. Let’s be honest, there’s nothing better than your team rocking an absolute beauty – even if the football on the pitch doesn’t match – and even more so if your rivals are sporting an absolute stinker. Undoubtedly, throughout the course of footballing history, there have, without question, been the good, the bad and the very, very ugly. Although, in truth, most football shirts are neither universally revered or hated – there will be some fans who think the bruised banana is the epitome of cool and others who think shirts couldn’t get much worse. But the thing about football shirts is that they will always cause discussion and debate, and Neal Heard’s, The Football Shirt Book adds brilliantly to that dialogue.

As a football shirt collector and a rather talented designer (his Newport County 2019/20 design deserves a place in this book), Heard is well placed to curate this collection and he selects some 150 iconic shirts that every collector should have or want. His focus is largely on the older shirts after 1966 which have had more time to reach iconic status, but there is a range of clubs and countries represented, with Stockport County lining up alongside Tibet, and Greenbank Under-10s, sitting side by side with Margate FC. With literally thousands of shirts to choose from, I don’t envy Heard the monumental task of whittling the shirts down to a book-sized selection, and inevitably there will be those shirts that fans will find missing. After all, whilst there is a degree of consensus in terms of collectables, judging a football shirt is subjective. The iconic label does help to some degree – who in their right mind could ever exclude England’s 1966 World Cup winning number or Brazil’s 1970 offering, but fans will certainly have their own opinions on which shirts should and shouldn’t make the cut.

The selection of shirts is split into different sections, including those that mix pop culture and football, those that have iconic branding and those that are chosen purely for their beauty. For me, the majority of these sections worked, but it was a shame that, perhaps because of sheer dearth, the politically minded section was a little lighter on offerings – not because I have any political interest, but the stories and aesthetics of these shirts were particularly interesting. Part of me did feel that it would have been nice to have shirt categories visually as well, i.e. hoops, stripes, colourways, and additionally perhaps dedicated pages for particular teams/nations known for iconic strips, but this is just personal preference. Again, purely subjectively, I wasn’t always sure on how or if shirts were ordered in a particular way and felt that a chronological order may have been useful in some instances.

The styling and design within the book are both great and each shirt is given substantial space with only minimal text to introduce it and offer some interesting titbits. For fans who are purely interested in the aesthetics of the shirt therefore, the shirts are clear and well-presented. Indeed, the whole book, in keeping with the sartorial focus of the subject matter, is extremely stylish, including page layout and colour, which really add to the quality of the book. In addition to the shirts themselves, there are some brilliant features which supplement the main sections, including ‘favourite five’ selections from various contributors, as well as interviews with a designer and collector, and I would have welcomed even more of these. I did think the ‘favourite five’ features could have been slightly better displayed with accompanying shirts, especially those not given much focus in the main body of the book, but the feature itself is a really fun one and one that fans can engage with and debate.

Indeed, one of the great strengths of this book is how accessible and interactive it is, so much so that you don’t even have to read the text if you don’t want to, to be able to enjoy this book – you could literally just look at the shirts. Although the book is pitched as a connoisseur’s guide, and shirt enthusiasts will probably have greater familiarity with most of the shirts featured, to me the book works regardless of your knowledge. In fact, for someone unfamiliar with a lot of the shirts, I think the book works just as well, if not better, allowing them to discover shirts for the first time. As something of a novice myself, whilst I have to admit that I disliked more shirts than I liked and therefore fail miserably in the connoisseur stakes, there were a handful of shirts I fell in love with that I wouldn’t have known about if I hadn’t read the book, and I imagine most fans will find the book worthwhile in introducing them to at least one hidden gem.

A few points where I thought the book could have been improved included having more shirts from the lesser nations, leagues, and teams, but obviously these are not necessarily iconic in a wider context. Goalkeeper shirts, on which designers tend to let loose even more, are lacking – admittedly fewer football fans hanker after a No:1 shirt, but there have been a few iconic ones historically, albeit perhaps for the wrong reasons, including that England 1996 away monstrosity. However, as I said earlier, it’s clearly an unenviable task trying to whittle down the thousands of shirts on offer, and whether your favourite team is featured or not, whether your favourite shirt makes an appearance or is conspicuous by its absence, whether you love the choices or hate them, this book is a great starting point for anyone interested in the world of football shirts and wanting to not only learn about some of the most iconic jerseys in history but also sharpen up the sense of their own preferences.

So whether you’re a shirt collector or just a casual observer, a season ticket holder or an armchair fan, an England supporter or an Estonia supporter, a Premier League follower or a Primeira Liga follower, this book will certainly be of interest and will get readers responding, be it in agreement or disagreement with the shirts on offer.

(Ebury Press. September 2017. Hardcover 144pp)

Jade Craddock

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Book Review: The Wessie – A History of the West Riding Senior Football Association Cup by Martin Jarred

The FA Cup is recognised as the oldest cup competition in the World with it first being played during 1871/72, when Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1-0 at the Oval in London. It predated the first Football League Championship in England by seventeen years, when Preston North End took the title.

The point of this brief timeline of English football? Well, simply that cup football came into being before the organisation of league football and perhaps was partly responsible for the special place the FA Cup competition once held within this country. Additionally, it is useful for understanding where the early power of the game was, with The FA coming into existence in 1863, and a number of County FA’s also being founded, for instance, the Sheffield & Hallamshire County FA (1867), Lancashire County FA (1878) and Cumberland FA (1884), before the Football League in 1888.

The West Yorkshire Association came into existence in 1896, due in part to the fact that this part of the country was dominated by the game of rugby. The fledgling organisation launched the West Yorkshire Cup in 1896/97 with Hunslet the winners in the four team competition, which included Bradford, Halifax, and Leeds.

The title of the book, The Wessie, takes its point of reference for the term for people living in the West Riding by those living in other parts of the Broad Acres of Yorkshire. What is immediately evident, is that this has been a real labour of love for its author, Martin Jarred, who came through Prostate Cancer to complete the book, from which half of the author’s royalties go towards Yorkshire Against Cancer in appreciation of the care and treatment he received.

In terms of contents, the book charts the history of the Senior Cup, which in its various guises was played for between 1896 until 1999, details of the County Cup from 2007 to 2019 (when the Senior Cup was presented to the County Cup winners) and a brief overview of key figures in the history of the West Riding County FA.

The amount of research that has gone into this book is staggering, with team-line ups, scorers, attendances, and venues, dating back to that first year of the cup back in 1896/97. It is a book that you will pick-up and put-down and learn something different every time. This includes the early influence of rugby with a number of the grounds used in the early years of the competition, such as Fartown (Huddersfield), Crown Flatt (Dewsbury) and Wheldon Road (Castleford), locations familiar to fans of the thirteen-a-side code. Other points of interest include seeing how players who became household names started off their careers in the Senior Cup such as John Charles, David Seaman, and many of the 60s and 70s renowned Leeds United teams.

The journey through the book is also a journey through the history and development of the game, with clubs going out of existence, in Leeds City and the original Bradford Park Avenue, and the introduction of innovations such as floodlights and substitutes.

However, the most significant factor is that this book is a record of a competition that is unlikely ever to be revived. If the FA Cup is treated with such distain these days, what chances do the County competitions have? The Wessie details how the Senior Cup in West Riding slowly but surely became nothing more than a nuisance in the football calendar, with the senior teams increasingly using it as a chance to blood youngsters or indeed decline to take part altogether and as a result crowds simply did not turn out to see what became games between teams of reserves. The wonderful Fratelli made trophy though at least does still live on, now presented to the County Cup winners, but the irony being that even some of those clubs taking part in recent years (from the National League, Northern Premier League, Northern Counties East League and North West Counties League), use the competition to play their reserves or Academy players and so means that there is little interest from spectators and certainly no financial reward. Will history repeat itself and see another competition consigned to the pages of history?

(Tony Brown. December 2019). Paperback 132pp)

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Book Review: Bloody Southerners – Clough and Taylor’s Brighton & Hove Odyssey by Spencer Vignes

Brian Howard Clough and Peter Thomas Taylor, more commonly known in the football world as simply, ‘Clough and Taylor’. Whatever your team, no one would begrudge their reputation as an outstanding management duo, who brought great success to football in the East Midlands, in the guise of Derby County and Nottingham Forest. And go into any bookshop and you will find a number of titles about their exploits at those two clubs. The major hole in their story is the time that the pair spent at then Third Division Brighton & Hove Albion, when they washed up on the shores of the South coast during the 1973/74 season after Pat Saward had lost his job as manager at the Goldstone Ground.

In Bloody Southerners – Clough and Taylor’s Brighton & Hove Odyssey, author Spencer Vignes produces an excellent account with interviews from players and staff at the clubs as well as local and national media of the time, to recount the story of the period that occurred between their stewardship at the Baseball Ground and the City Ground.

As with any good book, the central part of the story is detailed in context, with the reader presented with the early years of the pairs playing careers, their management time at Hartlepools United and later resignation from Derby County in October 1973. This provides the backdrop prior to Clough and Taylor taking the reins at Brighton in November 1973, brought in by ambitious Chairman Mike Bamber, the other main character in the book. There follows the story of Clough’s brief sojourn in the South, which was to last only until July 1974 when he jumped ship to take over at Elland Road, with Taylor staying and taking charge during the 1974/75 and 1975/76 campaigns.

Those seasons are well documented with in their first season, the infamous FA Cup replay defeat to Walton & Hersham detailed, as well as the 8-2 home defeat to a rampant Bristol Rovers. During that campaign, Clough does little to endear himself to the players, as he does not move down to Brighton (unlike Taylor), preferring instead to commute from Derby, meaning that his appearances on the training ground are limited. He also alienates the Club Chairman with his trip to discuss a possible job as Iranian National Manager, despite the flexibility Clough is given with regards to his media work. With his departure, Clough caused a rift with Taylor that whilst was to be resolved when they were reunited at Forest, started a fissure that was to return later in their careers and which because of the untimely death of Taylor, unfortunately was never to be resolved. Taylor himself also comes in for his share of criticism too once he became manager, with some not impressed at his time spent on the road looking for players, rather than being in the dug-out, especially in the critical run-in during the 1975/76 season when Brighton narrowly missed out on promotion.

Readers may conclude that it does not portray either Clough or Taylor in a particularly good light. However, whilst many of the interviews are critical of the pair, this book is by no means a hatchet job. Vignes builds a balanced case to show where some of the attitudes espoused by Clough came from, in areas such as his treatment of older and injured players and his relationship with Chairman. The author also succeeds in loosening some of the fictionalisation that has come to surround the pair with the making of The Damned United film, in sharpening the image of the reality of Clough and Taylor as men with faults, and not characters in soft-focus.

In closing the book, Vignes takes the Brighton story beyond the departure of Taylor and concludes with a chapter titled, An Unlikely Legacy, as the author lays out an interesting conclusion and reflection given the warts and all detail that had gone before. Bloody Southerners is a well-researched look at a period of the Clough and Taylor era that has been previously only seen as a footnote in their careers and is a must-read.

(Biteback Publishing. October 2018). Paperback 320pp)

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