Product Description

The ex-pro sitting in front of the TV, interminably replaying the last moment of his career; the political activist who's struggling to concentrate on a political seminar because he knows a vital international match is being shown in the bar; the failed, alcoholic actor who reflects on life from inside the club mascot; the quiet left-back who never speaks to any of his team-mates . . . Ian Plenderleith gets inside the heads of all his characters and finds one thing in common: that football is, for the most part, the be-all and end-all. But also in this collection are a set of stories that proves life does exist away from the square acre of turf, and that Plenderleith is an adept chronicler of the lives of the mad, the sane, the lonely and the plain crazy . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1509926 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
This is a delightful collection of short stories, primarily centered around football but also including some excellent character studies away from the pitch. They include the nine-year-old who gets invited to play in goal for a team of adults - because he has a better football than the one they have, the ex-professional reduced to sitting in from of his television endlessly replaying a video of his last-minute Cup Final open-goal miss, and the failed alcoholic actor who pretends to be a professional footballer when in reality he spends match days dressed up as the club mascot. Plenderleith, a regular contributor to the leading football magazine When Saturday Comes, has created a believable but eccentric group of characters with whom all football fans can associate. (Kirkus UK)

The Sunday Times, November 16, 2003
"[Plenderleith's] is a bittersweet world in which football can bring joy, misery and bewilderment in the same story."

Liverpool Echo, August 30, 2003
"A fascinating collection of stories…a must for all those who love football and love reading."

Customer Reviews

Tight, punchy and Scottish
Best sports book I've read for a long time, though this is more than that. These short stories are like some absurdist mixture of Ernest Hemingway, Simone de Beauvoir and Brian Glanville. Funny and carefully observed tales about beautiful small moments and mundane f*ck up people that show the glorious futility of life and made me fall in love with football all over again (my wife isn't going to be pleased).

stories of the lonely and luckless
If you like you're characters lonely and luckless but with a black sense of humour to help them through, read these stories. It might help to like football, but it's not essential. I loved (and laughed at) most of all the story about the corporate fan forced to sit at an England match between a client and a xenophobic herbert. Only four stars, though, because the last third of the collection are not football stories - they're still good, but the book seems to lose a bit of its momentum by changing tack.

sarcastic humanist Britperv
Plenderleith's strange tales of Loserville are acidly witty yet he manages to keep a warmth for his central luckless protagonists. I found this volume through the writer's work at onetouchfootball - if you are into football you'll love the first 3/5 of the book. However, it's the last few non-sports stories that give a glimpse of a new and refreshing (and kind of Britishly pervy) voice.