NEIL ATKINSON is joined by Gerry Donaldson, Steve Graves and Gareth Roberts to talk about another three books for Well Read.
These books are Thirty One Nil – On The Road With Football’s Outsiders by James Montague – his look at football’s underdogs; the brilliant Morbo – The Story of Spanish Football by Phil Ball and JL Carr’s How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won The FA Cup.
Whimsy and insight. Hopefully…
I’ve had a hardback of ‘ How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup’ for maybe thirty years, and I read it every 5 years or so. I love it, it makes it seem so possible… Maybe it was, when the Cup was romantic, like 3rd Division North. I used to ponder how they decided which club was North and which South. Those were the days!! There was a joke about a Liverpool player getting concussed in the first season we were in Div 2 – it was said to be Johnny Evans. He woke up in the Great Northern and said “Where am I?”
“Yer in the Northern, pal!”
“Fuck me! Relegated again were we?”
Great show, just bought Morbo for a penny on amazon, plus £2.80 postage, hardback as well !
OILMEN STRIKE AGAIN you can have that gareth great show lads
I think it was Steve Graves suggesting a book about Yugoslavia/Eastern European football. Well there is a pretty good one; Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football by Jonathan Wilson. I would recommend it.
I’m just finishing this book up as well. The stories get a bit redundant after a while. Basically LOL Soviet Russia, LOL communism, LOL every match that was rigged and corrupted by the regime.
But aside from that it is still very interesting and the chapter on the former Yugoslavia was by far the best and a bit of a reprieve from that. Really really good, especially the Serbia chapter, which I agree needs 200 pages all to itself. Also enjoyed the Ukraine and Romania chapters. Really good book. Would be great for a TAW podcast.
I also really love Well Read becoming a fixture of the International Break. Hope it stays that way. I need to find the Morbo for a penny on Amazon now