Reviews from When Saturday Comes. Follow the link to buy the book from Amazon.
One of Britain's best-ever goalkeepers is now a striker for a pub side. Mark Winter relates the latest unlikely chapter in the Neville Southall story
If a pin could make a noise when it drops on mud, you would have heard it. Even the pied wagtail that was hopping up and down the touchline seemed to stop to watch the penalty being taken. The score was 1-1 midway through the second half and the outcome of the Second Division championship race could have depended on a successful conversion.
David Lee was good enough to play 150 league games for Chelsea in the 1980s and 1990s – but was only worth one game for Matt Nation's Sunday league side
It was unclear what exactly Bob Lee said or did to his kid brother in the car park before the match, but it certainly did the trick. After a couple of minutes of Chinese burns, dead legs and threats to tell Mum exactly what was in those magazines on top of the wardrobe, little David came back and agreed that, although he’d only come along to watch and even though he’d just broken into the Chelsea first team, he would deign to make up the numbers for his brother’s Sunday league team after all.
The intense rivalry between Rangers and Celtic is about more than just football. But Ken Gall feels not enough is being done to turn focus back to the pitch
In December, as part of a wider package of measures aimed at ending sectarian behaviour in Scotland, First Minister Jack McConnell announced a campaign to end bigotry at Old Firm games. This might prompt the cynical to speculate as to what his next project might be – the prevention of night following day, perhaps.
John Fashanu's latest venture is the small Welsh team Barry Town. Simon Price outlines the reasons behind the new arrival
When John Fashanu popped up on Talk Sport in December to announce proudly that he had bought the champions of Wales, there were many patronising references to “little Barry Town”. In some respects, this is understandable. Barry, for the uninitiated, is a seaside town at the southernmost tip of Wales with a population of 50,000. The town is a microcosm of the Old Wales: sheep farms to the north, Bhopal-sized chemical plants to the east, dying dockyards to the south, and a third-rate mini Blackpool called Barry Island to the west. Most people with the means to do so get the hell out. Why, then, is Flash Fash moving in?
Walter Zenga's short time as a manager in Romania looks set to end soon, as Ben Lyttleton notes
When former Italy goalkeeper Walter Zenga was appointed coach of Romanian side FC National last summer, he explained that one attraction of making a fresh start was to help him get over a broken heart after his split with Italian actress Hoara Borselli. Four months later, Zenga, rumoured to have had a fling with Madonna after Italia 90, cannot wait to leave Bucharest and he looks set to do so at the end of the season. The reason? Another woman. A drugs bust. And a potential smear campaign.