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Book reviews

Reviews from When Saturday Comes. Follow the link to buy the book from Amazon.

Brief encounters – August 1999

WSC readers keep spotting players in the unlikliest places…

I was humbled when Archie Gemmill spotted me driving into the Forest car park to fetch some tickets, at what he regarded as an excessive speed. Before I had had a chance to park and get out of the car he ran over to me, told me to wind down the window and called me “a bloody moron”, before turning and walking away. James Crosby

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Rotten Boro

Stephanie Pride recalls the scenes of despair at Scarborough as Carlisle deliver a killer blow on the final day of the season

Sometimes the greatest crowds invite the greatest disasters. Take Scarborough’s bap­tism of fire in the Football League in 1987, when £25,000 worth of damage was done by rioting Wolves supporters – the attendance was 7,314, our highest in the league. So the omens were not good for what was billed as “the biggest game in the club’s history”.

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Song sung blue

Having been caught on camera leading a chorus of sectarian songs, the former Rangers vice-chairman Donald Findlay had no choice but to resign, Gary Oliver explains

A peculiarity of Scottish law is that a jury may find a charge “not proven”, a verdict wid­ely interpreted as meaning: we think the defendant is guilty, but cannot prove it. One who argues passionately that this controversial option be preserved is leading defence law­yer, and erstwhile vice-chairman of Rangers, Donald Findlay QC – a man against whom the accusation of sectarianism has for some years been, well, not proven.

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Man of war

Following the sacking of Graeme Souness as Benfica boss, Phil Town explains why the Scotsman was doomed from the start

Graeme Souness, sacked last month by Ben­fica, had a rocky ride at the end of his season and a half with the club, but it was not always so. He had been a trump card in candidate João Vale e Azevedo’s campaign for election to the club presidency, and his name helped the Lis­bon lawyer sweep to power in late 1997.

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Devil’s work

While Manchester United sauntered off to Barcelona, Howard Pattison had Gillingham on his mind. And so did a small, red man with horns and a pointy tail

When Christopher Marlowe wrote Dr Faustus, he was only concerned with the notion of selling your soul to the devil in return for immense wealth (or whatever it was, it’s years since I saw it). Interestingly, for some­one who was bumped off so close to the Millwall foot­ball ground, he never speculated on what lengths one might go to in return for a good cup run, or a monster upset against a Premiership outfit, or a late winner in injury time. Think about it for a moment. Exactly what would you sell your soul for?

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