Book reviews

Chesterfield fanzine editor Craig Thomas looks back on an astonishing season for his club

Before this year the only chance of Chesterfield playing in a cup semi final at Old Trafford would have been if the Auto Windscreens Shield matches were being staged at big grounds. For until this golden year Chesterfield have the worst FA Cup record of any professional club bar none: no Third Round appearance since 1981, no Fourth Round since 1954, no Fifth Round since 1950. Aside from that the only memories are grim ones, of limp exits at the hands of questionably competent opponents.

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One of Martin Cloake's favourite players could be set to leave Tottenham – Ronny Rosenthal

Everyone has their own opinion about which players could truly be classed as entertainers, the ones who send a shiver of excitement through the crowd whenever they touch the ball. But I’ll bet there’s a name who wouldn’t feature on any list, one of the most extraordinary players ever to pull on a Spurs shirt – Ronny Rosenthal.

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Non-league football has traditionally been full of bald players. Simon Bell wonders if that is still the case

Anyone who picked up a local newspaper in Surrey in the week after Woking’s 2-1 FA Trophy semi-final win over Stevenage Borough would have been greeted by an uplifting sight: planning permission has been granted for a new public toilet in Chobham. And this isn’t all. If they’d turned to the back page, they’d have seen Woking scorers Clive Walker and Andy Ellis in a joyful, idiot-grinning, gloriously hairless embrace.

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Cris Freddi looks at the history of the hairless footballer, and whether they are still around abroad

A bald fact: there weren’t many of them in the very early days of the game, partly because relatively few players won any caps after leaving university. Only when international careers grew longer did hairlines began to recede.

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Tommy Burns was tasked with winning the league for Celtic, but Gary Oliver details how he found Rangers and Falkirk in his way

Twenty four hours after the country went to the polls, Glasgow East declared that Tommy Burns had lost his seat as Celtic’s manager. Although the Scottish press had campaigned for Burns to be granted a second term of office, Time For A Change proved the prevailing sentiment amongst voters in the Parkhead boardroom.

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