Macmillan, £20
Reviewed by Jonathan O’Brien
From WSC 361, March 2017
Buy this book
Search: ' World Cup 1996'
Stories
Graham Taylor’s warm character exemplified by response to Middlesbrough supporter asking him to pick Stephen Pears and Jamie Pollock for England
From The Cockney Rejects to Oasis via Half Man Half Biscuit – Richard Newson explored how football and music went from opposites to best friends
Modern attendances are huge but lack the spectacular feeling of the past
20 June ~ With Euro 2016 nearly halfway though and the Champions League, FA and Scottish Cup finals barely behind us, it feels like the entire planet wants to attend a football match. Huge, packed venues dominate the media. And all I do is rue the fact I’ve never been in a six-figure crowd and that no ground in Europe can currently hold one.
Macclesfield were in financial disarray when they entered the Football League, but they still managed to win a second consecutive promotion, writes Michael Whalley
Just getting to the starting line was an achievement. One week before their first season in the Football League began, Macclesfield Town received a High Court writ from the creditors of their late chairman’s business demanding more than £500,000. This is not generally how promotion seasons begin. Yet nine months later, Macc went up from Division Three at the first attempt. As cheesy as it might sound now, there were times during the 1997-98 season when it seemed as if the motto on Efe Sodje’s bandana – “Against All Odds” – could have applied to the club.