No comments about Damien Duff: The Biography.

No comments about The PFA Footballers' Who's Who.

No comments about Moving the Goalposts.

No comments about Heroes Are Forever: The Life and Times of Celtic Legend Jimmy McGrory.

No comments about Harry Potts: Margaret's Story.

No comments about DJ: The Derek Johnstone Story.

1 comments about Playing Up with Pompey.

1. You will have seen there are hundreds of books written by and about football hooligans. Some are very good others frankly, are not! When I picked up Playing Up With Pompey I thought it was going to be just another 'we went to this match had a fight, dranks fifty pints of beer, smashed up a pub, had another fight, and went home' I was delighted to find out however that this was not the case. Yes the book is about the Portsmouth 6.57 Crew a gang of football hooligans, and yes many of their fights are of course featured, because there wouldn't be a lot of point to the book other wise would there? What makes this book so different is the way it is written, Beech has a very witty writing style and adds a lot of humour to the tales. Also unlike many books of this type he does not try to portray the 6.57 Crew as the toughest meanest gang on the plant, and unlike other titles is open and honest enough to say when they came off second best. Reading the book took me onto the terraces with them, I have never been involved in this type of thing, it also gave me a kind of understanding of what made people like Beech tick, the comradeship of being on enemy turf waiting for the battle cry to go up. If you have already dipped your toe into the world football violence books, then dive straight into the deep end with this one you won't be dissapointed.

1 comments about True Grit.

1. Frank McLintock was always the most honest of players; hard-working, ambitious, determined, and with an absolute never-say-die spirit. Before there was Tony Adams, before there was Patrick Vieira, before there was Thierry Henry, Arsenal had the greatest captain the club could ever wish to have.
   
   He was the heart and soul of the Arsenal team that won the Fairs Cup (Eufa Cup) in 1970, and the League and FA Cup double a season later. It was his never-say-die spirit that rescued the dream of the double when all seemed lost with seconds to go in the Cup semi-final v Stoke. It was McLintock that got his head to the ball and forced a Stoke defender to handle on the line, thus giving Peter Storey the chance to equalize from the penalty spot and allow Arsenal to fight another day. It was McLintock that always led by example and drove his troops on, demanding ever more of them in the quest for greatness. Arsenal owe so much to this one man.
   
   As you read through his life story, though, you will be shocked at how he came to be treated by the Arsenal big wigs, especially the under-appreciative and pompously arrogant Bertie Mee (about whom a book has been written that contains the title 'gentleman' - which he surely wasn't). Yet, in recounting the treatment he received at the hands of people such as Mee, McLintock harbors no lasting grudge. He just tells things the way they were.
   
   'True Grit' is a compelling read because it is quite a story of a young man from a poor part of Glasgow who achieved what he did in Football through sheer hard work and determination; absolutely through 'true grit.' The book is as 'honest' as its author, and that alone makes it another notable success for Frank McLintock.

No comments about Strachan: My Life in Football.

No comments about Reds in the Hood.