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Heart of Football

Heart of Football

by David Mc Vay (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2008

    $3.25
Synopsis

If the company of Frank Lampard, Robbie Savage and Ashley Cole, adorned by his other half, the pretty one in Rod Stewart's band the Pram Faces, is your dream ticket to the night out of your life, then perhaps best to put this book down now to avoid further confusion. The Heart of Football does not strive to ingratiate itself with the precious young things of celebrity culture, nor does it attempt to sip cocktails in the Sugar Lounge while gushing adoringly at Wayne Rooney's pina colada.Generally, David McVay is more than grateful to gain entry to any lounge that serves cold drinks and hot food, from Darlington to Dagenham through Carlisle, Wrexham and Mansfield. As a player in the 1970s, the author was the victim of a variety of physical assaults - as the outlawed tackles from behind might be termed in modern parlance - at most of those venues. Three decades on, he has been let loose with pointed pen rather than sharpened stud to write the weekly Heart of Football column for the Daily Telegraph which continues to understand and rejoice that there is life beyond the Premier League, a fact woefully neglected by others of the genre. It was a season that saw Leeds United performing in the third tier of the domestic game for the first time, Luton Town sinking under the burden of administration and the league's oldest members, Notts County, trying to avoid a devastating expulsion to the Conference. Heart of Football follows their fortunes and those of the less opulent in the sport's pecking order. McVay reported it like he played, with one eye on the ball and the other trained on impending danger from a splash of opposition colour or a loose cannon emerging from the maddening crowd. Essential on wet, windy and wild nights at The Shay, Spotland or any of the game's endearing and enduring heartlands.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 174
 Edition: First Edition
 Publisher: Reid Publishing
Published: 01 Aug 2008
ISBN 10: 095588070X
ISBN 13: 9780955880704

Media Reviews
It's back. Football's self-styled 'most exciting league in the world' which returns today is, of course, nothing of the sort, but such linguistic oversights are summarily dismissed with the nonchalant wave of a Rolex-encrusted wrist. Only the mathematically challenged would define a 20-team league which 80% cannot win as competitive, yet our bloated top flight retains its 'exciting' tag, a perfect advertisement for ultra-fine imperial clothing, were it not so corpulent. England's lower leagues are the Premier League's antithesis and few authors know their way around Prenton Park, Brisbane Road, Valley Parade or Gigg Lane better than David McVay. He admits to being A forever smitten with life in the nether regions of the Football LeagueA and like most genuine football fans, he would prefer A a suspect hot dog drowned in mustard - to a half time prawn sandwich.A His ideal club chairman is no well-tanned recidivist who accumulated his loot in questionable circumstances, but someone like Dagenham and Redbridge chairman Dave Andrews who retained his club's 10-man committee to ensure no individual could assume control. Anyone searching for football's true heart should, therefore, give its highest echelons the widest possible body swerve and lunge for McVay's excellent book with the unfettered determination of an old fashioned defender executing a sliding tackle with intent. Essentially, the book tells of McVay's travels last season as he meandered from Brentford to Barrow, Luton to Lincoln, observing that sizeable band of football supporters who choose to disregard Premier League glitz and bling in favour of the real thing. Throughout, McVay mixes humour and poignancy, laughter and reality in equal measure. When the Salvation Army turned up at Kenilworth Road to bring some Christmas cheer to Luton fans and their cash-strapped club, McVay suggests A the Samaritans would have been more fitting. That is if Luton Town could have stretched to the phone call.A Before a typical needle match between Mansfield and Chesterfield, the Last Post was immaculately observed by both sets of fans in honour of two British servicemen killed in Afghanistan, which prompted Spireites manager Lee Richardson to say that A Events such as this certainly put a football match into context.A McVay concurs: A Only an imbecile would disagree,A he says. He ponders over whether Mrs Shevchenko would forfeit the glamour of Harrods and Armani for the Pound Shop in Nottingham as Tommy Lawton's wife once did when the legendary striker moved from Chelsea to Notts County, a transfer which hastened the end of Lawton's marriage. He considers Gary McAllister's probable brief from Ken Bates upon taking the manager's job at Elland Road: A Steady and ailing team, spruce up their act from long-ball brawlers to passing purists and win promotion from League One - In the more civilised Wild West of Yorkshire, where the mean streets are largely safe to walk since Ian Bowyer was kicked out of town, this remains a tough mission - even for Randolph Scott and a ten-gallon Stetson.A After Bournemouth had unexpectedly beaten Swansea at the Liberty Stadium with two goals in the last minute, the travelling band of 226 supporters burst into A Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be; we're going to Shrewsbury, que sera, sera.A Not quite as stirring as Men of Harlech notes McVay, A Yet such stoic resignation surely deserves greater reward.A Any fan searching for football's heart will glean their reward by reading McVay's lively and often funny observations which serve to prove the man's in love with the game's 'nether regions' - 4sportsbooks.co.uk.
Author Bio
David McVay is a former professional footballer who played with Notts County from 1973-79. He joined the staff of the Nottingham Evening Post in 1983, covering his former club, then in the first division. He spent eight years reporting sport for The Times and now writes a regular football column for the Daily Telegraph. He has written several books, including a definitive autobiography of Tommy Lawton, The Complete Centre Forward, which he co-wrote with Andy Smith, about the legendary former England centre forward whose career and life was ravaged by controversy. He also wrote Steak...Diana Ross, which was published in 2003, a seminal football tale told through the diaries of a 1970s journeyman player (McVay himself) that became a cult classic. It was selected by FourFourTwo magazine as one of the 50 Best Football Books of All Time. More recently, he has penned Forest Cult Heroes, detailing some of the finest and most charismatic players to represent Nottingham Forest. Having played against and socialised with several of the book's subjects, it includes his own personal anecdotes as well as recollections from the elite band of players themselves.