The Bottom Corner: Hope, Glory and Non-League Football
£8.70£9.50 (-8%)
In these days of oligarch owners, superstar managers and players on sky-high wages, the tide is turning towards the lower reaches of the pyramid as fans search for football with a soul.
Plucky underdogs or perennial underachievers, your local non-league team offers hope, drama or at least a Saturday afternoon ritual that’s been going for decades. Nige Tassell spends a season in the non-league world. He meets the raffle-ticket seller who wants her ashes scattered in the centre-circle. The envelope salesman who discovered a future England international. The ex-pros still playing with undiluted passion on Sunday mornings. He spends time at clubs looking for promotion to the Football League, clubs just aiming to get eleven players on a pitch every week, and everything in between.
One thing unites them: they all inhabit the heartland of the beautiful game.
‘The Bottom Corner is a wonderful journey through life in the lower reaches of the football pyramid. A fascinating tale of a very different world of football from that of the overpaid stars of the television age’ Barry Davies
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Additional information
| Publisher | Reissue edition (3 Aug. 2017), Yellow Jersey |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 320 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0224100602 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0224100601 |
| Dimensions | 12.9 x 2.03 x 19.81 cm |
by weltonian
This book has inspired me to buy a season ticket at my local non-league club. Its a revelation because it reveals what is most important in our national game – the fine people, not just the players, who clean the toilets, cut the grass, make the tea and much more. Its all about a game that is as far from the Premiership as we are from the moon. Not long ago the EFL team I’ve always supported was in the Premiership. I used to wonder why people preferred to watch non-league football rather than go and see Arsenal, Manchester City or Chelsea etc. when they came to give us a thrashing. Having read this book, now I know why and I want some of it!
by Zac The Cat
A book which is very hard to put down once started. All chapters were enjoyable but I particularly enjoyed reading about the various personalities whether it was the 70+ year old match official in Wolverhampton pining that all ten divisions of the Wolverhampton Amateur League are defunct or the 80+ year old chairman of the Hackney & Leyton Football League remembering the glory days of 100+ pitches on Hackney Marshes. As a post script I was saddened to read that on 27th April 2020 Jermaine Wright aged 45 died of Covid 19. Not only an NHS worker he was also Vice Chairman, Press Officer, Fixture Result Collator & London FA Council Member. He epitomised non league football and will no doubt be a sad loss to all who knew him. Those who follow non league football are a breed apart and it amazes me how supporters of Torquay will travel to Hartlepool and those of Woking to Barrow not forgetting the Groundhoppers. There is something in this book for everyone even those not particularly interested in non league football. Where is my route map to Bishop Sutton!!
by susan chesney
Promptly delivered. Like new. great read
by Dave
This book takes you on a journey around the UK following different aspects of the non-league system and much more over the course of one season. It covers pretty much everything from an engaging insiders look at the workings of the hallowed ground at Hackney Marshes to the very top of the Conference and plenty more in between, including following a groundhopper on his travels, an insight into the fantastic work United Glasgow do with asylum seekers through football and an interesting background look at the ins and outs of being a scout. The author talks to many fascinating characters along the way, many of whom I recognise as similar to some of the great and passionate people I’ve met during my on/off relationship with the non-league scene over the past forty or so years.
A thoroughly entertaining book and well worth checking out whatever level of football you follow. Definitely recommended.
by Greville Waterman
My heart sinks when I see a new football book purporting to be a “season review”. I have read, or tried to read far too many so-called jocular accounts of journeys to and from matches, friends travelled with and amounts of alcohol consumed on the way.
Worthy though these type of book might be they leave me cold and doubting whether they should have seen the light of day or at best confined to a readership comprising the author’s friends and family.
Rant over as Nigel Tassell has not fallen into any of these traps and has given us a thoughtful, witty, well written and most importantly well researched overview of the non league scene.
He has travelled far and wide, notebook and dictaphone in hand and asked the right questions of players, managers, directors, referees, supporters and volunteers alike. He has provided an in depth insight into what non league football means and the problems it faces to survive in an era that is totally Premier League focused.
Was it fortuitous or a clever piece of marketing that saw its publication immediately prior to Non League Day and hopefully it helped jog a few memories and persuaded some fans to visit their local non league team instead.
An excellent book that deserves a wide readership.
by Amazon Customer
Have enjoyed reading this book that has reminded me of how I started in the game. The descriptions of grounds the people and the hard work that goes on by ordinary folks who don’t ask to be rewarded all the time. Community at its best.
by Kindle Customer
An absolutely superb read about the unglamorous but essential areas of football a million miles away from the greed league. MAGNIFICENT
by Bluecashmere.
There are a number of books on the lower reaches of English football. This is certainly one of the better ones. Although Nige Tassel is a Guardian journalist he writes concisely, without prejudice and is often amusing and sometimes sharply witty.
The book lacks any real structure and for the most part is loosely anecdotal. There is a heavy emphasis on Bishop Sutton and particularly on Tranmere Rovers, only relatively recently pitched into the darkness of the lower leagues. For the most part what holds attention for the reader, not himself/herself a close follower of the lower divisions, is the genuine feeling that Tassel, and even more the supporters of these unglamorous outfits, dedicate to their favourites. I’m not sure that the privileged Salford quite come into the same category as many that live on a shoestring without the money of famous ex footballers behind them. On the subject of ex-professionals, one of the most fascinating and heartening aspects of this book are the references to those players now in the lower leagues who once graced famous clubs, even international sides – the likes of Barry Hales and Colin Hendry, whose love of the game went on undiminished, despite the advancing years. Some teams clearly engage Tassel’s interest more than others. Those already mentioned , together with F C United of Manchester and a few others are nourished with the authors’ favour. Forest Green and others seem to exercise less appeal, despite their spectacular rise up the divisions. It’s the quirks as much as anything that gives the book its charm. At its best it is a moving tribute to players, backroom staff, and above all the fans, whose undying optimism and patience is so admirable and so far removed from the fickle to be found at most premier league clubs.