Passion for the Park is a celebration of the ordinary lover of the beautiful game, the dedicated lads who turn out week after week in the hope of beating another works or pub team. In Park Football the kit is never washed, there is no spare ball, studs are never inspected, there are holes in the goal-netting, the referee is always looking the wrong way, and the only spectators are an old man and his dog. This funny and irreverent memoir charts the author’s own undistinguished football career, playing for two Sunday League teams and idolising Don Revie’s Leeds United, and his attempts to inspire steelworks apprentices with a love for English literature.

Passion for the Park is a celebration of the ordinary lover of the beautiful game, the dedicated lads who turn out week after week in the hope of beating another works or pub team. In Park Football the kit is never washed, there is no spare ball, studs are never inspected, there are holes in the goal-netting, the referee is always looking the wrong way, and the only spectators are an old man and his dog. This funny and irreverent memoir charts the author’s own undistinguished football career, playing for two Sunday League teams and idolising Don Revie’s Leeds United, and his attempts to inspire steelworks apprentices with a love for English literature.