Lost wonders of football brings old experiences to life

IT HAPPENS to us all, some sooner rather than later. When you’re young, sometimes it’s easy to switch off when an elder looks back and declares that ‘things were so much better in my day’.

The transformation that follows, though, is inevitable. At some point I guarantee you will turn into that person, the one who reflects upon the past through rose-tinted glasses.

And if you have already reached that point, then I recommend ‘Black Boots & Football Pinks - 50 Lost Wonders Of The Beautiful Game’ as a compact little book that you will enjoy as it promises to bring back a host of pleasant memories.

Author Daniel Gray has carried out a compare and contrast exercise between football in the current Premier League, and the game as it once was in all its innocence.

And as a means of looking back, he has picked 50 topics that were once regarded as staples of the match-day experience, but are now very much part of a bygone era.

It’s clear that Gray has a hankering for the simpler ways of the past from his fond reminiscing, and as you read through the short and snappy chapters you will chuckle to yourself and remember the way things used to be.

The black boots in the title are self-explanatory, with Gray clearly not a fan of the current trends as he observes that players’ footwear ‘should not be candy-floss pink nor the sickly turquoise of toothpaste’.

As for Football Pinks, they may require further explanation for the younger reader.

Back in the day, all over England, football fans often waited eagerly outside their local newsagent around teatime every Saturday for the arrival of an evening sports paper carrying complete details of the 3 p.m. fixtures (noon or evening kick-offs were unheard of at the time).

And in the pre-internet age, for many it was the first opportunity to learn how their team had fared on an away trip, meaning that they were read from cover to cover prior to the next edition of Match of the Day on the BBC that night.

Some were printed on pink paper - hence the title - but the aestethics of the finished products paled into insignificance compared to the messages they conveyed.

To quote Gray: ‘Football Pinks were a comfort blanket, a fixed and sure gift. They extended matchday and cheered or consoled any evening.’

Everything about the game of my childhood is confirmed as being completely different with a brisk read of this book, which runs to a mere 146 pocket-sized pages.

Gray also deals with the more innocent aspects of preparations and tactics, with one chapter devoted to ‘disorganised warm-ups’ recalling how the eleven players were essentially left to do their own thing. The only cones around football grounds in those days were the ones containing ice cream on a sunny late August or early May day.

He remembers the preference of many clubs for a big man/little man combination up front, the proliferation of bald players, and the fact that proper brawls - not the handbags of today - were a quite common occurrence after a rash tackle.

While I recommended this book at the outset to those for whom a nostalgic look at their childhood is commonplace, on reflection people reared in the Premier League era will learn a lot from it too.

Everything was so basic in those days, but I’m not so sure that all the modern day advances have made for a better overall product. ALAN AHERNE

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