Kicking in the Wind: The Real Life Drama of a Small-town Football Club

by derick-allsop

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Football

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Len]

This is the story of the 1995-96 football (soccer) season of Rochdale AFC, playing in the Third Division of the Endsleigh League – at the time that was the fourth tier of English professional football. It's a story that reads as an epistolary novel made up from transcribed interviews with some of the main protagonists: David Kilpatrick, the club chairman; Mick Docherty, the manager; Steve Walmsley, the commercial manager; Graham Morris, a director who is also an accountant and looks after the club's finances; and various players. Unfortunately this does demote the narrator into being the note-taker and this can make the note-taker as stylistically absent as a television presenter. Occasionally there are sections of direct prose from the author that allow his own good-humoured character to show through.

And good humour is needed by all. Life in the basement is tough. Money is short, the fans are impatient for success, the players are average and, as the manager has to accept, if ever a player starts to show real talent he will be sold to bring in some cash and help pay the debts and the players' wages. Mr Docherty, the son of the well known footballer, manager and after dinner speaker Tommy Docherty, just about maintains his equilibrium as the club suffers the slings and arrows of injured players and stumbles from a good free-scoring start and a lucrative F A Cup tie against Liverpool, to tumbling down the table and a numbing 7 – 0 defeat against the previously mentioned Premier League club.

Everywhere there are the signs that this is a club on benefits and has to continually make do. The club does not have a training ground and must use whatever resources they can win from the local council, nearby schools, or public parks. For away games the players must accept there will be very few overnight stays. The club will provide a coach, as cheap as possible, and everyone can expect to get back to Rochdale some time in the early hours of the following morning. However, the club's after-game hospitality to visiting directors is highly respected – and their pies are legendary.

The season ends with Rochdale in 15th place and Mick Docherty called into the directors' office to face dismissal. It seems that a mixture of poor performances, suspicions about the manager's private life interfering with his duties, and the reputation his father gained – which is a cloud that seems to hang permanently over his career – have brought the situation to a head. Perhaps, the directors hope, that young chap who used to manage Wigan will accept a contract and lead them to the promised land next season.

[Don McKinlay]

You can’t move these days for fly-on-the-wall sports documentaries
Before that there were little known gems like this