This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

The premise is strong for this book, a football manager in the 70s is struggling to keep his team and his job together when an away game brings him to London, where an IRA terrorist cell is planning its next atrocity.

However, the problem I had is this book spent far too much time on the minutiae of the football team which meant that the pace felt very slow. I like my football and recognise the need to spend time detailing the characters and their relationships, but it was about half way through the book before we met the terrorist cell.

I can't fault the writer for the quality of the descriptions and the characterisations. There's some great details of 1970's English football with appearances from the like of Don Revie, Peter Osgood and Ron "Chopper " Harris. However, that wasn't enough to keep my interest and this book just didn't work for me.

This book did not augur so well, a hybrid novel combining football and political terrorism so I began it with limited hopes and expectations but my fears were allayed when I thoroughly enjoyed Alastair Campbell & Paul Fletcher's ambitious novel.

They totally capture the feel of 70s football and the violence that lurked near the surface. The characters are well drawn, particularly the flawed hero, Charlie Gordon, one defeat away from the sack from an unnamed small Northern town first division club perhaps not a million miles away from Burnley!

The football action is authentic as is the behind the scenes shenanigans and politicking.

There is also a linked IRA terrorist plot which seems unnecessary but really works extremely well in a totally unexpected ending which cleverly and neatly draws all the strands together.

All in all an excellent novel covering a topic where the bar has previously been set extremely low.

Good to be reminded of so many long forgotten footballers from that era. One minor editing quibble: The FA Cup match at Stamford Bridge which plays an important part in the latter stage of the book seems to have been refereed by both Jack Taylor and Neil Midgely, hopefully a mistake that will be rectified.