Play Up Sky Blues is the story of the unforgettable season when charismatic manager Jimmy Hill led the Sky Blues to the First Division for the first time in the club's history. It describes the ups and downs of an incredible season, and the stories behind all the men who brought about this unprecedented success.
SHORTLISTED FOR BEST SPORTS WRITING AT THE SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023 "Sheer joy" – Patrick Barclay "Exhilarating" – When Saturday Comes "Perfect" – Josh Widdicombe "★★★★★" – FourFourTwo Four years after the crowning glory of 1966, and a decade after the abolition of the maximum wage, a brash new era dawned in English football. As the 1970s took hold, a new generation of larger-than-life players and managers emerged, appearing on television sets in vivid technicolour for the first time. Set against a backdrop of strikes, political unrest, freezing winters and glam rock, Get It On tells the inside story of how commercialism, innovation, racism and hooliganism rocked the national game in the 1970s. Packed with interviews with the legends of the day, this footballing fiesta charts the emergence of Brian Clough, Bob Paisley and Kevin Keegan and the fall of George Best, Alf Ramsey and Don Revie, presenting a vibrant portrait of the most groundbreaking decade in English football history.
Sky’s small town turns absolutely claustrophobic when his secret promposal plans get leaked to the entire school in this witty, heartfelt, and ultimately hopeful debut novel for fans of What if it’s Us? and I Wish You All the Best. Sky Baker may be openly gay, but in his small, insular town, making sure he was invisible has always been easier than being himself. Determined not to let anything ruin his senior year, Sky decides to make a splash at his high school’s annual beach bum party by asking his crush, Ali, to prom—and he has thirty days to do it. What better way to start living loud and proud than by pulling off the gayest promposal Rock Ledge, Michigan, has ever seen? Then, Sky’s plans are leaked by an anonymous hacker in a deeply homophobic e-blast that quickly goes viral. He’s fully prepared to drop out and skip town altogether—until his classmates give him a reason to fight back by turning his thirty-day promposal countdown into a school-wide hunt to expose the e-blast perpetrator. But what happens at the end of the thirty days? Will Sky get to keep his hard-won visibility? Or will his small-town blues stop him from being his true self?
This collection of memoirs and newspaper articles, (previously printed in The Coventry Evening Telegraph), charts the fascinating story of an ordinary boy growing up in extraordinary times. Les Ryan offers a priceless snapshot of working class life during the twentieth century. Starting from his birth during the First World War, Les' memoirs progress through 1920s poverty and strife, the 1930s Depression, early manual jobs, his time spent serving in the army during World War II, the tough post-War years working on a car factory assembly-line and his time working as a Special for the Coventry Police during the 1960s. A priceless piece of social history with tales of sadness, joy and hilarity.
Desperate, lonely, and dying for a thrill, Desi Donne is perfect prey for a skydiver with murder on his mind in sexy noir master Hendricks's best novel since "Miami Purity."
The word ‘unique’ is often wrongly used but, in the case of A Game of THREE Halves, the author’s story is indisputably one of a kind. No other writer has worked on the inside for both Aston Villa and Birmingham City while keeping an eye on local and national footballing affairs for more than seventy years. During that period he met, and sometimes worked with, many of the best-known personalities in world football: from Pele to Cruyyff, Busby to Ferguson, Matthews to Cullis, Wright to Banks, Hill to Coleman, Saunders to Atkinson, Best to Francis, and many more. From war-time football to the present day, across eight decades, football has changed so much that not even the ball, apart from still being spherical, is the same as before. The fight to remove the maximum wage, the initially steady and ultimately explosive growth in pay, the arrival and development of European football, the curse of the hooligan, the introduction of the Premier League. A flavour of these developments can be found in these pages. This is not an anorak’s football history, but a lively collection of real-life anecdotal memories laced with controversial personal comment. The object of the exercise is simply to be a ‘good read’ while hopefully introducing a touch of football and social history. Here can be found such unlikely characters as an armed robber, an exorcist, some terrified sky divers, half a moustache that ‘went missing’, a factual hungover ‘Biggles’ and a shoot-to-kill former iron curtain guard. This is a look at football like no other.
This is the only trivia book a Sky Blues fan could ever need, packed with facts, stats, anecdotes and history about Coventry City. From cult heroes and extraordinary escapes to FA Cup glory and championships, it’s all here – can you offer not to own a copy? Which City star was once allegedly arrested for espionage? Which star striker has been busy inventing a whole new sound? Which competition are City unbeaten in for nearly a quarter of a century?
At last! The award-winning Baker & Kelly bring you the most entertaining, radical and unreliable football book ever published. The Two Dannys argue the toss, spill the beans and chew that fat about everything and anything from the biggest questions down to stuff they have frankly invented themselves. Which club has the handsomest fans? Who is the greatest player of all time? Pele? Maradona? Puskas? Rougvie? Have foreign players helped or hindered the English game? Well, Marco Boogers, well? And who was the greatest football dad, Fred Baker or Andy Kelly? Now with even more footballing facts, myths and legends, the paperback asks (and answers) hard-hitting questions, such as, what was the greatest ever World Cup? Just how much pathetic World Cup tat can one own, Danny Kelly? And where do all those beautiful women in the crowd come from? A cornucopia of footballing fun and well-crafted wisdom that is certain to sell like beer-flavoured crisps. Baker & Kelly: Sometimes right sometimes wrong - but always certain.
'In many ways Jimmy Hill was football. He was a true great of the game.' - Greg Dyke, Chairman of the Football Association Jimmy Hill died on 19th December 2015 but very much remains a household name. Renowned for his outspoken views, recognised the world over by his famous profile, only he saw football from every side: as player, coach, manager, chairman, television executive and broadcaster. A versatile player with Brentford and Fulham in the fifties, he was a qualified coach by the age of 24. In the sixties his innovative management technique took Coventry from the bottom of the Third to the First Division, where they stayed for 32 years. For over twenty years, at different times, he was a director and chairman of Coventry, Charlton and Fulham. As chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association he took on the authorities and successfully fought for freedom of contract and the abolition of the maximum wage. But it is as a TV presenter that Jimmy became best known. After five years as Head of Sport at LWT, he moved to the BBC to become a national institution in the seventies and eighties on Match of the Day. Tragically Jimmy Hill succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease in his last few years, A moving epilogue has been included which reflects on Jimmy's remarkable life. Jimmy tells the story of his rise from humble beginnings to distinction both on and off the field with modesty and humour.
Digital Sports Journalism gives detailed guidance on a range of digital practices for producing content for smartphones and websites. Each chapter discusses a skill that has become essential for sports journalists today, with student-friendly features throughout to support learning. These include case studies, examples of sports journalism from leading global publications, as well as top tips and practical exercises. The book also presents interviews with leading sport and club journalists with wide-ranging experience at the BBC, Copa90, Wimbledon Tennis, the Guardian and BT Sport, who discuss working with new technologies to cover sports stories and events. Chapters cover: live blogging; making and disseminating short videos; working for a sports club or governing body; finding and transmitting stories on social media; podcasting; longform online journalism. The job of a sports journalist has altered dramatically over the first two decades of the 21st century, with scope to write content across a new variety of digital platforms and mediums. Digital Sports Journalism will help students of journalism and professionals unlock the potential of these new media technologies.