The book I read to research this post was Far from the Madding Crowds by Mark Cowan which is an excellent book which I downloaded for free from kindle. This book is about the soccer season and eventual promotion of Guisborough from Northern League Second Division. While that might sound a bit obscure it’s a very witty and many of the things in the book apply to most non league clubs. One funny point is particularly when your side gets thrashed by the other team away the away teams local radio station spends a lot of time interviewing fans about the state of the home ground, what the pies are like and the weather which they blame on the home side. Guisborough is a fairly small town with a population of 20,000 in the north east not far from Middlesborough. This book looks at this brand of soccer in an affection way, you can tell he is a huge fan. There’s a funny quip about if you visit Darlington’s ground which is inappropriately large for a club their size, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s Middlesborough’s Riverside Stadium. There’s also a funny about his dad who is of scottish descent dropped all his money in the excitement of Guisborough scoring and after he finished picking it all up had 20p more than he originally had. These kind of clubs are often lucky to get 50 spectators and if they make it through a round of the FA Vase and make £1,500 that’s a lot of money to these clubs. I live in Birmingham and remember in the 80′s and 90′s when 2 local sides Telford United & Kidderminster Harriers did well in the FA Cup & Harriers beat Birmingham City among others. I think it’s nice when people support their local non league side and a ticket is normally quite cheap especially compared to what the Premiereship Teams charge.