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February 1974. Football manager Charlie Gordon is struggling, and with each defeat the sack gets closer. His greatness as a player counts for nothing with directors or fans, or the Number 2 who is after his job. Things are no better off the field, and after a failed marriage and the loss of a child, he is taking more and more consolation in alcohol.
Only a decent Cup run is keeping him in work. But how to turn things around with the same players who got him here in the first place? Can he trust this remarkable but often unreliable mix of characters to save him?
Footballers fall into two categories – artists or assassins. With the next round of the Cup at Chelsea away he will soon find out which of his players, from homesick teenage starlet Willie Buchanan, to playboy record signing DD Marland, can deliver for him.
Meanwhile, as the country prepares for a general election, one of the most audacious and high-profile political assassinations in the IRA’s history is being planned in London. An active service unit of two men and a woman await the critical signal to proceed. Now both teams – the IRA’s and Charlie’s – converge on the capital for a result that will alter everyone’s lives irrevocably, with consequences far beyond football.
Read by Jonathan Keeble
(p) Orion Publishing Group 2018
Only a decent Cup run is keeping him in work. But how to turn things around with the same players who got him here in the first place? Can he trust this remarkable but often unreliable mix of characters to save him?
Footballers fall into two categories – artists or assassins. With the next round of the Cup at Chelsea away he will soon find out which of his players, from homesick teenage starlet Willie Buchanan, to playboy record signing DD Marland, can deliver for him.
Meanwhile, as the country prepares for a general election, one of the most audacious and high-profile political assassinations in the IRA’s history is being planned in London. An active service unit of two men and a woman await the critical signal to proceed. Now both teams – the IRA’s and Charlie’s – converge on the capital for a result that will alter everyone’s lives irrevocably, with consequences far beyond football.
Read by Jonathan Keeble
(p) Orion Publishing Group 2018
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Reviews
A gripping combination of football (as we used to know it) and terrorism (as we still know it). And, no, I didn't anticipate the explosive climax
With a lot of football and a fair bit of Ireland, this book was made for me
A brilliantly told story about football when it was a proper man's game
I nearly bought Paul Fletcher from Burnley when I was at Manchester United. It could have been the biggest mistake!! Great book, though, all about my era
Magical story of football in a wonderful era, fantastic ending
A great book. It has everything - thrilling suspense, intrigue, funny - and what an ending. I couldn't put it down
A story that brings together so brilliantly football in the 70s, and the dark days of the terrible violence we worked so hard to end, is a must-read for any fan of football or any friend of Ireland
Surprisingly adept...lively narrative.