Longstanding LLB readers who are football fans will remember with fondness the cut-and-paste, fanzine-style origins of both LLB and When Saturday Comes (WSC). Like LLB, WSC also threw up a number of expert writers in their field — Nick Hornby of Fever Pitch fame being the best known. Giving a voice to the under-represented — Newport County and Meadowbank Thistle feature as much as the Liverpools and Arsenals — this collection reflects the things that matter to the fans — the pubs, the obscure statistics, and of course the pies. It covers football’s relationship to racism, sexism, Northern Ireland, Latin American dictators, the excess of the profit system and corruption, seriously and with humour — often in the same paragraph.
With its origins in the time before football was fashionable on the left, WSC has maintained its cutting edge, despite — again like LLB — adopting a glossier and more professional style. In fact WSC has probably overtaken LLB in its influence over our beloved Sports Minister, Tony Banks. If you’ve never read football fans’ writing before, dip into this — but beware, the combination of humour, politics and sport may well lead you to a freezing Saturday afternoon on the terraces at Doncaster (Rovers or Belles) this winter.