The Sports Bookshelf

Books that fall into the category of football nostalgia can sometimes become a little tedious, particularly if the author is simply banging on about how the game was better in 'his' time and it is clear that his view of the past comes with a filter for the bad bits. Readers might be forgiven for expecting Matthew Eastley's two-volume offering to be more of the same, a lament for a lost era by a writer who finds it impossible to see any virtue in the football of today. But to suggest that Eastley's look back on the FA Cup finals in the 60s and 70s -- there is another about the 80s on the way -- amounts merely to an outpouring of discontent at the decline of a football institution would do his work an enormous disservice. A corporate journalist by profession, and a lifelong Charlton Athletic fan, Eastley has told the story of two decades of Cup finals not by rehashing the well-worn details of what happened on the field but by revisiting each match through the m

IN PAPERBACK _____________ FOOTBALL BOOKS It is 55 years since the Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann famously completed an FA Cup final despite breaking a bone in his neck yet the story retains its fascination, as publishers Yellow Jersey discovered when Catrine Clay’s new take on the tale proved an unexpected hit with sports book readers after it was published in hardback last spring. Trautmann's Journey: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup Legend won critical acclaim, too, making the shortlist of six for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.  Yellow Jersey will be looking for another surge of interest this week when the book is released in paperback. The focus of Clay’s interest in the German footballer is away from the field of play, however.  The part of his life for which Trautmann is best known is largely confined to the final two chapters.   It is the life that preceded the event that brought him to England -- his capture as a prisoner of war in 1945 -- th

FOOTBALL BOOKS Crawley’s historic date with Manchester United in the FA Cup this weekend will restore a little of the great competition’s faded magic as the Blue Square Premier team attempts to pull off the unthinkable at Old Trafford. It also brings to mind a couple of books about the FA Cup to entrance those football fans who believe that the world’s oldest knockout competition ought to be celebrated with enthusiasm rather than be left to wither as the Premier League and the Champions League grow ever more gargantuan. Paul Harrison’s FA Cup Giantkillers, published by The History Press, recalls the finest hours of minnows through history, from the victories of Boston Town and Spennymoor United in the 1920s to the more recent exploits of Tamworth and Burscough. Football historian Harrison has combined much research with good use of photographs, newspaper cuttings and memorabilia to produce a lavishly illustrated book that takes an affectionate look at the who secured famous victo