Trevor Owens reviews the new Hereford United Book

Head of Sport at BBC Hereford and Worcester, Trevor Owens, has read the new Hereford United book, A Corner Kick from the Middle of Nowhere by Mitch Stansbury, and believes it will appeal to a much wider readership than just supporters of the Bulls.

This could easily have been just another football book - a mundane list of dates, facts and anecdotes that would have meant little to anyone other than the diehard supporters.

The fact that "A Corner Kick from the Middle of Nowhere" is a really engaging read on all kinds of levels is a tribute to Mitch Stansbury's ability to blend those essential facts with the dark humour that is a trait of all followers of lower league clubs.

He takes us through the heartache of the 1997 relegation showdown against Brighton, outlines how the early confidence that United would breeze through the "tinpot" Conference in a season dissipated in harsh reality checks at hitherto unheard of clubs like Welling United and Hednesford Town.

He then relives the anguish among supporters when it emerges just how close United are to going into administration.

It is not all doom and gloom; United's travelling fans find the general attitude in the Conference a refreshing change after 20 years of struggle in the lower reaches of the Football League, while Mitch is strident in his support for clubs such as Barrow and Farnborough Town, who were the victims of perceived injustices.

During an especially dull game at The San Siro (sic) at Welling, the visiting Bulls supporters take to baiting a hapless fielder in a cricket match on a neighbouring pitch, while we also discover that the ghost town that is Margate has only one saving grace - a pub called the Mechanical Elephant.

Then, there was that night at Dagenham and Redbridge - 9-0, I mean... 9-0! How many of Manchester United's prawn sandwich-munching brigade can truly say that they have had this kind of fun?

But then the difference is that Mitch and his mates stand on open terraces in all weathers, and actually know the names of the players in their team.

There are honest - if sometimes painful - appraisals of the United players as the club's increasingly precarious financial position leads to them relying on a sheep-farming goalkeeper, an electrician to add - well, spark - to the midfield, and a modern languages teacher in attack.

Refreshingly, there are also very personal reminders that football is only a game, and that Bill Shankly's tongue was pushed firmly into his cheek when he said it was more serious than life and death - Mitch's wife Sarah faces up to a major illness that puts United's plight in the Conference into proper perspective.

Gradually things improve - most importantly for Sarah - but also for United, as they become increasingly competitive in the Conference, twice battling their way to the play-offs before that wonderful day at the Theatre of Crisps at Leicester when Halifax were beaten in one of the most exciting matches I have ever seen.

This book works well for a number of reasons - yes, as a United fan and reporter, I can personally relate to a disturbingly large number of the matches mentioned; I was on the away terrace at Hitchin when the Bulls rewrote the dictionary definition of "abject", while I commentated on the twin Leicester highs - the FA Cup replay and that play-off final.

But "A Corner Kick from the Middle of Nowhere" would work for you if you are only a casual follower of the game, or even if you can't stand football.

It is one of the best insights into just what makes the lower league fan spend far more money than they should on travelling hundreds of miles to a run down stadium, only to stand in the pouring rain as their side is on the wrong end of yet another hiding.

The United God that is Ricky George captures the spirit of "A Corner Kick from the Middle of Nowhere" when he concludes his foreword with: "It is engaging and funny; nostalgic and different and very well written".

Spot on Ricky - in much the same way as you were in February 1972.

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