From the publisher:
Scotland 42 England 1 is an English OAP's light-hearted and affectionate look at Scottish football. Growing up in the 60s when 'abroad isn't for the likes of us' was a common refrain, Mark Winter developed a fascination with Scotland and its football clubs, his interest piqued by listening to the football results in compulsory silence as his grandad's pools coupon was checked. The process provoked many questions in the mind of the impressionable eight-year-old.
Why had Third Lanark, apparently out of pure spite, won and stopped his grandad becoming a rich man? If East Fife was a town, why wasn't it on a map? When playing those cunning continentals, why did Scottish teams suddenly become British when they won? Fifty years later, Mark decides to visit all 42 league clubs north of Hadrian's Wall to separate the myths from the facts. Setting off from Dover each time, invariably he is met by a warm welcome, a hot pie and a strong drink. Along the way he has to climb the odd mountain.
What he expects and what he finds are quite different.
The author:
Mark Winter is a football travel writer, reporter and columnist who worked primarily for the Trinity Mirror Group. Now retired, he continues to contribute to popular national magazines such as When Saturday Comes and Football Weekends, having watched the game in more than 30 countries. Mark is the author of the acclaimed Missed Penalties and Peroxide, the story of an impoverished non-league club's fight for survival in a relegation season.
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