Football's Strangest Matches :

by Andrew Ward

In this fascinating collection of true stories taken from more than 100 years of soccer history, Andrew ward has gathered together the most extrordinary happenings ever to befall a soccer field. They include stories about the game spectators couldn't the game that lasted four days; the games between the strikers and the police in 1926 and between Eton College and the unemployed boys; the games of three halves; the game decided by a hypnotist; and the one in which the same player scored all four goals—two for each side. A delight for all soccer fans, this is also a unique look at the more curious moments of the beautiful sport.

Genres: Football, Nonfiction, History, Reference

Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had its good parts and bad parts, but its short chapters made for a good book to kill 10 minutes here and there. It didn't have a consistent house style either, some chapters relied more on narrative and conjecture and some more on facts.

In its favour, it covered games from throughout its history, and included contextual information like rule changes and trials of different offside laws, and relied on genuinely unique matches rather than infamous ones. However it was very anglocentric and the author preferred to include quirky goalscoring feats like X goals in a losing cause, rather than more of the odd instances like Alvechurch playing 5 replays before beating an Oxford team in the FA Cup. There were a couple of times the author himself was included in the pages, such as one match where kick off was delayed and he went to a nearby non-league match. An all right anecdote to tell a mate, but odd to include in a book like this.

He was also fond of including his own jokes or headlines and I felt this detracted from the book rather than making it more entertaining. It also contrasted with the significant research he must have done to make sure the facts were correct along with the context provided in many of the chapters. Yet at other times it would rely on rumour or unsubstantiated reports. It got caught between irreverence and seriousness and it didn't quite work, but the range of matches and level of research at least showed Ward had put the work in while compiling this list.

[Abhishek Dafria · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book’s title pretty much sums up the content material. This is meant to be read by football fans who would have the desire as well as patience to read through so much content of random football stories, most of which come from decades back, but are absurdly interesting nonetheless. Each chapter is not more than 2-3 pages long - some tales are funny, some just end abruptly, but if you are a football aficionado then you may find all of them worth knowing and possibly sharing with your mates on a Saturday evening while watching football - what else !

[Barry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit of a boring collection of 'strange' matches. So many of the inclusions aren't that notable and I can't help feel that fewer matches covered would have led to a better book so that the stories of the matches and characters could breathe.

The author's tone irked me somewhat also to be honest. Didn't really learn anything new and the charm of the wonderful anomalies in football didn't really shine through

[Eran Rabl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had an earlier edition of the book (bought around 2000), but I was told that later editions have new and current entries, so I re-read it abouth 15 years later.
Although I like the book and the stories, reading it now, some of the entries seem rather thin with very little added to the basic information about the match in question.

[Craig Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining book, and a nice way to fill an idle moment, but too many of these are filler rather than genuinely belonging in a list of strangest matches. The problem here is that the matches are overwhelmingly drawn from a single country (England). Surely the rest of the world has much more to offer than we see here.

[Huw Rhys · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm quite a football fan, but this book really struggled to capture my imagination. Many of the "strange" stories weren't really "strange" at all - just unusually high scoring or low scoring. A couple of little gems hidden amongst all the dross though - but not a book I shall be revisiting.

[Mitra · Rating 2 out of 5]

This a decent collection of short funny stories about strange and awkward moments in football's history.

A minus will be the style of how this is written because is not really capturing you, but overall a few of them are catchy,but some too obscure without an actual impact on the beautiful game.

[Pinko Palest · Rating 1 out of 5]

easy to read and rather fun, but largely centered on the lower regions of the British game, with loads of match reporting and almost no analysis whatsoever

[Reuben Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of strange, short stories from the early age of football. Many anecdotes from the late 1800 and early 1900s when the rules were not as consistent leading to some hilariously odd anomalies.

[Eki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Very fun read! Will definitely use some of these as fun facts

[Sean O'Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's fine. Footballs Strangest Matches is more so a compilation of "novel" pairings or incidents from 1819-2007. Short chapters so easy to dip in and out of.

[Colin Barrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting anecdotes but probably not a book you would ever re-read

[Alex Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Xmas stocking-filler - and it reads like one! Mildly entertaining and mercifully short match reports. Perfect for the loo!

[K. Carters · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this for Xmas as a stocking filler and it's pretty good. Some of the stories were interesting but others were just statistics drawn out into anecdotes when the reality is they just weren't that impressive. I preferred the historical context more (fake games to fool luftwaffe pilots for example) and perhaps reducing the highest scoring games to maybe a single entry with a list. For example, a simple Stirling won 20-0 on this date would suffice...rather than a 3 page description of their season before and after the game, plus a play by play account of the entire match.

It would appeal to the football fan and it provides a nice bit of discussion. It falls somewhere between Guinness book of records and anecdotal.

[Sean O'Reilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this some time ago and forgot to review it properly at the time for some reason. Containing, as it does, around 100 accounts of strange foot all matches, each of which is only a page or too in length, I found this a book better suited to dipping into at odd moments than for sitting down to read at length. I found it mildly amusing and engaging at the time although glancing at the contents page now I struggle to recall much of the detail of any of the matches recounted.

[Joe Houghton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just a light hearted read, chronologically noting the strangest and most unique football matches ever played. The structure of the book is a bit jarring and there are quite a few duds which aren’t that interesting, but I did enjoy reading about quite a lot of them and leant a fair bit of random football trivia which is always welcome. The book also quite nicely details how football has changed over the years.

[Graham Clayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world's most popular sport has its fair share of strange moments, and this collection gathers together the best of them, from more than a century of football. From Blackburn Rovers' one-man team to Wilfred Minter's seven-goal haul in which he still ended up on the losing side, here are stories drawn from all levels of the footballing world, whether high-profile internationals or the lowest tiers of domestic football.

[Tim Corke · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent Christmas present that took ages to read right through but ideal for flicking through occasionally!

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read Popsugar 2015: non fiction book
A set of fun stories thrghout itme and with varying situations. Exciting and often hilarious