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Saturday, 3pm: 50 Eternal Delights of Modern Football
Overpaid players. Sunday lunchtime kick-offs. Absurd ticket prices. Non-black boots. Football's menu of ills is long. Where has the joy gone? Why do we bother? Saturday, 3pm offers a glorious antidote. It is here to remind you that football can still sing to your heart. Warm, heartfelt and witty, here are fifty short essays of prose poetry dedicated to what is good in the game. These are not wallowing nostalgia; they are things that remain sweet and seeing a ground from the train, brackets on vidiprinters, ball hitting bar, Jimmy Armfield's voice, listening to the results in a traffic jam, football towns and autograph-hunters. This is fan culture at its finest, words to transport you somewhere else and identify with, words to hide away in a pub and luxuriate in. Saturday, 3pm is a book of love letters to football and a clarion call, helping us find the romance in the game all over again.
161 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 6, 2016
14 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
December 12, 2016
Saturday, 3PM
All football fans have heard that the modern game is not as good as it was in the good old days, whenever that was nobody has ever told me. For all the ills of the game according too some it is the fault of modern football, they tend to forget the violent and racism of earlier times or the state of the grounds, the treatment of the fans and the general disregard of all things concerned with the spherical ball.
Saturday, 3PM is a modern love letter to the game from author and historian Daniel Gray and a clarion call to all us fans to reignite our love of the game once again. He has written fifty short essays about the game, whose prose is a sheer delight, and brings to life modern day fan culture, even those who watch from their armchairs.
In fact any fan of the game knows what it feels on the day when the fixture list is released, looking and planning for the derby games, the away games and where the boxing day game is. For me it is like the prelude to Christmas Eve, just as the first day of the season is Christmas Day an end to the three endless months of no football.
Any football fan would love this book as it will always make them smile and recognise themselves on the pages of this book. A great little book for any fan.
All football fans have heard that the modern game is not as good as it was in the good old days, whenever that was nobody has ever told me. For all the ills of the game according too some it is the fault of modern football, they tend to forget the violent and racism of earlier times or the state of the grounds, the treatment of the fans and the general disregard of all things concerned with the spherical ball.
Saturday, 3PM is a modern love letter to the game from author and historian Daniel Gray and a clarion call to all us fans to reignite our love of the game once again. He has written fifty short essays about the game, whose prose is a sheer delight, and brings to life modern day fan culture, even those who watch from their armchairs.
In fact any fan of the game knows what it feels on the day when the fixture list is released, looking and planning for the derby games, the away games and where the boxing day game is. For me it is like the prelude to Christmas Eve, just as the first day of the season is Christmas Day an end to the three endless months of no football.
Any football fan would love this book as it will always make them smile and recognise themselves on the pages of this book. A great little book for any fan.
June 13, 2017
A book which sums up the pain and joy, of being a football fan.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
October 31, 2016
A simple and slight book, but a very good one. The author waxes lyrical – and does it very well, with only the odd touch of the cliché – about such things as bumping into fellow fans of your team miles from home, and the clunk of ball against crossbar, that define and unite football fans everywhere. Oh, and some idiots who call it soccer as well. If you too share in the ''bliss in the thought that football is about so much more than the match'' you could call this a very good gift book – or you could just as validly file it under anthropology.
August 7, 2017
The book consists of 50 short essays about various aspects of football from the first game of the season to the last, the joy of spotting a fellow supporter somewhere unexpected, the magic of floodlights and of course, as is almost inevitable in Britain, watching the game in bad weather.
Among my favourites was 'Going with Dad' which movingly suggests that fathers and sons attending matches together is a way of silently expressing their love for each other. 'My Daughter Listening at the Window' is one which really struck a chord with me. Like the author, I lived within earshot of Easter Road, Hibernian Football Club's home ground. Like his daughter, my Saturdays were punctuated with the sounds of cheers and groans from the fans as I tried to work out whether Hibs were winning or losing, whether the crowd was disagreeing with the ref and who had scored a goal.
You might think that you don't like football, but reading this book may just make you see there is still something glorious about the game. Daniel Gray's writing is eloquent and graceful. This little gem of a book, a love letter to football, is perfect for dipping in and out of.
Among my favourites was 'Going with Dad' which movingly suggests that fathers and sons attending matches together is a way of silently expressing their love for each other. 'My Daughter Listening at the Window' is one which really struck a chord with me. Like the author, I lived within earshot of Easter Road, Hibernian Football Club's home ground. Like his daughter, my Saturdays were punctuated with the sounds of cheers and groans from the fans as I tried to work out whether Hibs were winning or losing, whether the crowd was disagreeing with the ref and who had scored a goal.
You might think that you don't like football, but reading this book may just make you see there is still something glorious about the game. Daniel Gray's writing is eloquent and graceful. This little gem of a book, a love letter to football, is perfect for dipping in and out of.
March 9, 2018
A fun book for all kinds of football fans. Dan's writing is a mixture of football wisdom and the genuine love of the game. He writes on behalf of the soul of football itself.
August 8, 2020
This book is a lovely, nostalgic read on being a football fan.
At the moment, there's a lot not to like about following football. But reading this in lockdown this made me really desperate to get back to a football ground and enjoy all of the delights Gray writes about - the first day of the season, jeering passes that go out of play, slide tackles in the mud.
Also, reading this just after Charlton got relegated, reminded me of the long-term view about football. Even if it all sucks at the moment, it's the fun, the community and the experiences you remember.
4.8 / 5
At the moment, there's a lot not to like about following football. But reading this in lockdown this made me really desperate to get back to a football ground and enjoy all of the delights Gray writes about - the first day of the season, jeering passes that go out of play, slide tackles in the mud.
Also, reading this just after Charlton got relegated, reminded me of the long-term view about football. Even if it all sucks at the moment, it's the fun, the community and the experiences you remember.
4.8 / 5
October 23, 2016
This is a lovely wee book which recounts "50 Eternal Delights of Modern Football". Not a nostalgic look back at the good old days of footballing yore, but 50 observations that make it still a charming game today. The pleasure of a well executed piece of time-wasting, fat players, seeing a stadium from a train. Reading it I had a knowing nod or grin with many and afterwards sat thinking of my own favourite things that brighten up a wet Saturday afternoon watching football. If you have read any of his other books you will know that Mr Gray has a lovely way of writing too. A handsome and charming book.
February 6, 2017
A slender volume of fifty vignettes examining the everyday pleasures of life as a football fan.
Beautiful, heart-felt prose evokes a sense of nostalgia for a by-gone era whilst reminding the reader of the simple delights not yet erradicated from the modern game. From club shops to floodlights to the excitement at passing a team bus on the motorway, Daniel Gray's book is as much about society, sociology and history as it is about football.
Saturday, 3pm is a joy to read.
Beautiful, heart-felt prose evokes a sense of nostalgia for a by-gone era whilst reminding the reader of the simple delights not yet erradicated from the modern game. From club shops to floodlights to the excitement at passing a team bus on the motorway, Daniel Gray's book is as much about society, sociology and history as it is about football.
Saturday, 3pm is a joy to read.
March 28, 2021
This was an absolutely wonderful book.
If anyone was ever to ask me or any football fan why they love the game, then this book has all answers. From visiting grounds, to footballesse. From club shops and programme sellers to football towns and spotting grounds from train windows, it is all here and it is all real.
Daniel Gray just gets it. He gets what it means to not just love your team, but the game as a whole.
The pandemic has changed so much about how we watch the game and how we support our team, I was already really looking forward to getting back to the games, after reading this, I simply can not wait.
If anyone was ever to ask me or any football fan why they love the game, then this book has all answers. From visiting grounds, to footballesse. From club shops and programme sellers to football towns and spotting grounds from train windows, it is all here and it is all real.
Daniel Gray just gets it. He gets what it means to not just love your team, but the game as a whole.
The pandemic has changed so much about how we watch the game and how we support our team, I was already really looking forward to getting back to the games, after reading this, I simply can not wait.
September 26, 2021
The smell. The noise. The crowd. The book captures all the vivid ways going to the match elicits emotions.
The book holds a special place in my heart as I was reading the book just as the pandemic struck and the things we took for granted before suddenly were taken away, like going to the match.
So the book then set on a shelf, promising myself I'll only finish it when I go back to a game. And I did. It smelled, sounded and looked like before, yet it was different. Very different. Crowds now feel strange and it will take a while to get back accustomed to them but here's hoping we get back to enjoy the simple pleasures without a cloud hanging over our heads.
The book holds a special place in my heart as I was reading the book just as the pandemic struck and the things we took for granted before suddenly were taken away, like going to the match.
So the book then set on a shelf, promising myself I'll only finish it when I go back to a game. And I did. It smelled, sounded and looked like before, yet it was different. Very different. Crowds now feel strange and it will take a while to get back accustomed to them but here's hoping we get back to enjoy the simple pleasures without a cloud hanging over our heads.
December 18, 2024
This was a warm nostalgic comfort blanket of a book. Daniel Gray’s meander through the delights of modern football transported me right back to my childhood.
The excitement of seeing a football stadium from a train or bus. The stillness in the air as you wait outside the ground for a player’s autograph. Boxing Day fixtures, erupting away ends and that feeling on Saturdays at 3pm. All these topics resonated with me and reminded why I love the game even if I don’t watch it as much as I used to.
Daniel has written more books on the beautiful game which I’m looking forward to sampling in the future.
Also the book has the best cover art of any book that I have read this year.
The excitement of seeing a football stadium from a train or bus. The stillness in the air as you wait outside the ground for a player’s autograph. Boxing Day fixtures, erupting away ends and that feeling on Saturdays at 3pm. All these topics resonated with me and reminded why I love the game even if I don’t watch it as much as I used to.
Daniel has written more books on the beautiful game which I’m looking forward to sampling in the future.
Also the book has the best cover art of any book that I have read this year.
January 30, 2026
Beautifully written by an author who profoundly understands football, this book is a true love letter to the beautiful game. For all of us who more and more “love the game and hate the business” this is a great reminder that business will never be able to take some things away, things that make football the biggest and the best thing in the world. From pre-match routines to football newspapers, from visiting a ground for the first time to club eccentrics and from singing in the stands to striking random football conversations, this book describes all of the highs that motivate us to continue being what we are.
March 17, 2019
Good little book listing 50 things we love about football. Most are relevant to the non-League fan like me. If I were to add a 51st it would be the supporter who manically shouts “shoot” “shoot for Christ’s sake” whenever we have a player in possession of the ball anywhere vaguely near the opposition penalty area.
March 2, 2020
I absolutely loved this book. 50 vignettes on things to perenially enjoy about football, written with the perfect dose of whimsy and wry humour. Wonderful. To be dipped into particularly after a home defeat to Burnley, or when your star midfielder starts making statements through his agent half way through the season.
March 4, 2020
A delight for football fans "of a certain age" - like me, just realising your dreams of being plucked from the crowd as an emergency substitute may not happen, this book picks up in the joys and subtle intricacies of being a football fan. Stuff that non football fans will shake their head in disbelief at, but us football fans will bid in agreement. Superb stuff.
March 12, 2018
A Charming little book written by a British author and soccer fan.....it's title says it all. 50 small chapters about delightful things you experience being a soccer fan (in Britain) As i said, its charming, and if you love the English game, worth a read
July 7, 2021
A book to read every summer when you’re depressed about your team not buying Erling Haaland and the fact that you have to see 25 “Inside Preseason” YouTube videos before a competitive match is even played.
February 23, 2026
Needed a shorter book to breathe life into my want to read again and this did the job! Ironically read it on the train to and from a game (albeit a Monday night one), and enjoyed the poetic writing of the many tidbits that make football what it is :)
December 30, 2016
This book is reviewed at the Two Unfortunates soccer website here.
January 15, 2017
A great fitba book to read! As I read each chapter, i found myself so agreeing with the author and reminiscing about various times gone bye.
October 25, 2017
Would read this again and again and again.
January 28, 2018
Decent enough and short book about what makes football so special for the author
May 21, 2018
A set of short stories about every aspect of we we love football. I recognised my own feelings and experiences in so many of the stories.
August 20, 2019
Incredible little book that had me constantly smiling.
January 13, 2020
His characterization of the modern game is quite entertaining. Short and enjoyable read in an afternoon
November 5, 2020
Wild to read with no fans in. Nostalgic is the wrong note, but celebratory, reflective of community and relishing the everyday. A delight.
January 24, 2021
Every football fan, or a writer with a passing interest in football, needs this book (not just because its title was going to adorn my book!). Love courses through it.
April 1, 2021
Evocative, warm and true. In these times of Covid, it makes the heart long for the return of real football...with fans present. Great short book.
January 24, 2022
For any football fan, this book speaks right to us. Takes us back to those important moments, that only footy fans know.
3pm on Saturday's are sacred and that is how it should be.
3pm on Saturday's are sacred and that is how it should be.
September 23, 2022
Funny in parts, very nostalgic
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews