Extra Time: 50 Further Delights of Modern Football

by Daniel Gray

FEATURED IN THE SCOTSMAN'S SPORT BOOKS OF 2020A collection of lyrical sweet-nothings whispered to late goals, local radio commentators, referees falling over and 47 other reminders of why we love football.Despite its flaws and excesses, modern football is still sprinkled with simple yet beguiling delights. In his previous book Saturday, 3pm, Daniel Gray captured many of them. Now he is back with a further 50 short essays of prose poetry dedicated to the game's charming, technicolour minutiae. From club lottos to undeserved wins, and from pitch-invading animals to the roar after a minute's silence, Extra Time is another romantic celebration of football fandom and its shared joys, habits, eccentricities and peculiarities. It is a salute to keepers going forward for corners, match balls landing on stand roofs and goals scored in quick succession. These chapters offer a gleeful antidote to disillusionment with modern football, VAR and all. They are reminders of why we care and justifications for our devotion. Each warmly evokes this sport's blessed capacity to offer escape and diversion. Let us share the delight once more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports, Football

177 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 29, 2020

Reviews

[Dave McKee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel Gray just gets what it means to be a football fan, and there are so many relatable things in his second volume of his love letter to the game.

From soft spot teams to fickle fans and goalies up for corners to goal line clearances. There is even a chapter about taking your daughter to her first match, something I finally got to do this year.

A wonderful ode to the beautiful game.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

50 short reflections on the small pleasures of watching football. If modern, corporate football wears you down, take time to sit back and muse on the small delights that still make it worthwhile. Many of these are so universal that it is a pleasant reminder that you have more in common with your fellow spectator than you might think at times. All written in Daniel's gleeful prose. I am now happily thinking of another half dozen delights of my own that I enjoy at 3pm on a Saturday.

Perfect Christmas stocking filler, perfect book to calm you after a busy day, perfect book in bite-sized chunks when overcome with brain fog.

A delight.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sequel to a book I haven't read, Extra Time consists of 50 vignettes on the beautiful game.

While all of the situations described were familiar to me from my 30 years of watching football, the short examples avoided specifics, with very few mentions of players or teams by name.

The writing is good, but perhaps excessively flowery and overly descriptive for the subject matter, at least in this form.

A different take on football writing.

[Tegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like the first in this series, helped rediscover why I am still so enchanted with this beautifully maddening game.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Priestley has a fitting heir: a feast of simile and metaphor, and a lovely look at the pastime.

[Hashim Alsughayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect book to read before the start of the football season.

I’ve read the previous installments in his series, but this one is the best in my opinion.

[Ipswichblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good sequel and name checks the finest football song ever, the Greasy Chip Butty Song

[Russell George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Especially good if your own team has suddenly become terrible at football, and as a result everything else in life is tinted by disappointment and despair.

[Duncan Steele · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vapid

[John Gannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as enjoyable as the previous books in the series - a little bit of repetition had crept in, I feel.