A01=Mark Hodkinson
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Mark Hodkinson
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BT
Category=DNX
Category=SFBC
Category=WSJA
COP=United Kingdom
David Kilpatrick
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
English football
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_sports-fitness
Graham Morris
Language_English
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
Rochdale AFC
soccer
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9781785315251
- Weight: 310g
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 12 Aug 2019
- Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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The story of two men who almost single-handedly saved their football club from extinction. In the early 80s David Kilpatrick and Graham Morris spied architects' plans to turn Spotland, the home of their beloved, beleaguered Rochdale AFC, into a housing estate. They set about saving the club but first had to take on the alleged 'enemy within'. They worked tirelessly, persuading companies to write off debts while securing loans and donations, a tricky proposition when your club is bottom of the Football League. Meanwhile, the town of Rochdale was on its knees, the last of the cotton mills closing down. The limit of most fans' investment in their club is routinely the price of a season ticket. Directors often risk their houses and businesses, sometimes forfeiting marriages, families and their health in the name of their club. People such as Kilpatrick and Morris - moderately wealthy local businessmen - who serve on football club boards are the unseen, unsung heroes of football, even in the modern age.
Mark Hodkinson is the author of Believe in the Sign (long-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year), Blue Moon: Down Among the Dead Men with Manchester City and The Last Mad Surge of Youth (Q magazine's Novel of the Year). Mark has written for The Times for two decades, and has produced and presented documentaries for BBC Radio 4.
