Toon battles and Sunday sideline banter (From The Northern Echo)

Toon battles and Sunday sideline banter

2:45pm Saturday 5th June 2010 in

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Race For The Premiership by Steve Wraith and Andy Thompson RACE for the Premiership is a tongue-in-cheek look at two football teams battling it out for a place in soccer’s promised land – the Premier League.

One plotline follows Newcastle United’s return to the top flight after a season in the Championship, while the subplot is centred around pub team Grange Villa, looking to join the Gateshead and District Sunday League’s Premiership for the first time in the club’s history. The book is a month-to-month diary following the trials and tribulations of both club’s campaigns and was the brainchild of Steve Wraith and Andy Thompson.

Newcastle United fan Wraith is editor of the fanzine Toon Talk and presenter of the Toon Talk internetbased radio show, while Thompson, also a Magpie follower, is secretary of Grange Villa. The pair inevitably met through their love of the beautiful game.

“We know each other through football,”

says Wraith. “I manage Felling Maiden Football Club in the Gateshead league and have got to know Andy over the years. He used to contribute to my old magazine Players Inc and I really liked his writing style.

“It’s quite a humorous read. You can’t afford to take life too seriously when you follow Newcastle United, and I think the same can be said for Grange Villa.

“If people are looking for a serious review on Newcastle’s wonderful promotion campaign, well this isn’t it.

Joking aside, it was a great year to follow Newcastle United and unlike a lot of books, at least this one has a happy ending for the club’s supporters, and certainly not one that we would have predicted 12 months ago.”

“To me and many other people, Sunday morning football is honest, real, humorous and a back-to-basics view of football away from the hype and razzmatazz of the professional game,” adds Thompson.

“In the book I’ve tried to capture the throwaway, daft sideline banter that goes on around every Sunday morning football pitch throughout the land.”

■ The book has a foreword by former Newcastle United number nine Malcolm Macdonald. It costs £10 from the Back Page Shop in Newcastle, by calling 0191- 2299631, or by emailing playersinc@hotmail.com Billy Scott