Football Yesterday and Today, Tim Glynne-Jones (Carlton Books, £20) (From The Northern Echo)

Football Yesterday and Today, Tim Glynne-Jones (Carlton Books, £20)

10:32am Saturday 27th November 2010 in Sport By Matt Westcott

OBSERVING the same format as the above book, Glynne-Jones tackles our national game in this nostalgic lookback through the years.

Old photos of the stars of the yesteryear are contrasted with the mega-bucks performers who currently grace our stadiums, while the death-traps supporters once crammed into to watch their local team are compared with the sanitised, safety-first super-stadiums of today.

First published in 2003, it has been updated for 2010 and the foreword by the late Brian Clough, recalling his time playing in the North-East and his glittering managerial career, is worth paying for on its own. Football was the highlight of the week and the players knew their responsibilities to the area, he writes. Football was a genuine working-class pleasure, there was little else to do.

How things have changed. There’s little that’s working class about today’s game – a fact that’s illustrated in the photos of the two Newcastle United fans brewing up on a camping stove outside Wembley prior to the 1974 FA Cup final, while on the opposite page Everton’s wellheeled supporters tuck into a threecourse banquet ahead of the 2003 Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.