Foul and Fair
Available on the 28th July, 2024
It’s not all about winning, but…
James Hogan’s career as an English teacher is in tatters. All he has left is the boys’ football team he coaches, but rival manager Kieran Butcher threatens to take that away too. After years of doing things the right way, he is determined to come out on top, by any means necessary.
But just how far will James go to succeed?
Single mother and police officer Hayley Birnham is worried about her career, her son, and the string of unusual crimes connected to the local football community.
Fair is foul and foul is fair as James and Hayley try to balance doing the right thing with getting the right result. Game on.
Reviews
Foul and Fair absolutely captures the world of grassroots football. Anyone who has spent time on the touchline will recognise the characters and situations, as well as getting swept up in the unfolding story. I loved every page. It's fantastic.
If more coaches absorbed the lessons of the book, more kids would have a truly inspirational experience of grassroots football.
I loved this book. Many moments that made me laugh interspersed with incidents that we have all seen many times in real life. The author understands what grassroots football should be about, with the kids first and foremost.
I hope Foul and Fair helps to educate coaches about their responsibilities in working with children, through the many examples of both good and poor practice highlighted throughout the book.
As a former Sunday League player and as someone who has watched one of his grandsons play in their local side on a number of occasions (and also working as a Deputy Head of House at a comprehensive school), I really enjoyed this book (350 pages in 1.5 days gives you a sense of how readable/page turning it is!). The story felt entirely authentic. I recognised many of the characters and situations… not to mention the overzealous team managers, embarrassing loud-mouthed parents, intimidating pupils and the career-obsessed teachers! Very enjoyable.
I really enjoyed Steve's first book (Dead Man Singing) so I was excited to get started on this one. It took me a little while to get into it as I'm not a football fan and have no experience of youth teams but I soon got sucked into the battle of a mostly decent man vs an extremely dodgy one.
Steve is very good at writing flawed characters, such as Dave in his first book, and James was definitely another character whose decisions I found hard to understand at times. Of course, I was rooting for him against the awful behaviour of Kieran, and I was rooting for James' gorgeous team of loveable kids who really are in it for the love of the game.
A really good read, thoroughly recommended (even if you don't like football!)