In these days of oligarch owners, superstar managers and players on
sky-high wages, the tide is turning towards the lower reaches of the
pyramid as fans search for football with a soul.
Plucky underdogs or perennial underachievers, your local non-league team
offers hope, drama or at least a Saturday afternoon ritual that's been
going for decades. Nige Tassell spends a season in the non-league world.
He meets the raffle-ticket seller who wants her ashes scattered in the
centre-circle. The envelope salesman who discovered a future England
international. The ex-pros still playing with undiluted passion on
Sunday mornings. He spends time at clubs looking for promotion to the
Football League, clubs just aiming to get eleven players on a pitch
every week, and everything in between.
One thing unites them: they all inhabit the heartland of the beautiful
game.
'The Bottom Corner is a wonderful journey through life in the lower
reaches of the football pyramid. A fascinating tale of a very different
world of football from that of the overpaid stars of the television age'
Barry Davies