On the 7th December 1935, Sunderland went top of the First Division and so at the start of a two year period that would bring them unprecedented success. The highs and lows of the league campaign are recalled in detail. Included in the book are the tragic death of goalkeeper Jimmy Thorpe after a match at Chelsea. Thorpe's grief-stricken teammates went on to play their hearts out, eventually hammering Birmingham City 7-2 at St Andrews to capture the league title. In 1936-7, Sunderland went on to lift the FA Cup at Wembley for the first time in the club's history by beating Preston North End. The Wearsiders also claimed the Charity Shield, bringing more silverware to Roker Park Bill Shankley, who played for Preston in that final remarked: "In many ways the Sunderland team of 1937 played the same brand of Total Football as the great Holland team of the 1970's.

In this compelling memoir, Roy Massey tells the fascinating story of his 50 years in football as a player, coach and scout, including a long spell at Arsenal during the Wenger glory years. As a player, Massey overcame a series of injuries to score goals for Rotherham, Orient and Colchester only for another serious injury to end his career at an early age. Unperturbed, he became a PE teacher and combined this with behind-the-scenes work to discover and nurture talent at Colchester United and later full-time at Norwich, where he helped the Canaries as they revolutionised their youth programme. When the FA agreed to allow clubs to attract and train children from eight years upwards, it was Massey whom Gunners legend Liam Brady asked to join him at Arsenal in 1998 as assistant academy manager. Over the next 16 seasons Massey helped build a new academy structure that would unearth and develop a wealth of young talent capable of playing at the top of the football ladder. Massey later scouted for three Premier League clubs.

Manchester United may be world famous today, but back in 1907 the club had yet to win either the League Championship or the FA Cup. Things were to change dramatically over the following four seasons, during which time the club moved to Old Trafford under the management of Ernest Mangnall, and captured two League titles, two Charity Shields and a first FA Cup success. But how were these successes achieved? Who were the players that set the Manchester club on a path to greatness? Who were their opponents? Why did Manchester United move to Old Trafford? Find out more in Manchester United 1907-11: The First Halcyon Years, the first in-depth work on this truly great period in the illustrious history of the great Manchester United.

Frank Swift was Manchester City's first goalkeeping legend, winning many honours for the club. This book details those heady times. Ultimately it is a tragic story though as Swift perished at Munich as a reporter for the News of the World. As a genuine MCFC legend, this book will be well received by the fans of the Premiership champions. The club have over 540k followers on Twitter, and the book has guaranteed reviews in the programme, the fanzine and the general football press. Frank Swift is one of the greatest English goalkeeper's of all time. A First and Second Division, FA Cup and Charity Shield winner with Manchester City, his only League club, he represented his country on 33 occasions between 1941 and 1949. Although often injured, and on many occasions knocked unconscious, Blackpool born Swift was fearless and unmoveable in the City goal, playing all but one of over 200 games from the day of his debut, 25 December 1933, up to the start of World War Two. Swift was a regular between the posts for England, and in 1948 he became the first keeper to captain his country in the professional era. Fans also adored Swift for his sportsmanship, broad smile and constant banter with spectators behind his goal. Forty years later in 1998, Swift was one of four City legends named in the Football League 100 legends selected to celebrate 100 seasons of League football. Now in the first biography to be written on him, find out more about the keeper and his exploits.

For most supporters of Sunderland AFC, the history of their club would probably be best represented by the names of the mid 1930s team, particularly Gurney and Carter, undoubted Wearside football legends. The name of Charlie Buchan also looms large even today in the tale of a football club whose history can be cut like a knife. Although Charlie Buchan might still be a revered figure on Wearside, his team mates aren't and yet the 1912/13 season, which is the subject of this book, produced arguably the fi nest Sunderland team ever to grace the famous red and white striped shirts. It came the closest the club has ever come to winning the double, almost became the first English football club to achieve it in the 20th century, yet the names of Albert Milton, Frank Cuggy, Jackie Mordue and the rest of Sunderland's league champions and FA Cup finalists that season have long since been cast into the annals of the club's history. Even the football club's near talismanic and perhaps finest ever captain Charlie Thomson is seemingly forgotten. The was team guided by Bob Kyle, Sunderland AFC's longest serving manager, he too also forgotten. This book looks at the matches and the characters that shaped an immensely successful 1912/13 season. Although they were crowned league champions, perhaps an enduring highlight, although it ultimately ended in defeat, was the now legendary FA Cup final which took place at The Crystal Palace in April 1913, before a world record crowd. For the first time in the 20th Century England's top two football teams contested for the most coveted domestic knockout cup competition in world football and what a tale it tells; an iconic match. Finally, to give the book a social context and a flavour of the times, we have captured the main news stories of the 1912/13 period which includes some momentous incidents such as the sinking of the Titanic; another iconic event.

Gainsborough's Fred Spiksley was one of the first working class youngsters in 1887 to live 'the dream' of becoming a professional footballer, before later finding a role as a globe-trotting coach. He thus dodged the inevitability of industrial, poorly paid, dangerous labour. Lightning fast, Spiksley created and scored hundreds of goals including, to the great joy of the future Queen Mary who chased him down the touchline, three against Scotland in 1893\. The outside left scored both Sheffield Wednesday's goals in the 2-1 defeat of Wolves in the 1896 FA Cup Final at the Crystal palace. Forced by injury to stop playing at aged 36, Spiksley adventured out into the world. He acted with Charlie Chaplin, escaped from a German prison at the start of the First World War and later made the first 'talking' football training film for youngsters. As a coach/manager he won titles in Sweden, Mexico, the USA and Germany, becoming the last Englishman to coach a German title-winning team with 1FC Nuremburg in 1927\. He coached in Barcelona in 1932 and it was only after his involvement had exceeded 50 years, during which time, as this book explains, the game changed dramatically, did Spiksley's football career end. As an addicted gambler and womaniser, Spiksley had his problems away from football. However, he was beloved by his football fans, including Herbert Chapman, the greatest manager of that era in English football who, towards the end of his life, picked him in his finest XI.

In addition to being the most bitter industrial dispute the coalminers' strike of 1984/5 was the longest national strike in British history. For a year over 100,000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers, their families and supporters, in hundreds of communities, battled to prevent the decimation of the coal industry on which their livelihoods and communities depended. Margaret Thatcher's government aimed to smash the most militant section of the British working class. She wanted to usher in a new era of greater management control at work and pave the way for a radical refashioning of society in favour of neo-liberal objectives that three decades later have crippled the world economy. Victory required draconian restrictions on picketing and the development of a militarised national police force that made widespread arrests as part of its criminalisation policy. The attacks on the miners also involved the use of the courts and anti-trade union laws, restrictions on welfare benefits, the secret financing by industrialists of working miners and the involvement of the security services. All of which was supported by a compliant mass media but resisted by the collective courage of miners and mining communities in which the role of Women against Pit Closures in combating poverty and starvation was heroic. Thus inspired by the struggle for jobs and communities an unparalleled movement of support groups right across Britain and in other parts of the world was born and helped bring about a situation where the miners long struggle came close on occasions to winning. At the heart of the conflict was the Yorkshire region, where even at the end in March 1985, 83 per cent of 56,000 miners were still out on strike. The official Yorkshire National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) area photographer in 1984-85 was the late Martin Jenkinson and this book of his photographs - some never previously seen before - serves as a unique social document on the dispute that changed the face of Britain.

In 1888, Englands Football league came into being and ever since a player has been recognised each year for the highest number of goals scored in the league, First Division or Premier League. The first was John Goodall of Preston North End, with 21 goals, the most recent, Didier Drogba, with 29. The Football leagues top scorer was Dixie Dean of Everton, in 1927/28, with an impressive tally of 60 goals.