Mark Metcalf – författare

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.

You would be mistaken in thinking the rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United was only something that has existed in recent times. Obviously there was considerable hype as United equalled and then overtook Liverpool's previous record of 18 League titles, something the Merseyside club and its fans had cherished. And to lose it to your biggest rivals was something which was especially hard to palate. Liverpool fans, in turn counter by continually taunting United over the five European Cups they have won to United's three. This is the latest sequel to a rivalry which began in 1894 when the two teams met for the first time in a game as important as any which have subsequently taken place - and there have been some massive ones. It was a 'Test Match' which was to determine the status of both clubs. United, then Newton Heath had finished bottom of the First Division while Liverpool were champions of the Second Division having gone through the whole campaign unbeaten. Test Matches, which were more like today's play offs, were introduced when the Football League was expanded to two divisions. They featured the bottom three clubs in the top flight playing the top three in the second tier. Liverpool won the initial meeting 2-0 to gain promotion whilst Newton Heath were relegated. It was only the briefest stay, however, as the Merseysiders were immediately relegated as the two teams met for the first time in a League fixture in 1895. Those first two League matches, played within three weeks of one another, also underlined how unpredictable the form book was, something which has invariably still been the case more than a century later. Liverpool won the first League meeting 7-1 which still to this day remains the record margin of victory between the two teams. In the return three weeks later, Newton Heath were no-hopers yet pulled off a 5-2 win.

As one of the twelve founding Football League clubs in 1888/89, Everton Football Club has a long, proud history. Having played more top-flight League games than any other English team, the Toffees have won the League championship nine times - the fourth best record of any team. The first occasion was in the third season of League football, 1890/91 when the Blues became the first club from Liverpool to collect the League championship trophy from their then base, Anfield. In achieving their success, Everton knocked the winners of the first two championships, the Invincibles of Preston North End, off their throne. But how did they do it? Who were the players in this momentous season, what sort of football did they play and who did they beat?

On Saturday 8 September 1888, League football kicked off. Twelve clubs had combined to play regular fixtures and the result was to revolutionise not only English football but virtually every nation and sport since then. In this book, the history of the Football League season 1888/89 is told in great depth, with reports on every match and profiles of all those who played – amateur and professional – during this thrilling historic season, in which Preston were ‘invincible’ and set the standards for other great teams to follow. Key players and their skills are highlighted. Doubts about who scored the first-ever League goal are ended. The standard of football, equipment used and the tactics adopted to win matches are all analysed. Controversial incidents that paved the way for the introduction of the goal net and penalty kick are brought back to life. The clubs, their pitches and grounds – and the fans that filled them – are explored within the economic circumstances and developments of the era.Illustrated with contemporary photographs and newspaper cuttings, this is the story of the 1888/89 Football League season.

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.

The rip-roaring story of Manchester City's red-hot goalscoring hero Erling Haaland.Unlike his seafaring forefathers, Haaland arrived in England peacefully in 2022. But the result was the same with the Viking running riot before heading to European shores to rampage through even the most stubborn defences.Haaland helped sweep Manchester City to a record-equalling treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup glory. The Striking Viking smashed home a record-breaking 36 Premier League goals and continued his incredible Champions League record to make it 35 in 29 games.This book is packed with exclusive unpublished material, including the story behind his transfer to England. It features the words of the great man himself, team-mates, opponents and Pep Guardiola. It explores his early career in Norway, and his later successes in Salzburg and Dortmund, before bringing us up to date with his Man City and international heroics.Want to know Haaland the player and the man? This is the book for you.