Extra time - Daniel Gray

FEATURED IN THE SCOTSMAN'S SPORT BOOKS OF 2020A collection of lyrical sweet-nothings whispered to late goals, local radio commentators, referees falling over and 47 other reminders of why we love football.Despite its flaws and excesses, modern football is still sprinkled with simple yet beguiling delights. In his previous book Saturday, 3pm, Daniel Gray captured many of them. Now he is back with a further 50 short essays of prose poetry dedicated to the game's charming, technicolour minutiae. From club lottos to undeserved wins, and from pitch-invading animals to the roar after a minute's silence, Extra Time is another romantic celebration of football fandom and its shared joys, habits, eccentricities and peculiarities. It is a salute to keepers going forward for corners, match balls landing on stand roofs and goals scored in quick succession. These chapters offer a gleeful antidote to disillusionment with modern football, VAR and all. They are reminders of why we care and justifications for our devotion. Each warmly evokes this sport's blessed capacity to offer escape and diversion. Let us share the delight once more.

Author and historian Daniel Gray is the writer of Stramash and Homage to Caledonia. For a short period in the early 1990s he was the finest left-back in his village, once marking Gordon Strachan's youngest son (the one who didn't become a footballer) out of the game. A Middlesbrough supporter, Daniel began attending football matches in 1988 and has never recovered. He has worked in a psychiatric hospital, a library and in television and politics. He loves staring out of train windows and lives in Leith with his wife and daughter. Follow him on Twitter at @d_gray_writer.

Gray is a master of observing and amplifying the things we love about football but wonder if anyone else even notices
The Times

Gray writes like Lowry paints. Superb
BBC Radio

...superbly illuminates the many joys of football
Late Tackle

Daniel Gray's paean to football comes in the form of 50 beautifully written vignettes which celebrate the game's fun and foibles... Gray sifts through the matchday minutiae to produce delightful snapshots.
The Scotsman