For whom the ball rolls - Ian Plenderleith

The ex-pro sitting in front of the TV, interminably replaying the last moment of his career; the political activist who?s struggling to concentrate on a political seminar because he knows a vital international match is being shown in the bar; the failed, alcoholic actor who reflects on life from inside the club mascot; the quiet left-back who never speaks to any of his team-mates . . . Ian Plenderleith gets inside the heads of all his characters and finds one thing in common: that football is, for the most part, the be-all and end-all.

But also in this collection are a set of stories that proves life does exist away from the square acre of turf, and that Plenderleith is an adept chronicler of the lives of the mad, the sane, the lonely and the plain crazy . . .