When Saturday Comes No 451 March 2025

Contents

12

36

/ CO L O R S P O RT

/ A L A M Y

S C P H O T O S

W–

/ PA U L T H O M P S O N

REGULARS 5 Editorial

Why more fans are turning to non-League 6 Sidelines

34 FEATURES 17 Pulling up trees

Tribute to Tony Book; Greenland set their sights on Concacaf; Merthyr Town turn down a big offer; the South Yorkshire club bringing matches back to Millmoor 12 Shot!

Beating the freeze as Buxton host Chester 15 Harry Pearson column

Contested drop balls were not for the faint hearted, from school games to the top level

How Nottingham Forest have gone from survival battles to a Europe chase 18 Record breaker

Denis Law, revered at Old Trafford 19 In Bloom

The curious story of Blackpool’s East Stand and its impending demolition 20 Match of the month

Tamworth switch back to the National League as Boston United visit The Lamb

M AT T L I T T L E R

31

24 The perfect shot

A family affair for Luton’s 1988 League Cup win 36 World view

Struggling Valencia get the builders back in; Germany’s second-tier giants want a fair deal 40 Books

Steph Houghton looks back; speaking football in Argentina; Dave Bennett’s insightful story 42 Letters

I found an Ordnance Survey online map in which the whole town had been misspelt… 46 Season in brief

FC Kobenhavn on top in their first ever season

More correctly, it is the Compare The Build Community Stadium, as foul a phrase as any you’ll hear on the air on a matchday Tamworth v Boston United p20

26 Selhurst spark

Chasing Crystal Palace joy for 50 years; unlikely heroes of the 1980s struggle 29 Object lessons

A Wembley scorer’s pitchside photo 31 Shelf life

One of the first player autobiographies saw Tommy Lawton tell his story 32 Making Tees

Stockton Town’s decade of success; Friday night derby fun in Billingham 34 Through the ringers

A mystery player always turns heads