Description
| Product ID: | 9781801501576 |
| Product Form: | Hardback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Title: | The Longest Winter |
| Subtitle: | A Season with England's Worst Ever Football Team |
| Authors: | Author: Mark Hodkinson |
| Page Count: | 304 |
| Subjects: | Association football (Soccer), Football (Soccer, Association football), c 1970 to c 1980 |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating The Rochdale team of 1973-74 are considered the worst to play in the Football League. They finished bottom of the third division, winning just two of 46 league matches. Meanwhile, the country was in meltdown. A three-day working week came in as inflation took hold and mineworkers went on strike. This is part sports book, part social history. In 1973-74, Britain was in meltdown. The Arab-Israeli War had sent energy prices soaring. Petrol was scarce. Offices were limited to a temperature of 17C and power cuts were frequent. A three-day working week came in as inflation took hold and miners and other workers went on strike. The northern mill town of Rochdale suffered more than most. Its cotton industry was on shut-down in the face of cheap imports, and the football team was a mirror image of the town - tired, defeated, clinging to life. The Rochdale team of 1973-74 are considered the worst to play in the Football League. They finished bottom of the third division, winning just twice in 46 league matches. They closed the season with a 22-game winless run and played one home match in front of the lowest-ever post-war crowd. That season 32 players played for the team, many of them drafted in from amateur or Sunday league clubs. The Longest Winter is as much a piece of forensic social history as it is a sports book. It evokes the smells, textures and moods of the early 1970s. |
| Imprint Name: | Pitch Publishing Ltd |
| Publisher Name: | Pitch Publishing Ltd |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2022-08-15 |
