Pointless

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Pointless - A season with Britain's worst football team by Jeff Connor^[1] . The "Quest for Sporting Glory" enthralls millions, but occasionally a tale of heroic failure grips us with equal fascination. After all, not many of us will ever sink a putt to win the Ryder Cup or take the chequered flag at Le Mans, but most can relate to a team of triers who turn up week after week- despite the fact that it never gets any better!

He came to scoff and ended up coming to love them. In the summer of 2004, Jeff Connor, a sports journalist, is given reluctant access to East Stirlingshire, Britain's least successful senior football club. During the previous season they had embarked on an historical 25 match losing run and in the process become one of the most talked about teams in football.^[2]

Connor starts secretly hoping that they will go through the season losing every match, but as he gradually sees how deeply the club stalwarts care about their ramshackle ground[1] and over-stretched players ^[3] he too begins to commit. Off the pitch he meets a range of larger than life characters, such as "Young" Player of the Year Stephen Oates ( who is actually older than the overall winner) and visits such salubrious venues as The Sticky Carpet (a room above a public house where the long suffering Supporters' Association hold their regular inquests).

Notes

1. ^ 2006 Headline Book Publishing ( London ), ISBN 0 7553 1352 6
2. ^ Sky Sports Football Year Book 2004-5, Rollin G & Rollin J Headline p45 (London) ISBN 0 7553 1310 0
3. ^ See for example Conner (2005, ibid) p63 describing the "mind boggling complexities" some fans got round in making 18 hour long,400 mile round trips, costing £150 and upwards, only to see their side regularly beaten by huge scores