Award-winning sports writer Michael Calvin turned up for the first day of pre-season training at Millwall FC and 333 days later he sat among the subs at Wembley.
Intimate and compelling, Calvin's book vividly portrays players and management as family men, close to their roots: "We're playing for the people who hate their jobs, who'd love our lives."
Forget the glitz of the Premier League - this is the beautiful game in all its raucus glory, essential reading for anyone whom football is a way of life.