Extra Time

The football fan as lifer is Kevin Sampson's basic premise in Extra Time as he and his mates faithfully follow their team, Liverpool, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, during the 1997/98 season. Inevitably it is mostly for worse and for poorer. Liverpool is a club which used to win things--which is of course better than the clubs most fans are lumbered with-- but they don't win much these days. As Sampson and his bunch of amiable fellow travellers--ageing lothario Jegsy and shy bricklayer Danny--traipse through various strange train stations and shopping centres, the depressing fact that they aren't going to win anything again this season becomes increasingly apparent. The travelogue is wryly amusing and the appreciation of footballing lore spot on. "Why do people detest Man. Utd?", he asks, "Easy. Because they are detestable". But most of all this is about why a 36-year-old man should still go to sleep thinking about his all-time greatest Liverpool XI. The answer, as if anyone who cares about football didn't know already, is because a football team is for life, not just for Christmas. --Nick Wroe


Genre: Children's Fiction