Footballing Fifties: When the Beautiful Game was in black and white [Hardcover]

The Fifties was one of the most dramatic and exciting decades in footballing history, with goals galore and wingers thrilling packed houses with their dazzling touchline runs - but it was also a time when, even if you were Stanley Matthews or Tom Finney, the most you could expect to earn was seventeen pounds a week...and there was hardly a foreign footballer in sight! They even spoke a different football language in the Fifties. There were wing-halves, inside-forwards and wingers, two points for a win, and shoulder charges were allowed against goalkeepers. Red and yellow cards were something associated with magicians, and referees took names only for tackles that caused grievous bodily harm. Spectators definitely got great value for their two bob (10p) entrance fee to grounds that were, generally, eighty per cent terracing; and it cost five shillings (25p) to get your bum on a seat to watch football that was full-blooded and rich with individual skills. In today's transfer market the likes of super-gifted players such as Matthews, Finney, Lawton, Mannion, Shackleton, Lofthouse and Carter would be valued in the zillions. As well as an all-encompassing look at the domestic scene with reports on all the major finals and key matches, "Footballing Fifties" also carries eye-witness accounts of the World Cup finals of 1950, 1954 and 1958, which memorably brought to the world stage players of the stunning calibre of Pele, Puskas, Kopa, Garrincha and Welsh giant John Charles. The World Cup reports include England's darkest hour - defeat by the United States in the 1950 finals in Brazil. "Footballing Fifties" will appeal to those of a certain age who look back on the fifties as the golden age of football, when average First Division attendances were around 50,000 every Saturday. It will also be enlightening reading for the generation that followed who still wonder why their Dads and Granddads are so nostalgic for an era when football was king. It offers a season-by-season breakdown of the highlights, as well as the low spots and scandals. It is introduced by Jimmy Greaves, who scored the first of his all-time record 357 goals for Chelsea at Tottenham in 1957. It includes a report on every major final of the 1950s, including the Matthews Final of 1953 and the 1958 World Cup that produced Pele. It is a moving tribute to the birth and death of the Busby Babes, the team that died in the 1958 Munich air disaster.