Plucky underdogs or perennial underachievers, your local non-league team offers hope, drama or at least a Saturday afternoon ritual that's been going for decades.
In these days of oligarch owners, superstar managers and players on sky-high wages, the tide is turning towards the lower reaches of the pyramid as fans search for football with a soul.
Nige Tassell spends a season in the non-league world. He meets the raffle-ticket seller who wants her ashes scattered in the centre-circle. The envelope salesman who discovered a future England international. The ex-pros still playing with undiluted passion on Sunday mornings.
He spends time at clubs looking for promotion to the Football League, clubs just aiming to get eleven players on a pitch every week, and everything in between. One thing unites them: they all inhabit the heartland of the beautiful game.
Nige Tassell writes about sport and music, and his work has appeared in the pages ofFourFourTwo,The Guardian,The Sunday Times,Esquire,New Statesman,QandThe Word. He is also the author ofMr Gig: One Man's Search For The Soul Of Live Music. He lives in the hill country of Somerset with his wife and two prospective future non-league players.
