Raich Carter played during the golden age of English football but like many of his contemparies had his career blighted by the second world war. In this biography Frank Garrick details how Raich Carter is the only man to have won FA Cup winning medals before and after the war, winning what was then England's premier competition – the one every professional wanted most to win – with Sunderland and then Derby County. And although like many from that era he suffered from the vagaries of an amateur selection system he is regarded as Stanley Matthews best partner, even if he wasn’t best pleased to play with him. Carter also won the League title with Sunderland.

We will never know if Tommy Lawton was truly the greatest centre-forward ever produced by England but we do know that he played in an era totally different from today. It is probable that Lawton never earned in a 20 year career what Rio Ferdinand earns in a week! Certainly in 1955 when Tommy Lawton was in his mid-thirties and playing for Arsenal he was on £17 a week. He was approached by the brewers Guinness to head a poster campaign for a fee of £10,000. But he had to turn it down, no Arsenal player was allowed to be associated with alcohol. How different from today! The book also touches on the darker side of Lawton’s life. The court appearance for passing dud cheques, his failed marriage and the dodging of bailiffs before he was re-discovered as a pundit and journalist.

It was 28 years ago, in 1978, that Viv Anderson became the first black player to be selected for England. It is a measure of how life for black footballers has improved that in 2002 Arsenal could field nine non-white players at Leeds’ Elland Road ground without comment. A tenth, Jermaine Pennant, came on as a substitute. While it would be wrong to claim that racism has been entirely banished from English football, the problem is not as bad as on the European continent. Rodney Hinds, sports editor of The Voice, Britain’s leading black newspaper, examines the attitudes of the football establishment over the years and talks to players who had to suffer abuse from visiting fans and players, and sometimes their own team-mates.

Following a promising season in 1896-97, the United football committee, at the start of the new campaign, declared its intention to 'gain the Championship of the League'. This seemed no idle boast as the team started on a terrific 14-match unbeaten run, with a series of outstanding performances. Yet a mid-season slump saw Aston Villa and Sunderland merge as serious rivals to United's title ambitions. The matches against these teams proved full of excitement, tension and controversy, and there were to be many twists and turns in the season before United were declared finally as Champions at Bolton on 8 April 1898.