Left foot in the grave: a view from the bottom of the Football League

With well over 700 League team appearances to his name, Garry Nelson has an encylopaedic knowledge of the game, past and present. Now the former Charlton player and self-confessed journeyman footballer has recorded a day-by-day, month-by-month account of the myriad shocks, demands, doubts and decisions that he finds confronting him as rookie player-coach of Third Division Torquay United. One moment he's locking horns with the financial director, the next he's placating a disgruntled YTS apprentice. From being in the company of a persistent media hack to a hacking thug of a centre-back, Garry Nelson's account of the highs and lows of soccer's have-nots is an eye-opener to the problems and pleasures, triumphs and disasters experienced by a lowly club struggling to survive in the game.