Football Matters: A journey through a unique season of Kent non-league football Sale

Due to the pandemic lockdown, 2019-20 was a football season like no other, especially for English non-league clubs. Brought to a premature end, most leagues decided to null and void their completed fixtures, cancelling promotion and relegation, and thereby dismissing the season in readiness to start afresh next term. The only exception was the National League, comprising the two uppermost steps of the non-league football pyramid, which partially resumed in July in order to complete promotion play-offs.

When Martin Cooper started a season-long journey around Kent non-league grounds, during the August 2019 summer heatwave, the extraordinary outcome was impossible to predict. The games he attended were full of passion and enthusiasm, with many of the sides striving for promotion or battling against relegation. Ultimately and unbeknown to all the fans, players and club officials, most of the matches counted for nothing in the end and this book contains insights and reports from a truly unique non-league football season.

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