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The Agony & the Ecstasy: A Comprehensive History of the Football League Play-Offs Paperback – 22 May 2015

by Richard Foster (Author)

3.8 34 ratings

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Fully revised and updated for 2017 to celebrate 30 years of the Football League Play-Offs, The Agony & The Ecstasy is a comprehensive history from their relatively troubled conception to the current day boom. Born in English football's darkest hour, it has now become home to the richest match in sport. From the exquisite pain of losing to the unadulterated high of success, this is the Agony & the Ecstasy.

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Print length

281 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ockley Books Ltd
Publication date

22 May 2015
Dimensions

15 x 2 x 23.5 cm
ISBN-10

191090600X
ISBN-13

978-1910906002
See all details

Matthew Evans

85

Hardcover

22 offers from £11.77
Steven Scragg

102

Hardcover

25 offers from £8.18
Richard Crooks

63

Paperback

20 offers from £2.19

Product description

Review

Amazingly this is the first book on what has become a hugely important and immensely enjoyable part of the season. It's a fantastic read as it is both comprehensive and entertaining; in fact I'm enjoying it so much I don't want to finish it --Martin Tyler

A fantastic in depth read and look at the lottery that is the Play-Offs. The attention to detail is great and it's helped me no end in terms of getting an understanding of the unpredictable scenes and nature of them --Danny Higginbotham

Nothing in football conjures up the same level of utter dejection, or unbridled joy for the lucky few, to mark the end of an entire campaign s endeavor. Hopes are fired or doused, aspirations fulfilled or snuffed out... this book charts every giddy dream or hideous nightmare the Play-Offs have delivered --Dominic Fifield

About the Author

Richard Foster is a freelance sportswriter and author, mainly focusing on football. He is a regular features contributor for The Guardian Sport Network, plus a variety of websites and blogs mainly on the fortunes of Crystal Palace including Sabotage Times, HLTCO and Five Year Plan. He has also written pieces for The Football League, has appeared on talkSPORT, BBC London and various podcasts including Whistleblowers and The Palace Podcast. Foster has written three books - the first, The A-Z of Football Hates is an irreverent look at what is rotten about the beautiful game and was published in August 2014. The Agony & The Ecstasy is his second book - The Comprehensive History of the Football League Play-Offs, which was originally published as a hardback edition in May 2015, the revised paperback edition came out in November. Talking Balls! a general sports quotes book was published in September 2015. He lives in North West London and is married with three children all of whom are Palace fans

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ockley Books Ltd; Second edition (22 May 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 281 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 191090600X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1910906002
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15 x 2 x 23.5 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 1,117,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 178 in English Football League
- 5,306 in Football Clubs
- 5,415 in Ball Games

Customer reviews:
3.8 34 ratings

About the author

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Richard Foster

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Richard Foster is a freelance sportswriter and author, mainly focusing on football. He is a regular features contributor for The Guardian, plus a variety of websites and blogs mainly on the fortunes of Crystal Palace including The Set Pieces, HLTCO and Five Year Plan. He has also written pieces for The Football League, has appeared on talkSPORT, BBC London and various podcasts including Whistleblowers and The Palace Podcast.

Foster has written six books - the first, "The A-Z of Football Hates" is an irreverent look at what is rotten about the beautiful game and was published in August 2014.

"The Agony & The Ecstasy" - The Comprehensive History of the Football League Play-Offs, was originally published as a hardback edition in May 2015. A revised paperback edition to commemorate 30th anniversary of the Play-Offs came out in May 2017.

"Football's Flaws & Foibles" looks at the biggest transgressions of modern football, featuring such horrors as half-and-half scarves, plane protests and the England Band.

"World Cup Nuggets" was published in time for Russia 2018 and uncovers some of the weirder and more wonderful facts about 'The Greatest Show on Earth'.

In November 2018 an anthology of Foster's best Guardian features was published, "From An Acute Angle" covers all aspects of football from non-league to World Cups and everything in between. Interviews with the likes of Jamie Carragher, Martin Tyler, David Pleat and many more offer invaluable insight.

His latest book "Premier League Nuggets" was published in November 2019 and looks at every club that has played in the top division since 1992. Crammed full of stunning stats, funny facts, quirks of fate plus contributions from fans, this is the ultimate deep dive into the Premier League. As Martin Tyler says in the Foreword "Premier League Nuggets is an extremely handy, very entertaining and totally reliable reference point to have by my side."

He has also been contributing editor for two sports quotes books - "Talking Balls!" and "the Biggest Book of Talking Balls!".

He lives in North West London and is married with three children – all of whom are Palace fans.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5

34 global ratings

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JONATHAN BARNBROOK

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 September 2017

Verified Purchase

Excellent

One person found this helpful

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mr p

Good subject for a book, but a repetitive read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 June 2021

Verified Purchase

Great that the EFL playoffs have been covered in detail, but it’s a heavy, laboured repetitive description of them. It should have been edited down to a more concise summary. Also in the book, each club that has qualified for the playoffs has attempted to be ranked in order. The author (a Crystal Palace fan) has managed to gerrymander an odd scoring system that somehow puts Crystal Palace as the best playoff club, whereas every football fan should know that Blackpool are the greatest playoff club with the most finals, promotions, wins and goals scored.

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Springer74

Really Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 September 2019

Verified Purchase

The first half of the book is self-indulgent, repetitive waffle, which needed a good sub-editor. The same points are made over and over again, notably that football was awful in the 80s and the reason it's better now is all because of the play offs, which is simplistic nonsense. The chapter on how play offs work in other countries and other sports was just pointless. Things improve in the second half of the book when fans recall their play off memories, but overall this was a quite a boring read and the opportunity to tell a great story has been missed.

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Leonardo

The definitive history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 June 2017

Richard Foster writes with authoritative passion and his book is, without doubt, the definitive history of the Football League play-offs, with every goal, game and major incident recorded. A quite breathtaking undertaking and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

One person found this helpful

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Andytheeagle

Been there, done that, know the feeling.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 February 2017

This is a great read for any football fan but even more poignant if your club has been involved in this end of season festival. Packed with information, but also entertaining.

One person found this helpful

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Silver Sloth

Mostly for stats buffs.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 April 2016

Verified Purchase

OK, as one of the Blackpool faithful I know both the agony (2012) and the ecstasy(2010) and, to an extent, this book brought back a load of powerful memories. However I found the overenthusiastic writing style a bit much - I lost count of the number of times I was told that it was the play-off system that saved British football. And then, for half the book, it's a list of play off winners and losers. Great for the stats buff and, if that's what you are, it's a good reference but for those just wishing to read about footie this is only half a book. Oh, and there wasn't anything like enough about the might 'Pool - but then, like most fans, there's never enough about *my* club!

One person found this helpful

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Robert Endeacott

Brilliant and awful at the same time

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 December 2015

Brilliant and awful at the same time! But that's because I'm a Leeds fan and remember all too well the trauma of play off finals. This is a great book nonetheless, supremely researched and well-written whilst being a comfortable read.

2 people found this helpful

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Drakula

Terrible

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 September 2021

Boring, self-indulgent tripe. There are plenty of good football history books out there, this isn't one of them.

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