Author and historian Daniel Gray is the writer of Stramash and Homage to Caledonia. For a short period in the early 1990s he was the finest left-back in his village, once marking Gordon Strachan's youngest son (the one who didn't become a footballer) out of the game. A Middlesbrough supporter, Daniel began attending football matches in 1988 and has never recovered. He has worked in a psychiatric hospital, a library and in television and politics. He loves staring out of train windows and lives in Leith with his wife and daughter. Follow him on Twitter at @d_gray_writer.

Introduction - Jarrow 3 v 1 Durham City
1 Middlesbrough 1 v 1 Bournemouth
2 Lancaster City 1 v 2 Basford United
3 Workington 2 v 0 Mossley
4 Kendal Town 0 v 3 Tadcaster Albion
5 Southport 1 v 1 Alfreton Town
6 Cowdenbeath 2 v 0 Brechin City
7 Raith Rovers 3 v 1 Dundee
8 Rothbury 5 v 1 Forest Hall
9 Billingham Synthonia 0 v 2 West Auckland Town
Epilogue
Selected bibliography
Acknowledgements

* LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 *
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023 - FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Powerful and poignant' Henry Winter

'Empathetic and poignant . the game's answer to A Journal of the Plague Year' Harry Pearson

'The Durham City midfielder wore the resigned look of a man trying to find a jar of harissa in Farmfoods. Up front for Jarrow, a centre-forward darted around frenetically, as if chasing a kite during a hurricane...'

When football disappeared in March 2020, writer and broadcaster Daniel Gray used its absence to reflect on everything the game meant to him. That bred a pledge: whenever and wherever fans were allowed to return, he would be there.

The Silence of the Stands is the result of that pledge: a joyous travelogue documenting a precarious season, in which behind-closed-doors matches and travel restrictions combined to make trips to Kendal and Workington seem impossibly exotic. Offering a poignant peek at a surreal age and a slab of social history from the two-metre-distanced tea bar queue, this is the moving, heartfelt and surprisingly uplifting story of a unique season that no one wishes to repeat.