'A paean to football before the days of big money and soulless stadia.' - The i

Goalkeepers in trousers, proper division names, turf patterns, pixelated scoreboards and, of course, Saturday evening pink newspapers... They were the gritty stardust that made football sparkle.
Here, 50 such wonders are drawn together with evocative charm before they slip from memory forever. Dedicating a chapter to each wonder, Daniel Gray's pieces read more like love letters than essays.
Here is a sentimental meander beneath main-stand clocks and through streets where children still play football. Written in the same wistful and whimsical style as Gray's much-admired previous book, Saturday, 3pm, the unashamedly nostalgic Black Boots and Football Pinks will warm the heart and prompt fond sighs of recognition.
Gray's words preserve on paper the relics and minutiae of a shared obsession and identity. They make yesterday's football feel within touching distance, and offer cosy refuge from a boisterous game and world.

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.

1. Multiple cup replays
2. Spontaneous atmosphere
3. Proper division names
4. Black boots
5. Ramshackle dugouts
6. Disorganised warm-ups
7. Knowing the names of grounds
8. Goalkeepers in trousers and hats
9. Local shirt and hoarding sponsors
10. Football Pinks
11. Queuing for tickets
12. Big man/little man up front
13. Player jobs after retirement
14. Matches played in fog
15. Shirt etiquette
16. Kids playing in the street
17. Checks, tartans and other turf patterns
18. Small men marking the post
19. Old-fashioned wingers
20. Sharing the scores from elsewhere
21. Ceefax and Teletext
22. Terrible goal kicks and foul throws
23. Club season-highlight videos
24. Abandoned matches
25. Home away, home away
26. Referee occupations and hometowns
27. Players running onto the pitch
28. Loan moves being rare
29. Choosing who you're next to
30. Main-stand clocks
31. One-club men
32. Beams and imperfect views
33. Sponsored players' cars
34. Homes with views into the ground
35. Turnstile operators
36. Shabby training grounds
37. Characterful captains' armbands
38. Provincial businessman owners
39. Caretaker managers
40. Paper tickets
41. Player brawls
42. Pixelated scoreboards
43. Huts on stand roofs
44. Regional highlights programmes
45. Luxury, superfluous players
46. Bald players
47. Goal nets with personality
48. The many scents of matchday
49. Understated goal celebrations
50. Heroes