Football Books I Love: The Silence of the Stands, by Daniel Gray

Daniel Gray’s exquisite The Silence of the Stands actually came out in November 2022, after I had finished writing Amateur Hour. It would therefore not be entirely true to describe it as an influence on my own writing but nonetheless it is probably the book that Amateur Hour is closest to in terms of style.

When the world effectively shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, Gray was faced with the same dilemma experienced by football fans all across the country. With large gatherings impossible, how would he be able to get his football fix? Gradually, like the first flowers blooming after a nuclear apocalypse, non-league football began to make a return. With crowd figures capped and strict social distancing protocols enforced throughout, it was not the matchday experience we were all used to, but a matchday experience it was, the first in a long time for lovers of the game, like Daniel Gray, who were used to barely going a weekend without a match.

Stepping out into this new, almost dystopian world, Gray reflects on how football, to use a well-known phrase, is nothing without fans. There were of course far more important things than football during the pandemic, but there is no doubt that the ability to return to watch matches was a much-needed escape for many. It is true that we tend to appreciate things more if we have to go through a period of abstinence. Previously, fanatics would perhaps crave that first win after a poor run, or a first stoppage-time winner in a while. Back in the summer of 2020, Gray and countless others were craving any football at all.

Daniel Gray, like Harry Pearson (the author of The Far Corner and The Farther Corner), is a Middlesbrough supporter. The northeast of England has always been seen as a football hotspot, and certainly they’ve got the writers to back up that claim. The similarities between Gray and Pearson do not end with the team they support. Like Pearson, Gray writes in a witty and descriptive style that means you can picture clearly the venue he’s at, despite having almost certainly never seen it in real life. Gray also slips in his local knowledge, adding context to stories from the likes of Rothbury and Billingham Synthonia. Non-league football is beautiful for its ever-present idiosyncrasies, and The Silence of the Stands is a joy for the way it captures these.

Similar to The Silence of the Stands, Amateur Hour covers the unique 2020/21 season, an eerie and uncompleted season, the likes of which we hopefully will never see again. Whilst Gray takes in a variety of different games, from Middlesbrough to Lancaster City, Cowdenbeath to Kendal, my focus is solely on the FA Vase. With it giving the opportunity for two unfancied clubs to play under the Wembley arch each year, it is a competition that I love, and I’d always wanted to do a ‘road to Wembley’ style book about it one year. I didn’t quite imagine it would end up looking like it did, however.

About Johnnie Lowery

Johnnie is a football writer. His first book, Six Added Minutes, was written while he was at university and published in November 2019. With strong reviews from the likes of Jeremy Vine and Jacqui Oatley, it is selling well online. His second book, Match Fit, explores mental health in football, and was shortlisted at the 2024 Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Awards. Amateur Hour, which is due to be released in May 2025, is all about watching non-league football in the lockdown-affected 2020/21 season