West Brom legends feature in Alastair Campbell novel

The book called ‘Saturday Bloody Saturday’, which Campbell co-wrote with former Burnley striker Paul Fletcher. mixes fact with fiction in a story about football and IRA terrorism.

The hero of the book is a fictional manager called Charlie Gordon, who used to play for Wolves and Villa.

But his fictional Division One side are downed by the Baggies in a crucial game thanks to goals from Tony Brown and Ally Brown.

Campbell said: “Both with the terrorism and the football we mix our fictional characters with real people and clubs from the past.”

Campbell used Fletcher, who played at the top flight for almost a decade, to give the book authenticity.

“We are not saying the game was better or worse back then, just different” said Fletcher. “The book started as an idea when my grandson Morgan asked me what it was like playing for Burnley back in the 70s and I could tell he loved the stories.

“Alastair and I are friends who travel to games together and I mentioned the idea of working together on a novel and this is the result. I can hardly believe we have gone straight into the bestseller list.

“I think fans of a certain age will love it for the nostalgia, but younger fans will get a real sense of how different the game was before TV and the Premier League changed it so much. The most important thing is that it is a great story with some amazing characters.”

The authors do not give their fictional team a name.

Campbell said: ‘We want fans of all clubs to think it could be about their club. We have had a lot of fun mixing the real with the fictional. The 70s was probably my favourite period as a fan.”

‘Saturday Bloody Saturday’ is available on Amazon for £12.91 or on kindle for £7.99.