Old School: A Proper Football Education

Mark Patterson is a former professional footballer who made almost 500 league appearances in the 1980s and 90s. He then had a stint in coaching and management, before taking a break to focus on setting up his landscape gardening business. Mark is married with a football-loving step-daughter, and a grown-up son and daughter.

Co-author Kevin O'Hara is a partnership development manager for the NHS by day, and a writer by night. He wrote a football-based novel in the early 2000s and is happily married with two daughters, aged 16 and 20.

A Bolton Wanderers fan, Kevin watched Mark's most successful spell as a player from the stands when he helped Bolton rise from the third tier of English football into the Premiership. Mark was Bolton's captain on a famous night at Anfield when the Second Division side knocked out the FA Cup holders. Kevin was at the game.

They met a number of years ago through a mutual friend and Kevin convinced Mark to write his book after hearing a number of very funny stories of Mark's time in football. The rest, as they say, is history...