Len Shackleton, was one of football's great entertainers. Starring for Sunderland, Newcastle and, on a mere five occasions for England, this supremely talented inside left thrilled large crowds wherever he played. Shackleton played only five times for England and never won a FA Cup or League Championship medal with Bradford Park Avenue, Newcastle United or Sunderland, but he goes down in football history as a supreme exponent of skill.It was during his stay at Sunderland that he wrote his controversial autobiography, Clown Prince of Soccer (1955). 

Shackleton became a sports journalist after retiring as a footballer. He had been an outspoken critic of the football establishment during his playing career, particularly so of the maximum wage rule. He used his nickname, The Clown Prince of Soccer, for his 1956 autobiography. One chapter of that book was "The Average Director's Knowledge of Football". It consisted of a single blank page.

One of the greatest football biographies of them all, written by a man who was an enterainer both on and off the pitch.

Peter McParland will forever be remembered as the man who both Villa’s goals in the 2-1 FA Cup final victory over Manchester United’s Busby Babes in 1957 and in particular for his controversial shoulder charge on Ray Wood which left the United keeper with a broken cheek-bone.  In his native Northern Ireland he played a major role in Northern Ireland’s march towards the quarter-finals of the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. 

The Aston Villa forward spectacularly scored five goals in Northern Ire-land’s opening four games to set up a last eight encounter with France, however, their opponents ran out comfortable 4-0 winners against a team which by then had been decimated by injuries.

McParland, who was born in Newry, began his career across the border in the League of Ireland with Dundalk before being snapped up by Villa in 1952 for a fee in the region of £3,500. Two years later, at 19, the outside-left made his full international debut for Peter Doherty’s side scoring both goals in a World Cup qualifying win over Wales in Wrexham.

In 1960 his 22 league goals helped Villa to the Second Division title and the following year he also scored the extra-time winner which secured them a 3-2 aggregate success in the final over Rotherham United in what was the inaugural League Cup.

In his autobiography gives his side of the story about the cup final shoul-der charge. And hits out hard at the “Boo Boys” who targeted him during the game and for years afterwards. He quoted cup final referee Fred Coultas who said: ‘personally I saw nothing vicious in the charge. As a matter of fact, if Wood had not gone down, I would not have given a foul’.  This book also provides an interesting insight into how the position of goalkeepers has changed in modern times.  Ted Ditchburn, former Tot-tenham and England goalkeeper in quoted as saying: ‘Some people want to put goalkeepers in glass cases.  If a ‘keeper has the ball and has both feet on the ground, then he must be prepared to take a shoulder charge just like any other player.’”

This autobiography provides a fascinating picture of football in the 1950s when Villa last won the FA Cup and is particularly invaluable for McParland’s account of the legendary Northern Ireland team which reached the 1858 World Cup Final in Sweden.