Kicking Off Again

The powerful, evocative story of the Football League’s return after the Second World War.


From acclaimed sportswriter Brian Halford – author of The Real Jeeves: The Cricketer Who Gave His Life For His Country and His Name to a Legend, among other titles.


After seven years of makeshift, regional competitions, almost a million people poured through the turnstiles on 31 August 1946 – a momentous day not just for football, but for a nation taking its first tentative steps towards normality after years of hardship and horror.


This enthralling and moving book includes:


• Chapters on each of the 44 matches from 31 August 1946, the day the Football League resumed after the Second World War

• Exhaustively researched accounts of every game, alongside vivid portraits of the clubs and communities they represented in a turbulent post-war Britain

• Stories of the many great managerial and playing careers that were launched on that historic day

• Insight into how clubs, supporters and local communities found the strength and resilience to survive the war’s tragedy and hardship and move forward into a new era

• Humorous – and sometime wonderfully surreal – stories drawn from newspapers of the time


A must-read for lovers of football and social history, Kicking Off Again is a tribute to the fortitude of the people who rose to the many challenges of life in late-1940s Britain.