From A Field to Anfield

A Footballer's Journey from Grassroots to the Top Flight

Steve Cotton, Nick Tanner, Steve Cotton

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785313516
• Year: 2017

From A Field To Anfield is the inspirational story of Nick Tanner's against-the-odds rise from the uncompromising grassroots football scene in Bristol to the glamor of then-champions Liverpool. Nick's story is not one of spending years mollycoddled in an academy system and having success handed to him, but of graft, days spent working in a factory before making it to the top, and being sold to Bristol Rovers by non-league Mangotsfield United for a couple of floodlight bulbs. Nick was a member of the last Liverpool squad to win the title, was in the stands at Hillsborough in 1989, and scored a Merseyside derby goal at Goodison Park, so his tales naturally include Anfield legends and A-list events with Kenny Dalglish and the rest. Equally, though, his is an inspirational story for any budding footballer about just how far hard work and relentless dedication can take you if you are willing to put in the yards. Nick also opens up on the personal impact of his career-ending injury, along with his various ongoing struggles.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by Kenny Dalglish
• Prologue: ‘There’s a chap called Kenny on the phone’
• 1. You never know who’s watching
• 2. Never forget your roots
• 3. On the factory floor
• 4. The manager I enjoyed playing for the most
• 5. One of the lads
• 6. Going pro
• 7. ‘Tanner, earn your money’
• 8. Microwaved toast
• 9. The north/south divide
• 10. From a field to Anfield
• 11. On the outside looking in
• 12. Hotel life and the early days
• 13. 15 April 1989
• 14. London calling
• 15. Still waiting
• 16. Opportunity knocks
• 17. Life in the first team
• 18. Elsie Tanner’s Rovers return
• 19. Here’s what you could have won
• 20. Goalkeepers are different
• 21. The end of the road
• 22. My best Bristol Rovers XI
• 23. My best Liverpool XI
• 24. I’m managing
• 25. Life beyond football
• 26. The greatest man I have known
• 27. Win or lose, on the booze
• Photographs