Got To Do The 42: A Tour of Every Scottish League Ground

Bought this for my Dad's birthday and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Interesting, informative and funny. I'll be reading it next.

I bought this for my son in law but read it before handing it over! Wasn't sure what to expect but the author's intro outlines what the intention was, to go to a game at every venue in the country within the one season. It captures the great Scottish humour along with the sometimes fickle intolerant attitude and behaviour of the average football supporter.Each chapter and ground is given the same amount of coverage with no favouritism to any particular team, though there are a few Morton games at the start and Hearts ones at the end, which wasn't a problem for me. Enjoyed the impartiality given to each ground visited. Honest and fair in comments made and concur that some clubs could heed some of the suggestions made.Offered some decent advice on parking and roads in and out of each town, village or City. More so for the stadiums (14) I've not visited so far.Easy to read style incorporating fact with humour. The kind of book you can pick up at your leisure. On more than one occasion before finishing up I looked ahead at which ground was next up and looked forward to hearing what the author's thoughts were.Refreshing to hear a positive spin on our game given how it's always heralded in comparison to the cash rich leagues of England and Western Europe, even there is no comparison.Aimed predominantly at Scottish supporters as a lot of other fans in the UK have no or little knowledge of our game, either through choice or ignorance. A couple of reviews are maybe a bit unjustified in their (albeit minor) criticism.

This is quite a good read and certainly worth purchasing. However, it could have been improved. It’s disappointing that quite a few last pages of a chapter are published in such a tiny font (of about a square inch or two). But I blame the proof-reader at the publisher’s for that. In my view, the match reports for each game, that the author (Martin) provided, we’re fairly-well written - but not really necessary for this kind of book. The kind of people who would likely read it would be more interested in things to enhance their own visits to the grounds (e.g. food, parking, pubs and ‘other things to see’). What they would also like is some photographs of the grounds. Yet although Martin does state, many times, that he’d taken lots of snaps, they weren’t in the book. This is a shame because the pics on the front and back covers are excellent. I can only surmise, therefore, that the publisher, or publishing-costs of his pictures, were prohibitive to the final cost of the book.That said, I think Martin should be applauded for his honesty in the various chapters - as well as for completing ‘the 42’ in a single season. Definitely worth the purchase price.

Like some of the other reviewers, I am afraid that I found myself skipping the match review parts of each chapter too. Reading a report of a game from a season or two ago is really not that interesting unless you either were at the match or support one of the teams involved. Of more interest is the history of the home club, the facilities at the current ground, interaction with fellow spectators, etc.Have a look at "Saturday night and Thursday morning" , "Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters" for comparison.Dave.PS going to all the English League grounds from Scotland is not a 'dream bordering on fantasy'. With a lot of careful planning with holidays over the last eight to ten years, I have managed to attend a match at all 92 English league grounds and I live north of Aberdeen. Half way through the Conference grounds now...

Once I started reading Got To Do The 42 I just couldn't stop, it is a very addictive read.I found it to be a very compelling,humouress and caring account of Scottish football in its present form and written in a very informative and just the right side of passionate manner.The author obviously has a great love of the beautiful game and for a first time effort writing a book this is a very fine effort indeed.I now have the urge to try and visit as many Scottish football grounds as I can and I look forward to reading any further material of Martin McNelis

The premise of this book suggests it will make for an interesting read but it falls some way short. Where you would expect tales of the journeys to the grounds, characters met along the way and interesting details about the grounds you instead have the majority of the story from each ground consisting of match reports, ground info you could obtain elsewhere easily and the occasional gripe about stewards and pricing.The book makes various mention of pictures being taken. It would have been nice to see some of these within the book.Some pages have text so small that it’s almost impossible to read which is sloppy work from the publisher.A good idea for a book but poor execution.

It’s given me a boost to do my last five grounds!

There’s a lot about Morton in this book to be sure but that’s not why this book is something of a disappointment. I don’t really know how to put it or how it could have been rectified but for me it just doesn’t do it. It’s dated of course but I knew that when I started it so it’s not that. the journalistic style of reporting the game doesn’t help since it becomes just another saturday listening to the same old phrases repeated time after time. The information about the grounds makes it feel a bit like a tourist brochure so maybe it’s that I find disappointing since the book claims not to be a tour brochure and it isn’t. it’s a visit to all the scottish grounds during one season in 2012 but it’s just not really holding my attention. It tries to be funny in places but the humour doesn’t really come off as sell as it would if the rest of the book could be equally interesting. Not one I’d recommend unless you want to learn the names of all 42 league Scottish venues as they were twelve years ago.