Second City: Season 2009 (The Fall Death and Rise of Cork City: The Autobiography of an Irish Footballer)

The 2009 season brought my club to a new low. Heed the warning: Adandon all hope ye who enter here.Second City is the follow up to Neal Horgans critically acclaimed account of Cork City FCs 2008 season entitled Death of a Football Club?This book chronicles Cork City FCs infamous 2009 season. Horgan brings you into the dressing room as club chairman Tom Coughlan attempts to explain to the players just why it is that the Revenue Commissioners are seeking to wind up Cork City FC in the High Court. Horgan mixes contemporaneous diary entries together with retrospective commentary. In the latter he concludes that the absence of a plan by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) for professional football in Ireland was the root cause for the annus horribilis experienced by Cork City FC in 2009 as bounced cheques delayed payments evictions pay cuts and a return to part-time football become the issues that dominate the players lives. In the unfolding drama that quickly turns from comedy to tragedy there are fleeting appearances from Roy Keane and Ipswich Town Dermot Desmond and Glasgow Celtic and Christiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid in a sporting story which wil have a deep resonance for Irish football fans.