Former Brighton journalist's book explores highs and lows football fandom
A former Brighton journalist turned psychologist has written what could well be the football book of the year. It's eye-opening, moving and downright funny.
Damien Pearse, 56, lifts the lid on why the sport means so much to fans in Till I Die - Why Football Means Everything (Even When It Shouldn't). A fan himself, Pearse openly admits the ways in which he reacts to goals, fouls and referees' decisions, let alone how a good or a bad result affects his mood.
He confesses to casting a shadow over his domestic life after a defeat and pouring out his rage in a WhatsApp group and he writes movingly about the greater excesses of many other fans. Pearse was inspired to tackle fans' behaviour after an otherwise respectable young man punched Jack Grealish.
It wasn't an isolated event, it turns out. Another fan later hit the same player.
It says little about Grealish and a lot about the mentality, tribalism and misplaced loyalty of those who see to go by the Bill Shankly quote. The legendary Liverpool manager famously said: "Some people think football is a matter of life and death.
I can assure them, it is much more serious than that." Pearse covers some of the vile social media posts that have brought shame and worse on fans - and on their friends and families - and he tracks several of them down. And there are even people who have lost their lives in the name of football - and the journalist in Pearse also locates various people who have been affected by what happened.
One of the saddest stories concerns Sahar Khodayari, known as the Blue Girl, after her team's colour. She set herself alight outside a court in Iran and died from her burns after being arrested for trying to go to watch a game.
But Till I Die is far from being all doom and gloom. The flipside of fans' shared experiences proves to be equally moving and Pearse includes a number of uplifting examples.
Some of his warmest words are for Brighton and Hove Albion - not just the remarkable rise from the brink of extinction but the powerful community spirit harnessed in the club's name.