For Terry Payne, life is not much fun. His parents are splitting up, and he's fallen desperately in love with the gorgeous new girl at school, who doesn't even know he exists. To top it all off, his beloved football team - the mighty Man U - are on a losing streak.

As Terry sees Man U lose to Liverpool, watches in horror as arch-rival and school golden boy showers the beautiful Julie with attention, and discovers the object of his affections is ... a Liverpool fan, he starts to think that things can't get much worse.

After all, it's a close contest in Life versus Football - and there can only be one winner. Can't there?

Hilarious and heart-warming, this is a touching story about the ups and downs of life, love, and more importantly, football, from award-winning author, Alan Gibbons.