Shelby Town are a fictional football team who play in the real-life Barclays Premier League. They’re also the team that feature – one way or another – in all the stories you’re about to read. Town have a bit in common with a lot of real clubs, like Wigan, Blackburn, Norwich and Reading, to name just a few.
Shelby is a town somewhere in the middle of England, halfway between London and Birmingham. Supporting Town has been pretty exciting lately. Fifteen years ago, they were playing non-league football in the old Vauxhall Conference. Like at so many smaller clubs, money was tight and the players were semi-professional. But then a local businessman, Ernest Carstairs, bought the club, paid off its debts and gave the manager some money to spend on the team. Since then, Shelby Town haven’t looked back. Under boss Mick Diamond, they climbed through the divisions and then, a couple of years ago, won the Championship Play-Off Final at Wembley.
The hero at Wembley was the club’s longest-serving player, skipper Dave Morgan. Town taking a place in the Premier League was a dream come true for Dave and for everyone connected with the club.
Mick Diamond trusted the boys who’d got Town promoted, but he brought in a couple of overseas stars to strengthen the squad: French midfielder Jean-Pierre Vert and Nigerian striker Dotun Odegbame. And lads like Stuart Dolan come through from the youth team to make their mark in the Premier League too.
Against all the odds – and despite the pundits saying they were relegation certainties – Shelby Town survived. In fact, that first season in the Premier League the club reached the Carling Cup final.
You may have read about Town – and the personalities behind the scenes – in the Double Club English and Maths textbooks used in many schools in recent years.
It’s been an incredible journey for the players, the staff and the fans: for everyone at Shelby Town, in fact, including Ernest, Mick, Dave, Dotun, Stuart and Jean-Pierre. Now read on. The story’s only just begun…