A Fine Line: Introduction

There’s an incredible video that you can find on YouTube which is filmed by a man riding his bicycle down the streets of Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina.

The streets are largely deserted as he travels past cafes, restaurants and shops. The date is December 18. The day of the 2022 FIFA World Cup final. Argentina are bidding to win the tournament for the third time in their history. Standing in their way is France.

The game has gone to a penalty shoot-out following an extraordinary 3-3 draw after extra-time. The tournament itself has faced stern criticism regarding a number of areas; but there is no doubt that the action on the pitch for the final has been nothing short of phenomenal. A game that will never be forgotten that is being watched my millions and millions of people everywhere around the planet.

As the shoot-out progresses, Argentina find themselves just one converted penalty away from lifting one of the most prestigious trophies in all of sport. 88,966 spectators inside the Lusail Stadium in Qatar hold their breath as Gonzalo Montiel begins his run-up with Hugo Lloris facing him at the opposite end. The city of Buenos Aires holds its breath also.

Montiel holds his nerve to score from the penalty spot. He sends his nation into ecstasy and writes the final chapter of one of the greatest football matches in the history of the sport.

The reason why this aforementioned video is so extraordinary, is because it records the exact moment that people in Buenos Aires celebrated this achievement. A moment in time that encapsulates why sport is so important to culture and society around the world. What you are watching is pure, unfiltered joy born out of unscripted drama that only sport can provide.

What I love about it is how it shows a first-hand, amateur account of a community reacting to an enormous sporting achievement from their own nation. This isn’t one of those cameras that has been set up specifically to film the reaction from a huge crowd in front of a big screen. You see those very often these days. They’re always fantastic to watch; the celebrations in the heart of Naples from Napoli fans after their team clinched the 2024/25 Serie A title is a particular gem.

The video from the man on his bicycle really struck a chord with me though from the moment I first viewed it. This captured something a little different. Something that was more spontaneous. As the person cycles slowly down the road on their own in silence, you suddenly hear a huge roar from a crowd you don’t actually ever get to see. One has to assume it’s a huge crowd in front of a big screen watching the game. The beauty is that you can’t tell whether the crowd is around the block or whether they’re a mile away from where the person and his bicycle is.

Either way, the person captures in real time the exact moment this particular area of Buenos Aires reacts to its nation winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It’s the first time Argentina had won this trophy since 1986 when Diego Maradona was at his peak. It’s a euphoric but emotional moment and this becomes immediately apparent as soon as you hear the roar on this video. Suddenly, you begin to see more and more people running into the road celebrating. Two men embrace each other. Do they know each other? That’s the wonderful thing. You just don’t know for sure. A kid sprints from one side of the road to the other. Who is he running to speak to? Where is he going to celebrate? One man jumps up and down with his arms aloft. Two people simply can’t contain their delight and dance together on the edge of the pavement. More and more people begin to filter out into the middle of the road before, sadly, the video comes to a sudden end.

I think the brevity adds to the video’s charm though. It captures this tiny moment in time where a football match on the other side of the planet sent an area of the Argentinian capital into a sea of joy. This is a street where people go to work. Go to eat. Go to drink. At this exact moment, we witness the community on this street come together and start a huge party.

So. How do we get from Buenos Aires in 2022 to a market town in Derbyshire from 1996 to 1997? I’m glad you asked!

I was nine years old when a local lad scored Chesterfield Football Club’s most iconic goal in the club’s history. In all honesty, I don’t remember very much of the match. Of the whole day even. It pains me to type that. I wish I had been just a little bit older to have fully comprehended what I was experiencing. I didn’t even see the goal properly. I was very, very small for my age and the Chesterfield fans in front of me were already up on their feet sensing something truly unbelievable was about to occur. They were right. A blue sea of people embraced and dived on each other as I felt myself being launched upwards.

My dad, who was sat to the left of me, lifted me up into the air as I realised that my home town had scored at the end of extra-time to remain in the FA Cup against all the odds. As the Spireites players instigated a pile-on, my mum grabbed her camera and took a photo of my dad and I celebrating only moments after the goal had been scored. Of course, with this being in 1997, we all didn’t get to see the photo until a few days afterwards rather than just a few seconds. Truly, a moment of its time.

The Buenos Aires video made me think of that moment at Old Trafford when Chesterfield equalised against Middlesbrough. They’re both products of its time. The moment between my dad and I took a few days to be seen by anyone. Once the photos from the disposable camera had been developed, the audience of course was still very small and personal. A treasured family moment to commemorate our own little experience of an incredible moment for the town we lived in. The image ended up being placed on a mug which still has pride of place in my parents’ drinks cabinet in the living room.

I don’t know how quickly the person on his bicycle uploaded his video. There’s every chance they uploaded it to wherever they wanted to on the internet straight away. So within minutes of Argentina winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the reaction from this area of Buenos Aires was already available to see instantly from pretty much anyone in the world. It could well have garnered tens of thousands of views within the first hour of being uploaded online. In 1997, the internet was still in its infancy. As David Bowie once said in a Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman in 1999, 'I don't think we've even seen the tip of the iceberg. I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable.'

At the time of writing, the internet stands at a real crossroads moment with the increase of misinformation and growing dependency on AI. Despite this, it is still capable of creating a remarkable documentation of history like the Buenos Aires video which can now be immortalised on the world wide web.

The Buenos Aires video was a precursor to writing this book you now have in your hands.

Some people may have wondered why a book has been written about something fairly niche. Does this really appeal to anyone outside Chesterfield supporters? My argument is that it does.

It displays sport at its very best. A true underdog story. Drama that just can’t be scripted.

The timing of the cup run is also very important. It happened in the age of the internet, but before the medium truly exploded and changed, well, everything. Perhaps I’m being blinded a little by nostalgia, but the 1990s also felt like a very exciting time to live in culturally. This was of course the era of Britpop and Girl Power. MTV actually showed music videos. Alternative acts, guitar-driven acts and electronic-driven acts were constantly in the charts alongside pop music.

In regards to football, the time of Chesterfield’s FA Cup run arrived when the domestic game in England had confidence and swagger. It was changing incredibly quickly before people’s eyes.

Chesterfield’s cup run started only a few months after Euro 96. It was a feel-good tournament with a number of iconic moments that was held during a gloriously hot summer. For England of course, it felt like the entire nation was gripped by the quest of ending 30 years of hurt. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Euro 96 was a true watershed moment for English football. Supporting England became fun again. It was an event. It also resulted in the beginning of the Premier League becoming a truly global product. The arrival of foreign superstars grew incredibly quickly and the evolution of top tier football morphing from a sport into a business was set in motion.

From 1996 to 1997, in my eyes anyway, the Football League continued to be a sport. At the time of writing, I feel like this is very much not the case anymore. The top four tiers now feels like a business rather than a sport. The whole landscape of media coverage has changed beyond recognition in some areas. I think that’s one reason why non-league football has never been so popular as it is now. If you go down the pyramid far enough, you start to see the working-class game again rather than the middle-class product.

After thinking about all of this, I made the decision to write this book.

For me, it’s the closest way of going back in time to a barely believable moment for the club and town. It’s something that I felt needed documenting in detail, so that it can be referred to by Spireites fans young and old. For readers who are not Chesterfield fans, it’s a reminder of what following a football team was like back in the 1990s. Especially a lower-league side. For both sets of people, this is an underdog tale so unexpected, it may very well never happen again. It’s a classic story elevated by the fact that this isn’t fiction.

It simply can’t be understated just how different supporting your football club was in 1996/97 to what it is now. The same can be said of the significance itself of the FA Cup competition.

This book (hopefully!) will give you an enjoyable, nostalgic ride back in time. A snapshot series of moments documenting a very special series of moments for a very special football club. A look back to explain why this cup run was so significant and why it continues to appeal to new generations of supporters.

Throughout the chapters, we’ll hear from a number of the Spireites players who wore the club crest with pride during this incredible cup run. We’ll hear from a variety of Chesterfield fans who witnessed these remarkable moments and also from local media personalities about their memories and experiences of a back page story that grew into a front page story.

Who knows, maybe we will even hear from a certain referee?

This is the story of how Chesterfield Football Club almost achieved the unthinkable.

At the time of writing, copies of A Fine Line are being sold at the Chesterfield FC club shop and at the Waterstones shop in Chesterfield's town centre.

The book is also available to purchase online via Waterstones, Amazon and the Pitch Publishing website.

Matthew will also be holding a book signing session at the Waterstones shop in Chesterfield's town centre on Saturday 8th August from 12-2pm. Waterstones will be selling copies of the book on the day and will also allow people to take in a previously bought copy to get it signed by the author.

RRP £19.99