Those who know me will be well aware of my fascination with football and small countries (and even micronations - though that's another story).One person who actually brought these two topics together is Charlie Connelly. He wrote a book called Stamping Grounds which traced the fortunes of the Liechtenstein football team.
Unfortunately, Liechtenstein failed to win any of the games covered by Connelly's intrepid adventures. If I recall, the book did not cover the momentous 0-0 draw with the Republic of Ireland which effectively put an end to Jack Charlton's illustrious reign as Ireland's manager.
However, I was delighted to read that Liechtenstein managed to beat Latvia in a European qualifier last night. Mario Frick, star of "Stamping Grounds", scored the only goal of the game.
Having read 'stamping grounds' I know exactly what the victory will mean to the principality's struggling football authority, although the Liechtenstein media coverage in of the shock has been characteristically underwhelming. This report in Liechtensteiner Varterland is the best I could find.
Charlie Connelly's other books include 'Attention all shipping', which is based on the brilliant idea of visiting every area of the BBC Shipping Forecast. Personally, I found the book a bit slow and disjointed.
However, I've just been given his other book, "In search of Elvis" for my birthday and I look forward to seeing if I enjoy this as much as I did "Stamping Grounds".
