The Halcyon Podcast

We Lose Every Week author Andrew Lawn is joined by Football Cliche's Adam Hurrey to discuss myriad elements of football chanting: including but not limited to origins, tunefulness, relevance, outlook and favourites. Get your copy of We Lose Every Week from us at Halcyon Publishing and check out Adam's excellent Football Cliches podcast on the Athletic

Andy reads another extract from We Lose Every Week, focusing on the origins, humour and art of self-deprecating football chanting.

A fascinating extract from We Lose Every Week, read by Andy Lawn, covering the naming, evolution and singing of Liverpool's famous Kop End.

It's another Halcyon podcast mini-series and in this one, we're focusing on the brilliant We Lose Every Week by Andrew Lawn. We Lose Every Week is a history of football chanting, from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century to its growth across the game and its effect on the people, clubs and societies in which it takes place. In this episode, Andy reads from the introduction of th...

An exclusive chat with Jonathan and The Stadio Podcast's Ryan Hunn.

An exclusive audio chapter from Soul: Beyond the Athlete, read by Jonathan Harding.

An exclusive audio chapter from Soul: Beyond the Athlete, read by Jonathan Harding.

Welcome back to the Halcyon podcast and more specifically to another exclusive mini-series in which we're (re-)introducing the magnificent 'Soul: Beyond the Athlete' by Jonathan Harding. Soul investigates how much football cares about developing the person as much as the player, and (spoiler alert!) how much more there is to do to address the real cost of being in football and the u...

Ad and Rob are joined by polymath, brilliant footballer, writer and broadcaster Pat Nevin for a thoroughly enjoyable chat for which we had loads of questions written down, but ultimately asked none of them (that's a good thing, honest). We talk to Pat about the latter part of his football career, most notably his time as a player AND Chief Executive at Motherwell. There's a lovely meande...

Joining Rob and Adam on this episode of the Halcyon Podcast is two-time William Hill Sports Book of the Year and THREE-time Sports Interviewer of the Year Don McRae, who very kindly put up with us/being on the other side of the mic for a little while. Don talks to us about his upbringing and routes into football and boxing growing up in South Africa, his move to London to 'be a writer',...

Rob and Adam sit down with commentating legend (and the gaming purists' favourite) Jon Champion for a hugely enjoyable and engaging chat, covering everything from escaping the orchestra to be with York City, to the 2026 World Cup, and a lot of stuff in between. Jon tells us about his unlikely journey into the commentary box and we discuss the life and times of a commentator alongside other di...

Rob and Adam are joined by podcaster, writer and author Sam Delaney for a comprehensive journey through football fandom past, present and future (albeit not necessarily in that order). We discuss Sam's lifetime of supporting West Ham, the fan experience or otherwise at London Stadium and our favourite topic, 'legacy fans'. Sam also talks to us about his illustrious writing career an...

Ad and Rob are joined by football writer and author Ian Plenderleith to kick off a special series of podcast episodes inspired by Ian's latest book, Reffing Hell . As well as this interview, we're posting a series of exclusive audio chapters from Reffing Hell, in which Ian documents the (occasional) highs and (very much more frequent) lows of being a referee in amateur football. The inte...

Danny, Part 1: An exclusive audio chapter from Reffing Hell, read by author Ian Plenderleith. Click here for your copy

Danny, Part 2: An exclusive audio chapter from Reffing Hell, read by author Ian Plenderleith. Click here for your copy

Danny, Part 3: An exclusive audio chapter from Reffing Hell, read by author Ian Plenderleith. Click here for your copy

Danny, Part 4: An exclusive audio chapter from Reffing Hell, read by author Ian Plenderleith. Click here for your copy

Danny, Part 5: An exclusive audio chapter from Reffing Hell, read by author Ian Plenderleith. Click here for your copy

Come on you reds: An exclusive audio chapter from Reffing Hell, read by author Ian Plenderleith. Click here for your copy

No cards on Valentine's Day: An exclusive audio chapter from Reffing Hell, read by author Ian Plenderleith. Click here for your copy

Putting out fires: An exclusive audio chapter from Reffing Hell, read by author Ian Plenderleith. Click here for your copy

Needy ref: An exclusive audio chapter from Reffing Hell, read by author Ian Plenderleith. Click here for your copy

The final instalment of our Reffing Hell series of podcasts sees some unprecedented ref/writer on ref/writer action as Ashley Hickson-Lovence, author of the phenomenal Your Show , joins Ian Plenderleith, author of the equally brilliant Reffing Hell , for a chat about... well, reffing and writing. It's another must-listen as Ian and Ashley discuss their experiences of being the lone man in the...

In quite the turn up for the books, Adam* is joined by double European Cup winner (as player), multiple trophy winner at Wycombe Wanderers, Leicester City and Celtic, raconteur and all-round football legend Martin O’Neill.  Martin explains what made him love football (Gaelic and soccer) in the first place, playing against Barcelona for Distillery in 1971 that led to the move to Nottingham Forest t...

Rob and Adam are joined by Simon Hart, author of the fabulous ' World in Motion: The Inside Story of Italia 90 ' and 'Against All Odds' contributor, to talk about Cameroon's famous victory over Diego Maradona's World Cup-holding Argentina in Milan in 1990 - possibly the most extraordinary result in World Cup history and certainly one of the most extraordinary opening...