A book that follows Cardiff City Football Club’s road to Premier League promotion has been published by a Caerphilly man.
Caerphilly local and Cardiff City Football Club Media Editor, Mark Denham, compiled and wrote the book ‘On To Glory’, which tells the story of Cardiff City FC’s 2012/13 Championship winning season.
He said: “It was nice to be given the opportunity to put the book together and assume the role of editor, especially considering the history made by the squad this summer.
“It’s been really enjoyable and it’s something that’s come together as a result of the Club’s efforts. A lot of people behind the scenes helped make the book the worthy publication that I hope it is.
“Primarily the club wanted to commemorate the season with something that’s going to stand the test of time, something to put on the shelf.”
The book follows the nine month long battle for promotion, drawing from the events of the 2012/13 season.
Mark described how he tackled the task, saying: “It’s easier to take on a project when writing about a positive thing. The book has a celebratory theme and I’m just channeling the emotions that I felt, so in that respect it came quite naturally. I’m passionate about it so it was really enjoyable, but putting together the story of nine months is fairly time consuming.”
The 29 year-old was a St Martin’s School pupil before going on to study for a Masters in Political Theory at Cardiff University and still spends a lot of time with his family and friends in Caerphilly.
He said: “I’ve always been a City fan. As a nine year-old I went down and watched my first game at Ninian Park, so it’s been a nice journey and one that I look forward to continuing.”
Malaysian-owned Cardiff City were promoted to the Premier League in April of this year, and were last promoted to the old First Division of the Football League exactly 53 years earlier, on 16 April 1960.
Mark said: “Going up was surreal. Malky’s side had been at the top of the table since November so we always felt like we had momentum pushing forward.
“It was a great feeling – I’ll always remember the pitch celebrations the night we secured promotion.
“I’m sure we can compete in the Premier League. The squad and Club have bags of confidence and we’re not in the top flight to just make up numbers, everybody involved wants to make an impact. A lot of us felt like it could never happen 20 years ago, so it’s a privilege to have this opportunity. We’re very excited about next season.”
‘On To Glory’ is available in all good bookshops.