“Basinsgtoke Town FC-The team for me!”

Liam Harding who hosted News at Drive and Surround Sports during the 2023/24 season has released a title called “Basinsgtoke Town FC-The team for me!” which goes beyond the stories and events of his hometown club.

The Solent University Sports Journalism graduate documents the ups and downs of Southampton in recent seasons including his experiences of watching The Saints relegated twice from the Premier League and earning promotion from the Championship in 2024 in the playoffs at Wembley.

The Hampshire football advocate has also documented his travels of watching local Southampton Non-League clubs including Sholing, AFC Totton and Eastleigh throughout his 443 page adventure.

He attended Eastleigh’s 2024 FA Cup replay versus Newport of League Two who they narrowly lost to 1-3 in the third round on a night which could’ve seen history made for the Spitfires.

On top of that he witnessed one of Sholing's biggest away wins in recent years when the Boatmen trounced Basingstoke 6-1 whilst he was the Dragons matchday announcer during the 2019/20 season.

Mr Harding who spent three years writing the book said he’s more than just a Basingstoke fan:” I love football in general as well as writing, I’d always wanted to publish a book about watching the sport which I’ve seen a lot of in the past ten years across Hampshire and England generally speaking.

“I’m very proud to say that I’ve watched and written about the times before AFC Totton and Sholing were both taken over by mega businessmen, and can recall when both sides were just about holding on in Division One South, as well as having stuck with Saints in recent years seeing them relegated twice from the Premier League accepting it for what it is.

“It’s funny to think that in the past decade a lot has happened in the Southampton footballing world from Football league all the way down to Non-League which I have now officially recorded for history sake.”

In the book Liam mentions the process he participated in during the re-designing of The Emirates Stadium banners in 2022-2023 with his grandfather, Saints player Ted Drake included in the Remember Who You Are banner with him hanging out of a window of Highbury where Arsenal used to play.

He also goes into depth about how he managed to sort out a Remembrance plaque at Arsenals old ground for his Great Grandad 29 years on following his death.

The book can be brought on Kindle from Amazon Marketplace.