An ex-professional footballer and England Youth International, Mike Di Placido’s debut pamphlet takes its title from his magical trial with Manchester United in the early seventies. His time there is warmly recorded in snapshots of Messrs. Busby, Stiles, Law and, not least, his fourth person of The Trinity, George Best.

After peddling his soccer wares from York City to Australia and New Zealand, Mike returned to study, eventually taking an MA in Poetry while working as a househusband.

Mike lives in Seamer, North Yorkshire, with his wife and two daughters. Mike was was shortlisted for The Bridport Prize in 2010.

His latest collection A Sixty-Watt Las Vegas (Valley Press) was published in 2013.Mike’s poem, One for the Road was published in the tPb’s anthology in 2017 (Smith/Doorstop).

He has been a judge in tPb’s World Cup Poetry Competition in 2010 and also The Poetry Space Competition in 2017. Mike was also a winner in The Yorkshire Poetry prize, 2016.