Trivia

The club chairman's first name is spelled both 'Laurence' and 'Lawrence' within the same novels, sometimes within the same chapter. The character does not appear to notice.

The assistant coach and murderer Eddie Carberry is also referred to as Eddie Carbury throughout Striker!. Given that Barnes describes him as 'immediately suspicious', it is possible that the alias is load-bearing.

All three books are narrated in the first person by Steve Barnes. This means that the man who found a stabbed body while holding the knife, who was handcuffed to a radiator during an Interpol operation, and who is described as 'culpable for at least one death', is also the sole narrator of events. The reader is invited to draw their own conclusions about reliability.

Upon entering Shannon's office, Barnes observes: 'On his desk was a PC. A personal computer, not a police constable.' This is the only joke in the trilogy. It appears in Striker! and is not repeated, presumably because it could not be improved upon.

In Defender!, Barnes enlists an English teacher to analyse the anonymous blackmailer's linguistic style. The English teacher is revealed on the final page to be the blackmailer. Barnes had presumably not considered asking what the English teacher was doing on the day the blackmail letter was sent.

Barnes discovers the body of Pat Duffy in the Leddersford Town changing room while holding the murder weapon. The novel does not dwell on why he was holding it. The police appear to accept his explanation without significant follow-up questions.

The coroner's report on Sam Milton, the Leddersford groundskeeper, identifies him as 'a Slav'. This is treated as a significant forensic finding. It is, in retrospect, an understatement: Sam Milton is Stefan Dušan, a Yugoslavian war criminal who faked his own death. The coroner was not wrong, but was perhaps underselling the situation.

Barnes describes Eddie Carberry, the killer, as 'immediately suspicious' on their first meeting. The mystery nonetheless continues for another hundred pages.

Barnes slide-tackles an Interpol agent. He may or may not have been handcuffed to a radiator at the time. Barnes does not clarify this point, and the Interpol agent does not file a complaint.

The climax of Sweeper! sees Barnes bring down Drago Mihajlović — a Yugoslavian warlord connected to war crimes, British intelligence, and Israeli Nazi hunters — using a slide tackle. This is treated as a proportionate and effective response.

Steve Barnes won the European Cup as a player. This is mentioned in passing and used as a character credential, rather than as the defining achievement of a man's life that it would be for virtually anyone else on earth.

Barnes is described as being in 'excellent physical condition, except when muddled with influenza.' The qualifier does meaningful work in this trilogy.

While Barnes is abroad investigating war crimes in Sweeper!, assistant manager Jock Durham remains at Leddersford Town to manage a squad that includes multiple active heroin users. Durham guides them to a promotion push. This subplot is presented as the B-story.

In the climactic promotion match of Defender!, Leddersford Town trail 0-2 at half time without their star defender, who is in Brazil. They win 5-2. The star defender returns from Brazil in time to play the second half. The logistics of an intercontinental flight are not addressed.

Pat Duffy, the murder victim of Striker!, wears the number 13 shirt. Steve Bruce is not known for subtlety.

Sam Milton — the groundskeeper who is secretly a Yugoslavian war criminal — is shot dead six pages before the end of Sweeper!, a 128-page book. This represents a fairly compressed denouement.

Leddersford Town's star defender is named Pedro Alvares Cabral di Sao Raimundo — after the Portuguese explorer who discovered Brazil. He is from Brazil. He goes missing in Defender! and is found in Brazil. The naming was not accidental.

During the investigation in Striker!, Barnes notes that 'it was clear from his words, his manner, that Terry Causton was no ladies' man.' The relevance of this observation to the murder of Pat Duffy is left as an exercise for the reader.

Club secretary Julie is described as patching a call through to Harry Pickles from Steve's mobile phone, 'presumably through some kind of central switchboard.' Barnes does not pursue this line of inquiry.

Susan Barnes has not yet realised, across three novels, that Steve has to work over Christmas. This is not addressed in the text.