THE life story of footballer Phil Stant is a world away from today's multi-millionaire players. Neil Bonnar talks to the author of a new autobiography, "Ooh Ah Stantona"

THOSE who agree with Bill Shankly that football is more important than life or death should read Phil Stant's autobiography.

Indeed, anyone with a love of football, a strong stomach and a tolerance of strong language should read the story - "Ooh Ah Stantona" - of this Boltonian's remarkable life.

Phil Stant isn't your typical footballer. That is, of course, unless your typical footballer has been to war.

The silver spoon life enjoyed by many soccer stars is a totally foreign concept to Stant.

His goalscoring record stands comparison with any striker's - 170 in 373 starts for 12 league clubs. That's a lot of appearances for a man who only came into the game at the age of 24 after being bought out of the army by Hereford.

Stant loved his seven years in the army. He came from a broken home with no money, no central heating and no indoor toilet, but with a loving mother and sister who also went on to join the army.

His father left home when he was seven. But, before he left, his dad sowed the seeds of his son's love of football, taking young Phil to Burnden Park where the youngster would sit in the car from 12.15pm until 2.50pm with a bottle of cola and a bag of crisps while his dad sat drinking with his mates in the pub across the road from Burnden - sometimes not bothering to leave the pub to go to the match at all.

It was at Burnden that Stant scored his first goal, his dad lifting him over the fence at half time to make his way on to the pitch to kick a paper cup into the back of the net to the cheers of fans behind the Embankment End before he was chased off the pitch by the groundsman.

Plenty more goals were to follow and there was also nearly a major transfer to his beloved Bolton.

The book is a full and frank account of his life as a footballer - the many fights, bust-ups, goals and glory days culminating in his one and only appearance at Wembley.

Stant was no angel as a kid and he neither hides nor makes excuses for his bad behaviour.

Every line is an open and honest account of his life from his childhood at 14 Grasmere Street where the family lived on the poverty line in a two-up, two-down terraced house he remembers was classed as derelict. Football was always his first love. Fighting was up there, too. The two became a major part of his life after joining the army at 17 where he proved himself as both a soldier and a football player, as well as learning about discipline which was to stand him in good stead in the future.

Shortly after joining up, Stant learned all about the horrors of war as he fought on the front line in the Falklands.

His description of the war is graphic and gripping but, like the rest of the book, so well written that the reader is immersed in the battle.

A feature of the book is how exceptionally well it is put down on paper. In contrast to most sporting autobiographies, the credit for this goes to the man himself as Stant took the bold step of writing every word instead of opting for a ghost writer.

He describes himself in the book as "never any good academically". The book argues otherwise.

A ghost writer would never have been as hard on him as he has been on himself. And it is this honesty and the fluency of its telling that makes it such a challenge to put the book down.

Stant will best be remembered by football fans (except the one he punched at Hereford) for his goals: one constant stream of them from the moment he scored a hat-trick in his first game after turning professional - an achievement which brought him unexpected national acclaim.

"It was headline news on the Nine o'clock News and News At Ten," he says. "The story was about a Falklands soldier who had scored on his league debut."

After a season managing Lincoln City on a shoestring budget, Stant was sacked and learned about the harsh realities of management when all his impressive coaching certificates failed to get him as much as an interview at 49 out of 50 clubs he wrote to for a job.

At 43, he is now working for the Football League, has careers in the army and football of which he can be proud and a self-written autobiography of it all which is absolutely superb.

Ooh Ah Stantona

(Published by John Blake, £17.99)