“In WSC 251 (January 2008) Jon Spurling braced himself for a festive football hangover. Along with communal baths, a crafty drag on a cigarette in the toilets, and swigging a bottle of brown ale with the lads, Christmas parties are entwined in the fabric of English football. ‘The players have talked of little else for weeks,’ confided Ian Rush – dressed in Beefeater garb for Liverpool’s bash – to a BBC reporter in 1992. ‘All the lads have made the effort to dress up,’ added Rushie, as Bruce ‘The Joker’ Grobbelaar and John ‘Dick Turpin’ Barnes staggered past clutching empty Grolsch bottles.” (WSC)