When diehard Sutton United supporter Johnnie Lowery got asked to write a 125th anniversary book for the club, little did he know that his hobby as a part-time football author would take off to new heights.
Following the League Two outfit at the VBS Community Stadium (Gander Green Lane to the locals) and on the road, Johnnie only missed two games across the whole of the season just gone – a winter World Cup an exceptionally good excuse. Dedicating his time like so many fans of football clubs across the country, the desire to support the team you know so well is evident when I met him on Zoom a few weeks ago for this piece.
This is Johnnie’s story where everything is Sutton United, but this is more than just watching and enjoying a football match.
Following on from publishing the 125th anniversary book on the club plus a second title called Six Added Minutes (more on this later), it’s the release of a third book that brings Johnnie to our conversation.
Marking Mental Health Awareness Month, Match Fit is the title of his new book – an exploration of mental health in football.
“There are 13 different chapters”, Johnnie kicks-off on, telling me about what the pages are all about. “Each is a different topic related to mental health in football such as discussing the role of managers, addiction, retirement and also supporters themselves, particularly drawing on the mentality of fans at now folded football club Bury”.
Speaking to former footballers such as goalkeeper turned coach Chris Kirkland and strikers Marcus Bent and Marvin Sordell, who retired aged 28 – many voices from the sport gave up their time to speak to raise awareness of mental health in football.
With plenty of substance and talking points included, Match Fit also carries a personal storyline for the author.
Speaking about how a a 4-0 Conference South defeat against St Albans City was his first game in 2005 and going onto his first season ticket in 2011, at a younger age Johnnie explains that he wouldn’t have a clue what mental health would have meant.
Nowadays he says that “football has been a big help with my mental health. When I first started going to games at 13 and approaching older years at 18 and 19, I had no idea what mental health was. It was a completely alien concept to me”.
“Looking back I was quite depressed a lot of the time when I just wouldn’t want to wake up in the morning, missing school and even on Sunday evenings I’d often cry my way to sleep. I genuinely had no idea what was wrong”.
Over time, coming out of a shell and doing incredible things as an unexpected author is what Johnnie is most proud about, especially now as he has a book connecting his personal experience and his love of the game, even if some may downplay the issue.
“Mental health is not a weakness in football”, Johnnie tells me. Speaking about anyone who seriously tries to diminish mental health as a non-issue Johnnie says “it’s frustrating and a lot of the time it’s a reluctance to learn and I’m hoping I can change people. What I want from the book is to be relatable and for people to learn and understand that mental health is there alongside physical health.
Other parts of the book talk about mentality as Johnnie explains an important point that “confusing mentality and mental health, doesn’t mean that someone talking about their mental health is not going to impact their performance on the pitch. Talking about it allows you to get help”.
In the book he’s spoken to Grenfell Athletic, there’s a discussion on the impact of lockdowns on football and the topic of academy players, particularly on the back of Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold’s readiness to help those who don’t make it as a footballer.
Retirement is one issue Johnnie explores further. “I do think clubs could do better on looking after players after retirement. I think the main thing my book can achieve is conversation. The more we understand the issues the more we can deal with them. Greater service provision is needed but that won’t be achieved by Match Fit”.
It is true that one book won’t change things overnight but there’s certainly a conversation to be had, where this isn’t the first book Johnnie has published on his own personal journey.
Talking about his second book called, Six Added Minutes: Anything can happen in football, you’d think it was all about Sutton United’s remarkable FA Cup run in 2016/17 where they made it to the fifth round to play Arsenal and beat Leeds United in round four, but actually there’s more to it.
“The book looks at the FA Cup since I started being a Sutton fan and learning about my life through football and then
leads onto the 2016-17 Cup run”, Johnnie says. “I never intended to have that published and I thought maybe only 30 people would read it. It’s almost like a personal memoir and for football fans generally it’s an underdog story”.
Getting recognition from broadcaster Jeremy Vine and his brother, comedian Tim Vine as a big Sutton United fan, with their reviews of Six Added Minutes on the front cover and blurb, Johnnie now has a hope that Match Fit can be mainstream.
“I have to thank everyone who spoke to me and gave up their time to open up to me as I could not have written the book without them. Thank you to the publishers and I’m grateful for them taking me on as an author and also my mum working as a proof-reader was an advantage!”
The best thing I find humbling and a privilege to speak with Johnnie is the dedication to this book. “I don’t expect to make a huge amount from the book and spending the last three months with dedication in the evening and Sunday’s to write the book – the only free time is at Sutton”.
Working hard to write a book that highlights why speaking out on mental health in football and including your own experiences, Match Fit can and should give more of us who love football more understanding on the topic.
Johnnie Lowery’s third book will be released on August 28th 2023. The publisher is Pitch Publishing and 15% of profits are going to Beder, a mental health and suicide prevention charity in Surrey.