An ex-footballer turned journalist has written a book about the cult heroes of a former rival club.

David McVay, who played for Notts County during the 1970s, has used his extensive contacts book to write Forest's Cult Heroes.

The collection contains stories and interviews with 20 terrace favourites from Nottingham Forest.

Among those featured are legends Viv Anderson, Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce and John Robertson.

Also included is spiky-haired striker Jason Lee who gained infamy because of his "pineapple" hairdo and constant mocking by comics David Baddiel and Frank Skinner.

Other players featured are Ian Storey-Moore, Stan Collymore and Henry Newtown.

David, (52), turned to journalism after retiring from football and worked at the Nottingham Evening Post during the 1980s and 1990s.

He said: "I have done two or three books before and have been covering football since I joined the Nottingham Evening Post in 1983.

"The guy who previously published a book of mine has a series of books called Cult Heroes. I know a lot of the Forest players and he said 'Do you fancy doing it?'

"I have a little bit of first-hand knowledge so we agreed on the idea in February and I spent a frantic summer researching it."

David added: "The nice thing was that most of the players were very approachable.

"They have that down-to-earth quality and that's what makes them cult heroes.

"Jason Lee was not the best player but he built a cult status because he didn't let it (Baddiel and Skinner's mocking) get him down."

David, who still lives near the city, now works as a freelancer, writing a regular column about lower league football for the Daily Telegraph – something he also hopes to turn into a book.

As well as turning out for Notts County, he also played for Peterborough United and Lincoln City, as well as a brief loan spell with Torquay United and time at Cumberland FC, when it was a league club.

His other books include Notts County FC, a history of the Magpies, The Complete Centre Forward, a definitive biography of Tommy Lawton, which he co-wrote with Andy Smith, and the best-selling Steak Diana Ross; Diary of a Football Nobody, the reminiscences of a journeyman.

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