Tiny Keeper Steve Death, Record Breaker, Shy Genius and Maverick

The extraordinary story of Steve Death, once the shortest goalkeeper in the Football League – at just 5ft 7in. He was good enough to keep Peter Shilton out of the England Schoolboys side, yet spent his career in Divisions Three and Four and became a lower-league legend.

This tale of a shy genius, record-breaker and maverick covers:

• Death’s time as part of the legendary West Ham United academy under Ron Greenwood when he trained and played alongside World Cup-winning trio Sir Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and Bobby Moore
• How only his lack of height stopped him playing at the highest level
• How he carved out a brilliant career in Divisions Three and Four, playing 537 games for Reading and winning Player of the Year four times, on the first occasion while still on loan
• How in 1979 he set a Football League record for the longest run of clean sheets – that record still stands!
• His modest life outside of football, living quietly with his family in a club house at the old Elm Park ground
• Exclusive first-hand accounts from West Ham and Reading players, journalists, supporters and family members

Described on his debut as ‘an insignificantly built bundle of daredevil energy’, Death played without gloves, caught crosses one-handed and saved penalties instinctively. His remarkable story provides a fascinating insight into the lost world of 1970s lower-league football.

Alan Hester is an internationally published author of books on leadership, success and confidence, including Management Starts With You (2017) and Get Out Of Your Own Way (2018). His books have been translated into Chinese, Arabic and Greek and sold by Hachette in the USA. Tiny Keeper, a labor of love about a boyhood idol based on interviews with other heroes, is his first sports book.