Steve Book
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Steve Book (born 7 July 1969 in Bournemouth, Hampshire) is a former professional footballer now playing for Mangotsfield United. He is also the goalkeeping coach at his previous club Bristol Rovers.
The son of a former professional goalkeeper, Kim Book, and nephew of the former Manchester City manager Tony Book, Steve began his career on the South-West non league circuit with clubs such as Paulton Rovers, Welton Rovers, Frome Town and Weston-super-Mare. He moved on to Bath City and spent the initial part of the 1993/4 at Brighton without breaking into the first team though he did make a couple of appearances for Slough Town whilst on loan there. A change of management saw him return to the non-laegue scene with Frome Town before a period at Lincoln City where he was an unused substitute in a couple of League Cup ties in the 1994/95 season. In September 1994 he joined Forest Green Rovers, spending three years at the Nailsworth club before an £8,000 fee took him to Cheltenham Town in July 1997. He was the first choice goalkeeper at Cheltenham for seven years, leading them to promotion into the League, then into Nationwide Division 2 via the playoffs in 2002. His career at Cheltenham was marred by continual goalkeeping errors of schoolboy proportions, but equally could pull off match winning reflex saves.
He left Cheltenham in the summer of 2004 and joined Swindon Town. After a season at Swindon, Steve dropped out of the professional game and joined Cirencester Town whilst concentrating upon his coaching career. In October 2005 he replaced Phil Kite as the goalkeeping coach at Bristol Rovers, allowing Kite to concentrate fully on his role as physio, and in November 2005 signed non-contract terms with the club to provide experienced goalkeeping cover. As a player, he joined Mangotsfield in the summer of 2006 and on August 26 scored the first goal of his career when a sliced free-kick from his own area managed to outfox the Rugby Town goalkeeper.
