Attack! Attack! Attack! - The Story of Football, Business & War 10 years on

By Malcolm Robinson

One of Afghanistan’s first books remembered 10 years on in new eBook

In 2007, Airman Mal Robinson kept a diary of his time with the RAF in Kandahar, Afghanistan. That diary was published and the book “From Afghanistan to Temazepam” was born. It charted his time in the war zone, coinciding with his football team, Sunderland AFC’s rise from the ashes under then manager, Roy Keane.

Ten years on and Mal has just about seen it all.

Attack! Attack! Attack! covers three main elements of his life – football, business and the military.

He goes into detail about his time in the services since his first time in Afghanistan, which saw him revisit the war torn country once more, along with a stint in Iraq, not to mention the consequences of war.

In the business section, Robinson charts his time on leaving the RAF in 2011, including his time in Sierra Leone as Security and Communications Director, as part of the UK Government’s response to the Ebola crisis in 2015.

Finally, Robinson reflects on his fortunate association with his passion of football throughout the years from being Editor-in-Chief for Media73’s range of football magazines to becoming Sports Editor for ncj Media’s Tyneside titles – The Chronicle, Sunday Sun and The Journal.

An emotional rollercoaster of tales from all three sectors, Robinson proves that at times, life is stranger than fiction. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Malcolm Robinson
• Release date: Feb 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386342731

Book preview

Mal Robinson – About the Author

Mal Robinson is the current Editor of Pathfinder International magazine – the resettlement magazine for the UK Armed Forces.

Robinson was previously in the RAF as a Movements Controller in the field of Logistics, moving into Business Development.

He has served 2 tours in Afghanistan and 1 in Iraq and served in Cyprus, Jordan, Canada, Macedonia and Kosovo amongst other places.

Robinson left the RAF in 2011 to become a Logistics Director in Kabul, before becoming Managing Director and Editor for a magazine publishing company, then Sports Editor for Trinity Mirror, Security Director in Sierra Leone for the Ebola crisis, where he was awarded the Ebola medal.

Robinson wrote one of the first books on the modern conflict in Afghanistan (From Afghanistan to Temazepam) as well as being involved with 5 other book projects from self publisher to project editor.

FOREWORD

May you live in interesting times – allegedly ancient Chinese curse.

In the seven years since I met the author, it is fair to say that the proverbial ambivalence of the above quote, be it curse or blessing, has occupied centre stage. Mal is not big on the humdrum and changes of location, country, career and direction are the norm. Boredom, to be fair, is seldom an issue.

We came into collaboration via the launch of Seventy3 magazine through a shared passion for SAFC and a track record of believing what we had to say about it was worth putting into print. I remain proud of what was produced, not to mention quality spin-off projects like League Cup final magazines, talk-ins, a book and Rangers and England publications.

If seven days is a long time in politics, seven years in the insane asylum which is SAFC smacks of having been a little clumsy with a looking-glass. The magazine was launched at what now seems a golden era of success and stability. As this book is published, the very future of the club hangs by a thread, the scissors in the hands of an enigmatic American billionaire; a bit like the fate of the free world, now I come to think of it.

As I write, vultures are not so much circling the club as stacked above the Stadium of Light in a holding pattern. I launched Wise Men Say magazine over thirty years ago at a time of similar existential crisis, SAFC in Division Three and, were I doing so now, knowing where to start with the sorry mess we see now would be the problem, not to mention those pesky libel laws.

I was pleased to be asked to contribute this brief foreword to what is a rapid race through ten years’ worth of tears and laughter and not a little beer to oil the wheels. More importantly, given Mal’s energy and creative impulse, there are more projects in the pipeline which 2018 should see come to the market. This, of course, supposes another armed conflict or epidemic does not arise requiring his relocation to another dangerous territory. I don’t mean Hendon by the way.

As advised by the immortal Doctor HS Thompson, tickets have certainly been bought and rides taken, regardless of a little uncertainty about the destination or smoothness of the trip. There is more to come.

Jim Fox.

Seventy3 Magazine Editor & Founder Member, Wise Men Say.

Prologue (Writing From Afghanistan To Temazepam)

I remember receiving the package out in Kandahar, one of several I would receive a week on tour out there, thanks to the efforts of my family. I was probably a drain on the Royal Mail’s Force’s mail system at the time, such was the amount of parcels and letters (known as ‘Blueys’ in Armed Forces’ circles, thanks to the blue envelope) I would be sent.

Anyhow, inside this package was a book entitled 24 Hour SAFC People – a collection of short stories by Sunderland AFC fans, on Sunderland AFC and their memories of supporting the club. This was a special book and moment for me, as my short story had made the collection and I had for the first time, my work featured and published inside a book, a real book with pages and words and all that.

My story was about 10 pages long and the account was based on my one time of sitting as a Sunderland fan in the Newcastle United end for a North East derby. The chapter, Rebelling against my Religion seemed to go down well, even the parts in which I was required to sit still, head in hands, when Sunderland opened the scoring through then centre forward, Kevin Phillips and even worse, the fact I’d have to celebrate the home side’s equaliser, from Craig Bellamy. It was a lesson, I’d learn the hard way, never to attend such a game in the wrong end again.

I was of course bursting with pride, my literary efforts had made the cut and been published. The rest of the lads I was out with in Afghanistan at the time were delighted for me and each and every one of them took the time to flick through my ten pages. So much so in fact, if you dig out my one and only copy of the book to this day, you will find a thumbed, dirty section in the middle of the book ends, where folk have read my bit.

It was from here, the idea of actually writing a full book came to light and what better opportunity did I have, then my time serving my country with the Royal Air Force in Afghanistan in 2006/07? I had been keeping a diary anyway since I had arrived in October 2006, I am not sure why, it just kind of filled in the time, when lying in your bunk, a kind of time to chill and reflect on the madness of it all. I’d watched films and read books about the Soviet War in Afghanistan and now I was here in another war and at the height of it all in 2006.

At the same time, my football club, Sunderland, were starting to be noticed, creeping up the league (the second tier of English football) from bottom place, in which they found themselves at my time of departure for Kandahar. Sunderland had been relegated from the Premier League in May 2006 with a record number of low points and found themselves in disarray and in danger of plummeting down the divisions. A new consortium, headed up by former player and club legend, Niall Quinn, had been formed and following a horrific start with Quinny acting as Chairman, Manager and probably Boot Boy, knowing him, the appointment of Irishman, Roy Keane, set the pulses going on Wearside.

And so the idea was born, for me to combine my so called war diary, with the emotions and feelings of watching a potential promotion push by your football club, 3,500 miles from home. The idea was put to Martyn McFadden, Editor of Sunderland fanzine, A Love Supreme and publishers of the short story book, I’d already been a part of and the answer came back, a resounding yes, go for it.

I was by now absolutely buzzing. Here I was on an operational tour with the RAF for the first time, in a crazy mad place, a war zone, just received a copy of my first published work inside a book and now working on my debut book.

I was of course not stupid enough to think that the deal was signed and sealed. Martyn would have to see the work I’d written and as it was now a war football book, Sunderland would need to play their part on the pitch and get us promoted in order to complete the perfect story.

I left Kandahar in February 2007, tired and confused as to why I had been there and what I had just gone through, questioning the sanity of it all every day. I was stationed in RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus and so caught a C130 Hercules flight from Afghanistan, via Qatar, to Cyprus.

Once back at my home base, I was given six weeks leave, which was handy for my book project, not so good in terms of too much time to question what had just happened. Still, it seemed like every spare moment I had, I would be sat in front of my laptop, the heat on the rise gradually with the Cypriot sun, as Sunderland headed for the summit of the league.

Notes I had done were fired over to the production team back home and they liked what was being sent. Sunderland obliged on the pitch so much so, I flew back for the last game of the season, away to Luton Town and a chance to seal promotion, with the added extra of being crowned Champions, still on the cards.

There were three of us who departed Wearside for Bedfordshire on tickets acquired through ill gained means (I'd