Why a friendly dragon was helping with a new launch at Helston's bookshop

Anyone passing through the top of Helston town centre on Saturday may have been curious as to the presence of a green dragon wearing a Helston Athletic top.

Peering into the window of The Bookshop in Helston, at the top of Meneage Street, the creature was not a second coming of the town’s legendary dragon slayed by St Michael but instead a reference to an event taking place inside.

Helston Athletic FC’s director of football Steve Massey was launching his latest book, Trials, Tribulations…Triumphs? with the help of club chairman Paul Hendy, some of the younger first team players and of course 'Dreckly' the dragon – the Athletic strip featuring Helston’s dragon in its logo. They also brought along the league trophy to the launch.

Money from the book's sales via The Bookshop in Helston will go to the Helston Lizard Foodbank, with the club regular supporters of the Mustard Seed.

It is Massey’s third book to be published, following his autobiography Where’s My Towel? and then Life’s A Pitch, an in-depth look at 12 topical elements of the game, such as VAR and artificial pitches, and how they have changed the sport, from the past, the present – and with his predictions for the future.

Co-written with Rodney Marshall, Trials, Tribulations…Triumphs? records a year-in-the-life of a non-league football club, as a diary of the 2023-24 season – and Massey couldn’t have picked a better season for drama.

Massey launched the book with the help of chairman Paul Hendy and some of the younger first team members (Image: Helston Packet)

The book begins in June 2023, just days after the close of the 2022-23 season that saw Athletic achieve its longest ever FA Cup run – winning the Cornwall FA’s Senior Cup for the first time since 1936/37 and reaching the third qualifying round of the national FA Cup.

However, Massey already has his sights set on the following season – declaring the “clear and stated goal” as promotion from the Western League Premier Division to Step 4 of the non-league ladder, the Southern League Division 1 South.

As we all now know, that dream was achieved in a “fairy tale ending” to both the season – and the book.

“The nice bit, which everyone wants - that feel good factor - is that we were successful at the end,” Massey told the Packet.

Helston crowned league champions (Image: JQ Photography)

Of course nothing worth gaining comes easily, and the dream ending was not achieved without a few trials and tribulations first, as the book title suggests – including a neck-and-neck race to the finish line with Falmouth Town to come top of the league. (In the event both teams qualified for Step 4, Falmouth beating Clevedon Town 2-0 in the play-offs.)

“As Rodney was doing the book we lost at Wellington with about four games to go, which swayed it towards Falmouth – Rodney was saying, ‘It’s not good for the book!’,” laughed Massey, before going on to add: “It all finished off with a fairytale ending though.”

READ NEXT: Helston Athletic crowned league champions at final match of the season

Other difficulties came in the form of one of the wettest February in record for non-league football.

“February was just a washout,” recalled Massey. “We had one game, which was a cup game and it was monsoon conditions we played in. We didn’t then play for 35 days.”

The first team continued to train twice a week, however, with manager Matt Cusack setting them a rigorous training schedule to keep fitness levels up – something that could well have helped lead to their ultimate league success.

Athletic were also the only team in the league to score 100 goals in the past season.

Trials, Tribulations…Triumphs? is available in both paperback (£9.99) and hardback (£16.99) at The Bookshop in Helston and online via Amazon.