People who know me will be well aware of my predilection for pies.

In Homer Simpson style, mmm pies. I love them.

The toshiest away game can often be rescued by the quality of the fodder on offer in the kiosk.

After a few years, you even start judging another ground by the pies rather than the football.

It could easily become an obsession – take a look at the expanding waistline – so it’s reassuring to find out that there are others who share a similar pleasure for pastry.

Norwich fan William Barr is one of them, as you soon discover when flicking through his superb book about life in League Two.

Fed up with the commercialised planet that used to be top-flight football, he decided to spend a season following the proper game. Hence his review of last season, Real Football, Real Fans.

He calls it a journey to the heart of football. And he munches a pie virtually every step of the way.

Barr’s book is essentially a series of match reports from every ground in the division. But it is more than that.

As well as supplying some interesting snippets of local history – the fables behind Chesterfield’s crooked spire I may well lift shamelessly when City go there – Barr also compiles his own unofficial league tables of club pies.

As an aficionado, this drew me in straight away.

April’s hike to Dagenham & Redbridge has suddenly become a much-anticipated affair following Barr’s ten-out-of-ten recommendation for the Brook Pie and Mash shop (800 yards off Rainsford Road, if you’re taking notes). My personal favourite, Bury, came in a narrow second.

There is plenty for City fans to enjoy, although they failed to win any of the three games he witnessed. Barr actually kicked off the season with the Macclesfield match at Valley Parade, judging the chicken balti with a disappointing five.

Maybe he was a bit harsh with it being opening day. Like the players, the catering cooks need a few games to get into their stride.

Barr also lauds Stuart McCall’s mullet – “one of the very finest in football” during his playing days.

He points out that it has been toned down to suit McCall’s managerial status but “while a shadow of its former glory, it still remains. McCall must have learned the lessons from what happened to messrs Hoddle and Waddle”.

Football books about the lower leagues can come across as smug and patronising. Barr totters on the line occasionally but his genuine love of the game – and the pies – wins through.

Well worth tucking in to.

  • Real Football, Real Fans is published by Morrow & Co.