I've just finished this and initially felt a little disappointed. As a Terry Pratchett fanatic I loved it to start with but the ending left me a little bit flat.

Mainly it was the lack of consistency with regard to the importance of football to the people of the city. - Trev's famous because of his father, you have to wear your scarf to support your area's team even if you don't like football, the crowd has a name and a personality all of its own - it's important enough that 'community leaders' are angry enough to take on wizards over it. But where was it before?

Usually we get a throw away mention in some previous book that gives the new book some grounding in the Discworld and to make it familiar. For example it wasn't surprising that there was a relic of a Post Office - it already had a place in the world before Going Postal.

But the only mention of football I can remember is in Jingo - mainly Carrot getting two armies to play instead of fight.

This Morporkian tradition I don't think has ever been mentioned before - not the watch patroling after a match, do the dwarfs and trolls play too? you'd think Dibbler would be there all the time to sell 'pies'. We've spent enough time in Vimes' head and know about his childhood on Cockbill street yet he has never thought about it even though they appear to have a team (IIRC?)

It's been a long time since a Discworld book has seemed a little out of place with the rest of the world. But now I know what's bugging me I'm going to reread it straight away and will probably enjoy it a lot more.

I was glad to see that Oats still had his axe though and loved the wizards!