Staying Up — Robert Swindells

Brian Gower is fifteen and supports Barfax Town soccer team. He does well in school but, living in a noisy overcrowded home where he can't study, wonders if it's worth the effort. Debbie likes Brian but she can't stand soccer and won't go to games with him. If her parents had their way, their daughter would never go out at all. She would sit in their spotless house watching "educational" TV.
This is a hard-hitting novel about teenagers growing up in a North of England industrial city depressed by unemployment and poverty. Many of their concerns and experiences will be familiar to American readers; some will be quite new. Like the local soccer team, and against the odds, Debbie and Brian are doing the best they can to stay up.
"It is about parental culture and youthful anarchy, school versus sex and soccer, a prissy girl's involvement with a wild boy...splendid." -- The Guardian (London)