JOHN’S BLOG
from JOHN LITSTER, founding editor of PROGRAMME MONTHLY, founder and editor of SCOTTISH FOOTBALL HISTORIAN, and proprietor
of PM PUBLICATIONS
Your comments and feedback on John’s Blog are welcomed - email progm@hotmail.com
Your comments and feedback on John’s Blog are welcomed - email progm@hotmail.com, X @pmpublications1 Facebook search on PM Publications
Quick Index of articles (page down to read them)
ARCHIE LEITCH DID NOT DESIGN RAITH ROVERS
GRANDSTAND –
SO YOU WANT TO SELL YOUR PROGRAMME COLLECTION?
A combination of limited
disposable income ; collectors turning into bargain hunters on eBay ; a decline in the number of collectors ; and an increase in the
number of collections being offered for sale as a result of retirement (or, sadly, inheritance) has resulted in a noticeable drop
in the price of many popular categories.
Indeed, those who bought
their programmes at or near the peak of the hobby (15 to 20 years ago) will be very fortunate to sell them today without incurring
a significant loss.
The major factor in falling
prices has been a weakening of demand from new collectors ; or more particularly, a scarcity of new collectors. The origins of this problem went undetected for many years, but probably started in the late 1980s, when clubs turned their locally
produced, idiosyncratic programmes, into thick, glossy, homogenous brochures. There may have been much more to read and
admire in the large colour photographs, compared with the traditional “penny dreadfuls” of the post-war period, but the new glossy
programmes did not shout out “collect me” the way the old, diverse, issues did. What’s more, they are difficult to store,
given their bulk, and expensive to purchase by post.
The age-old
cycle of new collectors coming into the hobby to replace those dropping out at the other end, slowed to an annual trickle. On top of all that, those who built up substantial collections in the post-1966 football boom are now at an age when it was time to
dispose of them. Supply exceeds demand, and the result is lower prices.
It’s not all doom-and-gloom, however. Anyone coming into the hobby, at a serious-spending-level, can today build their collection
at a fraction of what it would have cost them a few years ago, and with an active auction scene and eBay alongside existing programme
dealers, there are plenty of attractive programmes on the market. For sellers, the good news is that genuinely rare
items continue to achieve premium prices, but how do you know which items fall into this category – and what price can you expect
to realize?
As a rule of thumb, programmes from the 1980s onwards
are very difficult to sell – they were produced in vast quantities, and many have been kept in collections over the ensuing years. Ordinary League match programmes from the 1960s and 1970s aren’t worth much more than £1, and from earlier decades they are a hard
sell, for much less than they were achieving in the boom years of the hobby 15 to 20 years ago.
There are specialist football memorabilia auctioneers who may be interested in selling your collection, with the rarer items listed
individually, and the rest lumped together in lots which will be sold for a pittance. The auctioneer will retain a hefty seller’s
commission (along with a buyer’s commission).
There are a dwindling
number of specialist programme dealers who may purchase your entire collection, but they will offer a fraction of any possible re-sale
price. Both of these options will be quick and easy for you; but will realize a much reduced sum.
Higher returns will be achieved by selling the (better) items yourself, and that means eBay.
SELLING ON eBAY
The experience of most sellers is that selling on eBay is very much a case of “swings and roundabouts”. Some items sell for much more than the expected price ; but equally and opposite, some items can sell for significantly less than
they are generally considered to be worth. The trick is obviously to increase the incidence of the former, and eliminate
the latter.
At the time of writing, private collectors can list
300 items per calendar month, free of charge, and sell them free of any listing or final value fee.
Most private sellers list the items on auction, either for 7 or 10 days, timed to end at some point (from about 10pm onwards) on a
Sunday night. The big decision is how to pitch the minimum selling price. Obviously, the lower the price,
the more chance of attracting a bid or (ideally) bids, but the problem with listing something at 99p is that there may only be one
bidder, and the item will sell for 99p, irrespective of its perceived (far higher) value.
The most sensible way to sell
on eBay is to have an idea of the value of the item from the outset. eBay’s own search system will show how much
other sellers are hoping to raise from other copies of the same item. The only prospect of selling, in competition,
is to undercut them. Listing at higher prices (or equal prices in competition with well-established sellers) is
almost certainly going to be a waste of time.
Ideally, there will
be no-one competing with you to sell other copies of your item. That may not be a guarantee of it being worth much money; the
reason why no-one is listing it may be because it is so common that experienced sellers do not expect to achieve a sale on eBay. Hopefully that is not the case.
You could start by pricing the programme
at £4.95; if it is rare and there is only one bidder, then at least you’ll made a fiver!
If no-one bids for the programme, do a bit more research before your re-list as a lower price, it case you are ridiculously over-priced. The number of “watchers” recorded against your item may be an indication of the potential interest, although it is no guarantee of
an eventual sale. It would appear that many people monitor prices / sales on eBay as something of a hobby, with little
or no intention of buying. It would be a different matter if a rare item was offered for sale at 99p, however !
You will learn, from experience, that a re-listing can sometimes sell for more than the original listing price. This is
because lower starting prices encourage bidding, and once two or more bidders start competing with one another, the price can steadily
rise. It is therefore worth considering a slightly modest starting price for relistings.
You could, of course, go the “whole hog” and start the bidding at 99p, or £1. As stated above, the real danger with that
is that a valuable item may actually be sold at such a give-away price. On the other hand, you could spark off a real
bidding war, and achieve a price beyond your wildest dream ; hence eBay’s swings and roundabouts.
The important lesson from this is that you should have some idea of the true value of the item, or failing that, an idea of the lowest
price you would accept, and list it accordingly.
Other advice on selling is fairly common-sense ; be honest, particularly with descriptions and especially with faults, blemishes etc. It’s a lot more hassle to answer and refund an unhappy buyer, than to be honest at the outset.
From SCOTTISH FOOTBALL HISTORIAN magazine, Issue 167 (4th of 2023)
NO ARCHIE LEITCH IN KIRKCALDY
Two recent random remarks in
conversations about Raith Rovers’ century-old grandstand led to a bit of digging into the archives. Both enquirers made reference
to the “Archibald Leitch designed stand.” Complete nonsense, but how did this come about?
Step forward our old, unreliable friend, Wikipedia. Stark’s Park, History, paragraph two: “The unusual L-shaped main stand that
houses the players dressing facilities and the supporters lounge was designed by the renowned Grandstand architect Archibald Leitch
and was built with part funding from the sale of Alex James to Preston North End in 1925.”
No attribution, but a Google search reveals that there is an online article from The Scotsman dated
Two quotes, containing three blatant inaccuracies, repeated by everyone who has read them on-line, past, present and future. To ser the record straight, we turn firstly to page 213 of Always Next Season – 125 Years of Raith Rovers (2008). “The Kirkcaldy
Times reported on
“On
“The main section of the new grandstand was opened on
On page
220, “The Raith Rovers Grandstand Company Limited was formed on
There is no mention of
Raith Rovers in Simon Inglis’ excellent book on Archibald Leitch, Engineering Archie (2005), so if Leitch had no involvement in designing
the grandstand, who did? Step forward William Williamson, architect of many of the fine buildings and houses erected in
the once-prosperous Royal Burgh of Kirkcaldy over the first three decades of the 20th Century.
His career is described in an Blog which accompanies the superb 50 Objects website under the auspices of Kirkcaldy Civil Society. This is wonderful resource for anyone interested in the history and architecture of Kirkcaldy, and two of the objects are football
related. There are extensive articles on both the History of Raith Rovers, and the Scottish International footballers
who have played for the club.
Strangely, there is no
mention of the Stark’s Park grandstand in Tom Reid’s extremely informative biography of Williamson, a reflection perhaps of the lack
of architectural and design interest in football grandstands. Traditionally, these were corrugated iron and steel buildings,
of little or no aesthetic merit, a point made repeatedly by Simon Inglis in his biography of Leitch. However, Williamson’s
grandstand was made of concrete; and possibly reinforced concrete at that, using the French Hennebique technique that he first used
in his construction of the Royal Marine Mansions at Jamestown in Inverkeithing, which building is still in use (latterly as a furniture
sales store) and is seen from the Aberdeen to Kings Cross railway line.
(Google ‘Kirkcaldyin50ojects’ and the football articles are Numbers 8 and 38. Click on Blog for Tom Reid’s article on the architect)
In summary, therefore: William Williamson designed the grandstand at Stark’s Park, which was opened in 1922, and neither Archibald Leitch nor Alex James’ transfer had anything to do with its construction. Will somebody tell the internet ………
PREVIOUS YEARS
Friday March 8th
BOOK REVIEW
One of the great folk tales of Manchester United’s early history is the story
of how a St Bernards dog played a part in rescuing the club from bankruptcy when it was known as Newton Heath. The
dog’s owner was the club captain and Ean Gardiner has charted his life in HARRY STAFFORD,
The right back’s influence on the club’s early years cannot
be over-estimated. He joined them in March 1896 after six years at Crewe Alexandra and made 221 first team competitive
appearances over seven years. When the club was threatened with closure he spear-headed a fund-raising campaign and,
crucially, introduced a local brewer, John Henry Davies, to the Newton Heath club, then playing amidst the industrial smog of Clayton.
After
hanging up his boots
What starts as a hagiology
becomes a more balanced account of the footballer-turned-publican as the author describes his post-playing career, tracking his complicated
love-life (adultery then bigamy) and his emigration to the United Stated and onward to Canada.
The
story has been meticulously researched and is told with a jaunty turn of phrase, evoking lurid images of life in the industrial north
around the turn of the previous century while also charting the faltering early years of what is now one of the biggest clubs in the
world.
£10.95 for 280 paperback pages, published by Empire Publications, www.empire-uk.com, ISBN 978-1-909360-59-4.
BOOK REVIEW
MANIFEST DESTINY
THE OFFICIAL HISTORY OF ST JOHNSTONE FC 1885-2015
by Alastair Blair and Brian Doyle
St Johnstone emerged from the morass of local clubs formed when football became an organised sport in the last quarter
of the 19th century, to be the focal point of the
In
common with their fellow town and county clubs, Saints flirted with greatness for brief spells in each decade. They
fielded internationalists in the 1930s, reached a League Cup Final in the 1960s quickly followed by European football in 1971/72,
but the sale of Muirton Park and removal to Britain’s first purpose-built all-seated football stadium in 1989 provided a platform
for the club to aim higher, more often.
In 1997 Alastair Blair and Brian Doyle filled a gaping hole in Scottish football’s bibliography
with the publication of “Bristling With Possibilities”, the Official History of St Johnstone FC from 1885 to 1997. Their
300 page book set a new standard for Scottish football club histories. In the ensuing 18 years, the club has experienced
good years and bad; far more of the former in recent times, culminating in Saints’ first major national trophy success in 2014 when
they won the Scottish Cup.
That event sealed the inevitability
of an updated version of the book, and MANIFEST DESTINY brings the story up to 2015. It is to the huge credit
of both authors that this is no mere addendum. Further depth has been added to the distant years by two decades of
continuing research, and the additional content is manifest in the new book’s noticeably smaller typeface. Sensibly, the
extensive interviewing which gave the original book so much authority has been retained, and indeed extended into the detailed coverage
of the last two decades.
The text, liberally interspersed with illustrations,
mixes several themes to good effect. The historical narrative is interspersed with extracts from the club’s minute books
and is enlivened by quotations from contemporary newspapers. As the story progresses through the 20th century,
first hand reminiscences from players, managers, supporters and club officials lend authority and insight. Events and decisions
which changed the club’s destiny, several of them contentious, are analysed in depth; and if opinions bring the commentary to a conclusion
they are invariably voiced by those who were closely involved, or central to, such pivotal moments in the club’s history.
Space
is given to reminiscences from a number of the club’s supporters, but the entire narrative is soaked in the reverence of their beloved
club by the two authors, which provides a warmth and charm which greatly enhances the reader’s enjoyment.
The
sum of these parts is a comprehensive, authoritative, but never dull story of one of Scottish football’s major clubs. The
first book was notable for its detailed, match-by-match, statistical appendix, which has been updated. Some earlier gaps
in the facts and figures have been filled, and the occasional omission or inaccuracy corrected.
This
new book has not only updated and improved upon one of the very best football books, it stands in its own right as an indispensible
aid to the understanding of Scottish football history.
350 A4 pages, softback, £25 plus £5 p&p from St Johnstone FC, ISBN
0-905452-79-8
BOOK REVIEW
SCOTTISH FOOTBALL ALMANAC 2015/16
The sub-title does not lie:
this, the second edition, is The Essential Guide to Scottish Football. The amount of information packed into the
430 pages is astonishing - and all of it relates to a single season, 2014/15.
Three pages are devoted to each League club, with
a comprehensive statistical account of last season’s results, goals and appearances. All the competitive matches
are listed and summarised together, and there is a list of friendly matches. Other useful additions are non-league teams
lines in the early rounds of the Scottish Cup, and reserve and youth team results.
The comprehensive Junior coverage has been extended
to include squad lists, and this also applies to Senior non-league clubs in this edition.
Under “Miscellaneous football” you
will find details of the North Caledonian League, University football, and there are notes on “Unofficial football” in the Isle of
Arran League and Islay Football League.
The huge, country-wide mass of Amateur and Youth football is corralled into summary form, and
for the first time Women’s football is covered, although this is slightly in arrears due to the summer-season format. The book
ends with obituaries.
It is, quite simply, an essential purchase for students of Scottish football, and one has to hope that
it will continue for many seasons to come.
The editor, Andy McGregor, reiterated the rationale behind the book in his introduction. “The volume of information available to football fans through the internet is greater than ever before but it is ephemeral. Fantastic websites can come and go at the whim of their owners and some already have disappeared into the ether. Statistics are often “up” for the current season but are not always retained when a new season starts.”
Available from Rel8 Media, Unit
7 Woodend Business Centre, Cowdenbeath KY4 8HG for £19.99 from www.rel8mediapublishing.weebly.com
Monday 14th September
BOOK REVIEW
JOHN FALLON : KEEPING IN PARADISE My Autobiography with David Potter
A Celtic goalkeeper for
no less than 14 years, John Fallon had long spells out of the first team as deputy to a succession of goalkeepers from Frank Haffey,
Ronnie Simpson and Evan Williams to Dennis Connaghan. He made 184 appearances in competitive matches, 20 of them in Europe,
and picked up a number of Championship and Cup winning medals along the way.
He was a durable and dependable deputy, kept at
Parkhead by a life-long love of the club, and an appreciation that the wages and conditions of a full time footballer were better
than those he previously enjoyed as a motor mechanic.
His career at Celtic Park spanned the false dawns of “Kelly’s Kids” and the years
of plenty which followed under Jock Stein, and the Chairman and Manager are not spared critcism in the book’s 230 pages. Such
controversy is isolated, and unbalanced. There is no description or analysis of the good points of both Robert Kelly and
Jock Stein, and only in the last few pages of the books is there a suggestion of discord amongst the Lisbon Lions (Fallon was on the
bench for the 1967 European Cup Final, as the rules permitted a substitute goalkeeper).
There is comprehensive coverage of the
club’s history, and Fallon’s part in it, told in the main from contemporary quotes by newspaper journalists, and it is a pity that
Fallon’s voice, observations and insights into the personalities behind the scenes at Parkhead, are rarely heard. Instead,
this is an account of Celtic’s history over the period of Fallon’s career, written by David Potter. “Even the ranks of Tuscany
could scare forbear to cheer,” as Thomas Babington Macaulay might have said in his Lays of Ancient Rome (page 197). Macaulay
might have said it, but Fallon assuredly did not.
£9.99 from Black & White Publishing Ltd., 29 Ocean Drive, Edinburgh, EH6 6JL,
ISBN 978-1-84502-959-3
Sunday 13th September
BOOK REVIEW
SCOTTISH HIGHLAND FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIARY 2014/15
The
race for the Highland League title last season was considerably spiced-up by the prize of a chance to play-off for a place in the
Scottish League. The bookies’ favourites Brora Rangers duly won the League, in some comfort and without losing a match,
and after beating Edinburgh City, lost to Montrose.
The team behind the Twitter account @SHFLdiary recorded all the details of
the Highland League (and Cup) season and have produced their Diary in printed form.
The 260 page softback book starts with the
publication of the season’s fixtures on 1st July 2014, covers pre-season friendlies and lists and describes all of the matches thereonin
in daily diary format.
All of the competitions are summarised, and there is a page devoted to each club, giving key details of
their season, including a full list of goalscorers. Managerial changes are also noted, and the only noticeable omission
in this extremely comprehensive account of a complete season is players’ appearances and movements. Otherwise, it is all
contained in this substantial body of work.
It’s available for £12 plus £2.99 p&p from
http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/shfl-diary/shfl-season-diary-201415/paperback/product-22323354.html
Friday April 24th
Fifty years ago today the Scottish football season came to a thrilling end on the last Saturday of April, as was then
the custom. On the same afternoon in 1965 the destination of the two principal domestic trophies was decided in two
momentous matches which shaped the destinies of two of the clubs involved. Both matches kicked off at
Hearts
went into the last day of the season two points ahead of their opponents at Tynecastle,
Thirty
five years later, I had the pleasure of interviewing Willie Polland. This is his recollection of Hearts’ last day
collapse, in which he participated :
“There were a few Hearts
players who “sold the jerseys” that day. Alan Gordon had been out injured for a few weeks, but he insisted he was
fit and Tommy Walker selected him. After a few minutes he broke down and – in the days before substitutes – we were
effectively down to ten men. Wee Johnny Hamilton, who had played in the previous Championship winning teams, had
a nightmare of a match. It felt as if we played with six or seven men that day.
“Big
Roy Barry, who took no prisoners, was shouting and bawling to try and gee the team up, but even
Hearts
were not the only club to blow the League title that season ; so did third placed Dunfermline Athletic. Jock Stein
left a formidable team behind him at
On
the first Saturday (3rd) of April 1965,
Jock Stein administered
the coup de grace to his former club’s hopes in midweek when Celtic beat Hibs 4-0 at Easter Road, while
Few recognised the significance of Third Lanark’s relegation, with the miserable
total of seven points, the worst top division record in the Twentieth century. That fine old club had just two more
years of life. Airdrie went down with them, seven points clear of the third bottom team, and they were replaced
by Stirling Albion, living up to their yo-yo reputation, and Hamilton Accies, making a return to the top division after a decade in
the lower league.
Rangers,
Treble winners the season before, finished fifth, separated by
On the day that
Adapted
from “Fifty Years of Scottish Football” by John Litster, http://www.pmfc.co.uk/fifty.html
Tuesday July 2nd 2014
Collectors and traders who have suffered a loss of an item sent by ordinary post over the last year may have come up against a marked reluctance by Royal Mail to offer compensation. Their standard response is that the applicant is required to “provide proof of the cost price of the item along with the eBay details before a compensation payment can be made.” The reference to eBay appears in their response whether or not the lost consignment was transacted through that service. They do not guarantee that a payment will be made in future cases where the cost price is not obtainable.
This seemed anomalous to me, as non-traders could not reasonably be expected to have kept a record, far less a receipt, of items they had bought years, if not decades, earlier. Moreoever, how do they deal with inflation?
I wrote to Royal Mail pointing out that this seemed at variance with the regulations published on their website, where it is stated that compensation for lost items is on the basis of “actual loss, where evidence of posting and evidence of VALUE can be proved. This compensation is subject to the maximum payable being the lower of the MARKET VALUE of the item and the maximum of £20.” The capital letters are mine.
There is no mention in the regulations of “what it cost you to acquire, purchase or manufacture the item,” as demanded by the compensation department, and indeed the phrase “Evidence of value includes but is not limited to ….” is included in the guidelines, allowing the use of alternative and more meaningful measures such as the sales price.
Having received no reply to my letter of 31st March, I wrote to Moya Greene, Royal Mail’s Chief Executive Officer on 2nd May, and received a prompt response from her, with the promise of some action. On 6th June, I received a detailed letter from Peter Clay of the Chief Executive’s Office. He wrote:
“I note your comments and the difficulties faced by memorabilia traders and collectors should they need to make a claim. You will appreciate however that we are a business and must have procedures in place when dealing with compensation claims. The problem we face is identifying what has been a collectible iten and what has been bought in order to sell for a profit.
“Where an item has truly been a collectible and owned by someone for a long period before selling, we accept they may not have the original cost price. We also understand that an item may have appreciated in value over the years they have owned it. In this instance, it would be reasonable to accept the sale value as a way of determining the cost.
“If somebody is a regular trader and claimant with Royal Mail it is reasonable to conclude they are buying stock and selling on items of value for a profit. As opposed to selling something that has been part of their own collection over the years. In these instances, we require the sellers cost price. When we mention marked value this refers to the cost of purchase, manufacture or acquire. The market value and compensation limit on a service are the maximum payable, based on whichever is lower.
“We try to review claims for memorabilia and collectibles on a case by case basis. It may [be] beneficial if any trader claimants having difficulty contact our customer service team and provide examples of their purchase costs, outline how they operate and what profit margins they have. We would then try to come to some kind of agreement going forward.”
In conclusion, I suggest that when you submit a claim for lost mail, for an item out of your collection, you include on the claim form the wording of the second paragraph of Peter Clay’s letter of 6th June 2014.
Monday July 21st
Finished work on the contents of two new books (I just have the cover designs to complete before they can go to the printers). FOOTBALL’S WHITE FEATHERS : Scottish Football’s Battle for Survival during the early months of the First World War, is the story of the Footballer’s Battalion in the 1914-1918 Great War, which is well known, but its formation, and subsequent decimation in the conflict, is merely the tip of an iceberg on which professional football in Scotland came close to being broken up in the early months of the First World War.
In over 100 pages of narrative, Scottish football’s reaction to the outbreak of war is described, followed by the huge public outcry for football to be stopped as it was allegedly preventing young men from volunteering for the slaughter on the Western Front. Football’s climb-down, along with the public relations triumph of the formation of McCrae’s Battalion, is described in great detail, as are the consequences for Scottish football from the disruption of the war years.
Also included are comprehensive statistics from 1914-15 season; full results and scorers, match-by-match appearance grids for all First Division and (uniquely) Second Division clubs, and a detailed analysis of what the First World War did to the footballing careers of the Scottish League players of 1914-15.
Reproduced within the book’s 160 pages are the contents of the 1918 booklet “The “Hearts” and the Great War” by John McCartney.
HOW THE CUP WAS WON : A History of Scottish Cup Finals in words and statistics, has been compiled by Forrest H.C. Robertson. From 21st March 1874 at 1st Hampden Park, Crosshill, to 17th May 2014 at Celtic Park, each Scottish Cup Final is described by a match report, and detailed match statistics, many of them published for the first time. Included are the full names of participating players, non-used substitutes, referees, umpires and linesmen and kick off times.
Following the narrative, the data is then summarised
and highlighted, providing a complete alphabetic list of players of have appeared in Scottish Cup Finals, and lists of players who
have made most appearances in finals, scored most goals, played for different clubs in finals etc. Highlighted are fastest
goals, latest goals, youngest and olders players, penalties, free kick goals, hat-tricks, own-goals, venues, sendings off, referees,
relatives, colour clashes etc. Also included are lists of captains and managers of the Cup Finalists. In short -
everything you ever wanted to know about Scottish Cup Finals will be contained in this 160 page book. A fascinating
read - and a great reference book.
The books are likely to sell for around £10 plus £3 UK postage each and full details will be available elsewhere on this site (under BOOKS & CD-Roms and SCOTTISH FOOTBALL HISTORY to name but two) from publication date onwards. If you want immediate notice when the books are ready, send an email to progm@hotmail.com
Wednesday May 28th
BBC4 broadcast an hour long's tribute to the late David Coleman, and I watched it today on Catch-Up, while sorting out some programme orders. Paul Fox, veteran programme producer, paid tribute to Coleman's great knowledge of sport, and football in particular, and spoke over a recording of David presiding over the Teleprinter at 4.40pm one Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, Mr Fox's appreciation coincided with a rare example of Coleman's fallibility. The scoreline Rangers 1 Celtic 1 came up on the screen and the presenter announced that “the Scottish Cup Final is going into extra time.” He failed to wonder why an unfinished match would have the result appearing on the Teleprinter, the reason being that extra time was not introduced to that fixture until 1980.
Monday May 26th
The journey from Kirkcaldy to Norwich was broken at Burton-on-Trent, where England Under 19s were playing Scotland in a UEFA Elite Group qualifying match. The choice of venue and date were no doubt made many months ago, but one would have thought it not beyond the wit of the FA to realise that Burton Albion might, conceivably, be involved in the League Two Play-off Final at Wembley that afternoon. Hence the attendance of 875. The match provided an instructive, and sobering, view of the immediate future of Scottish football. Three years ago, the Dutchman Mark Wotte was appointed to the highly paid role of Performance Director at the S.F.A., and he has spent that time overhauling the coaching structure in Scottish football. It is certainly too early to judge him, but we should perhaps be seeing the early signs of some improvement in the development of young talent. If there are examples of this, they weren't on view at the Pirelli Stadium. Scotland took the lead early in the second half, but they had been second-best to a more skilful, stronger and quicker England team, who responded to the reverse by hitting the woodwork on several occasions before scoring twice to win the match with a 2-1 scoreline which flattered the Scots.
In the previous day's Scottish edition of the Sunday Times, National team manager Gordon Strachan bemoaned the lack of senior players, midfielders in particular, with the ability to beat players on the edge of the penalty box and create scoring chances. He had to rely on team-work to grind out results, rather than individual brilliance. There would appear to be no future salvation for Gordon at Under 19 level, for the lack of flair in the Scots team was quite apparent, and in contrast to that exhibited by a number of English players. For several years I have attributed the decline in Scottish football principally to the lack of first team opportunities given to young Scots players, with Premier Division clubs in particular guilty of the "quick fix" of cheap signings from abroad, but I am beginning to agree with those who insist that the young players are fundamentally not of sufficient quality. If that is the case, it is because of how they are coached, and that is something Mr Wotte requires to address. There was no evidence at Burton that this is being done.
Sunday May 25th
My prediction that Hamilton Accies would have “too much football”
for Hibs in the Premiership play-off final looked to be dashed after Hibs’ 2-0 victory at New Douglas Park in the first leg, but I
was proved right at the end of a pulsating match at Easter Road. Accies scored early to open up the tie, but it took until
injury time before they equalised, in the most dramatic fashion. Their victory on penalty kicks, after extra time,
was simply what they deserved for they were the better team throughout the match and might have had a couple of penalties during normal
time. Hibs did not lack effort, but their technique was poor, and the players lacked either the confidence or the ability
(or perhaps both) to play a passing game, in contrast to their lower-division opponents.
The near-full house for a match televised
live showed the madness of the SPL’s refusal to countenance a promotion play-off over the previous decade, but on the other hand the
loss of Hibs to the top division explains the commercial (if not the sporting) justification for that previous obduracy. The
play-off place dangled in front of the old First Division clubs to induce them to consign the Scottish Football League to oblivion
has claimed a victim of the ubiquitous Law of Unintended Consequences, and Hibs will now join Rangers and Hearts in the Championship
next season.
Saturday May 24th
A cracking match at Hill of Beath, where Bo’ness United took a huge step towards the East
Region’s League Championship by beating Hawthorn 1-0. The visitors squandered several chances before finding the net, and
while they were superior to their hosts, the Haws had a few chances of their own, and certainly made the prospective League Champions
work for the points. Bo’ness brought with them the majority of the large crowd, and it was good to see the trim,
well-kept ground with a decent attendance.
Three days earlier, I saw Hill of Beath take a first half lead against a very out-of-sorts
Sauchie in an East of Scotland Cup tie, but the home team were transformed after the interval, deservedly equalised, missed chance
after chance, and won the tie on penalty kicks. The second half was watched from Sauchie’s very impressive
modern grandstand, but the rest of the vast arena looked a bit unkempt.
Monday May 19th
A trip down memory late at
Sunday May
18th
For the second successive year, Dunfermline Athletic lost out in the final of a Promotion/Relegation Play-off at
Saturday May 17th
The Saints Go Marching In, to their first major trophy, in
(remarkably) their first ever appearance in the Scottish Cup Final. They deserved their victory over Dundee
United, and the breaks that went their way, as they fought hard and played to the peak of their ability. United,
on the other hand, did not hit anything resembling top form, although part of the reason for that was St Johnstone’s hard-working
and combative performance. The Saints fans, out in unprecedented numbers, played their part with raucous backing,
and the atmosphere and overall behaviour of the fans benefitted from the absence of the so-called bigger clubs, and their fans’ pervasive
air of superiority.
Friday May 16th
Due to the following day’s Cup Final, much of the Tayside Junior card was moved to the
previous evening, which provided the opportunity of a welcome return to
Wednesday May 14th
Cowdenbeath
v Dunfermline Athletic in the first leg of the play-off, and while it was nice to see a big crowd assembled around the ground, the
match was fairly dire. A goal apiece towards the end improved the entertainment quotient, but not by much (both goals
came from long throw-ins).
Tuesday May 13th
Saturday
May 10th
I let the train take the strain for the Peterborough United v Leyton Orient League One play-off match. There
was a good attendance at
Saturday February 8th
It was fourth against first in the Northern Premier League as Kings Lynn Town played host to Chorley. As often happens, the match did not live up to the expectation. It was stop-start throughout, with few attempts on goal. The home team gave a good account of themselves in the first half, but Chorley dominated the second half, and deserved their 2-0 victory. Kings Lynn can console themselves in having handed the goals to the League leaders ; the second a penalty kick, the first a defensive catastrophe when two defenders and the goalkeeper made a hash of a long punt down the middle.
It is always a delight to visit The Walks, a tidy, but essentially old fashioned stadium with a low-slung, pitch length covered enclosure, low uncovered terracing behind the goals, and a substantial grandstand with a standing enclosure in front.
Friday February 7th
An explanation for the long delay in updating this page. You will notice that the website has a different appearance (if you don't, click the icon with the two semi-circular green arrows to Refresh your browser), and that has dominated my days (and sleepless nights) for several weeks. Faced with an insoluble technical problem with the website software I have been using for at least a decade, I finally grasped the nettle and did what I should have done eight or nine years ago; buy some new software, which apart from everything else would enable me to dispense with an old computer which I have latterly used solely for website maintenance. It came as no surprise to discover the extent of the reasons why I have been putting off this process, but the task has been largely completed. Having done it all myself (thanks to no help whatsoever from the suppliers of the old software, NetObjects Fusion, and my server provider, 1and1) I now know why web-site builders charge such a lot of money.
Saturday February 1st
I had the choice of two local matches, Wroxham or Dereham Town, and after the home side lost two goals in the first ten minutes against Waltham Abbey, I began to regret the choice of Wroxham. Despite having apparently addressed their main problem - a goalkeeper - the Trafford Park side looked as hapless as the previous occasions this season I have seen them struggle. Football never ceases to surprise, however, and Wroxham battled back into the match, and in a goal-feast in the last third of the game, finally won it 4-3. Their best two players in a young team shared the goals between them, and the confidence-boost that this result, and performance, must have given them could be a turning point in their fortunes. It turned into a tremendous match - and the right choice on the day.
Saturday January 25th
You never know what you are going to find when you venture into the small towns around and within the M25. Places like Chertsey turn out to be delightful, and I had harboured a hope that Egham would be the same. Alas, the town looked tired and a little bit tatty, which was also how I found the ground of Egham Town, newcomers to the Southern League this season. They hadn't won a home League match on a Saturday all season, but made up for it on my visit by thumping a hapless Potters Bar Town. The ground was well appointed, with covers behind both goals, a pitch-length cover over the main terracing and a distinctive-looking stand. The handful of spectators dotted around the commodious ground explained why there were no funds to tart the place up.
Reports to come from January : a cracking FA Trophy tie between Cambridge United and Luton Town ; first visit of the season to Dereham Town ; a my first League match of the season at Carrow Road.
Saturday December 28th
Staveley Miners Welfare
played host to high-flying Worksop Parramore in the Northern Counties League, and the visitors confirmed their promotion credentials
with a comfortable victory. There was much to admire about the hosts, although not on the park, where they put in
a pedestrian performance which confirmed their recent poor form. Their cause was not helped by the inclusion of 48
year old former England Internationalist Carlton Palmer, who was playing for Staveley in exchange for a donation to his charity from
the club’s owner. In contrast,
Most impressive was the crowd, which amounted
to 351. They were knowledgeable and familiar with the home players as befits the loyal support of a non-league club
representing an isolated community. The attendance was larger than seven matches in the Northern Premier League top
division (two steps higher) on the same afternoon, and all but two (at
Earlier that morning was the Sheffield Programme Fair, staged for possibly the first time on a Saturday. With
the Football League fixtures being played on Sunday, and Yorkshire being a Premier Division – free zone (apart from Hull City), it
allowed fans of local clubs to attend without missing a fixture; and the early start (10.30am) and consequent early finish (1.30pm)
allowed non-league fans to take in a match.
Most encouragingly,
the attendance was up on the previous two years, which had shown an alarming fall. In contrast the previous day at
the Great North West Fair at Altrincham saw the attendance was down by about 10%, at 240. This was the first significant
fall at the Greater Manchester venue, which had for many years defied the trend of sharply reduced attendances at programme fairs
across the country.
There may have been mitigating circumstances
at Altrincham this year, not least the apocalyptic weather forecasts in the days preceding the fair. In the event the weather
was dry and pleasant, if a little bit windy.
Thursday December 26th
The Boxing Day fixture of choice in
the North West of England was the Runcorn derby in the North West Counties Premier Division. It was first against second
in the League, and it remained that way at the final whistle, although Linnets’ 1-0 victory over Town allowed them to leapfrog their
local rivals at the top of the table. They looked the stronger and more purposeful team in a hard-fought, but clean and
sporting encounter refereed without fuss by an experienced official. Town’s Pavilions ground is rudimentary, with
a collection of small coverings and a modern modular stand, and it is dominated by the oil refinery next door. The
essential facilities were very good, however, with a pleasant pavilion and an additional Tea Hut on the opposite side of the ground.
For
the first time in more than 50 years of watching football, I saw a football rebound from an overhead power cable, the line of pylons
bisecting the pitch and well placed to interfere with a high clearance. The commendably large crowd of over 800 was
comfortably accommodated around three sides of the ground, with the narrow strip of hard-standing behind one goal closed to spectators.
Saturday
December 21st
Several Junior matches in the East of Scotland fell victim to the previous day’s heavy rain, and the
preferred match, Hill of Beath Hawthorn v Bo’ness United, was switched to the other side of the Forth So it was Kelty
Hearts v Tayport on a cold, raw, damp day which both sides overcame to serve up a thoroughly entertaining match. The
visitors are some way short of their former power under manager Dave Baikie, back at Canniepairt for the third time, but they showed
plenty of spirit and initiative in keeping within touch of Kelty. Tayport looked the likelier team to score in the
closing stages, but lost 3-2. The match was well controlled by an experienced and undemonstrative referee, who kept
22 players on the field.
Tuesday December 17th
The only midweek match in
Saturday December 14th
It was a good day for Raith Rovers in the promotion race in the First Division. Results
elsewhere went their way, and they beat Dumbarton 2-1 at Stark’s Park despite having a player sent off, and being second best to an
impressive visiting team whose only failing was an inability to finish their good play with shots on target. On the two
occasions I have watched Rovers this season, they have been second best at home, but won both games by a single goal. It
could be the form of a promotion winning team – or they might just be short of what it takes.Saturday
December 7th
Norwich
United, the cinderella team of the
Saturday November 30th
Bury Town v
Thursday November 28th
A
bonus from a short pre-Christmas visit to
The switch was made from Rapid’s own ground (named after a former player) in anticipation of a crowd of 35,000, getting
on for twice the capacity of their own ground. The following morning’s newspaper reported a crowd of “34,000”, although
that looked to be a bit of an over-estimation, as the ground looked only just over half full.
The programme situation was interesting,
with the club’s magazine (ie souvenir catalogue) and a sports supplement to a newspaper distributed free around the perimeter of the
ground. If you wanted one of the 24 page match programmes, you had to help yourself from the piled stacked just inside
the turnstiles.
Transport to and from the stadium, by underground, was excellent, and this added to the very positive impression given
of central
Saturday November 23rd
There was a choice
of two local matches ;
Saturday
November 16th
Another one bites the dust with a first visit to VCD Athletic, newly promoted to the Ryman League. They play
in Crayford, the V stands for Vickers, the defence manufacturers, and there is no explanation in the glossy, but quickly-read programme
of what the D stands for (
Thursday November 14th
It has taken
five-and-a-half months, but I have finally sent my new book 50 YEARS OF SCOTTISH FOOTBALL to the printers. It amounts to 308 pages,
plus a cover, and for a flavour of its contents I suggest you read the previous entry for October 18th. Chosing a
title and sub-title is tricky; you want something that can be picked up on internet searches, but at the same time a bit humourous
and stylish. For a front cover sub-title, I have settled on “From Baxter to Balde, from The Beatles to Bankruptcy.” My
mate Charlie came up with the best suggestion, but I’m not sure “50 Shades of Green and White” would have given the correct impression
of its contents. May I suggest you buy it and see ?
Saturday November 9th
A long detour on the road from Kirkcaldy
to
Saturday November 2nd
Spoiled for choice in Junior matches in
Friday
November 1st
The Queen’s Park Football Club Society is 100 years old, and had a Dinner to celebrate. I was a substitute
speaker, and had the pleasure of talking about the Society’s history. I’ll write something about it in a forthcoming edition
of Scottish Football Historian; it’s a fascinating story. It was a lovely evening, in the company of real football fans
and several famous names from Queen’s Park’s past, all of them extremely warm, friendly and courteous. In many ways, it
was a reminder of what football used to be like.
Wednesday October 30th
Motherwell v
Tuesday October 29th
Stirling Albion v Albion Rovers in a ??? Division match (fourth,
I think, but it’s called League Two). A cracking match between two keen, fit and enterprising teams, spoiled for a while by a first
half sending off. By the letter of the law, the referee got it right, but the dangerous tackle seemed to be more clumsy than malicious,
and it was not a dirty match. The visitors changed their tactics to try to hang on to a point and only came out again after
Saturday
October 26th
Fifty years to the day after my grandfather took me to my first football match (Raith Rovers 1 Alloa 2 on 26th October
1963), I took my two grandchildren to Raith Rovers 2 Morton 1. Rovers have started the season well, in League and Cup, but have yet
to convince that they are set for honours. Morton have hardly kicked a ball since they put Celtic out of the League Cup,
and looked to have earned a point with a battling performance, until Rovers’ scored a slightly undeserved winner in the third minute
of injury time. It spoke volumes for their grit and determination, but it was a cruel blow to Morton. Apart from the
main stand, the ground is much-changed from my first visit half-a-century before, but the attendance hasn’t - 40 less than in 1963. Then,
the club was part-time. Now, it has to fund full-time players on gates hovering around 1,500.
Friday October 25th
The journey
north was broken by a stop-off at Shildon, where Ashington were the visitors. I have been to
Friday October 18th
Today I finished
writing a book, which I started in early June. When I discovered that the last Saturday in October was the 26th, it occurred
to me that it would be 50 years, to the day, since I attended my first football match, and that I would like to write about my experiences
of working in, watching, and following Scottish football over the intervening five decades. 50 YEARS OF SCOTTISH FOOTBALL
will be published, all being well, by the end of November, and it will contain some of my footballing experiences, interwoven with
a history of Scottish football, season by season, over the past half century, some untold stories from my years working in football,
plenty of observations, and analysis of the changes that have taken place. I commend it to you all (well, I would
say that, wouldn’t I ....)
Saturday October 12th
In my quest to visit every League, and non-league, football ground in England
down to and including Step 4, I have a bit of work to do this season, with quite a lot of new entrants to the lowest level, which
I have not visited when they were at Step 5 or lower (plus a couple of ground changes). On a weekend break to
September and October
Please
forgive the lack of match-by-match coverage, but I have been preoccupied with writing my book, and in any case my football travels
have been confined to non-league matches around
Wroxham are under new management (the old one, which achieved a lot of success in League and Cup
have gone off to AFC Sudbury) and their play this season is less regimented and more entertaining. They are an strange
team, capable of excellent, flowing, attacking football, and in the same match some quite awful passing. They are also in sore need
of a decent goalkeeper. I have seen them twice so far, weathering a storming performance from Burgess Hill Town in a Cup
replay, to out-score them in the second half, and earlier racing into an impressive lead against AFC Sudbury, only to be beaten in
another second half shoot-out. They may not have a successful season, but it might be quite entertaining to watch,
and will hopefully attract the crowds back to
Kings Lynn Town are another club capable of patchy form, and I saw them comfortably beat a poor looking
A
cup tie drew me to Needham Market, which I last visited about five or six years ago when they were still in the Eastern Counties League. They
looked to be in difficulty early on against a confident looking
Tuesday September 3rd
I
have left the best until the last match of my four games in
The overall impression
of my four Irish League matches is that the standard of entertainment was excellent. There was no evidence of the
over-coaching which has stifled good football in the upper reaches of Scottish football, and lower divisions of the English League. The
default attitude is to attack and to try to score goals, and as a consequence the games were exciting, open and competitive. The
grounds are in the process of being done up, thus presenting a mixture of good, modern facilities, and the remaining evidence of their
particular charm and history. The whole experience reminded me of Scottish football twenty or more years ago, before
the influx of foreign players, stultifying coaching and anticeptic grounds ; in other words the good old days. One
discordant note : the catering was, with the singular exception of Glentoran’s Milk Bar, quite awful, hopefully not an indication
of the
Monday September 2nd
Solitude. Not the state of mind or physical isolation, but the name of
Cliftonville’s ground. They are the oldest club in
The
football match was excellent. Cliftonville are reigning League champions, got off to a flier this season, then lost on
Friday at home to Portadown (the glossy, colourful programme is a double-issue). They lost again tonight, to a well
organised Coleraine team who went 3-0 ahead midway through the second half. The home team had their chances, but
lacked conviction and commitment. They got a goal back with ten minutes to go, but deserved no more.
Saturday
August 31st
The main purpose of this four match, five day visit to
Traditionally,
the Linfield v Glentoran match is between the Irish League’s “Big Two”, but Linfield went into this match at the bottom of the League
after a win-less start to the season. Glentoran were mid-table, and played like it, showing little invention or imagination. They
failed to take advantage of a Linfield player being sent off for stupidity midway through the first half, but evened things up after
the interval when one of their players was sent off after his second caution. Linfield looked the better team,
but simply couldn’t score. A decent forward is all they need to get back on track. The game was the poorest
of the four watched on this trip, but at 0-0 with both teams striving for a goal, it held the interest to the end.
WindsorPark
must be a source of bemusement to visiting international fans. Hemmed in on all four sides, on two of them by traditional
terraced housing, the ground is from an era in which spectators either walked to the game, or were bussed in. In due course,
new stands will rise to the South and East, and from within it will look like any other smallish all-seated ground, but in an old
fashioned location.
Friday August 30th
My first ever match in
Wednesday August 28th
On the night Celtic’s European
Cup tie was televised live, there was a decent crowd for the
Tuesday August 27th
After a day working
at Hampden, I had planned to go to Partick Thistle v Cowdenbeath in the League Cup, but it occurred to me that it would take me no
longer to drive to
Saturday August 24th
Kennoway
Star Hearts have joined the East of Scotland Junior League, and are at home to Thornton Hibs. I last visited Trenton Park
in the small village of Star of Markinch about twenty five years ago, for a Raith Rovers youth match, and a lot has been done to it
in the meantime. There is now a car park at the opposite end of the farm track which leads to the extremely rural
ground, the pavilion has been extended to include a snack bar, and floodlights have been installed. The views are spectacular,
as befits the open, elevated, isolated location. If you are visiting in the winter, wrap up well. There
was a programme too, simply produced but informative, and bizarrely priced at 90p. The match was a typical blood-and-thunder
Junior match, which the referee just about managed to keep under control. Yet another hugely enjoyable, and extremely
civilised, afternoon at the Juniors.
Wednesday August 21st
The timing of this visit to
Tuesday August 20th
Dunfermline
Athletic v Raith Rovers in the Challenge Cup (sponsored by Ramsdens), the first
Saturday August 17th
The journey north afforded the opportunity to see Willington’s return
to Northern League football, against
Tuesday August 13th
The first midweek competitive matches
of the non-league season were being played, and I thought I should get into gear for the season ahead by going to a local game. Colin
Boulter had rung to say that he was in the area, and would be at Norwich United v Kirkley & Pakefield, so I went to PlantationPark
in preference to Wroxham. It was a pleasant evening in the company of Colin, with football reminiscences taking our
minds off a very poor game, in which neither goalkeeper got much practice. The home team, containing a few familiar faces
from former Wroxham teams, scored from the only concerted attack of the evening. The most notable aspect of the visitors
was that they wore
Saturday August 10th
For some
years, I have vowed to avoid pre-season friendlies, and have therefore found other things to do over the previous month than attend
meaningless, largely pedestrian games disrupted by incessant substitutions. A short break in
Sometime in July
The SPFL have announced that their
four divisions will be called Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two. Now where did they get that idea
? From the same place they got their Chief Executive and the bulk of the new signings for clubs in their top division
; other clubs’ cast-offs. The bright new tomorrow of Scottish football sees its fourth Division called League
Two. Oh dear.
Wednesday June 12th
Today began the process of winding up the Scottish Football League after
123 years. Only 6 of the 29 clubs at the Special General Meeting in
The
necessary majority was achieved by many of the smaller clubs, otherwise content with their membership of the SFL and the way it was
run, having a gun put to their heads by the majority of First Division clubs. The root cause of that is their insistence
on remaining full time, despite every economic, financial and statistical argument to the contrary. How football
clubs who can count on barely 2,000 fans, can think they can continue to pay full time wages, beggars belief.
The
second unsound premise which underlies the migration to the hugely expanded SPL is the question of governance. For
all its faults, the SFL was competently run, and democratic. The same could not be said for the SPL. Thirty
more football clubs are now part of an organisation which has spectacularly failed to achieve its stated ambitions throughout its
short history. The SPL consists of several near-bankrupt clubs ; assisted Dunfermline Athletic and Rangers towards
bankruptcy ; made a complete botch of the Rangers succession last year, and advocated a lunatic reorganisation of the Leagues just
a few months ago. Moreover, the two-club veto still applies in its voting structure.
No-one
could argue that Scottish Football needed one League organisation (indeed it has been forgotten that for many years there was criticism
of there being two organisations, the SFA and SFL, far less the recent triumvirate) but surely this was not the way to achieve a concensus.
The
Scottish Football League had simply run out of leadership, those in positions of power proving to be either compromised or not up
to the task when the final battle was fought. There are echoes of history in this. In 1707, the majority
of Scots were against the
The
Chancellor of Scotland, the Earl of Seafield, in 1707 signed away
Monday June 10th
For
this spectator, the 2012-13 football season came to an end at Newlandsfield, the well-appointed (and well filled) home of Pollok,
where the home team beat Ashfield in the Central League Cup Final. Both teams looked tired and ready for the
beach, and there was none of the spark shown in earlier games by Ashfield. Pollok are very well supported,
and their ground is quaintly located and proportioned, giving a friendly and welcoming ambience. There looked
to be more than the reported 800 at the match, and there was the disappointment of no programme being produced. Another
discordant note was the quality of the pies ; something really has to be done about the standard of Scotch Pies at many of our football
grounds. They may be cheap, but they are practically inedible.
Saturday June 8th
Linlithgow
Rose showed their class in inflicting a heavy defeat on Camelon in the final of the
Friday June 7th
At the Kirkcaldy Galleries
for its official re-opening, following the refurbishment of the old Library, ArtGallery and Museum. Several football
history books are testament to the long hours I have spent in this building over the previous four decades. The most impressive
speaker was the crime writer Val McDermid, whose father served Raith Rovers for many years as head checker and Fife scout (the latter
ironic as he was one of a horde of Boys Brigade officers who held positions at the club). Main speaker was Gordon
Brown, who predictably made no reference to the source of so many of the ArtGallery’s superb collection of Scottish paintings – Michael
Portillo’s grandfather. The jury is out on whether the changes are to the benefit of users, but one is left to reflect
that the Royal Burgh’s bailies who decided to spent John Nairn’s donation on that site, showed remarkable foresight. They
could scarcely have thought, nearly 90 years later, that the good people of Kirkcaldy could borrow a book, look at a painting, or
admire an item in the museum, while they waited for the traffic lights to change outside the Adam Smith Centre.
Wednesday
June 5th
A little bit of a bonus from the search for an interesting match at the fag end of the season. Pumpherston
had promotion to win as they journeyed to
Monday June 3rd
A cracking League game from Pumpherston and
Whitburn, the former winning a fiercely contested, and very entertaining, match to sustain their long end of season push for promotion. Little
has changed at the big bowl of a ground since my last visit about 15 years ago, apart from the banner on the pavilion proclaiming
the club sponsors to be The Rising Sons of Carson, a reminder that parts of
Sunday
June 2nd
At KelvingroveMuseum and ArtGalleries for a Meet The Experts afternoon, in conjunction with the football exhibition
currently running. A hot and sunny afternoon greatly affected the attendance.
Saturday June 1st
The
annual gathering of the great and the good in football programme and memorabilia collecting at the Premier Programme Fair in central
Tuesday May 28th
Delivery of my latest book. In
2000, I was approached by Tempus Publishing to compile “The Football Programme : A History and Guide”. This was reprinted
twice, but is now well-and-truly out of print, and the publishers are long-since defunct, so I decided to publish a new version, entitled
“A History and Guide to Football Programmes”. The narrative content has been updated and augmented to include
coverage of the subsequent impact of eBay, and the majority of the 140 illustrations have been replaced by different ones, to give
owners of the original work an excuse to buy the new one. Text has been brought down a size, and space-wasting
eliminated to reduce the size of the book down to 132 pages, and therefore compliant with a reasonable level of Royal Mail’s Pricing
in Proportion. As a result, you can buy it for £11.20
Monday
May 27th
A significant day in the history of Kirkcaldy YM Juniors – they won their first ever promotion with a comprehensive
victory at Steelend Vics in their final match of the season. After a nervous opening – despite an early goal – YM overcame
a game and in-form Steelend team to finish above Dundonald Bluebell, and await the outcome of Kinnoull’s final match at Rosyth to
see if they could add the championship. There was also the bonus of the usual informative programme.
Sunday
May 26th
Another Scottish Cup Final, (my forty-somethingth) and another defeat at that stage for Hibs, who at least “turned
up” this year. Celtic won without unduly exerting themselves, to complete the double, and they certainly looked like
a decent team. The £5 programme was sold with a set of cardboard sun glasses, the main feature of the perfect-bound production
being several 3D photographs. To this cynic, it was a gimmick which did not compensate for a short fall in reading
material.
Before the game, I finally (after many years of promising) found the time to take a book for a walk. I
took my Third Lanark history, complete with 19th century street map, and identified the site of the first CathkinPark, with many of
the landmark buildings still in existence. The area is now completely covered with housing, but you can still envisage
the site as a first class football stadium. I spent so long doing that, I didn’t leave enough time for a long
look around the second CathkinPark (once again comparing its present state to the photographs and diagrams in the book). Another
time.
Saturday May 25th
Faced with a quite a bit of travel in the next two days, I opted for a local match,
Dundonald Bluebell v Rosyth, with Moorside Park benign in the sunshine. Bluebell were just far too good for the visitors
and underlined the gap between the top three in this division, and the rest. Unfortunately, only two are to be promoted,
and Dundonald’s efficient and comprehensive victory was insufficient to dent Kirkcaldy YM’s progress, despite a nervous performance
in a 4-3 victory at Scone Thistle
Wednesday May 22nd
Port Glasgow Juniors have moved into a new ground, the
clumsily titled Port Glasgow Community Stadium. It is not far from their old Woodhall ground, but tonight, it is their
tenants, Greenock Juniors, who are at home to Auchinleck Talbot in the Evening Times Trophy.
Tuesday May 21st
Another
trip down memory lane, a first visit to Camelon in over 30 years. It’s a smashing, old fashioned ground, with well maintained
facilities. A good game too, against Musselburgh in a local cup tie. Junior football at its best.
Monday
May 20th
The last time I was at SaracenPark, Ashfield, it was a Greyhound Stadium. Now it is a Speedway Stadium,
and it has to be said that the current tenants have made a good impression on the old ground, which is looking a lot tidier than I
remembered it from about 35 years ago. The 1920’s grandstand is still in use (a 300 seater), and there are
good sightlines on both sides of the ground, with crush barriers retained from the days when 20,000 would pack in. Ashfield
beat local rivals Petershill 1-0 in a tense and hard-fought cup tie. In reflective moments of a visit to historic
grounds such as this, I try to imagine some of the famous players playing there in the glory years. It takes a huge leap
of imagination to envisage Alex James playing for Ashfield.
Sunday May 19th
A dilemma for Raith Rovers fans. Do
they want their bitter rivals Dunfermline Athletic to suffer relegation, or do they want them to stay in the First Division, and contribute
about £100,000 to the budget for next season. Alloa make the decision for them in the Play off Final second leg,
conceding only one goal of the three goal lead they brought from the first leg. The young
Saturday May 18th
A
thoroughly wet, miserable and dull day did not deter the footballers of Kirkcaldy YM and Bankfoot from serving up a goal-laden, and
entertaining League match, another step in YM’s quest for their first-ever promotion. A couple of YM’s goals, scored
at a vital time to thwart any comeback from a lively and enterprising visiting team, looked decidedly offside ; a reminder of the
difficulties for referees operating without the benefit of neutral linesmen.
Friday May 17th
The plan was to
call in at Spennymoor, for the final Northern League match of the season, on the journey north, but a toilet stop at Scotch Corner
services, and a quick scan of the sports pages of the Northern Echo, discovered a Wearside League match at Annfield Plain, further
north and with an earlier kick off. Not only was this the opportunity to arrive in Kirkcaldy earlier, but a
new ground, albeit one that hosted Northern League football some decades earlier. The ground, with a bit of
tidying up, could serve as a level 5 or 6 venue, fully enclosed (although the side fence adjoining the public park was distinctly
see-through), hard standing all round, and a covering-come-stand. Somewhat predictably, and certainly ironically,
there was a “This is Annfield” sign on the side of the pavilion. A full blooded and entertaining match against
Seaton Carew (who sported Celtic tops) was a reminder of the skills still evident in amateur football throughout the country.
Thursday
16th May
II will continue to turn a blind eye to the ongoing farce of Scottish League reconstruction. There are enough idiots
pontificating about it without this one adding to the lunacy. Instead, you are invited to arrange the following phrases
into a coherent paragraph ; protecting excessively paid jobs and positions ; no leadership or vision ; entire process founded on a
ruinous premise (that
Nor
will time be spent on the long-anticipated demise of Dunfermline Athletic. If and when a detailed account is written of the last decade
of that club’s finances, it will be mind-blowing, and the tentacles of this particular giant squid will draw in many other parts of
Scottish football (and the country’s already disgraced financial sector).
The last month’s football spectating in and around
Not so successful were
More good news for City was the capture of the FA Youth Cup, with home and away victories
over holders Chelsea in the final. Many commentators point to
Saturday
13th April
Saturday
6th April
The use of a season ticket led me to
Tuesday 2nd April
On the journey south, it was Newton Aycliffe v
Monday 1st April
Easter Monday, and while the football fans in
Saturday 30th March
The pick of the junior matches this weekend is unquestionably the Scottish
Junior Cup quarter final between those fierce local rivals, Linlithgow Rose and Bo’ness United. Prestonfield was
packed for the match, on a nice warm, sunny afternoon, but unfortunately the game was a bit of a non-contest. The very
impressive home side raced into a three goal lead before half time. It will take a very good team indeed to get the better
of this side. The opening goal, scored by ex
Wednesday 27th
March
“More Than A Game : How
Tuesday 26th March
Against hopes
and expectations, it is a football free midweek for this spectator. Due to the
Saturday 23rd March
More snow and ice meant the junior card was practically wiped
out, so it was a case of playing safe in travelling to Alloa, where it was first against second in Division Two on the plastic pitch. Queen’s,
runaway leaders, were fortunate to get the verdict against a very keen and enterprising home side, hoping (now via the play-offs)
for a second successive promotion. One wonders why their manager, Paul Hartley, and Colin Cameron, who has done so
well at Cowdenbeath, are never quoted when it comes to SPL club jobs. It would appear that SPL chairmen have an aversion
to taking a chance on young, up-and-coming Scots managers, as they have with players of that ilk.
Friday 22nd March
My first
Tuesday 19th March
This time last year,
Sunday 17th March
The Scottish League Cup Final was one of the most entertaining in years, and St Mirren just
about deserved their win over a Hearts side which had back luck with the woodwork, and contributed to an exciting finish with a late
goal which pegged the scoreline back to 3-2. What was particularly pleasing about Saints’ victory was that it provided
overdue consolation for their undeserved defeat against a 9-man Rangers team the last time they reached this stage. It
was also nice to see manager Danny Lennon earning a League Cup winner’s medal, having been cruelly denied by injury from captaining
Raith Rovers in 1994. A good game, in a civilised atmosphere, in front of an impressive attendance – proof that Scottish
football can exist without the Old Firm.
Saturday 16th March
The journey from
Saturday February 16th
One of the reasons
for the paucity of football spectating in recent months - apart from the weather - is the bizarre situation in
Today is one of those
Saturdays, but a “get out of jail / house” card has been dealt by the aforementioned Norfolk FA. Wroxham are in the semi
final of the Norfolk Senior Cup, and they are away to Spixworth of the Anglian Combination, the clubs just a few miles apart. So it
is off to the satellite village to the North of Norwich, where a large field has been pressed into service as a car-park, opposite
the village football ground. The large crowd (possibly in excess of 500 - roughly as many as turned out at
The programme opened with a Welcome from Danny Brown, the football
club secretary, who provided some flavour of the quaint, if not quite rustic, background to the match. He wrote :
“A lot of you will know that this football fixture is not the only performance being played out at Spixworth today. The
Spixworth Amateur Players are hosting a matinee as you read this in the Village Hall [which adjoins the Football Club Social Club
and pavilion] and have an evening production also.
“In order for these two events to run smoothly alongside each other, Spixworth
Football Club would like to thank the Spixworth Amateur Players, the Spixworth Parish Council, The Village Hall Committee, and the
Social Club. All of these parties have worked tiresley [sic] behind the scenes to make this happen and it has not gone
unnoticed.”
There are 48 places between the clubs in the Non League Pyramid, but there was no sign of that in the first 20 minutes
as Spixworth “got stuck in”. Wroxham opened the scoring however, and shortly afterwards got another from a penalty award which also
saw a home player sent off. The tie was effectively won and lost in that moment, and Wroxham scored a third goal two minutes
from time. They fielded a number of fringe players, and their third choice goalkeeper - former
Saturday February 9th
A winter-free Saturday at last, but the footballers of
Saturday January 19th
Thick snow and freezing conditions
in
The Premier League in
The simple fact of the matter is that none of the proposals, 14-14-14,
Instead of tinkering with league sizes, with dangerous consequences in a few years
time, those in authority, and in control of clubs, should be addressing the real problems of league football in
Solutions
to major problems are best kept simple, and this is no exception. There should be Leagues of 10, 10, 10, 12, leading ultimately
to four leagues of ten, with clubs told that the next two to go into liquidation will not be automatically re-admitted to League football. Champions
to be promoted, with a second promotion place available via the play-off system which has proved to be such a success for the Scottish
League. Radical transformation of the central funding model, to spread commercial income more equitably across the
top two divisions, thus providing a softer landing for clubs relegated from the top division. This money to come from the
top two, who presently receive 33% between them of total SPL central funding. The losers will therefore be Celtic, who with the
size of their crowds can afford it, and, in the fullness of time, Rangers, who for the next few years do not even have a vote in the
decision making process to shape the future of Scottish football.
Friday January 18th
It’s been a bad week for business
failures. HMV, Blockbusters and Jessops look set to follow Comet and Woolworths out of the High Street. The
latest three in particular were fairly predictable. They are victims of modern technology, in that we now download our music, and
our movies (mostly illegally), and take our photographs digitally or from our mobile telephones. It’s all part of the process which
has been experienced in the football memorabilia business, which is now utterly dominated by eBay. The repercussions of this were
felt at the two big fairs in the North of England between Christmas and New Year. The attendance at
Saturday
January 12th
First visit for quite a while to Kjng’s Lynn Town, who are slowly crawling back up the pyramid after a bizarre multi-demotion
a few years ago. This season, they created waves in the FA Trophy, and today they sought to make
At the risk of being mistaken for Victor
Meldrew, I do despair about the standard of behaviour in
Some of these clubs can be spotted a mile off ; the ones that ask for an entire season’s worth
at the start, and then protest when I send them the first batch only. The correspondence ends with them pulling the
plug on a deal that they never intended to honour. Whitley Bay last season and Stalybridge Celtic this season were the
two most blatant examples, but none so bad as Barnet this season. I have so far resisted the temptation to send copies
of the emailed correspondence with David Bloomfield to his Club Chairman, but it does nothing to promote the club’s image. It’s all
quite dispiriting.
Tuesday January 8th
The journey from Kirkcaldy to
Saturday January 5th
Arguably the highlight of my recent football spectating was my first
sight of Kirkcaldy YM Juniors this season, who thumped league leaders Lochore Welfare in Crosshill. It was a tremendous
performance by a team that has been transformed by a new manager since the end of last season. A slight disappointment was the lack
of a programme from a club which has, in the (distant ?) past issued.
Wednesday January 2nd
Times have truly changed in
The New Year’s match was traditionally attended en famille, with the only appearance of the season of
the uncles who had watched the club in their youth, but had long since given up on regular attendance. An illustration
of the drawing power of the New Year fixture can be drawn from Raith Rovers’ history. On
Playing on these public holidays was a long established practice which recognised that football matches had to be staged
when it suited the public to attend them. That appears to be no longer the case, as
Saturday December 29th
On the journey back to
The new
Wednesday December 26th
With the programme fair at
The early non-kick off gave me time to find an alternative, as I continued my journey southwards, and
I decided to go to
Last
fortnight before Christmas
At this late stage of writing, it makes little sense to share my experiences of the succession of
Scottish League and Cup matches I attended. The proximity of the majority of Scottish League grounds to Kirkcaldy, in stark contrast
to the long journeys required in Norfolk, means that I tend to go daft when I come back to Fife, and so it proved again with Cowdenbeath
v Livingston in a downpour (two layers of waterproof clothing and a golf umbrella meant that I was one of about a dozen who watched
the second half from the main terracing), East Fife v Stranraer featuring the biggest player I have ever seen in a senior football
game, Amand One, the Stranraer striker, East Stirling v Montrose confirming my prejudice that Third Division football is the most
open and entertaining in Scotland, and Cowdenbeath v St Johnstone, a much postponed Scottish Cup tie, in which Cowden gave a typically
game performance, but lost the match. The last mentioned match was notable for two things ; obviously, the fanastic match
programme, certainly the best read in
Saturday December
15th
The journey north from
Saturday December 1st
The first Saturday
in December was, for many years, the worst of the winter in
Plans
for League reconstruction tend to be like buses ; you wait ages for one, and then two (or more) turn up at the same time. The
response of the SPL to the SFL’s proposals was to announce a counter proposal. Before we get into the merits of the
respective plans, a brief summary of the history of League reconstruction may be instructive.
The Scottish League was formed
in 1890, with ten clubs. It was formed for three reasons ; the example shown in
The single division was increased
by two the following season, and then reduced to ten again the following year. A year after that, in 1893, a Second
Division of ten clubs was formed, largely because those clubs had quickly formed themselves into alternative Leagues, and the SFL
thought it best to bring the ambitious onboard, safe in the knowledge that promotion to the top division was by their invitation,
rather than playing merit.
There followed seven years of stability, until Queen’s Park were finally persuaded out of their
sulk, and put straight into the top division, which ran with 11 clubs in 1900-01. It was back down to 10 the following
season, and the additional member of the Second Division was joined by a further recruit, to take its numbers up to 12.
The
League then embarked on a period of notable expansion. In 1902-03 it was 12 clubs in the First Division and 12 in
the Second ; then 14-12 for two seasons ; then 16-12 in 1905-06, and 18-12 the following year. In the wake of the Ibrox
Disaster, more clubs were turned into Limited Liability Companies, and with this one-off injection of new funds, they improved facilities
and employed more (and better) players.
The 16-12 formation lasted for six seasons, until 1912-13 when two clubs were added
to the Second Division, in preparation for an 18-12 set up in 1913-14. The League had adopted the principle of getting
as many clubs as possible into the top division, a practice continued to this day by the Football League in
The
First World War gave clubs an opportunity for a complete re-think at its conclusion, and rather than revert to a two divisional structure,
1919-20 saw a single division with 22 clubs. It is quite possible that the majority of those clubs would have been content with such
a structure, but for the exclusion of several ambitious clubs who took advantage of the separation of registrations between the SFA
and SFL, and signed internationalists in dispute with their League clubs, with impunity.
The League clubs were therefore forced to
concede the reformation of a Second Division, and the introduction of automatic promotion and relegation. Season 1921-22 saw
two large leagues, of 22 and 20 clubs. In pre floodlight days, there weren’t enough Saturdays for a 42 match programme,
so the following season saw two clubs leave the League, and divisions of 20 and 20 were formed in 1922-23.
Apart from the
peripheral aberration of a Third Division for three seasons, there followed the longest enduring period of stability-in-numbers for
the League, with the minor caveat of the Second Division falling to 18 clubs in 1932-33, through to the Second World War.
The
arguments which surrounded League reconstruction over the last few decades were nothing compared with the rancour which erupted after
the Second World War. The top clubs wanted to form a single division, of 16 clubs, by invitation, from the centres of large
populations. It took two transitional seasons before the League settled on a 16-16 set up for 1947-48, with the handful
of excluded clubs, and some up-and-coming ones, accommodated alongside Reserve Teams in two regionalised third divisions.
On
the evidence of attendances, and the spread of major honours amongst many clubs (ie not just the Old Firm), it has to be said that
the 16 club top division was a big success. There were, however a couple of major anomalies. From below, there
was the continued exclusion of ambitious ‘C’ Division clubs ; from above, the threat of relegation for big clubs. With
most clubs enjoying huge crowds, thus allowing them to pay their better players as much as they could earn with the Old Firm or in
the English First Division (where the maximum wage restricted wages), the 16 club division was hugely competitive, the relegation
battle each season involving one whipping boy, and a fraught battle between six to eight other clubs to avoid the second bottom place.
Recent
Scottish Cup finalists
Both anomalies, and Motherwell’s despair, were alleviated by the change
to 18 and 19 club divisions in 1955-56, and that is how things remained for nearly two decades, the ridiculous situation of an odd-club-out
each Saturday in the re-named Second Division being resolved, briefly, in 1966-67 when Clydebank were admitted, following the ES Clydebank
episode. Third Lanark spoiled the symmetry within a year by going out of business. Tellingly, there was no mood to replace
them.
By the early 1970s, society’s changing habits had caught up with Scottish League football. There was more
emphasis on European competitions ; an increase in the number of competitive international matches ; a stronger League south of the
border which was draining the talent from Scottish football, a decade after the abolition of the maximum wage ; and an increasing
number of alternative ways for men to spend their time, and disposable income, on a Saturday afternoon.
Gates were falling to
an alarming extent, and clubs were frustrated at losing their better players to English clubs, being unable to compete in financial
terms. Moreover, it was perceived that the bulk of League matches, in a long division, were fairly meaningless and boring. The
general consensus was that more competition has to be introduced to Scottish football. Crucially, the driving force
of change was an alliance of the top six clubs.
The press got behind the proposals. Alex Cameron in the Daily Record
(
The solution, accepted by all in the game apart from the
half-dozen or so clubs ejected from the top division, was a 10-club top division (renamed the Premier Division), with clubs playing
each other four times a season. For the remaining clubs, two divisions of 14 were formed, the initial home-and-away
format (with a Spring Cup filling in the last two months of the season) lasting only for the inaugural 1975-76 season, to be replaced
by each club playing the others three times. In conjunction with these changes to the League schedule, the League Cup was eventually
reorganised into a swift, knock-out tournament.
It is fair to say that the reorganisation of the Scottish League in 1975, the
most radical in its long history, halted the decline in the sport’s popularity. The top division was indeed competitive,
with Dundee United and
Scottish clubs playing
in European competitions reported that the 10 club top division was the envy of many Leagues on the continent, and the obvious objection
to clubs playing each other too often each season was met with the response from those with experience of North American sport, where
teams meet several times a season, that fans “can’t get too much of a good thing.”
As before, there were two major anomalies
within the new Divisions, this time both came from below. A 10 club top division left a large number of ambitious clubs frustrated
by their exclusion, although the two-up, two-down promotion and relegation gave clubs who were prepared to do their complaining on
the pitch, a fair opportunity to put that right. Those clubs reinforced their case by asking the top ten “how would
you like it to have the venue of a third of your league matches decided at random ?” There may not have been
much substance to the latter complaint, as those of us involved in First and Second Division clubs at the time found the arrangement
quite painless.
Pressure for change caused an expansion to a 12 club Premier Division in 1986/87, but it was unpopular with the
top clubs – not least for the 44 League games it entailed – and it lasted only two seasons, before it was reintroduced again in 1991/92. The
big clubs had had enough, and got together to form a putative Scottish Super League of 10 clubs. Faced
with this threat, the smaller clubs backed down, and in 1994-95, the Divisions were changed again, into four of ten clubs, with two
clubs added to the membership. Space constraints, and your continued patience, prevent a listing of the various
changes to the composition of, and number of games played in, the lower divisions, and the various transitional arrangements.
The
next convulsion in the Scottish League came from the top, and for very different reasons to those which had provoked earlier changes. Rangers
had changed the face of Scottish football in 1986 when they appointed Graeme Souness as manager, and backed him with apparently limitless
resources. (It should be noted that this was initiated by the club’s owner Lawrence Marlborough, and not David Murray,
to whom
The other big clubs, Celtic, Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee United,
decided to attempt to compete with Rangers, only Celtic (eventually, following the reconstruction of the club by Fergus McCann) succeeding. The
others, along with the Old Firm, simply accumulated financial losses as their wage bills soared.
Those clubs, and whoever joined
them in the Premier Division, became frantic in their attempts to balance their budgets, and decided that they were sharing too much
of the increasingly important centrally-earned funding (television, League sponsorship contracts etc) with their fellow League members
in the lower divisions. So they broke away, forming the Scottish Premier League in 2000.
Unfortunately, to do so quickly and without
the need for protracted and expensive legal battles, they needed the support of two more clubs, and so the SPL was formed with 12
clubs, the age-old problem of the number of League matches being addressed by the awkward spring “split”, reducing the last quarter
to an eighth.
In the meantime, the top two clubs got bigger, and the rest got smaller. Gates fell quicker than salaries, hence
the mess the game is in at present. The solution, once again, is perceived to be another reorganisation of League football
in
The organisation which escaped with least damage to its reputation from the shambles of Rangers’ collapse over
the summer months was the Scottish Football League. Thus encouraged, they have come up with a reorganisation plan headed
by a 16 club top division. This has two major problems ; the lack of fixtures (30), and the danger of sliding back into
the situation which saw the 18 club division abandoned in 1975, namely insufficient competition to hold the interest of spectators,
due to meaningless matches.
The increase in the size of the top division will inevitably encourage smaller clubs to continue
with the financial folly of full time football. As it is, too many of them are paying out more in wages than they are earning
in income, in the hope of gaining the one promotion place to the top division.
The reaction from the Scottish Premier
League is a counter-proposal of two divisions of 12. Where does one start to pick this apart ? Two divisions
with a spring split instead of one ? What happens to the other 18 clubs ? Is there to be no relegation
from the bottom 12 ? Are they seriously suggesting 24 full time clubs in
This smacks of people trying to hang on to their
well-paid jobs, which brings us back to perhaps the root of the major problem with Scottish football, the existence of three ruling
bodies, jostling for positions in presiding over a shrinking product. Would they not be better employed in solving
this problem, than in shuffling the Leagues around ?
Public opinion is hugely in favour of teams meeting only twice a season,
once at home and once away, and that is a sentiment that commands easy understanding and sympathy. However, is it the frequency
of opposition that the fans are bored with, or the standard of entertainment, skills and excitement that is being served up each Saturday
?
To save Scottish football, there are bigger issues to be addressed than the size of the Leagues, including clubs living within
their means, a better standard of entertainment on the pitch, a fairer distribution of central funds to encourage competition and
indigenous growth, and a halt to the mass importation of very ordinary foreign players. Neither of the plans for
League reorganisation currently on the table come close to addressing these fundamental problems ; instead, they may further exacerbate
these difficulties. Change for change sake is a dangerous move, as is change motivated by personal gain. What
Scottish football desperately needs is new, and effective, leadership.
Wednesday 21st November
What’s a delay of a fortnight
on a seven year project ? The promise to have the Pre-War Record of Scottish League Players ready by “early November” was
postponed by two weeks. The cause of the delay was the amount of work needed to complete the latest version of the
Post-War Record of Scottish League Players, which once again incorporates the last two seasons, but also to add in several new features
(the long promised Junior Cup finalists, Amateur Internationals, Managers, and several others). I have also tackled most
(but not all) of the careers of the increasing number of foreign players in Scottish football. This information is readily
available online, not least on Wikipedia, but over-and-above the question marks over that website’s accuracy, there is the feeling
that internet-based information may prove to be of a temporary nature.
We greatly benefit from this information being available
free of charge, but it is not free of cost. People require to be paid to run websites, as do the companies who store
and disseminate the information from the host computer servers. Those of us who run websites are charged for the amount of computer
space we take up, plus VAT, and it is already noticeable that archived material is being deleted from websites, to save money. Unless
this information is stored, and made available off-line, it may be lost for ever.
Work on both CD’s has now been completed
and they are being sent out to purchasers. The amount of work that goes in to updating the Post War Records, every two
years cannot be justified by the number of sales generated, and the next update, in two years time, may well be the last.
The
Pre War Database has no such open-end, of course, and it is a huge relief to finally publish this after seven years of work. It
was done in three phases. The longest was in researching the data, mostly from newspaper archives. That took five years. The
second and third phases were quicker, over the last two years, but more intense. The second was to turn the collected
data into summary statistics (appearances and goal scored per player per season), which was a huge and boring task. The
third was to sort the information into player order, which was done over the summer months of this year. There were more
than 90,000 rows of data on the spreadsheets, and the target was to sort 3,000 of them per day. At a rate of 500 lines
per hour, that was a lot of time spent staring at a computer screen.
Saturday 10th November
It has taken me more than 30
years, but I have finally seen a Maidstone United match in
Friday
November 9th
Apologies for the delay in updating this blog - I am still very much preoccupied with finishing the Pre War and
Post War Scottish League databases. Ironically, it is the Post War one which is taking up most of my time (the major
Pre War exercise is now in publishable order) as there have been many improvements and additions to incorporate, over and above the
last two seasons. It will be a huge relief when both databases are ready for publication, in around a week, when there will be time
for more blogging, and something resembling a normal life.
Thursday November 8th
Sympathy for the SFA does not come
naturally, but they don’t deserve all of the approbation which has fallen on them for the clumsy, and some would say belated, sacking
of Craig Levein. Their major problem is that their top officials are “holed below the water line” ; Chief Executive Stewart
Regan for his appalling handling of the Rangers debacle during the summer, and President Campbell Ogilvie for his prolonged and central
position at Ibrox. Anything emanating from the Board is automatically criticised.
It would appear
that Levein needed a couple of miracles to keep him in a job - a result in Belgium against a team filled with players who are the
stars of this season’s English Premier League, and a lot more luck than that which patently deserted him in Cardiff. Public opinion
- and the fear of fans not turning up at forthcoming home matches - demanded that the SFA Board sack him, but will any other manager
fare better ? Those harking back to the results gained under Alex McLeish and Walter Smith should consider that they
were ground out of the same sort of defensive tactics for which Levein has been criticised. Regan and Ogilvie
limp on, hoping that the fans will turn up for the next home match which will help pay the new team manager’s salary - and Levein’s
for the 20 months which remain on his contract.
Wednesday October 31st
The headlines on the newspaper billboards the
following day were “City Beat Spurs in Thriller”. The writer must have turned up for the last ten minutes, because much
of the
Predictably, Bale opened the scoring in 66 minutes with another long-range effort,
and Spurs looked like hanging on to a lead which their marginally better play just deserved. Then came the final ten minutes.
Jan Vertonghen maintained my run of own-goals in 83 minutes, followed by another goal for
Tuesday October 30th
On
the journey south from Kirkcaldy, I was spoiled for choice for a match to break the trip. There were League Cup ties
at
This was an ancient mobile stand, which unfolded from a trailer
and was constructed from a bewildering array of struts, hydraulics and a battered fabric roof. The bench seats were
padded, the capacity far larger than the ubiquitous modern Atcost prefabricated stands, and the height of the back row was quite impressive,
but it had seen better days. It is the most incredible stand I have seen at any of the hundreds of football grounds
I have visited. Go and see it before it gets towed away. The home team looked to have the game won until they
conceded a bizarre own goal, the goalkeeper hitting the ball against a defender in the goalmouth, but they eventually prevailed against
a team which has more than a sprinkling of players of Chinese descent in it. I would have liked to have learned more about
both clubs, but their respective website were either inadequate or hopelessly out of date (in Eccleshill’s case). The
programme wasn’t any help either, but there could be no criticism of the photocopied four pager which was handed out free on entry.
Saturday
October 27th
The sports pages of today’s Scottish daily newspapers were dominated by £ signs ; Hearts in trouble with the tax
man, and asking their fans to buy shares that will do no more than go to the Inland Revenue should they lose their case ; a mass resignation
of Dunfermline Athletic directors, that news accompanied by details of the Pars catastrophic financial situation ; and Charles Green
rubbing his hands the prospect of yet another Rangers share issue (why do their need more share capital when they are playing in front
of 40,000 in the Third Division, and next season the Second, and the First the season after that ?) Then there’s
the rolling speculation as to the future of the international team manager. This is the current state of Scottish football. Occasionally,
a ball gets kicked.
Off to a proper game in the afternoon, the Junior Cup tie between Lochgelly Albert and Johnstone Burgh postponed
from the previous Saturday. Burgh, Junior Cup finalists 12 years ago, are at a low ebb, and are effectively amateur. They
should have been several goals in arrears by half-time, at least one of Lochgelly’s goal-mouth misses being in the “I do not believe
it !” class. The Albert paid for their profligacy in the second half, as Burgh got their tactics right and scored
with their first shot on target, a direct free kick. The home team tried hard, but lacked the guile and good fortune
to score an equaliser, while at the other end, the Albert goalkeeper kicked the ball against a Burgh forward and its rebounded into
the net for a second goal.
The 24 page programme was quite superb, glossy, full coloured and packed with information, including
the little nugget that on
Saturday October 20th
It’s Junior Cup second round day, and the most attractive tie in
The consequence
of this was that both teams were well-drilled, and intent upon not losing goals, rather than scoring them. There was little
evidence of the youthful enthusiasm, and craft and guile of experienced Juniors, which normally characterises this level of Scottish
football. There are times when people with money to waste would be doing football a service by keeping their hands in their pockets,
rather than fuelling their egos.
Sunday October 14th
Cowdenbeath v Partick Thistle in the semi final of the Ramsdens
Cup. Cowden gave a stirring performance against the League winners, but Thistle were worthy of their 1-0 win. The
progamme sold out quarter of an hour before kick off, and no wonder. The “Blue Brasilian” remains the best read in
Scottish football, a bargain at £2.
There was an impressive turn out from Thistle, considering the game was broadcast live on
television, albeit on BBC Alba (best watched with the volume turned down). Central Park is never the best place to
have an uninterrupted view of the pitch, thanks to the floodlight poles and Stock Car safety fence, but there was further proof that
the television people are now the most important part of Scottish football with the construction of a camera gantry IN FRONT OF the
terracing, rendering an unimpeded view of the pitch impossible other than at the corner flags.
Saturday October 13th
The
journey north was broken at Ramsbottom, where the local United, newly promoted to the Northern Premier League, played host to Prescot
Cables. The “Harry Williams Riverside Stadium” was delightful, and must have been one of the best in the North West
Counties League. On a lovely sunny afternoon, the views from the ground, which sits in the valley across the river from
the town centre, were the tree-lined rise up a Penine hill, with the spires of the Town Hall and various churches peeping above the
foliage; behind the opposite goal another Penine ; along one touchline the river ; and across the boundary wall from the other touchline
the local cricket ground, which looked capable of staging county matches. On the opposite side of the cricket
field was the shared boundary wall with the paper mill, which is in the process of being demolished, ending the visible link with
Ramsbottom’s industrial heritage, and reason for existing. Still in use was the railway line which was a matter of
yards behind the town-end goal, now purely for tourist purposes, with scores of railway enthusiasts trundling back and forward in
ancient carriages pulled by old and noisy diesel units. The game was a cracker too, and those in the crowd of over 300 who were
encouraged to visit their local ground on Non League Day, would have received good value for their modest admission charge. Topping
it all was an attractive, informative and colourful programme.
Wednesday October 10th
It has always been a bit of a mystery to this poorly informed observer, but just how many
of the Met Police football team are serving police officers ? The centre half’s language throughout the match would
have got him arrested if he had used it on the street.
Saturday 22nd September
A friend, having broken his lifelong habit
of supporting his senior club, home and away, spends his Saturdays watching cup ties, starting with the Scottish Cup in its early,
non-league rounds, and then picking up on the Junior Cup. I needed no convincing of his logic, and thought of him
during and after today’s cracking FA Cup tie. Keen readers of this blog may recall my praise for
Playing
their skillful, passing game, Dereham built a merited 2-0 lead, and were comfortably holding off a fight-back when they were awarded
a very soft penalty, which the Chasetown goalkeeper saved. The home team then lost their nerve a little, ceded possession
and tried to defend their lead. With more than 10 minutes to go, Chasetown’s relentless attack finally made a breakthrough. The final
nail-biting minutes saw Dereham hold on and move into the unchartered territory of the 3rd Qualifying round, just two stages before
the League clubs are brought in.
It was a good old fashioned cup tie, designed to revive the jaded palate of any ground-down
football fan. It cost £5.50 to get in ; not much more than a pie and a bovril at a Premier League match. The only disappointment
was the size of the crowd. With
Wednesday
19th September
Just as the the first cuckoo heralds the dawn of spring, so the first edition each season of “Northern Ventures,
Northern Gains”, the superb magazine of the Northern Football League, reminds us that all is well in the world of football. The
editor, and League chairman, Mike Amos, is one of my football heroes, and if you want your faith restored in all that is good about
the sport, read this monthly magazine.
Monday 17th September
The autumn edition of the splendid Groundtastic magazine reproduced
an article by Nick Pigott of ‘The Railway Magazine’ in which he described the proximity of football grounds (specifically in
The article opened : “The oldest football club in the world - Sheffield FC - was established in 1857,
which means that soccer and railways have developed roughly in parallel for a century and a half or so. “In parallel’ could
also refer to the juxtaposition of many of the clubs in relation to railways, for a remarkable 72 Football League grounds in
This should come as no surprise when one considers the history of development
of urban
Today, we think
of stations as being in or near the town centres, but when they were built, they were on the edge of town. Once built,
they encouraged industry to be established around them, houses for the workers were then built, and so the town was expanded beyond
the railway. It should also be remembered that the population of this country has almost trebled since the railways
were built ; the urban population even more so.
Football grounds too were established on the edge of urban settlements. Most
“parks” were former grazing areas, marking the point where the town finished and countryside started. When football first
started in towns, the prime requirement was for a patch of flat grass, with no thought to access, terraces etc.
Both the demand
and supply of suitable land for football and railway pioneers in the second half of the 19th century were therefore identical, so
it is little surprise that rail tracks border the majority of football grounds.
The article in Groundtastic omitted any mention
of Scottish grounds, and there would be an interesting debate on which of these was closest to a railway. Stark’s Park would take
some beating. The West terracing was formed from the railway embankment, and the north-west corner flag can be no more
than 20 yards from the East Coast mainline. Paul Gascoigne, in describing his days as a Rangers player, recalled taking
a corner kick and looking up to see a train coming towards him.
Sunday 16th September
The Sunday papers make uncomfortable
reading for fans of clubs who have lost the previous day, but today’s sports pages would have brought a chill to the heart of those
in Scottish football. The biggest crowd in the Premier League was at Hibs, who are vying with Motherwell for the top of the table
- but it was less than 10,000. The empty Ormond Stand on television coverage of the early kick-off was explained
by the reported 6,700 at the St Johnstone v Celtic match.
The figures in the First Division were even more worrying. The
top two teams, away from home, attracted 1,745 and 1,021 to
The response to the game’s current difficulties from those
who run the clubs in the top two divisions - those clubs attempting to sustain full time employment of players - is to blame the football
authorities for not attracting enough sponsorship, and for the structure of the leagues. The collapse of Rangers
this summer disproved the popular misconception that football clubs were exempt from the normal consequences of failing businesses,
and while it may be too late to save some clubs, this season’s attendance figures should surely propel the football authorities into
meaningful action.
That doesn’t mean re-arranging the deckchairs as the ship heads towards the iceberg. Changing the format of
the leagues will only tinker around the edges of the problems confronting the Scottish game, which are :
Live television, of
both Scottish and English matches, is decimating attendances
The product isn’t good enough ; the football isn’t entertaining
enough ; fans want a lot more than a grim 1-0 win or 0-0 draw on a Saturday afternoon
In the current - and likely prolonged -
economic climate, admission prices are too high
There is probably no solution to the first problem. The genie is well
and truly out of the bottle regarding televised football, as predicted by people in the game several decades ago. Successive
legislators were castigated for their resolute opposition to the live broadcast of matches, and I recall hearing Jock Stein, while
manager of Celtic, criticising Radio Clyde for its pioneering coverage of Saturday afternoons, accusing them of providing football
fans with coverage of their club’s games without the need to attend them.
The quality of entertainment can be addressed by club
owners instructing their managers and coaches to put out attacking teams, irrespective of the consequences in results ; and admission
charges have to be reduced. For about a century, football was very skillfully priced at a level where the ordinary
working man did not have to think about whether he could afford to go to a match on a Saturday. With little change out of a £20
note in the First Division, and the need to hand over two large banknotes in the Premier League, this is no longer the case.
How
do you fund this ? You pay the players less ; you employ fewer of them, and the First Division players should be
part-timers. The alternative is extinction. The clubs would be best served by their national legislators
if they sat them all down and led them through a collective solution to their economic suicide mission.
Saturday
15th September
Three Bridges FC are newcomers to the Isthmian League, having been a force in the Sussex County League for some
years. They are at home to Ramsgate on a very pleasant warm, sunny afternoon, at their neat, tidy Jubilee ground which,
although situated in the eponymous area of
The
match was a cracker with four (top quality) goals in the first 19 minutes, and end to end action thereafter. Three Bridges had the
better of the second half, but it was Ramsgate who scored the winner near the end. It was a lovely afternoon, a real
reminder of the delights of (proper) non-league football, much more enjoyable and half the price of the previous Saturday at
On the way to the ground, spectators walk past the Arthur Hopcraft Gymnasium, home of Crawley
Amateur Boxing Club. Investigations on the day - confirmed by the less-than-infallible Wikipedia - show that this was a
different Arthur Hopcraft to the former sports journalist who wrote the best football book of all time, The Football Man.
Thursday
13th September
After 23 years, the truth has finally emerged about the Hillsborough Disaster. This has come
about not through investigative journalism, the social media movement, film or television documentaries, but an independent report
ordered by the government, which gave access to official documentation which would otherwise have remain buried. Dogged and relentless
determination over two decades by the bereaved families finally persuaded the authorities to investigate, and this was one official
report which was not a waste of time, effort and resources.
The findings confirmed, and put on record, what we have known all
along - that the fans’ behaviour was not the root cause of the disaster. This vindicates the campaign by the bereaved families, but
of course it will hardly satisfy them, as their loss is inconsolable. It will also be of no consolation that their
loved ones did not die in vain. The enforced changes made to football grounds in this country, and beyond, as a consequence of Hillsborough,
Bradford and Heysel, have unquestionably prevented further loss of life.
The tragedy, and this report a generation afterwards,
can have further lasting, beneficial consequences. What the report unearthed was a comprehensive and systematic cover
up by public agencies ; police, ambulance service, and local and national government. The very bodies whose purpose
is to serve the public, colluded in a cover up to disguise their failure. Worse still, some of them invented lies to deflect
the blame.
The report has broken the surface of the cesspit of public service and, sure enough, what comes to the surface stinks. One
doubts that the bereaved familities will see the report as an end in itself, and will continue to work towards bringing to account
those responsible for the tragedy, and its shameful aftermath. There are many lessons that can be learned about the
accountability of the police service, and its relationship to the government. That too would be a positive legacy
from the Hillsborough Tragedy.
Saturday 8th September
To Rodney Parade, the third stadium in which I have seen
The
players looked big and muscular, and they were well drilled and organised, leading to a pretty sterile match after some early enterprising
The upside of the experience was the ground, which
was an excellent venue for a match at this level, and would be an welcome addition to the Football League should
The ground was well maintained, the approach to
it, past some sports pavilions and an enclosed grass training area, quite pleasant, and the atmosphere inside was very good, giving
the impression of a larger crowd than the reported 2,300. County have done very well to recover from their exiled days
in the Hellenic League, and even better to move from the Athletics Stadium at
Monday 27th August
Following the nightmare journey on Saturday afternoon, I was dreading
going back on the M25 on Bank Holiday Monday, but the trip to Brighton went extremely smoothly. I was headed for Whitehawk,
who have enjoyed uninterrupted success over recent seasons. For much of last season, I made no effort to visit them,
because I had read somewhere that they were moving into Withdean Stadium, following
It appears that Withdean has come to Whitehawk, because on two sides of the ground are stored the superstructure,
and seats, of temporary grandstands. Nothing appears to have been done to improve the ground, however, as the facilities
are extremely basic (although there is a big social club) and an entire side of the ground, opposite the small stand, has been fenced
off. The visitors were Hendon, not without ground troubles of their own, and the thought occurred that any Hendon fans
of a certain age, who had been brought up to see top grade amateur football, and home matches at their well appointed Claremont Road
ground, must scratch their heads in bewilderment when they come to grounds like East Brighton Park.
The upside was that it was
pleasantly rural, with the aforementioned closed side at the bottom of one of the
The match was dire, with no prospect of a goal. Whitehawk
have had to taste regular defeat for the first time for several seasons, and have tightened things up while they find their feet in
their latest exhalted division. Hendon just frustrated their travelling fans, and didn’t even sport their famous green
jerseys, inexplicably wearing their change strip against the red-clad home side. Another £2 programme, impressively produced
in full colour on glossy paper, but it amounted to just 16 pages, contained a lot of adverts, and not a lot of information.
Saturday
25th August
It’s August bank holiday, there are matches on Saturday, Monday, so I have booked myself a mini-break (although the
laptop has come with me) to tick off a couple of new grounds. The journey to Guildford was a nightmare ; held up for nearly
an hour on the M25, with the prospect of another hour’s delay, so I took a circuitous route, the last part of it a demanding drive
through the towns and villages of Surrey.
The reward at the end of it was a match in an Athletics stadium. Senior
non league football has come back to
The
compensation was in the match itself, a goal feast, won 5-3 by the home side. If there was a defender on the pitch, I didn’t
see him, but the home team’s goals, in particular, were top quality.
Because
of the unscheduled length of the journey to the match, I didn’t have a chance to see anything of
Saturday 18th August.
The sun is out, there isn’t much to inspire on the local fixture list, so I
decide to spend the afternoon in the garden - working. After 8 years’ fairly steady toil, I am determined to complete
the Pre War Database of Scottish League Players. In October 2007, I produced an interim version, detailing registrations. Since
then, I have added the appearances and goalscoring records. The actual research ended about a year ago, but collating
the data has consumed much of the last 12 months. Now, it has to be put into sensible - and publishable, order. A fortnight
ago, I set myself a target of finishing this within 30 days. There are 90,000 lines on three separate spreadsheets, and
I can just about manage to do 3,000 lines a day, amounting to at least 6 hours work each day. It is taxing on the concentration,
the eyesight, and my will to live. Hence the lack of enthusiasm, and energy, for a long trip to a football match. Those
who jib at the price of £19 may wish to consider that it probably equates to 1p per hour of work which has gone into completing it.
Saturday
11th August
The Road to Wembley started with the Extra Preliminary Round of the FA Cup, at least a week earlier than usual, and
the explanation for the uncharacteristically early start to the League season the previous week. Another local tie,
this time at
Saturday 4th August
The
start of non-league football in
This fairly modern, but nicely laid out stadium would be pleasantly rural but for the noise
of the speeding traffic on the adjacent A47 dual carriageway. The match was no better than okay, underling my fears that
the standard of this League has been steadily eroded by the migration of its better clubs to the Southern and Isthmian Leagues over
the last five years. There was the usual neat little programme, which was reasonably informative without exerting
itself.
Sunday July 29th
New Rangers made their debut at Brechin today in the Ramsdens Cup. Hopes
that a new era, of realism and altruism, was about to dawn in Scottish football were somewhat dashed by the pre-match interview given
by Charles Green to BBC Scotland, when he described the opposition he has encountered.
"Some of it has been driven by bigotry,
some of its been driven by jealousy and some of its been driven by all the wrong motives," he said. "My frustration's been, after
30 years of business, I have never experienced anything like the last three months. Some of the business decisions that have been
made really have been nonsensical from a business point of view.”
The new, humble, contrite Rangers didn’t last very long, did
it ? It would appear that Mr Green has not been listening, or paying attention, to what has been happening across
I have just finished reading an autobiography by journalist and broadcaster Alan Biggs, who has reported on sport, principally
football, in the
Incidentally,
did you notice, a couple of weeks ago, the side-bar story in several daily newspapers headed “Ten things you should know about Rangers
in the Third Division” ? I saw this in at least two of the nationals, so it was presumably contributed by an agency. One
of the “facts” was that only two of the Third Division clubs had previously played Rangers in League football,
Saturday July 28th
The last Saturday in July and, consistent with recent
practice, the start of competitive football in
In a telephone conversation with another veteran football follower this week, we bemoaned the long,
and early, diet of pre-season matches, and reminisced about the old fashioned way of clubs limbering up for the new season. They
played six matches in four team sections in the League Cup, twice a week for three weeks, starting on the third Saturday in August.
Neither
of us could summon up much enthusiasm for today’s matches ; his team was playing north of
Friday July 27th
For the first time ever, I watched the opening ceremony of the
Olympic Games on TV, mostly out of curiosity following the media speculation of the top-secret contents. It deserves all
the praise it has received, and the largely unchoreographed bit, the lengthy parade of all the competing countries, while a wee bit
boring, was quite charming and uplifting with television pictures of happy, healthy and attractive young people.
A couple
of gripes, however (how does that surprise you ?). The beaming smiles were a testament to good health and orthodontics
the world over, a timely reminder that Danny Boyle’s centrepiece salute to the NHS could not have included its fast disappearing provision
of dentistry.
At the start of the ceremony, there were recordings of national songs from the other parts of the
Saturday
July 21st
The journey south was broken in the North East, as I tick off another ground in the Northern League (just five to go). Marske
United’s GER Stadium proved to be an unexpected pleasure. I had envisaged a modern, soul-less, out of town ground, with a backdrop
of
Visitors
were Glossop North End, and the match was absolutely dire. I had vowed earlier this summer to give pre-season friendlies
a miss, and only the unexpected trip north provoked a change of heart. This poor game reinforced the good sense of my broken
promise. In fairness, the only admission charge was £1 for a programme, which was an excellent example of pre-season production,
8 informative pages inside a full colour standard cover. The Marske programme, edited by Moss Holtby, as been a serial
winner of non-league programme of the year awards in recent years, and this excellent issue proves that the accolades are justified.
Thursday
July 19th
Proof, once again, that I have a good face for the radio. BBC filmed me for a piece on Raith Rovers’ connection
with the 2012 Olympics. Reigning Olympic ladies football champions
Bill Dowie lived at
I was filmed beside
the Fife Cup, which Rovers currently hold, providing a link (if somewhat removed and tenuous) between the club and the current Olympics. For
Bill’s great grandaughter, an Olympic gold medal is in prospect - for me, I suspect, the cutting room floor.
Saturday July 14th
Stark’s
Park, for Laurie Ellis’s Testimonial. You don’t see many of these nowadays given the ease with which players can move from
club to club, and indeed the beneficiary’s 14 years with Raith Rovers has been broken by two seasons at St Mirren, and single seasons
at Cowdenbeath and Stirling Albion. Rovers looked the better team in the first half, but Hearts dominated the second,
and scored at will. There was a decent turnout, and a very impressive brochure-sized programme.
Friday July 13th
After
a week of frantic (and at times hysterical and histrionic) activity in the corridors of power, the fate of Rangers is finally sealed. The
buck had been comprehensively passed by the SFA and SPL to the SFL, and the poor cousins of Scottish football’s bewildering array
of administrations exhibited the first sign of moral fibre in the whole sorry saga. In defiance of the wishes, blandishments
and threats of the SFA and SPL and their own Board, the Scottish League clubs stood by precedent and their rule book, and voted to
admit Rangers to the Third Division. This has been seen by many to be a triumph for ‘fan power’, with the media (new
and old) venting the outrage of fans of other clubs at Rangers’ corporate failure. I would prefer to think that the
Scottish League club owners and chairmen have taken a principled stance that rules are rules and they should be followed. I
also think that many of them have resented the pressure they have been put under by the football hierarchy over the previous week. At
a meeting of League clubs earlier that week, addressed by the Chief Executives of the three bodies, one club owner said something
along the lines of “Having put all my money into my club, I won’t be told what to do by overpaid administrators like you.”
It
is to be hoped that some good will come from all this, with more responsible economics in Scottish football and perhaps an overdue
appraisal of the suitability of the game’s upper management. All previous reviews and reports on the game (Ernie
Walker’s Think Tank and Henry McLeish’s Report spring instantly to mind) have been poorly targeted, and failed to address the fundamental
structural problems which blight the sport in this small nation, but then, turkey’s won’t vote for Christmas.
Saturday July 7th
An
unscheduled trip to
Wednesday July 4th
At last, some decisive
action in the Rangers saga. They will not be playing in the SPL next season, thanks to the collective actions of
all-but-one of the other SPL clubs – and to think their chief executive was advocating further prevarication, to pass the buck to
clubs from another association.
At the time of posting this,
we still don’t know where Rangers will be playing their League football next season, and adding to the confusion is the somewhat worrying
utterings of the Chief Executive of the SFA. Quite what he has got to do with the composition of League football in Scotland
is beyond me, and if he argues that it is part of his remit to regenerate Scottish football, then in my opinion he is going in completely
the wrong direction.
The biggest objection to including Rangers
in the First Division next season (and there are many others) is that there is simply no provision for it in the SFL rule book, nor
is there any precedent. My understanding was that the SFA, as the court of final appeal, was there to make sure that the
SFL, as with any other affiliated organisation, was always acting within the terms of its rules. Now we have the SFA advocating
the exact opposite.
Hopefully, the SFL member clubs will have
enough sense to question some of the extremely dubious assertions made by the Chief Executive. A three year absence
of Rangers from the SPL (in reality the collapse of the next Sky TV deal) would cost all Scottish clubs £16 million. Not
if they cut their wage bills – and how can the majority of SFL clubs lose money, when they will all have a turn of two home League
games against Rangers ? The game will suffer a slow, lingering death if Rangers are absent from the top division
for three years. Just what has it been doing for the last 20 or 30 years ?
It
is my belief that the game would benefit from Rangers’ absence for a few years. Even before Rangers’ collapse, SPL
revenues have failed to generate sufficient income to improve playing resources, far less begin to pay back the vast historic debts
run up by virtually every club.
No amount of PR
spin can disguise the downward trend of turnstile and season ticket income, as supporters react to the falling standard of (over-priced)
entertainment, exemplified and exacerbated by the continued failure of clubs to develop young Scottish talent, preferring instead
to import increasingly inferior borrowed and foreign players.
The
SPL’s chosen measure of success is not the progress of its teams in European competition, or its contribution to a successful
They may benefit from considering an alternative. An
SPL without Rangers for a number of years would certainly cause short-term financial problems for most, if not all, clubs, but it
could prove to be the noxious potion which can purge from the body of the sport that which is slowly killing it.
It
could also be the stone which could kill two, big, birds. The term “Old Firm” was coined over 100 years ago when the two
largest clubs were accused of conspiring in unison to draw cup ties in order to benefit from the turnstile income from replays), and
their mutually beneficial antagonism persists to this day.
Celtic’s
multi national team would surely romp to an easy victory in a Rangers-less SPL next season, but with consequently diminishing revenue,
they, like the other clubs in the League, would inevitably be forced to rely on cheaper, home-reared talent in following years.
Reliance
on indigenous playing strength would produce a more level playing field, which would in turn lead to closer competition. The
lesson of history is that any club mounting a meaningful challenge to the Old Firm will reap the rewards through the turnstiles, and
consequently increase other commercial revenue.
Teams
filled with hungry young Scots would be better motivated to compete in European competition (Scotland’s only two European cup winners,
Celtic and Aberdeen, fielded only Scots), and a more realistic wage structure would allow clubs to operate in a more rational, stable
fashion without the monthly frantic scramble to gather funds for a bloated wage bill. In the fullness of time, the
A
radical financial restructuring could also provide a life-saver for First Division clubs in the SFL, most of which continue to haemorrhage
cash by employing full time footballers despite hopelessly inadequate income.
This
is a glorious opportunity to change the balance of power within the SPL, and re-arrange the distribution of SPL funds, which has ruinously
seen 34% of the income given to the “top two” clubs. In major sport in the
The
choice which confronts the SFL club owners is : more of the same suffering, or a lot worse to get a lot better. This
is a seminal moment for Scottish football, and there is an argument that Rangers’ demise is the biggest single event in the game since
another collapse at Ibrox, 110 years ago.
Then, it was
a vast wooden terracing, during the
Today,
most clubs play in modern, safe stadia, but many are now less than half full on a matchday. A full circle has
been turned on the matter of personal liability, however, as many clubs are hugely in debt to the individuals who will deliberate
on Rangers’ future, and as a consequence their own.
Will they have the foresight and resolve to decide
on short term pain, for long term gain ? Will this be just a seismic shock, or a turning point in the history of
Scottish football ?
Tuesday July 3rd
The Chief Executive of Barclays Bank has quit. The
only surprise to me is that there is surprise at the latest example of cut-throat behaviour by the banks. It has
been obvious for many years that the old image of banks as being steady, reliable bastions of integrity is as outmoded as a ten bob
note.
The examples of their atrocious business practices are
more widespread than rate fixing, sub-prime lending and reckless betting. Just about every one of us has been on the receiving
end, from excessive and cumulative bank charges, to the universal practice of attracting savings by offering bonus rates of interest,
in the hope and expectation that when the bonus period expires, the saver will be too busy / ignorant / negligent to do anything about
it, permitting the bank to quietly pull the savings rate down to 0.5%, or lower.
The
politicians say they will do something about it, but how can they ? If they want to wipe out unethical behaviour
by the banks, they will have to shut down every single one of them, such is the widespread deceit right across their normal operations.
Frankly,
I can’t understand what the fuss is about, following the latest revelations about manipulation of the Libor rate. They
did it because they could, and because it is now in the nature of banking and bankers. The only lesson we can learn
is that the rest of us have to be more careful in our banking practices, always conscious that the people with whom we have entrusted
our savings simply can’t be trusted.
Sunday July 1st
Spain win their third successive tournament,
and are being hailed by some as the greatest ever team, while others (before their exhilarating performance against Italy in the final)
have been complaining about them being boring. On the latter point, there are times when their critics
have a case, not least during the last World Cup finals, when they won the tournament while barely scoring a goal per game. Their
philosophy seemed to be “the opposition won’t score while we have the ball, so there’s no point in us losing possession by trying
anything as reckless as a shot at goal.”
Against
The
Spaniards’ style, in particular in their heavily manned midfield, was of particular interest as I have been reading the excellent
biography of John White, the
Are the Spaniards
the best team ever ? Comparisons across decades are impossible, and few are alive today who saw the great teams of the pre-war
era, or the Austrians and Hungarians of the immediate post-war era. The oft quoted contender for the contentious
title is the
It’s an argument that can never be settled, which will
not be bothering the Spaniards right now.
Saturday June 22nd
Great excitement in
“Your comments of 14thJune are just
typical of the frenzied hysteria among supporters of other clubs who have a “ now is our chance to get them “ attitude to the situation.
What about the hundreds of thousands of ordinary Rangers supporters who have loyally supported their club for many years and had no
part to play in this disastrous situation caused by a handful of, as it would appear, crooked individuals. Do you care one hoot for
them ?
The “newco” who are trying to ensure that we have a club to support have no association with the previous regime so why
do you think that they should pay for past faults. Does this happen in any other walk of life with a company going into liquidation
and being rescued, I think not.
As a lifelong supporter of the club I do not care what division we play in as long as we have
a team to watch. We have had many critical periods in our existence and have come through them all, this will be no different.”
The
email is a reminder that the innocent victims of this saga are the tens of thousands of Rangers supporters who support their team
by buying match tickets and season tickets out of their taxed income. I recall asking an Airdrieonians fan of his
thoughts when that club was in the process of dying. He replied : “You expect your mother and father to die before you,
but not your football club.”
Football clubs rarely die, of course. Airdrieonians immediately metamorphised into Airdrie
United ; Clydebank came back as a junior club, Gretna as a non-league club - all three in greatly reduced circumstances due to the
manner of their earlier demise. Rangers, irrespective of what League they will be in next season, will still be playing
at Ibrox, but the scenario of a newco continuing to play in the SPL provokes anger amongst many football fans.
Sandy Plant believes
that this arises from a “now is our chance to get them” attitude. Not in my case, I can assure him. If Rangers emerge from this situation
comparatively unscathed, it will set a precedent for any other Scottish football club to do the same in future - walk away from their
debts and carry on as if nothing has happened. The consequence of that will be that no-one will ever again lend money,
or extend credit, to a football club, and players’ and employees contracts of employment will be meaningless documents, providing
a problem to every football authority, and the Players Union.
Aside from that distinction, if
a trading company goes bust, and starts up again the following day with the same staff, premises, assets and trading style, its suppliers,
customers and fellow traders have a choice as to whether they trade with this phoenix company, either on moral or practical grounds. That
is precisely the debate which will be taking place round the SPL boardroom table.
That moral debate is also taking place in the
minds of supporters of other clubs, who pay to see their favourites play Rangers four times each season, which entitles them to express
a view on the matter. Few, if any, would deny Rangers, and their supporters, the right and opportunity to start up a new company,
and continue playing, but most, if not all, would expect the same rules to apply to Rangers, as they did to
The suggestion in my Blog of 14th July was an attempt at a pragmatic
solution which would satisfy those at both ends of the debate : the ones who want Rangers to remain in the top division, and those who
are outraged at the unfair advantage obtained by Rangers over the past decade thanks to the policy of successive owners on debt and
taxation. In twelve years of self employment I have never thought about Rangers when I write the bi-annual cheque to HMRC,
but I certainly will be at the end of next month.
Friday June 15th
Quite a few dealers and collectors at the Premier Programme
Fair (see 2nd June) asked me what I thought of the recent Royal Mail price hike. I have been criticised in the past for ranting
about that organisation, and its performance, so I will reprint the following article, from the Eastern Daily Press, without comment.
NO
POST. A number of businesses have been told they will not have mail delivered on rainy days after a postman slipped
and injured himself on a wet pavement. Royal Mail said it had been forced to suspend deliveries during “adverse wet
weather conditions” after a postman slipped on algae and moss on the pavement and broke his shoulder. Instead, customers
in South Parade,
Thursday June 14th
Rangers will be liquidated, following
the formal rejection of the CVA by the major creditor, HM Revenue and Customs. There is, of course, much more to come in this saga,
including from this commentator. In the meantime, a suggestion for the owners of the SPL clubs who will decide
Rangers fate over the coming weeks. Morally, and probably legally, Rangers should be expelled from the SPL and the
SFA, but in the likely event of SKY pulling the plug on the television deal next season, in the absence of the contracted four Old
Firm matches, the clubs would be faced with a reduction in revenue. Consequently, they are liable to ignore moral
considerations, and vote to keep Rangers in their gang. Their biggest task is to find an alternative form of punishment
for Rangers, which would provide a fig leaf of respectability.
Here’s a suggestion. Tell Rangers that their share of the SPL
central funds will be given to their Creditors, until such time as all debts have been paid. That may also send a signal
to any other club who may in the future pull the same stunt as Rangers, safe in the knowledge that the precedent of continuous membership
of the SPL has been set.
Sunday June 10th
The European Championship Finals are well under way, and the matches have been
extremely enjoyable so far. Those which started as cat-and-mouse affairs ended in thrilling climaxes, and it is to
be hoped that managers and coaches in domestic football will take note, and set their teams out to score goals, rather than to prevent
their loss. We can but hope.
Saturday June 2nd
Over 700 collectors attended the Premier Programme Fair in
The instant feedback from the
stallholders was, as usual, mixed. Some reported an excellent day’s trading, others commented on the “good attendance, but a reluctance
to spend.” There are several reasons for the parsimony of an increasing number of collectors - lack of personal funds
through inflation and loss of work, the belief/hope that rare items might be bought for 99p on eBay, collections nearing completion
to name but three - and it will come as little consolation to those who had a disappointing day’s trading to learn that the organisers
suffered a little too.
There was an unprecedented number of collectors who attempted (and in some cases succeeded) to avoid paying
the £1 admission charge. There is of course an argument that there should be no charge to such events ; after all you, you don’t pay
to get into Tesco. The counter argument is that the hire of a large
Wednesday May 29th
Yesterday, the administrators of Rangers were successful
in the Court of Session in
However, I am firmly of the belief
that Rangers administration is the biggest single event to hit Scottish football since the Ibrox Disaster in 1901, which resulted
in the widespread adoption of Limited Liability Companies by the country’s football clubs and authorities, and a revolution in the
design of sports stadia.
This time round, the lessons have to be financial and economical, and no matter how smart, duplicitous,
crafty or conniving the people involved in this modern saga may be, its repercussions will be deep and long lasting.
The other
lesson that will be learned, repeatedly thoughout the life of this event, is that the “Law of Unintended Consequences” is always present.
There
was something “not quite right” about the SFA’s belated, and heavy handed, intervention in this matter, but there is also something
vague about the decision of the Court of Session to refer it back to the Appeals Tribunal. The SFA has
an unhappy history of clubs taking it to court. Despite the catch-all “we can do anything we like to anyone in football”
clause in its rule book, the Court of Session found in favour of St Johnstone in December 1964, when they challenged what they considered
to be an unjust fine (of £25). It is usual in describing Law Cases to refer to the appropriate reference in the Scots
Law Times ; instead, I will refer you to page 26 of issue 83 (Autumn 2002) of Scottish Football Historian.
So much for the precedent
; what of the consequences of this case, and in particular the unintended ones. The newspapers have been full of FIFA’s
dire warnings against dragging national associations into the court room, but the Rangers administrators may have to fear retribution
from closer to home. Not only have they alienated several of the SPL club chairmen who will shortly decide the club’s fate,
but they have also pulled the beard of the SFA.
The spectrum of sanctions which the ruling body can apply to Rangers is wide,
one extremity imaginable by asking the question : “What would the SFA do if a First, Second or Third Division club was guilty of the
misdemeanours perpetrated by Rangers ?” Expulsion.
It will be fascinating to see what the SFA do, given the
personalities involved. Its Board is dominated by representatives of the SPL, who have a vested interest. Its
President is heavily implicated in Rangers’ long term Income Tax problems, and its Chief Executive is a newcomer to Scottish football
(as is his counterpart in the SPL). You couldn’t make it up.
Tuesday May 28th
Spent a couple of hours emailing
Southern England’s daily and evening newspapers, in the last part of the publicity campaign for the Premier Programme Fair this coming
Saturday (see the Home Page, or Fairs, Auctions etc opposite, for full details). For the first time, not a single
letter was sent to programme editors, magazine and newspaper sports editors, and radio stations, everything was done by email. Hopefully,
these will get to their intended destinations in a way that can no longer be guaranteed by an old fashioned letter, and the digital
nature of the message also makes it easier for any sports editor to “cut and paste” the text for inclusion in his periodical. The
downside is that the soul-destroying task of sending hundreds of individual emails takes a lot longer than stuffing a photocopied
letter into a pre-addressed envelope. Hopefully, these long hours of repetitive key strokes will be rewarded with a bumper crowd
on Saturday.
Saturday May 26th
Almost certainly my last game of the season, although there will be plenty of junior
fixtures over the next fortnight in
Wednesday May 23rd
Having
set the digi-box to tape the Rangers documentary at
Tuesday
May 22nd
They don’t get much lower than Steelend Vics in the pecking order of East of Scotland Junior football With
only the perennial cannon fodder of Luncarty below them in the basement division, the Vics don’t have much going for them, but they
served up a smashing game against Bankfoot, coming very close to getting a deserved draw. Not only was there a programme,
but it came with an updating wraparound covering the issue from the postponed match the previous Saturday. From the
informative contents, I discovered several scheduled fixtures which were omitted from the East Region website – so-called old technology
proving to be more useful than the information super-highway.
Monday May 21st
First visit to The Show Park,
Saturday May 19th
I’ve been at every Scottish
Cup final since 1968 bar one (the following year’s Old Firm match when I was but a lad) and by some distance Hibs are the worst side
I have ever seen in the fixture. To call them a pub side would be a disservice to the nation’s footballing boozers.
Parked
very early and walked to the ground to buy a programme, to take it safely back to the car. When I returned to the
stadium, half an hour before kick off, the programmes had sold out. When are the SFA (or their programme producers)
going to learn that there are two different types of Scottish Cup final programme buyers – the Old Firm (who largely don’t buy), and
the rest (who will buy, if they can get a hold of a copy) ?
Wednesday May 16th
A packed **** Stadium (sorry, I don’t believe
the ground has ever had a proper, non sponsored name) as Dumbarton beat Airdrie United 2-1 in the first leg of the Second Division
play off. Another compelling match, this time with goals, as the Sons’ high endeavour gains reward against an Airdrie
side which looked capable of over-turning the deficit at their place (see below).
In anticipation of a potential lock-out,
I arrived early ; the guy sitting next to me didn’t, and complained that the programmes had sold out half an hour before kick off.
Tuesday
May 15th
Junior Cup finalists Shotts Bon Accord have a huge backlog of League matches to fit in over the next three weeks, plus
a few Cup ties, including the Junior Cup Final. Tonight they were at home to Cumbernauld United in the League, and they
made heavy weather of a 1-0 win, to keep them on track for a League title. They missed a penalty, and a succession
of chances, but the vital statistic may be the two injury-induced substitutions they had to make before half time. Fielding
eleven fit players may be their biggest challenge.
No programme, perhaps understandably, although a several spectators were clutching
copies of the special edition issues for the home leg of their semi final. The vast and impressive Hannah Park has
been kept tidy, and the large social club appeared to be the hub of that evening’s community activities in Shotts. The
cloudless sky was a rare treat, not so the biting cold wind, which was little surprise as the ground is at the highest point of the
town, which in turn sits atop a windswept Lanarkshire moor.
Saturday May 12th
To Arbroath, for the League play off match
against Dumbarton. It is always a pleasure to visit Gayfield, so neat and well kept, particularly when it isn’t blowing
a gale. The Lichties had 90% of the game, but couldn’t make inroads on Dumbarton’s 2-1 first leg lead, largely thanks
to a superb performance by Steven Grindlay in goal. The play-off games, determining which standard of football the competing
clubs will be playing at next season, are compelling viewing for the neutral, and torture for the fans of both sides. There
was no pleasure in watching the agonies endured by Dumbarton die-hards Jim McAllister and Graeme Robertson, as their side somehow
survived to draw 0-0.
Apart from the lack of goals, the other disappointment of the afternoon was the match programme, which
was a poor effort for the four-figure crowd, and contained no mention of the previous Wednesday’s first leg.
Listened to Sportsound
on Radio
Friday May 11th
The SFA have released the document which details
the findings of the Judicial Review into the actions of Craig Whyte and Rangers, which resulted in hefty fines and various bans. Downloaded,
it is the equivalent of 56 A4 pages, and is written in a somewhat unpolished legal style. Towards the very end, in
justification of the panel’s judgement, the style changes into a subjective vocabulary, and a wee bit of a rant.
Life is too
short to comment on the details, or indeed the whole sorry scandal surrounding Rangers Despite having no sympathy
with their self-induced plight, I can summon little support for the SFA’s actions.
It smacks of kicking a corpse, and if the
SFA was so concerned about the image of the game and the damage done to a “proud club”, why didn’t they intervene in the immediate
aftermath of Whyte’s takeover, when every rumour indicated that he was not a “fit and proper person” to be a director of a football
club ? A few clicks of a mouse would have discovered that he had served a period of disqualification from being a
company director, and early intervention could have saved Rangers’ creditors – and the taxpayer – several millions of pounds. Who
will sit in judgement on the SFA’s role in this affair ?
Questions also arise from the terms of the enquiry. Amongst
the charges against Whyte was not filing annual accounts on time, not paying the taxman, and not holding an annual general meeting. Is
every Scottish football club to be subjected to the same scrutiny, and punishment ? If so, the Registration Department
will have a very quiet 2012-13 season.
Wednesday May 9th
They say all you need for a long journey is a good companion, but
a stop midway for a football match is a good alternative, especially if it is as delightful as St Cuthbert Wanderers v Threave Rovers.
St
Mary’s Park, in the beautiful riverside town of
His concern was realised when the floodlights were switched on ;
eight poles each bearing two lights – and only nine of them worked. One pole has nothing at its top, the light fitting
lying against the pavilion wall.
The ground, situated next to the River Dee, is in one of the most picturesque settings in
The referee looked – and acted – young, and his linesmen were pre-pubescent,
one of them wearing glasses. It was he who was hit by the ball struck in some anger by the home goalkeeper, who was
booked for his temper, inflamed by the award of the opening goal to Threave, which did not look to have crossed the goal-line. FIFA’s
reluctance to introduce goal-line technology was acutely felt in Kirkcudbright. The second goal was a comedy of errors,
but the next two came from good play from the superior Threave side, who led 4-0 at half-time. Bookings out-numbered goals,
by one.
In the gathering gloom of the second half, Threave hit the bar twice before St Cuthbert got on the scoresheet via a penalty. The
visitors retaliated by scoring three times, and the young ref continued to outpoint the scorers with another five bookings ; ten in
all, with scarcely a bad tackle all night ; indeed I could not recall play being stopped for treatment to any player. The
referee’s notebook was carried off on a stretcher.
£3 to get in, and the crowd continued to grow throughout the match as locals
meandered up, possibly in the knowledge that the gateman packed up 15 minutes into the match. Most of the crowd were there
in family groups, adding to the friendly atmosphere, and ensuring a brisk trade at the refreshment window, which benefited to the
tune of £1.70 for a pie and Bovril, which together provided me with a month’s recommended salt intake.
The evening, and indeed
the detour off the M74, was delightful – apart from the midgies - and a reminder that real football still continues to be staged,
and played, far from the madding crowds.
Saturday May 5th
Cup Final day in