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
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.