Every country still has a few football stadiums that get the punters of a certain vintage misty eyed for the nostalgia of when the game seemed a whole lot less commercially packaged. Sadly, with the vast majority of top sides everywhere these days having shiny, modern venues, you need to trickle down a tier or … Continue reading Ton Up – In Praise of Cappielow →

I guess hitting 2,000 games in just under 50 years doesn’t constitute a terribly fast pace to the landmark, and you’d be right. Since my first game in late October 1972 the early years weren’t exactly chokeful of going to games. Indeed, 1972 to 1980 only saw sporadic games, and perhaps some are missing from … Continue reading 2,000 and counting →

Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s Scottish Cup victory was undoubtedly the pinnacle of success for the club in 2015. It was even more glorious than finishing third in the league that same season, but for the more global citizen in me, getting to see my team play in Europe had always been my dream. So much so, … Continue reading ICT in Europe, a fans recollection →

If you are a follower of Scottish football from a distance, and just keep tabs on the league tables or Cup matches, the recent appearance of Clydebank in the Scottish Cup might have brought back some misty eyed memories. For the first time since 2001/02 The Bankies as they are known, were back in Scotland’s … Continue reading The Curious Case of Clydebank →

In early March 2020 I guess we all knew something bad was evolving with the virus, but as I walked out of the stadium in Alloa, I never thought that the final whistle on the 2019/20 was coming. The cancellation of all football from Friday 13th March was an omen, just a week shy of … Continue reading Hop ’20 (played in ’21) →

I don’t know if this feeling is the same anywhere else, but perhaps due to the extremely lengthy closed shop nature of the league structure in Scotland, pitching up at an old stalwart ground which is now in the non-league world, it just feels weird. I was at Berwick Rangers when they debuted in the … Continue reading A Highland Bonanza →

In May when St Johnstone stunningly went up to lift the Scottish Cup to complete an unprecedented cup double, it was thankfully the last game played here without a crowd. The entire competition (and the semis/final from the year before) had been played without fans, and some of the “newer” SFA approved smaller clubs debuted … Continue reading The Scottish Cup goes South →

A lot has happened in the world, not just football since Football Weekends boldly stepped out into the shelves of our local newsagents more than six years ago now. Just keeping it going throughout the recent lockdowns, with the added complexity of almost an entire season without fans, is celebration in itself, so chapeau to … Continue reading The Falkirk football fraternity →

A trip through the East of Scotland Conference X as well as trying to make sense of the Scottish pyramid system, with an article submitted to Football Weekends for potential publication by the end of August. Do you recall the earliest date in the year that you have been at a game? Even a friendly … Continue reading The X Men →

  This article has been penned with a view to appearing in the Football Weekends magazine in August or September, hence the reference to last season when the dust has yet to settle on the present one! History was made at the end of the last Scottish season with a Highland League club stepping into … Continue reading All Cove →