My football adventures all over the world
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)
The summer of 2021 had its usual round of financial issues in Italy. It was probably to be more than expected, after all, if a normal close season is chaotic, a season without matchday income was always going to be an even more fraught passage of time. When the dust settled, the situation wasn’t as … Continue reading D Tales
The first part of my recollections seemed to be well received, and as promised here is part two. Instead of 10 tales we have 11, after all a football team has 11 players, and I just didn’t want to leave any of these games out, on occasion not so much the match, but more importantly … Continue reading Argentine Futbol Recollections, Part 2
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
Exactly a year ago, two FA Cup ties I watched in Northumberland and Tyneside featured home sides in black and white striped shirts, tales I brought to light from Ashington and Heaton Stannington last autumn for Football Weekends. Here on Bank Holiday Monday at the end of the August, with the Northern League providing a … Continue reading Bank Holiday Black and White Tales
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
I guess by virtue of my articles on Italy for Football Weekends, a lot of my Calcio tales of partite e citta (games and cities) have already been published, squeezed to within an inch of their lives in some cases as I try to find new stories to tide us over until I can head … Continue reading Argentine Futbol Recollections, Part 1
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
Amongst Italian clubs, two kits are almost globally unique, last month I wrote about “i grigi”, the gray shirts of Alessandria, so it seems only appropriate to bring “i grigirossi” (the gray and reds) of Cremonese to life this month. The club comes from the delightful city of Cremona (population 72,680) tucked away near the … Continue reading Pulling the strings in Cremona
A photo I posted recently on my Instagram page in a Chacarita football shirt seemed to catch the imagination of Los Funebreros hinchas in Buenos Aires. It led to Solo Ascenso football website contacting me, and today I submitted these answers to questions for the great newspaper Clarin, with a view to a potential article. … Continue reading My Argentina
Football Adventures with James Rendall 
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