My football adventures all over the world
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
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
On the third Thursday of June the curtain finally came down on a predominantly fan free professional Calcio season. Despite the lack of tifosi, the Italian game was one of the shining lights of the lockdown era, with truly exhilarating action. It was absolutely absorbing stuff. If the top tier had delivered a changing of … Continue reading US Alessandria -The Grey days are gone
A much longer piece on the Euros of 1996 is posted below, capturing the flavour of our 8 games during the group stages, but with England playing Scotland again at the delayed Euro 2020 competition, I pull out this particular days diary entry by way of reliving the last time around. SATURDAY 15th JUNE This … Continue reading EURO’96. A Diary vignette
I have been lucky in life, a journey that has included watching games at five World Cup Finals. Curiously those five editions of the self coined “greatest show on earth” rendered me merely six matches, with the 2018 edition in Russia only the second time I had a ticket with my name on it, and … Continue reading EURO’96. A Diary
Twenty three years! Ok an additional year of agony has been added due to the pandemic, but for those who left dismayed in St Etienne after being mauled 3-0 by Morocco in 1998, despite that embarrassing score, no one would have thought it would have taken so long to get to a Finals tournament once … Continue reading Bordeaux, 23 years on. A recollection
Football Adventures with James Rendall 
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