Welcome to Issue 10
Sold out
Love and laughter
By Daniel Gray
There will always be Kenny
Sir Kenny Dalglish: more than a player, more than a legend. He was, and still is, a deep and abiding sense of time and place.
By Michael Tierney
The making of Davie Cooper
Coaches, colleagues and family recount the early days at Clydebank of the legendary winger.
By Tom Brogan
Quids in? That’s rich!
The reality of the hand-to-mouth existence of part-time lower league players in Scotland means that they have to make serious sacrifices.
By Danny Denholm
Gibraltar: land of opportunity
Exiled Ayrshireman Davie Wilson says that even his Second Division Brunos Magpies can offer a more attractive package than most Scottish lower league teams.
By Greg Gordon
The Other Queen of Hearts
Ann Budge is rightly recognised as a key figure in the resurgence of Hearts. There’s another less high-profile woman at Tynecastle who has also played a big role.
By Heather McKinlay
The ‘e’ world
eSports will be a near $1billion industry soon, and football has to move with the times when there’s a chance of earning more off the pitch than on it.
By Chris Samson
Move over Michael and Steven?
Performance analysis is being revolutionised by technology and modern thinking. But does it spell the end for Michael Stewart and Steven Thompson?
By Robert McCunn
In search of a different mind-set
Once regarded with suspicion, nutrition and sports science are now commonplace within Scottish clubs. Is psychology next?
By Graeme Kilgour
Head start
The very best players have it – game intelligence, and how to develop it.
By Paul Grech
The battle of Cologne
The European debuts of Dundee and Cologne in the preliminary round of the 1962 Champions Cup will never be forgotten – by either club – for very different reasons.
By Kenneth Ross
Part-timer Wishart and Dundee’s European odyssey
The Dens Park side’s incredible journey to the semi-finals, and the brink of Wembley, made the continent sit up and take notice.
By Jack Davidson
Fill your eyes
A new book of 200 previously unseen photographs of Scottish football grounds is a celebration of the true matchday experience.
By Daniel Gray
“I loved playing it, I love watching it, and I love learning from it”
Scotland’s rugby head coach Gregor Townsend on his relationship with football.
By Richard Winton
Fitba – another glorious failure
Like Scotland in the World Cup group stages, the football magazine Fitba only managed three appearances before vanishing from sight. Its publisher reveals the inside story of Scottie dogs, Jimmy Hill effigies and Rod Stewart’s brother.
By Fraser Allen
My shot at glory
Could I help in the planning and marketing of a ‘soccer movie’ that was going to be set in Scotland? Why of course, Mr Duvall . . .
By Paul Goodwin
Strachan’s SPL experiment
We’ll probably never know how the Old Firm would fare in England. But Gordon Strachan did his best to find out at Middlesbrough.
By Sean Cole
What if…
…Souness had played against Iran
If Ally MacLeod had brought on Graeme Souness against Iran at Argentina ’78 it could all have been so very different. And not just the football.
By Mark Poole
Alex Young’s golden years at Goodison
Barely recognised in Scotland, the former Hearts striker is revered as Everton’s most gifted player.
By Jim Keoghan
Should I stay or should I go?
The dilemma faced by hometown heroes Tierney, Torres, Iniesta et al.
By Ross McIndoe
Whatever happened to Ryan Gauld?
Things haven’t gone as planned in Portugal for the one-time Dundee United midfielder dubbed ‘The Scottish Messi’. But there’s no complaints from the player himself.
By Martin Domin
Pride and prejudice
Racism is unacceptable, sectarianism is a hot topic, but what about homophobia?
By Adam Lawson Stalker
The SPFL’s identity crisis
Other leagues are doing it. Now we have to make the world sit up and take notice.
By Craig Shields
Haves 0 Have Nots 1
The obscene amounts of money flowing into English football have diminished its standing as the People’s Game, which continues to thrive in Scotland.
By John Nicholson
Clydebank’s Christmas cracker
The last British senior match to take place on December 25 was an enthralling encounter peppered with now legendary figures of the Scottish game.
By Graeme Macpherson
Was this the worst ever Hampden final?
A terrible game at a derelict stadium, a moribund tournament in the middle of a fuel crisis, appalling weather and an apathetic crowd. This League Cup final had it all.
By Craig McCracken
Hal Stewart’s foreign policy
When a charismatic Glasgow businessman arrived at Morton in 1961 the club had just two signed players and were bottom of the league pile. By 1964 they were signing Danish internationalists.
By Jim Jeffrey
Stenhousemuir and Norway: the ties that bind
Norwegian football fans generally follow the usual suspects: Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal. Not all.
By Mark Godfrey
The lure of the Soccer Bowl
A vibrant competition, a comfortable standard, less pressure, good money and your days off on the beach. Why were so many Scottish players attracted to the NASL in the 1970s?
By Michael Gibbons
The mysterious Mr Bennett
A colleague and confidant of some of the greatest managers of all time, his career took him from Junior football in Aberdeen to four European Cup victories. So why haven’t more people heard of Reuben Bennett?
By Scott Fleming
Hill climbing
It’s been a seismic year for Junior football, having voted for a shift into the pyramid system. Maryhill, like many clubs, are eyeing what opportunities that might present. First the new manager and new committee have an old problem to deal with.
By Ginny Clark
A losing battle
The intense pain suffered by the downtrodden and defeated is a lesson for life that serial winners will never experience.
By Giancarlo Rinaldi
No promotion, no relegation, no problem
After seeing neighbours Gretna crash and burn, their replacements in the Scottish League, Annan Athletic, have been more prudent – and spent 11 seasons in Scotland’s bottom division.
By Andy Harrow
A different kind of Ba’ Game
The Uppies and Doonies of the sport in Kirkwall.
By Mark Godfrey
From Widnes to Wembley: Empty stadiums and me
There is something special about a still ground stripped of fans, players and raucous atmosphere.
By Neil Gibson
Grounds for concern
An arrow ‘in the nethers’, a 16-foot pineapple on the centre spot… it was all in a day’s work for legendary figures who tended the turf.
By Duncan McCoshan
Aberdeen strips: six of the best
By John Devlin
Poetry
The Beautiful Game by Derek Hodgkiss
Davie Cooper by Hamish MacDonald