Welcome to Issue 26
You can order it here

In wonder and awe
By Daniel Gray

The recording of silence
Documenting games that played on during the pandemic.
By Daniel Gray

You can’t beat an honest man
Ayr United are the focus of our latest dispatch from a thrilling campaign that has already managed to outdo the drama and comedy of last season.
By Scott Fleming

Sustainable soccer
Clubs are having to reconsider their environmental impacts. But how can they better adapt towards a climate-friendly future?
By Paul Grech

Old Firm playing fast and loose with the youth
Rangers and Celtic talk glowingly about their colts teams, but are the clubs’ academy prospects really being properly prepared for a career in football?
By Greg Gordon

Shooting from the shadow side
Patient, skilled and often unsung, it is our club photographers that best capture the moments of true passion and drama in our game.
By Vinny Ferguson

Man on! Man on! Man on!
Between 1969 and 1986, the Daily Express National Five-a-Side Football Championships gave a handful of Scottish clubs their first taste of Wembley glory.
By Harry Pearson

Laughing all the way to Meadowbank
It’s 40 years since Terry Christie’s unfancied Thistle team went from zeros to heroes by pulling off the unlikeliest of promotions
By Colin McPherson

Did ‘Magic Chris’ really rock up at Brockville?
It is still hard to believe that Waddle, one of the best players of his generation, had a stint at Falkirk. I was lucky enough to see him on his debut, wonder goal and all.
By Grant Heaney

How Darren Salton survived and thrived
Thirty years ago he was a 20-year-old defender excelling for Luton Town and Scotland under-21s. Then a crash in a car driven by his best friend and team-mate Paul Telfer changed everything.
By Brendan Madden

How Glasvegas man found his feet
James Allan took a circuitous route to stardom, with stops at the likes of Cowdenbeath, East Fife and Dumbarton before football gave way to music.
By Andy Ross

The new Europeans
For the first time in decades, Scottish players have begun to find their feet and make their mark in Italy.
By Giancarlo Rinaldi

Good Kidd, bad Kidd
When a Dundee substitute broke Hearts to become a Celtic hero, Scottish football never forgot him.
By Craig Millar

Just an American Bhoy
Thirteen years before Mo Johnston sent shockwaves through Glasgow, US-born Hugh O’Neill became the first Catholic to sign at Ibrox since the 1950s, despite being raised a Celtic fan.
By Kevin McAllion

Relivable by purchase
Once representative of our clubs and their local communities, the advertising hoardings of old have an appeal far beyond their intended purpose.
By Neil Andrews

In the service of others
A new biography of Celtic founder Brother Walfrid sheds light on a man who built a football club so he could feed the poor of Glasgow’s poverty-stricken East End.
By Hugh MacDonald

The man who got the Gunners going
Many football fans know Arsenal’s original home was in south-east London. But why does the north London giant’s Scottish founder get so little credit?
By Chris Sweeney

Next lease of life for Shawfield is anyone’s guess
Clyde’s venerable old home has hosted speedway, David Cassidy and greyhound racing. Let’s hope the stadium’s next reinvention is a happy one.
By Ginny Clark

The results are in… the bin!
There’s widespread dismay at the BBC’s decision to stop reading out the classifieds on
a Saturday. It’s a blow to tradition and a kick in the teeth for the many fans who relied
on the service.
By Mark Holmes

Hibernian 1, Nihilists nil
Fifty years on, the last game played by the full complement of Turnbull’s Tornadoes continues to cast a shadow across both sides of the Forth.
By Donald Walker

Seeing the world through Oranje tinted spectacles
While the Scottish narrative of Gemmill, Holland and all that is achingly familiar, what of the Dutch view?
By David Winner

Man in a raincoat’s blue and white army
The Scot went from Arsenal hero to traitor when he took over an ailing Spurs. Never welcomed at White Hart Lane, he was ousted soon after the demise of the man who hired and clashed with him, Alan Sugar.
By Ewan Flynn

Hearts failure
Ian Cathro’s short time at Hearts was a doomed from the start – an experiment that saw him become an unwitting spokesperson for other young, inexperienced “laptop” managers with unconventional ideas about training and leadership.
By Sean Cole

Pyramid is a work in progress
Big changes have improved our league structures but we still need to ensure that promotion slots are increased and relegation does not spell doom.
By Alan Russell

Coverage suspended
A dearth of match reports and analysis for games below Premiership level is becoming increasingly prevalent in our media, and the lower leagues are suffering as a result.
By John Penman

Whistleblowers and con artists
We all know referees have their work cut out with free kicks and penalties, VAR or not. It’s time to redefine foul play and bring back some flow.
By Forbes Inglis

Florence and the maroon
Why the mother of all away days – accompanying my teenage son to the Fiorentina fixture – made me fall in love with Hearts all over again.
By Claire Simpson

Heart of Thistle
My beloved Jags were facing financial oblivion. That is, until my dad stepped in to save them.
By Neil Cowan

Glower power from the big man in black
Tiny Wharton was no ordinary ref, using his huge stature and quick ripostes to compensate for any lack of pace.
By Aidan Smith

Eagles fly where lesser birds don’t
A natural businessman, Glasgow-born Dougie Freedman has slotted neatly into his role of sporting director at Crystal Palace, helping them become a force to be reckoned with once again.
By Paul Brown

Rivals, hoodoos and warm balls
Have you ever wondered what the mathematical likelihood of your club being drawn against their fiercest rival in a cup draw is? We do the sums so you don’t have to.
By Jon Davey

Full-bodied time capsules
Scotsport clips from the late 1970s and early 1980s offer a seductive mix of social history, brutal tackles, ludicrous fashion and sublime skills.
By Andy Bollen

A Brazilian’s home from home
Exploring the links between Scotland and my famous footballing homeland made a trip to Glasgow obligatory. I was not disappointed.
By Gabriele Martinez

We came to Britain and found Ukraine
As the horrific war rages on, two Ukrainian football fans travel to Hampden to support their national team in the World Cup qualifiers, finding kinship and solidarity from both their compatriots and opposition fans.
By Mark and Adrian Temnycky

Kirkcaldy no more…
In the third part of a diary series, two former McDermid Ladies reflect upon their life-changing opportunity to play for the Parkland College Athletics team in the US.
By Scarlett Archer and Rebecca Murdoch

Christmas football, 1745
Everyone knows about the Christmas truce of 1914, when impromptu games were organised between enemy soldiers. But it had happened before, in Scotland, in the middle of the 18th century…
By Duncan McCoshan

Strips
Six of the best: Kilmarnock

Poetry
What kind of man by Shaun Moore
We don’t care which team you play for by Shani Cadwallander
Half-time at Celtic Park by Charlie Gracie
Stand by Craig Aitchison