Le Tout P'ti FC

This is the book for you. Author visits all the teams who competed for the final Oberliga in 1989/90. Spoiler: they all went downhill faster than Alan Baxter after taking a nasal inhaler. https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Turning_Season.html?id=W_mkzQEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

Just arriving Prestonfield for the final of the 2019/20 South Challenge Cup. The BSC Glasgow / Broomhill team bus has arrived ahead of me.

Lvrgs v Darvel. In a massive huff because David Galt isn't playing.

Haddington Athletic 5 Heriot-Watt University 3 HT. Defensive battle. Biblical rain. Pitch holding it well.

Whitehill Welfare v Broxburn Athletic. What a fantastic place this is to come on a sunny night. Macaroni pie was about 12 out of 10. Magnificent.

Kilbirnie using hazard tape in club colours - nice touch.

That abandoned signal box in a godforsaken hell hole has a bit of history to it. History of particular relevance to those posting to a Scottish football forum. But you're forgiven.

Never heard of him.

Lesmahagow Juniors v Saltcoats Victoria via the Falls of Clyde. This ground is unique in every way possible. Would be an amazing Winter Olympics venue. Very appropriate: the funeralcare kit sponsor has died.

Did you go to the Marine? I enjoy a wee stop in Stonehaven on way to Cove. I don't enjoy Cove. Maybe I'll stay in Stonehaven next time!

Take me somewhere nice.

Win away to Harthill! Brilliant. Harthill is a difficult place to visit. Plenty leave with a tank of petrol, an emptier bladder, a meal deal (a sandwich, a drink, a snack), and some loyalty points, but few get to leave with all three points. Well done Campbeltown!

Speaking of staunch, I wandered into the Birchtree Hotel in Dalbeattie before the game and immediately found myself surrounded by Rangers fans sitting around the TV watching their beloved TV stars on real life TV. Bless them with their shiny new matching strips, and for some reason they all seemed to want to play in position No.55. None of them made it along to Islecroft when the TV show finished. If Dalbeattie can't persuade a few of them along after their start to the season, they never will. I made my excuses and left the Birchtree.

Dalbeattie Star v Edinburgh University. Love these trips where you pick a game at random, head to a part of the country you know little about, and go for an explore. Ended up walking from Kippford to Castle Point, very nice it was too. Love Islecroft. Just the perfect stadium for this level of football. 2-1 to Star at HT, I'll hazard a guess they'll pull away in second half.

Somebody should tell their twitter account.

Congratulations to Campbeltown Pupils! Off the mark now with a 2-2 draw away to Harmony Row YC. Twice equalising. Delighted for them.

Burntisland Shipyard AFC 6 Hawick Royal Albert United FC 0. Give me a longer pairing of team names, and I will give you thy kingdom. Very one sided as the scoreline suggests. Nonetheless a lovely day for a wee drive to the seaside.

Galt to Darvel.

A trip to Ormiston v Leith Athletic tonight. Ormiston a ground I had never hitherto been to despite me growing up six miles away. East Lothian was a different world then. Missed all the biblical rain and thunder, even had a nice wee blot of late summer's evening sunshine. Lovely wee ground.

There's a bit of detail on the rise and fall of Aviemore in here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v0w2.

I enjoyed that tweet! London has such a strange relationship to the concept of value-for-money. There's plenty of other examples of strange projects down there. The Emirates Air Line being the first one coming to mind.

Those were the days.

"Consideration of the options available" - did this include moving to the astro at Lochaber HS for the season? If the league were willing to work with the club in a compassionate and pragmatic way, I don't see why this couldn't have been an option for a season. The number of postponements would certainly have dropped. I don't really know the full circumstances here, but from the outside this does seem rather draconian. If this marks the end of Claggan Park as a Highland League ground, I'm just glad I managed to get myself to a game up there before the end came.

The Fort has been breached.

Wow. I'm pretty flabbergasted by this. See tweet for the steps taken to admit spectators to matches at an amateur football ground. Details including: * Intalling temporary changing rooms on an adjacent plot of farmland. * Building a new pathway to the ground from those temporary changing rooms. * Putting two thirds of the perimeter of the pitch "out of bounds" to spectators. * Asking spectators to avoid face-to-face contact, and avoid touching their own faces. * Face coverings strongly encouraged in all outdoor settings. In context, the average crowd here at games I've been to must be about 20. I just can't comprehend the level of detail, expense and effort made here. A complete surfeit of caution.