bluearmyfaction

No, Phimister: (Dundee Courier, 14 September 1892; Strathmore had just lost to new bugs Strathmore Athletic in the Scottish Cup 1st prelim round)

I have found the dictionary definition of optimism... (Berwick Advertiser, 26 March 1953)

The irony seems to be that the Accies would have gone out of business had anyone been bothered enough to turn up to vote for their dissolution. Having already renewed their Scottish FA membership, and therefore having a Scottish Cup tie ready, they staggered on long enough for an upturn. Wonder if any of the Hamilton Hibs players went over because there's nothing more about them. (Glasgow Hibs certainly came a-poaching, maybe Celtic did too.)

RIP Hamilton Academical, 1874-1889... (Hamilton Herald, 24 August 1889)

Throwing shade at Alloa Athletic for being Bertie Big Bollocks... Kin Kinrossshire Advertiser, 21 April 1883

I'd be a fan of reviving the white V from the World War 1 era, would be distinctive (albeit Brescia have it too). Is it that hard for Clyde to get a white shirt? Bemusing.

It's a hangover from the previous regime, which did a deal with a hopeless kit supplier, who can barely supply shirts for the first team let alone replicas. And indeed couldn't even do a royal blue for a while. In essence it offered five Nike templates and Ren Xuandong picked one. The change kit is an even more bog standard Nike template in red with black trim, but doesn't look too bad. The penguin stripe is not as common as you'd think, only from 1971 to 1975 and for occasional seasons afterwards. I'm not keen on it because it's usually too wide, especially to fit a sponsor.

The sponsor, in one of those depressingly oxymoronic instances that seem to hang over B9, is... Undefeated. The pop-crazed youngsters however tell me that that is a Big Deal.

And the proper working-class side in the city has finally come out with...well, it's dividing opinion, but apparently the shirt is better in reality than photographs.

Bad spelling on the leaflet though.

Just wondering what to make of this, from the North British Daily Mail of 17 May 1880... ...the only Louis Baretto I can find in the records is described as a "lascar sailor" born in Bombay, who was 31 in 1881, and who was on the Ravenna - which sailed between Glasgow and London at census time so he is on both the Scots and English census. Could they be the same person? Could he be the first Asian-ancestry player in British football? Especially relevant given Andrew Watson used to play for the Maxwell club...

The Scottish Referee comes out against B teams being included in the League. In 1895.

Barnsley had that design in the 80s...

Loving the Dumbarton home shirt, mix of sixties and seventies. It's the kind of shirt you'd expect to see for one of Melchester Rovers' opponents.

How to deal with footballing trespassers? Threaten to shoot them... (Greenock Advertiser, March 1882)

How a good Orange (and black) side should beat the dastard Irish... (Wishaw Press, 8 October 1881)

One of the disgraces in the game is the way larger clubs use their financial muscle simply to obliterate smaller rivals with big money approaches. Naturally one of the absolute worst for this is St Mirren. And as usual the big boys got away with it. (Dundee Courier, 17 September 1890)

To be fair they've judged it perfectly - one season with lower expenses but SFL money. Not sure anyone else would be able to do that though unless they assemble a L2 squad in the feeder.

Partick Thistle having some problems with pitch invaders in 1881...

How do you get someone to sign for Dunfermline Athletic? Why, just get them bladdered... (Dundee Courier, August 1893)

How come Stranraer's figures are so low? They've got quite a big catchment area, is it depressed because I assume few visiting fans take the journey?

The whole surrounding-the-ref thing is not new; Broxburn Shamrock was doing it in 1886. Only they went one better by sending the lino in as well.

Of those not mentioned: Satellite - Pistols Public Image - PiL Marquee Moon - Television Oh Bondage Up Yours - X Ray Spex Science Friction - XTC (are we counting Reward by The Teardrop Explodes as being punk?)

I wonder if there are any relatives of this poor little lad around to see this... ...North British Daily Mail, 1 October 1877. When 11 year olds were worked to their death.

Is it time to arm officials? It would be a throwback to 1882... (this is not Airdrieonians, but the 1868 club; it's notable how much the newspapers were willing to report on violence in matches when the perpetrators were, like Airdrie, made up of Irish immigrant players; the question is whether this is because they were genuinely more aggressive on the pitch - it's certainly a tendency found in reports in relation to 'country' clubs - or whether this was editorial prejudice)