Ivo den Bieman Posted June 15, 2022 Share Posted June 15, 2022 3 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said: In my head I still count Berwick Rangers, plus a number of HFL teams, so there's loads haha. I think they're horrible, but that's only my personal thing. I wouldn't count DUFC, and Dumbarton have had a few sensational strips. Point about Aberdeen being (almost) unique in all red still stands. Berwick -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivo den Bieman Posted June 15, 2022 Share Posted June 15, 2022 4 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said: In my head I still count Berwick Rangers, plus a number of HFL teams, so there's loads haha. I think they're horrible, but that's only my personal thing. I wouldn't count DUFC, and Dumbarton have had a few sensational strips. Point about Aberdeen being (almost) unique in all red still stands. Quite right. Stirling have had the occasional all-red strip (including this season) but their trad colours are red shirts / white sleeves & white shorts. Brechin City are all red too but no longer a league club. Long ago they wore black and white hoops but passed that up in the mid-50s. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergeant Wilson Posted June 15, 2022 Share Posted June 15, 2022 7 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said: In my head I still count Berwick Rangers, plus a number of HFL teams, so there's loads haha. I think they're horrible, but that's only my personal thing. I wouldn't count DUFC, and Dumbarton have had a few sensational strips. Point about Aberdeen being (almost) unique in all red still stands. They're either unique or not, you can't be nearly unique. Anyway, Stirling Albion...and Brechin for most of the past. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamthebam Posted June 15, 2022 Share Posted June 15, 2022 8 hours ago, Ivo den Bieman said: I am sure some bright spark will know why, but Aberdeen changed to red shirts in March 1939 and red has been the team's colour ever since. E&Ms had a spring sale and a set of red shirts were half price? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergeant Wilson Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 8 hours ago, tamthebam said: E&Ms had a spring sale and a set of red shirts were half price? This is my excuse to retell the story about Albion Rovers away strip for the 82/83 season...which was Argentina replicas. Maybe it was a radical political statement about the Falkland war, or maybe they were cheap. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivo den Bieman Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Sergeant Wilson said: This is my excuse to retell the story about Albion Rovers away strip for the 82/83 season...which was Argentina replicas. Maybe it was a radical political statement about the Falkland war, or maybe they were cheap. That is a wonderful story. Zero fucks given by the miserly Mr Fagan. For most of this period Rovers’ away shirt was an obsolete Man U kit made by admiral, with a big oval Rovers badge sewn over the United one. Edited June 16, 2022 by Ivo den Bieman 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fife Saint Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 Ach, tremendous!RIP Barry Chuckle. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clown Job Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 John Collins slotting home a penalty past Brazil keeper Taffarel at the opening game of France 98 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch Stanton Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 15 hours ago, Fife Saint said: On 01/04/2022 at 00:03, Specky Ginger said: Ach, tremendous! RIP Barry Chuckle. Only played 23 games for the Buddies before being sold to Blackburn. Came back to Love St in the early 90s as manager of QotS and, in a reserve game, brought himself on a sub to score a penalty in a 7-1 defeat. He was 61 years old. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dundee Hibernian Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 A wee batch of pages from the SFLR of 1980-81: Killie, Jambos and Doonhamers. Jim Jeffries displaying a rare smile on the Hearts' pages. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dundee Hibernian Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 Three more, the Dons, Honest Men and Warriors: 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranaldo Bairn Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 A 'tacheless Bobby Connor is a little bit disconcerting tbh. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivo den Bieman Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 with all the kerfuffle surrounding Edinburgh City's ludicrous re-barand as "FC Edinburgh" and the problems with Meadowbank, thought it would be a good chance to show the first Meadowbank (prior to the concrete lavvypan built in the late 60s on this site) Quite a shabby ground which mainly hosted speedway in its last decade. Actually Leith Athletic played much more here until their demise in the mid 50s. During this period, City were based at the old City Park in Pilton which I believe now has houses on it. The last tenants here (City went tits up in 1955 after a brief and unsuccessful spell as a junior club) were Spartans and various reserve teams. As I recall this old grandstand was condemned and not possible to use for as long as I have been watching the game, since the 80s. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivo den Bieman Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 (edited) This exotic Victorian footballer (not sure of the significance of the fox-fur coat) is Glaswegian Fergus Suter, now widely credited as the first ever professional, with Darwen and later Blackburn Rovers. He came to prominence as the result of an utterly shit Julian Fellowes drama on Netflix called "the English Game". The lower picture shows Fergus reclining in front of his team-mates before the 1879-80 season. Suter's story is fascinating, a stonemason attracted south by under-the-table professionalism, which people in Victorian times, before the Football League was founded, were appalled by. Later he courted controversy by leaving Darwen for bitter local rivals Blackburn Rovers, where he played 1880-89; Rovers v Darwen derbies were feisty, fisticuffs events for many seasons as a result. He became a hotellier after finishing as a player and died in his late 50s. Nowadays Darwen are in the lower reaches of English non-league, having dropped out of the football league set-up around the turn of the 19th / 20th centuries. But when Suter played there they were a decent sized top English club who regularly tapped Scotland for players. They last flickered into national prominence in 1932 when they battled their way through to a cup tie at Highbury against Arsenal, which they ended up losing 1-11. However Arsenal were so "impressed with Darwen's sportmanship" that they donated a set of red shirts with white sleeves to their beaten opponents. Darwen, who had in the past favoured Queen's Park-style hoops and a fetching pink shirt (hence their nickname "The Salmoners"), wear Arsenal-style tops to this day. Below the Arsenal and Darwen captains shake hands at kick-off, and the programme that day, 80 years ago now. Edited June 17, 2022 by Ivo den Bieman 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nowhereman Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 3 hours ago, Ivo den Bieman said: This exotic Victorian footballer (not sure of the significance of the fox-fur coat) is Glaswegian Fergus Suter, now widely credited as the first ever professional, with Darwen and later Blackburn Rovers. He came to prominence as the result of an utterly shit Julian Fellowes drama on Netflix called "the English Game". The lower picture shows Fergus reclining in front of his team-mates before the 1879-80 season. Suter's story is fascinating, a stonemason attracted south by under-the-table professionalism, which people in Victorian times, before the Football League was founded, were appalled by. Later he courted controversy by leaving Darwen for bitter local rivals Blackburn Rovers, where he played 1880-89; Rovers v Darwen derbies were feisty, fisticuffs events for many seasons as a result. He became a hotellier after finishing as a player and died in his late 50s. Nowadays Darwen are in the lower reaches of English non-league, having dropped out of the football league set-up around the turn of the 19th / 20th centuries. But when Suter played there they were a decent sized top English club who regularly tapped Scotland for players. They last flickered into national prominence in 1932 when they battled their way through to a cup tie at Highbury against Arsenal, which they ended up losing 1-11. However Arsenal were so "impressed with Darwen's sportmanship" that they donated a set of red shirts with white sleeves to their beaten opponents. Darwen, who had in the past favoured Queen's Park-style hoops and a fetching pink shirt (hence their nickname "The Salmoners"), wear Arsenal-style tops to this day. Below the Arsenal and Darwen captains shake hands at kick-off, and the programme that day, 80 years ago now. never fails to amaze me how old players of the past looked. Those two look as if they should be collecting their pension 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmain Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 3 hours ago, Ivo den Bieman said: This exotic Victorian footballer (not sure of the significance of the fox-fur coat) is Glaswegian Fergus Suter, now widely credited as the first ever professional, with Darwen and later Blackburn Rovers. He came to prominence as the result of an utterly shit Julian Fellowes drama on Netflix called "the English Game". The lower picture shows Fergus reclining in front of his team-mates before the 1879-80 season. Suter's story is fascinating, a stonemason attracted south by under-the-table professionalism, which people in Victorian times, before the Football League was founded, were appalled by. Later he courted controversy by leaving Darwen for bitter local rivals Blackburn Rovers, where he played 1880-89; Rovers v Darwen derbies were feisty, fisticuffs events for many seasons as a result. He became a hotellier after finishing as a player and died in his late 50s. Nowadays Darwen are in the lower reaches of English non-league, having dropped out of the football league set-up around the turn of the 19th / 20th centuries. But when Suter played there they were a decent sized top English club who regularly tapped Scotland for players. They last flickered into national prominence in 1932 when they battled their way through to a cup tie at Highbury against Arsenal, which they ended up losing 1-11. However Arsenal were so "impressed with Darwen's sportmanship" that they donated a set of red shirts with white sleeves to their beaten opponents. Darwen, who had in the past favoured Queen's Park-style hoops and a fetching pink shirt (hence their nickname "The Salmoners"), wear Arsenal-style tops to this day. Below the Arsenal and Darwen captains shake hands at kick-off, and the programme that day, 80 years ago now. Darwen...had forgotten the name of the team. Aye that Netflix thing was utter pop, but diverting in a 'f**k all else tae do during Covid' type way. It also got me deep diving into that period of the game as well, so served some sort of purpose I suppose. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamthebam Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 11 hours ago, Ivo den Bieman said: with all the kerfuffle surrounding Edinburgh City's ludicrous re-barand as "FC Edinburgh" and the problems with Meadowbank, thought it would be a good chance to show the first Meadowbank (prior to the concrete lavvypan built in the late 60s on this site) Quite a shabby ground which mainly hosted speedway in its last decade. Actually Leith Athletic played much more here until their demise in the mid 50s. During this period, City were based at the old City Park in Pilton which I believe now has houses on it. The last tenants here (City went tits up in 1955 after a brief and unsuccessful spell as a junior club) were Spartans and various reserve teams. As I recall this old grandstand was condemned and not possible to use for as long as I have been watching the game, since the 80s. The old stand at Meadowbank was originally St Bernard's stand at The Gymnasium, Eyre Place With St Bernard's going defunct after World War II, the newly formed Stirling Albion wanted to take it to Annfield but I think were prevented in doing so by the authorities (petrol rationing or something) so it was moved to Meadowbank. There were actually two pitches at Meadowbank - Old Meadowbank and New Meadowbank Prior to development in the 1920s Meadowbank had been used as a dumping ground for the city's waste so The Concrete Lavvypan was an appropriate nickname in many ways 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Shaker Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 (edited) With Cove Rangers about to add some new bits of Lego to their new-ish house, it's worth remembering how much of a sty their old place was. Cramped and ill-suited to anything but the growing of neeps, the pitch was one of the smallest on the go and while I believe it wasn't the smallest in the SHFL, the lack of space on the wrong side of the touchline meant for a frightening experience for wingers who were only ever a misplaced stud or an Eric Watson challenge away from ending up in the crowd, tangling with the railings, or speared on the fencing that surrounded the ground. If the pitch was 100 yards long, the entire ground was no more than 110 from end to end. Making things more interesting was the regular haar that clung to the ground, making visibility piss poor even on what was little more than a Subbuteo mat. Old newspapers from the late 90's featured stories of Cove's desire to move ahead of the 2000 SFL election, and their failure to move on saw Allan Park become a bit of shitehole long before rumoured plans to share with Aberdeen somewhere developed into a concrete scheme for a new home of their own just up the road. In their final few seasons Cove all but abandoned the place, doing zero maintenance or housekeeping to an already crumbling ground and in its final season it was a complete disgrace. The rot really set in during the 2008/09 season when their plans for election to the SFL were scuppered by Allan Park being a wreck, and Cove moved out 'for a season' at the end of the 2014/15 campaign. Three full seasons of kipping on other folks sofas followed, with home games played at Forfar, Formartine, Lossie, and Keith, with Inverurie's Harlaw Park eventually acting as their home while they won two titles but failed to achieve promotion through the playoffs. Never a nice place to go for anyone - Cove players were no real fans of the place any more than away players were - a great afternoon could be had if Cove suffered one of their rare brainfarts, such as a 1-3 defeat to Lossie which saw Cove finish the game with eight men. Stuart McKenzie (I think) feels the hot breath of the crowd at a goal kick. Scott Dunn (Lossie) gets his elbows out JJ Urquhart and Martin Johnston Cove concede to Clach on a grim afternoon Kevin Main saves for Buckie Thistle Edited June 17, 2022 by Jimmy Shaker 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacksgranda Posted June 18, 2022 Share Posted June 18, 2022 I was at Allan Park, this was when Cove were amateurs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dundee Hibernian Posted June 18, 2022 Share Posted June 18, 2022 Photograph pages from the 1980-81 Scottish Football League Review. I had thought the Drybrough Cup was a competition run by the SFA, until looking back at this publication. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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