The Fitba Nomad Club of the Year: Airdrieonians Football Club The Reasons Why: If you had told me at the season’s start that an adventure to Airdrie would be my best, I’d have been very surprised indeed. Nothing against The Diamonds or the town itself, but it is a fact that trips to SPFL clubs […]

“A feeling of healthy laziness is probably the purest enjoyment it is given man to enjoy.” This quote from Cumnock’s most famous ever resident, the Labour Party founder Keir Hardie, is the perfect description of a day out at the fitba for me. It is very much a feeling of healthy laziness to be out […]

“Coming back to Edinburgh is to me like coming home.” Don’t let the title mislead you, today was not a another visit to my boyhood heroes, rather a trip to EoSFL Premier Division side Tynecastle who faced Kinnoull just over a mile away from the famous ground they share their name with. It was however […]

When I was a young man the local cool kids, not satisfied with the night life of nearby Stirling, regularly got buses to Perth’s Ice Factory or Bathgate’s Room at the Top on a Friday and Saturday evening. Never being part of the ‘in crowd’ my trips to either place numbered zero and since then […]

During my last trip to ‘The City of Discovery’ I ventured up Lochee way to follow in the footsteps of my Dundonian grandfather. I walked the streets and spent time amongst the people of the community he was raised in, feeling a real connection to a relative long passed. This time I found myself crossing […]

Back when I were a lad Airdrieonians were a bloody good team. Under ex-Hearts gaffer Alex MacDonald the Diamonds spent 1991 to 1993 in the Premier Division, played in two Scottish Cup Finals, won the ’95 Challenge Cup and went toe to toe with Sparta Prague in European competition. After the second cup final defeat […]

“Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a town surpasses, For honest men and bonnie lassies” I’ve long been a fan of Burns and his epic poem Tam O’Shanter, as a kid I was mesmerised by this tale of brownyis & bogillis when they taught us it at school. Then a family trip to Alloway, where I visited […]

“Hey Robbo, I love you to bits but you are still only the second-best player to come out of Viewpark!” I arrived in the town of Viewpark, North Lanarkshire with a dual purpose. Clearly my primary mission was the usual; to check out the town’s pubs and fitba club, but it was also something of […]

The Omicron variant of coronavirus wiped out football during the whole of December for me. Firstly it resulted in my scheduled appearance at Airdrieonians to be cancelled and then it put me off going to another game as I was hosting the family Christmas and thus really needed to avoid getting into a situation that […]

“Dumbarton is a brutal concrete sprawl, fulfilling every last hellish cliche about post-war planning and architecture” When commencing research for today’s journey I was rather surprised to find the above description of my destination in a 1994 edition of ‘The Rough Guide to Scotland’. While I’ve never visited the town before a simple web search […]