The Archive

It may have only been in the playground, but Neil Reynolds can remember coming to blows with somebody about a football match for the first time

I thumped him in the stomach; he reacted with a punch to my eye which jolted my head backwards. My reply was a jab to the nose which drew blood, and he countered with a hard left to my face. A teacher then stepped in and dragged us apart with honours even, or maybe even me marginally ahead; in truth, though, had the contest lasted more than a few seconds, I would have probably been pulverised.

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He was already a veteran supporter of Newcastle, but Matthew Roche remembers the first time he saw them play in Minsk

Sorting through my Newcastle videos the other day I noticed several were missing. Where was the “Abject failure dressed up as excitement” compilation? Who had swiped my record of the abortive 1990-91 campaign? Then a guilty thought struck me – Dynamo Minsk must still have them.

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There's nothing quite like the floodlights, reminisces Jeffrey Prest

It wasn’t the normal route to night-time football. There were no alluring floodlights visible above the rooftops; no hordes funnelling expectantly past my window. No, it was down to the Airey brothers, excused the last ten minutes of our Scout meeting every Wednesday so they wouldn’t miss Spennymoor Utd’s kick-off. I grew to envy them. The idea that the heroes I occasionally watched on Saturday afternoons were reconvening in the midst of a working week had the exotic flavour of stolen pleasure. The Aireys had sold me.

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Constantly changing the rules makes things difficult for everybody, not least the referees

Watching Nigel Martyn take an eternity over a goalkick the other day prompted thoughts about the Law of Unintended Consequences. Some years ago the tidy-minded people on FIFA’s rule-making committee decided that one of their minor rules was unnecessarily holding up play. It was the one that said a goalkick must be taken from whichever side of the goal the ball went out of play.

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Things could be about to change in Scottish football, as Gary Oliver analyses what the future holds for the SPL

Tony Blair may have no intention of repealing trade union legislation, but that has not prevented ten Scots hankering for a closed shop. And far from being Old Labour dinosaurs, these protectionists are the thrusting ‘entrepreneurs’ who chair Scotland’s Premier Division clubs: in the crusade to create an autonomous Premiership, their latest threat is to sever all links with the Scottish Football League and dispense with promotion and relegation.

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