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My Story
by Alan Rough with Neil Drysdale
Headline, £18.99
Reviewed by Archie MacGregor
From WSC 241 March 2007 

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The real disaster of Scotland’s 1978 World Cup campaign was, of course, Alan Rough’s haircut. If beforehand you had somehow missed all the other tell-tale signs that the Argentina adventure was steering a steady course towards an apocalyptic implosion of the preposterous and pure vaudeville slap-stick, then Roughie’s perm ought to have been the final giveaway. While there could be grounds for speculating that its true impact on the South American continent only emerged some years later when Colombia’s Carlos Valderrama began strutting his bouffant on the world stage, for most Scots it ranks alongside dear old Ally MacLeod clutching his head in his hands as one of the more shuddering flashbacks of that most ­surreal tournament.

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Steve Menary on the new meaning of "end to end" football

“End-to-end stuff for 90 minutes” is a fixture in cliched match reports, but may not be for much longer as some clubs are replacing crumbling grounds with stadiums that do not have the four sides.

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Before the Old Firm sealed up the Scottish league for good, there was time for Aberdeen to take home the title as David Ogilvie recalls

The long-term significance
The end of an era. Aberdeen were the last side to wrest the title away from the Old Firm, but Graeme Souness’s momentous arrival at Ibrox was not far away and Alex Ferguson stayed just another season and a bit at Pittodrie before being tempted to Old Trafford. Twenty years ago, Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hearts were all serious title contenders, but those days seem a lifetime away. Hearts mounted a decent challenge in 1997-98 but the Old Firm have not been split since 1994-95 when Motherwell and Hibs finished ahead of a sorry Celtic side but behind runaway champions Rangers.

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A well written, well presented and witty US website on football is neither a contradiction in terms nor something dedicated to fat men in pads and helmets, Ian Plenderleith avers in this month’s review

There has rarely been an online fanzine as densely but superbly presented as The Glo­bal Game, the monthly brainchild of Georgia-based American journalist John Turnbull. Available in browser or Adobe Acro­bat format, the four-page journal combines excellent wri­ting and anecdotal wit to present new angles on the game, and thoroughly re­searched links to places you would never otherwise find.

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Paul Hutton reflects on a sordid affair north of the border

It’s enough to make even Marti Pellow weep – on July 9 Clydebank, the club whose shirts were once sponsored by Wet Wet Wet, ceased to exist as a Scottish League club. Having sur­vived more traumas in the last few years than anyone deserves, Clydebank were finally sold by the administrators to a Glasgow-based ac­countant and Airdrie fan, Jim Ballantyne. They will play next season’s fixtures as tenants in the ground left vacant by Airdrie’s liquidation, in Airdrie’s colours, under the name Airdrie United.

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