Football

Scotland’s back in the big time

 Steven Kellow    Football

It’s happened.  It’s actually happened.  Scotland have qualified for a major tournament, the Euros, and ended 22 years of footballing exile. It feels surreal that after years, decades really, of enduring glorious failure that what must have been a curse has lifted from our national game and we’re back to where we should be. What made the difference this time? It would be easy to be cynical, as we have been in our defeats.  We won a third-rate Nations League group then stumbled to victory — Read more →

Reshuffling the SPFL

 Steven Kellow    Football  

Life is far from normal at the moment, so it’s natural to look for things that provide familiarity so that the world takes on a slightly more recognisable feel amidst some dark times indeed. Scottish football’s contribution to this familiarity hasn’t been football, but for it to provide for us it’s signature of an administrative shambles played out in the media. We now know that the 2019/20 season below the Premiership has ended, and that it’s likely that even the top-tier will be wrapped up — Read more →

Ross County’s Footballing Sunset

 Steven Kellow    Football  

Last Tuesday, taking in what was Ross County’s final game in the Premiership, the sun was just about to set behind Ben Wyvis as Simon Murray put Dundee ahead in a game that would end up being a draw.  I thought at the time it was a fitting metaphor for our Premiership days being numbered, and here five days on it’s sadly proved to be so. Ross County’s six-year stint in the Premiership is over, and it’s a perfect time to take stock of why — Read more →

Tackling sectarianism in Scottish football

 Steven Kellow    Football, Politics

This week in the Scottish Parliament, MSPs voted for the repeal of the 2012 Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.  This law was introduced by the SNP Government against strong opposition, and now that the SNP is a minority government this is the first serious attempt, led by Labour, to reverse the Act. The OBFA, as it’s more snappily known, is widely considered to be a poor piece of legislation.  The goal was to crack down on sectarian and violent behaviour at football games, which reached — Read more →

The Scotland team I’d pick

 Steven Kellow    Football

Scotland had the narrowest of defeats draws against England on Saturday, with four minutes of ecstasy produced from Leigh Griffiths followed by a lasting moment of agony from Harry Kane from which I’m still to recover. It was almost one of the Scottish football results of this century, but alas we were foiled. The truth is though that for most of the match we were poor.  England were too, and that’s why the game finished as close as it did, but we weren’t a team — Read more →

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