The Football.....

[AndyRM]

I quite agree; I’m a long time fan of Partick Thistle, and we have the final game tonight away to St Mirren. It’s currently one all from the first game, but I fear we will lose tonight.
At least the other two teams I support, Tottenham and Aberdeen, both rather narrowly avoided relegation. It’s been a stressful season!

I have to ask though, Partick and Aberdeen? Most Scots I know have an English club, and maybe follow a Junior Scottish club, but not two full time Scottish ones is a new one on me.

 

[slow scot]

I have to ask though, Partick and Aberdeen? Most Scots I know have an English club, and maybe follow a Junior Scottish club, but not two full time Scottish ones is a new one on me.

Went to school quite close to Firhill in my early years, though been based in Aberdeen for most of my life.
Tottenham were the nearest English team to where I was born, and after seeing the great Blanchflower led team beat West Ham 6-0 at Upton Park in around 1960 I was hooked.
Was also privileged to see the Aberdeen team of the 1980s, though missed the final against Real Madrid. Watched it on a small black and white television.
The first Scottish cup final I saw was your lot against Falkirk, which I think was just after Bannockburn!! It went to a replay which I couldn’t go to. The memorable thing from the first game was the Falkirk goalkeeper being unable to watch his team take the penalty which made it 1-1. There’s an amazing photo of him hugging the post with his eyes turned away.
In 1966 I also saw England play West Germany at Wembley. I had tickets for every England group game, the quarter final, semi final, and of course the final. Total cost for tickets was I think just under £10. I find the costs of next month’s World Cup quite obscene.
The main reason for my lengthy post is we’re almost twenty minutes into the St Mirren- Partick Thistle play off final, and I’m kind of scared to look. I’m resigned to loosing this one. And I’ve always enjoyed your posts.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Still trying to get my head round quite how massive the Arsenal title is. I'm not coming home for the CL final & parade, but if I was I should have booked a flight already. Ryanair have sold out Copenhagen to London on Thursday, Friday Saturday. Easyjet have a Friday flight at around £250 one-way. Norwegian Air have a Friday flight one-way at nearly £450 quid. This is not normal pricing. To fly next Friday instead would cost £25 on Ryanair, £50 on Norwegian and £100 on Easyjet. A quick browse says it's the same situation in Oslo and Stockholm.

If you were planning on doing anything in London other than watching the CL final on Saturday and attending the parade on Sunday I strongly advise picking a different weekend.

It also feels weird that there are people thinking about anything else at all. That what in Iran? Huge donations to politicians? Temparture records? Have you not seen Declan Rice as fans sing "He said it's not done" at him?

 

[Alex321]

I know you mean 'he knows that', suggesting that I don't have any fashion sense, but I dress individually, so yes, I don't have any fashion sense seeing as I don't follow fashion!🤷

No, that isn't what I meant. You have a very individual fashion sense, but you most definitely have one.

But you don't follow fashion.

 

[AndyRM]

Went to school quite close to Firhill in my early years, though been based in Aberdeen for most of my life.
Tottenham were the nearest English team to where I was born, and after seeing the great Blanchflower led team beat West Ham 6-0 at Upton Park in around 1960 I was hooked.
Was also privileged to see the Aberdeen team of the 1980s, though missed the final against Real Madrid. Watched it on a small black and white television.
The first Scottish cup final I saw was your lot against Falkirk, which I think was just after Bannockburn!! It went to a replay which I couldn’t go to. The memorable thing from the first game was the Falkirk goalkeeper being unable to watch his team take the penalty which made it 1-1. There’s an amazing photo of him hugging the post with his eyes turned away.
In 1966 I also saw England play West Germany at Wembley. I had tickets for every England group game, the quarter final, semi final, and of course the final. Total cost for tickets was I think just under £10. I find the costs of next month’s World Cup quite obscene.
The main reason for my lengthy post is we’re almost twenty minutes into the St Mirren- Partick Thistle play off final, and I’m kind of scared to look. I’m resigned to loosing this one. And I’ve always enjoyed your posts.

Makes sense, and totally justifiable reasoning.

I had a brief, youthful dalliance attempting to support another Scottish club (Hearts), purely because I went to school in Edinburgh and I succumbed to peer pressure.

When I went to a Hearts V Killie game with my old man I could see the struggle for him as we sat in the home end and have been KTID since.

It's been a scrappy half, no real rhythm to the game, or goals, but the best chances have fallen to the Jags. Sinclair has had a couple of dodgy moments and Gogic has been skinned a couple of times which is always pleasing to see.

Walsh is the ref and Beaton is the VAR, which is enough to give anyone the fear.

 

[slow scot]

Makes sense, and totally justifiable reasoning.

I had a brief, youthful dalliance attempting to support another Scottish club (Hearts), purely because I went to school in Edinburgh and I succumbed to peer pressure.

When I went to a Hearts V Killie game with my old man I could see the struggle for him as we sat in the home end and have been KTID since.

It's been a scrappy half, no real rhythm to the game, or goals, but the best chances have fallen to the Jags. Sinclair has had a couple of dodgy moments and Gogic has been skinned a couple of times which is always pleasing to see.

Walsh is the ref and Beaton is the VAR, which is enough to give anyone the fear.

Thanks for that; I just checked the score and it’s still 1-1. It’s not on my tv unfortunately.
By the way my earlier comments could have been misleading. I meant the 1957 cup final (yes, I’m that old), and Falkirk scored first, not Kilmarnock. The replay was on a school day so couldn’t go, but my dad would have had to have taken me and he would have been at work.
Do they have VAR in the Championship, or is it just the play off final?

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Still trying to get my head round quite how massive the Arsenal title is. I'm not coming home for the CL final & parade, but if I was I should have booked a flight already. Ryanair have sold out Copenhagen to London on Thursday, Friday Saturday. Easyjet have a Friday flight at around £250 one-way. Norwegian Air have a Friday flight one-way at nearly £450 quid. This is not normal pricing. To fly next Friday instead would cost £25 on Ryanair, £50 on Norwegian and £100 on Easyjet. A quick browse says it's the same situation in Oslo and Stockholm.

If you were planning on doing anything in London other than watching the CL final on Saturday and attending the parade on Sunday I strongly advise picking a different weekend.

It also feels weird that there are people thinking about anything else at all. That what in Iran? Huge donations to politicians? Temparture records? Have you not seen Declan Rice as fans sing "He said it's not done" at him?

Eh, how many Londoners/Arsenal fans live in Copenhagen?

 

[AndyRM]

Thanks for that; I just checked the score and it’s still 1-1. It’s not on my tv unfortunately.
By the way my earlier comments could have been misleading. I meant the 1957 cup final (yes, I’m that old), and Falkirk scored first, not Kilmarnock. The replay was on a school day so couldn’t go, but my dad would have had to have taken me and he would have been at work.
Do they have VAR in the Championship, or is it just the play off final?

Just for the final. Which I always think is unfair, when one team knows how to play with VAR and the other doesn't.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Eh, how many Londoners/Arsenal fans live in Copenhagen?

Arsenal fans? Thousands, possibly tens of thousands. The Arsenal Copenhagen Facebook page has 2k members, Arsenal Denmark facebook page 18k. And nobody under 30 even uses Facebook. There were at least 5 dedicated Arsenal pubs for the final game yesterday (arranged with Arsenal Copenhagen), they were all absolutely rammed.

English football has always been huge across Scandinavia. In Denmark they used to show English league games on free to air national channels during their winter break. It continued all the way up until the turn of the millennia. I've met plenty of e.g. 60ish guys who are Leeds fans because they watched them when they were growing up in the 70s. I know Danes and other Scandis who have handed their club allegiance down through generations - in fact I found out my eldest had gone out celebrating with his Arsenal mate and his dad, who turned out to be a guy I used to watch matches with 20 years ago. And now the Premier League is eating all football everywhere it's not got any smaller here in Denmark. But even thirty years ago, all kids interested in football would have an English club (not all would stick with it mind, kids are kids) There are a generation in their late twenties to thirties that grew up with Henry and Bergkamp and Pires and Vieira, but there are also loads that are a lot younger that I'm not sure how they found the club

 

[AndyRM]

Not to be sadly @slow scot

Idowu made the difference for them, and I'm not entirely sure their goal was onside (although it was a helluva finish).

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Arsenal fans? Thousands, possibly tens of thousands. The Arsenal Copenhagen Facebook page has 2k members, Arsenal Denmark facebook page 18k. And nobody under 30 even uses Facebook. There were at least 5 dedicated Arsenal pubs for the final game yesterday (arranged with Arsenal Copenhagen), they were all absolutely rammed.

English football has always been huge across Scandinavia. In Denmark they used to show English league games on free to air national channels during their winter break. It continued all the way up until the turn of the millennia. I've met plenty of e.g. 60ish guys who are Leeds fans because they watched them when they were growing up in the 70s. I know Danes and other Scandis who have handed their club allegiance down through generations - in fact I found out my eldest had gone out celebrating with his Arsenal mate and his dad, who turned out to be a guy I used to watch matches with 20 years ago. And now the Premier League is eating all football everywhere it's not got any smaller here in Denmark. But even thirty years ago, all kids interested in football would have an English club (not all would stick with it mind, kids are kids) There are a generation in their late twenties to thirties that grew up with Henry and Bergkamp and Pires and Vieira, but there are also loads that are a lot younger that I'm not sure how they found the club

Well, I am filing this under "you learn something new every day"!