Today sees the start of the new league season. The World Cup is barely over and we’ve already played four games in the League Cup.* (Lost three, won one – perhaps surprisingly against a team in the Division above. Due to the pitch at the Rock being replaced with artificial turf our two home games were played at Cliftonhill.**)

So it’s back to nerve-shredding Saturday afternoons, then, starting with an away game at Stirling Albion. Then it’s two home games in succession – against Clyde and Edinburgh City.

I’m fearful that at the end of those we’ll have no points. Our squad is pretty low on numbers -we’ll need to get some more loan players in I think. And while goalie Aidan Rice is back to us on loan, Alexander Smith (Smudger) has opted to go elsewhere for this season. I would go so far as to say that it was his contribution to our cause last season that enabled us to avoid the relegation play-off.

Plus Stirling are nearly always a tough nut to crack, Clyde were pretty good last season and Edinburgh City simply owned us.

I admit I have more trepidation than hope at the moment, but only time will tell.

I would like to see us play some football, though, rather than try to avoid defeat.

*Premier Sports Cup if you absolutely must.

**The Reigart Stadium now.

And so now it’s Kevin Keegan who has left us.

I knew of course of his cancer diagnosis, revealed earlier this year, but hadn’t thought it would progress so quickly.

He was a footballer who dedicated himself to his craft and made the most of his opportunities.

He never made much of an impact at a World Cup for the simple reason that England teams of his era were pretty so-so – often failing to qualify – and his only brush with the tournament came at a time when he was recovering from injury and therefore not at his best.

His achievements on the pitch with Liverpool, SV Hamburg (Hamburger SV) and Newcastle speak for themselves. His transformation of Hamburg’s fortunes propelled him to the Ballon d’Or not once, but twice. Off the field he successfully helped save Newcastle from relegation to the third tier before gaining them promotion to the first and then almost, almost, winning the English title. He repeated that promotion feat with Manchester City.

While his “Love it!” rant at Alex Ferguson apparently sparks most people’s reflections my main memory of Kevin was of his fisticuffs with Billy Bremner at a Charity Shield game in 1974, an incident which seemed at odds with his usual behaviour (though not, perhaps, Billy’s.)

Joseph Kevin Keegan: 14/2/1951 – 20/7/2026. So it goes.

Victoria Park, Innerleithen, is the location of the home ground of Vale of Leithen FC, currently of the Third Division of the East of Scotland League. The ground is at the edge of Victoria Park.

This is a ground where I have watched a match even though the mighty Sons of the Rock haven’t played Vale of Leithen FC in my memory. It was a warm-up for the World Cup of 1966. The France squad had a training base nearby so a game was arranged against the local side who played in Scotland strips for the occasion. I forget the score. Suffice to say France won easily.

My grandparents used to live in the town and we used to visit in the summer holidays so were able to take in the game.

Entrance to the ground:-

It’s a lovely location surrounded by hills:-

Local amateur side Leithen Rovers, have their changing rooms at the edge of the main park area. I assume they play their games on a pitch in the park:-

And so to the much anticipated World Cup, which after Scotland’s long wait of 28 years, starts for us in less than 24 hours.

I realise for some people this is a new experience and it is eagerly awaited. That euphoria of the qualification night was perhaps justified. There were three memorable goals (plus a scrappy one.)

However there was a sense of unreality about it all. It was the most surreal qualifying campaign I can recall. The 0-0 draw in the first game at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen was deserved – in fact we might have snatched a win. But the wins against Belarus – both of them – were nervy affairs and we were maybe lucky not to drop two points against them at home. As for the home game versus Greece, we were never in it. How we managed to score three is beyond me. And Greece were way better than us for most of the away game. Indeed there is an argument that says Greece were actually the best side in our group. Belarus getting a draw at the Parken saved our bacon and set up the decider versus Denmark. Even on that night they got back to 2-2 and if they hadn’t had a man sent off…. But they did and so here we are.

I must admit it was a professional performance against Curaçao in the Hampden warm-up friendly (again helped by a red card for the opposition) and the one in the States versus Bolivia was simply very unScottish in its efficiency. I was left wondering just how good – or should that be bad? – Bolivia are.

The game against Haiti gives me the fear. These are the sorts of matches where we traditionally fall down. I’ll not be watching it live, it’s too late at night. I’ll take a win – any kind of win – though, and hope that would be enough to take into the knockouts, which really will be something to celebrate. No matter what, points gained versus Morocco or Brazil will be a bonus. We can hope.

However, those of us who are long in the tooth fear we know how this ends. With Scotland it’s usually in tears.

New Central Park is the home of Kelty Hearts FC.

It’s a tidy traditional Scottish football ground.

The photographs are from the day of Sons’ first visit to it on 9/11/2024.

Entrance:-

East side of ground:-

South side looking west from entrance:-

North from entrance:-

Looking west at north end:-

Looking south From northwest corner:-

From northwest corner:-

The Amazing Mathematics of the World’s Most Watched Object, Princeton University Press, 2025, 130 p, including 4 p Credits, i p Preface, i p Translator’s Note. Translated from the French LA PETITE HISTOIRE DU BALLON DE FOOT, (Odile Jacob, 2023,) by Teresa Lavender Fagan.

The translator’s note at the beginning informs us the history of both names for the game played with the titular object is fascinating but she has chosen to call the game football rather than soccer (as is only proper.) There was only one lapse.

This book could almost have been designed for me A football fan (well, a fan of the Sons of the Rock, so arguably not football) with a scientific background and therefore a grounding in maths. How could a discussion of the mathematics surrounding the football not interest me? Nevertheless it wasn’t a book I sought out; indeed I was unaware of its existence until I unwrapped it as a birthday present.

Amazingly (to me at least, I discovered it in this book) the rules of football state about the construction of the ball only that it must be made of a suitable material – but without specifying what constitutes suitability! (It must also be spherical and lie within a certain circumference and weight range with internal pressure between 1.6 and 2.2 atmospheres at sea level.)

The book starts with the familiar Telstar ball, dating from the 1970 World Cup and containing twelve black pentagonal panels, twenty white hexagons and requiring ninety seams. It is impossible (despite the illustrations on UK road signs which indicate football grounds) to construct a sphere only from hexagons, or indeed solely from pentagons. In this regard the logo for the (so-called) Champions League is incorrect. The actual ball has five-pointed stars surrounding curved hexagons, three stars around each hexagon. The logo, in places, has four.

In terms of geometry the Telstar is in fact a truncated icosahedron (ie one with its points cut off) and then inflated to [near] sphericality. It is also extremely symmetrical, ensuring stability in flight, but the pattern for cutting out the panels is very complicated.

The balls for more recent World Cups are truncated versions of other Platonic solids. Teamgeist (2006) was a truncated octahedron, the Jabulani (2012) a truncated tetrahedron with eight panels which weren’t flat, the Brazuca (2014) a truncated cube! (Albeit that last had curved panels.) 2022’s Al Rihla was based on an icosidodecahedron.

So much for geometry. The other criterion considered here is drag. It is the interaction between drag and gravity that determines a football’s flight. Without drag the ball’s flight would be inherently unpredictable and, due to turbulence, slow down too quickly! The ninety seams on the Telstar ensured sufficient drag. The Jabulani’s fewer seams and relative smoothness made it seemingly erratic. (Drag reduces with smoothness.) French goalkeeper Hugo Loris called the Jabulani a catastrophe. More modern footballs like the Al Rihla, as a close-up photograph demonstrates, are dimpled (in a similar way to golf balls) so as to reduce drag.

This is an excellent book for those interested in both football and maths but I think its explanations, not to mention the copious illustrations and diagrams, are sufficiently clear to pose no barrier to the maths-phobic.

Pedant’s corner:- “The horizon is a straight line” (It isn’t; it’s actually slightly curved,) “the English government” (there is no such thing. [there is a UK government, though],) uses English plurals (rather than Greek) for the Platonic solids.

The Design, Meaning and Symbolism of World Football’s Most Famous Club Badges, Bloomsbury Sport, 2018, 255 p. First published by Pintxo Förlag, Sweden, 2016.

This book does exactly what its subtitle suggests, exploring the history of football club crests (that is what are called badges in the UK) or club emblems used on shirts, programs and stationery.

The contents are divided by country. There are 27 English club emblems discussed in detail, 12 each from Spain, Italy and Germany, 9 from France, 20 from the rest of Europe, 6 US clubs, 3 Australian and 5 South American. The entries give a potted history of the badge and (some of) its variations – many clubs have not kept a history of the changes – that club’s date of founding, its present stadium and capacity, its nicknames plus names of selected historic players, along with illustrations and descriptions of the relevant badge’s evolution.

As an addendum 126 “notable crests” are illustrated with the relevant badge, founding date, stadium and capacity, nicknames and country.

Sadly, despite its historical importance as the first outright winner of the Scottish League* and its badge depicting an elephant with a castle on its back Dumbarton FC’s striking emblem is not included. I note that Coventry City’s badge also has an elephant and castle and is given as one of the notable crests.

Manchester United’s historic players’ list contains Bobby Charlton and George Best but does not include Denis Law (though he appears with Derek Dougan in a photo on the Wolverhampton Wanderers pages) Sunderland’s list misses out Len Shackleton (I know a Mackem whose favourite, oft-repeated, football tale relates to him.)  Tottenham’s omits Danny Blanchflower. I first supposed the author is perhaps too young to be aware of these illustrious forebears but Charlie Buchan is in Sunderland’s list and he predates Shackleton by twenty plus years.

One of Aberdeen’s nicknames – along with ‘the Dons’ and ‘the Reds’ – is said to be ‘the Dandies’. I must confess that I had never heard of this though it does appear on the club’s Wikipedia page.

This is an agreeably idiosyncratic way of discovering something of the histories of the various clubs discussed.

*Neither is that of the first winners of the (English) Football League, Preston North End, though that too is fairly distinctive.

Pedant’s corner:- The author is Swedish and the book’s first publication was in Sweden so it is perfectly understandable that some infelicities should occur. No translator is listed so the author may have performed that function himself.  I noted a misplaced comma, “the claret and blue colours was the main motive” (the claret and blue colours were the main motif,) “the 1997 Champions’ League sinal” (final,) “forceably relegated” (forcibly,) “(1963/640” (1963/64,) “the Ukraine” (just ‘Ukraine’.) Arguabaly (Arguably,) “one star resembles ten titles” (one star represents ten titles.)

We visited Carlisle on the way down to Barrow-in-Furness, mainly to have a look at a second hand book shop in the town centre. As I recall I didn’t buy any books.

As we travelled on to south Cumbria we passed Brunton Park, home of Carlisle United FC, and I stopped to photograph it – or what I could gain access to. (There was some work going on at the ground.)

External view of stands:-

Statue outside club shop on Warwick Road:-

The plaque on the statue commemorates 100 years of the club:-

View of stands from the road round the side of the stadium:-

Pitch and stands (photographed through a fence):-

Further round I was able to get a less obstructed view of the pitch and stands:-

At the time the club was still in the English Football League but it has since been relegated to the National League.

Maybe I’m a jinx.

Much underrated Scottish footballer, and Nottingham Forest legend, John Robertson died on Christmas Day.

He was never the most athletic looking of men (which probably led to that underrating) but he was described by Brian Clough, the manager who got the most out of him, as “the Picasso of our game” and by his Nottingham Forest teammate John McGovern as “having more ability than Ryan Giggs.” Forest coach Jimmy Gordon rated him as “a better player than Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews.”

He is one of the few Scotsmen to win two European Cups, providing the assist for the winning goal in his first in 1979 and scoring the winner himself in the second a year later.

He also scored a winner for Scotland against England at Wembley. In 1981: Scotland have only won once there since.

John Neilson Robertson: 20/1/1953 – 25/12/2025. So it goes.

I mentioned Furness Rovers FC in yesterday’s post. They have several teams in different age groups and play games at Wilkie Road which lies right beside Barrow AFC’s Holker Street ground.

Wilkie Road club house:-

Wilkie Road pitch from entrance:-

North End, Wilkie Road. Penalty shoot out in progress. Holker Street (Barrow AFC) in background:-

Hollker Street is to the left of this shot:-

As can be seen from this shot Wilkie Road is not completely fenced off:-