Zombies, facepaints and a wee tartan dress
After all my lovely sun over the summer I was reminded of my Scottish roots with an absolute down pour yesterday, But being Scottish I knew how to handle it so on with the wellie boots and Raith Scarf I go. It was only two weeks ago I was going out with not even a wee cardigan at night to keep me warm! Winter is coming folks!
I have been in work more than usual the past few weeks and have had only my iPod for company. I used the time to catch up on my footballing podcast and as a result was not only in work but feeling miserable as well! You can count on the scottish football pundit to make you feel even more depressed!
PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL TEAM AND MATCH DAY PROGRAMME!
Paella and Bovril
Now to anyone who has had the pleasure of sitting with me at a football match have been know to be shocked at the love of the game I have, and display! I have been known to paint my entire face and colour my hair in the team’s colours to help the outsider understand where my allegiance lies for the day’s footballing event! Scotland’s do or die, all or nothing, this is it match against the World and European champions was to be no exception.
So I dug out my tartan Raith kit, the third strip from 96/97 I think but I may be wrong, painted my nails with ten little saltire flags and put a “proud to be Scots” mix on the iPod for the walk to work. I was ready for the day! I spent the metro journey to work reading the newspapers’ build up to the match, not a lot of talk about the players, more about the 10,000 plus escocés invading Alicante and the standard reference to “eewiilliiamm eewwalllace”
The day was going to be a good one, made even better by the fact that it was a national holiday the following day. Then my ever “optimistic” Scotland fan decided to remind me that the holiday was national Spain day, “so great we have no hope now, it is a sign we play them on the eve of their national day, we are going to get humped!” I am sure we all know the result and all have our own opinions on where we lost the campaign, hindsight is a great thing.
As it is a holiday day the next day I decided to go out to “party” after the match with some “non football” people and we ended up in a cocktail bar! I was quietly drowning my sorrows when the barman notices my “eessccoottish” nails! He asked if I was a ”real Scottish” and did I watch the match? He was so excited to meet a real Scottish fan in a kilt (I had a tartan dress on did not have the heart to tell him that did not really count as a kilt). I got a free cocktail as a result! After a few more cocktails (called zombie, taste lovely but the next day they live up to their name!) and a good night’s sleep I started to reflect on the past few weeks of being a Scot!
“Oh really you want to watch the match, I do not think I can watch Scotland lose again”, “Scotland snatch defeat from the claws of victory”, “Scottish football is dead!” Some of the feel good comments that I have had to hear about my bonny homeland’s sporting attempts over the few weeks. Ain’t it braw to be a wee jock abroad! I suppose I can’t really blame them as over the past few weeks I have seen Scotland lose a few games of rugby and football and the only news you seem to hear is the bad kind. But to say it is dead is a bit harsh!
As regular readers know I spend most Saturdays glued to the wireless Internet listening, tweeting, and generally getting as much Scottish football as I can. So of course the Saturday following the match in Spain most of the talk was about the match and the state of Scottish football. In amongst the usual “he should have done this”, “we should have won that” talk a question was asked “would we take being a great footballing nation over being a great football fan nation?” But do you not need one to become the other?
To me this “dead” football is revivable if we go back to the heart of the game and give it the cardiac massage it needs, and to me the heart of the game is the fan! No matter what type of fan you are, armchair, fanatic, iFan or just a lover of sport when you watch a match you invest a little something in the games you watch and follow, and as with every type of investment you make you want to get something back. But what is it a football fan wants? Wins, cups, world recognition? I know that all I want above all things is to be entertained and to have a good time in the name of football. Some of my best footballing memories have resulted in a defeat, World cup 98 opener Scotland losing to Brazil, Raith losing to Bayern Munich in the Olympic stadium, traveling thousand of miles to see Raith go out of the Scottish cup, Scotland bowing down to Spain in Alicante. All terrible results on paper but I was entertained! Maybe if we all splashed on a little extra colour and went to every game with a song ready to burst out of our lungs our teams would be entreatingly inspired on the pitch!
I am proud to be a fan of a great football fan nation and hope that the fans can make us a great footballing nation! Now all I have to master is how to paint my nails with a wee Raith lion! May get me another cocktail!
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