Around a year ago I wrote an article about the limited high quality coverage of the Scottish game, particularly the lower leagues, since then my eyes have been opened to an abundance of content which appears to be growing. We have lower league podcasts, blogs and recently the BBC have backed “A View From the Terrace” which has had glowing reviews.
I was recently sent a copy/sample of a new Scottish football magazine. “How’s Your Touch” annual, a concept from a couple of Edinburgh based students, is an informative and entertaining read which talks positively about our national game. The concept appears to be similar in style to Fourfourtwo magazine but with a sole focus on the Scottish game and includes an awful lot more content.
Having been lucky enough to get a sneak preview I will talk through a few of the segments I enjoyed.
The first feature I read was an interview with ex Rangers and Motherwell midfielder Nicky Law interview. The format read fairly informally and surprisingly Nicky Law avoided your standard top level footballer clichéd answers and retorts. He appeared to speak proudly about being the lynchpin in a Motherwell side that punched well above their weight and discussed the gulf in class when the bumped into Panathinaikos in the champions league.
He then speaks extremely candidly about his time at rangers and dealing with the commotion and circus which surrounds the Old Firm, particularly during what some would refer to as “The Rangers Banter Years”. His honesty comes through and it is apparent that he left no stone unturned in his bid to help Rangers back to the top flight, which from the outside didn’t always seem the case. The annual will apparently feature a number of interviews with a range of people across the Scottish game. There’s even an interview with a certain Danny Denholm, don’t know how that made it past the editors cut.
Aside from the interviews there is a plethora of features which catch the eye. The annual includes 12 odes to Scottish football heroes written by 12 different authors. Having seen the list, there is no doubt that some are the biggest heroes in the Scottish game; on the other hand some of the individuals would probably be defined better as “cult heroes”. That being said, I did manage to read an “Ode to Davie Cooper” which was poetic, engrossing and anecdotal. It paints the picture of an adoring fan’s point of view in tracking the late great Davie Cooper’s career. If the rest are anything to go by, the annual is worthwhile getting your hands on for these features alone.
In between interviews and features there are detailed reviews of each individual game week across the SPFL and the also the women’s game. Not only allowing you to chart your teams story for the season but also including 7 a side team consisting of the standout players from that game week – I somehow managed to make it into this team on one occasion which I still can’t really work out. It will be nice to track the key moments in my former team Arbroath’s season, another one for my mother’s scrapbook.
I’ve only been able to read a sample of the content and it’s fair to say I’ve liked what I’ve read. To get the annual into print the creators need to hit their go fund me target and I would encourage all Scottish football lovers to help them reach this goal. Having met the creators, they have poured an unbelievable amount of effort into putting this together with little to no financial support – make it happen by following this link:
Includes a preview video of what to expect.
Lower League Ramblings 