In the last couple of years I’ve come to dread the start of the football season.
The relaxing off-season allows the focus to be switched on to the Commonwealth Games, World Athletics Championships, the Olympics, test cricket, Super Rugby – whatever. Come the start of August, though, and the sports pages are once again dominated by news of petty spats, crowd violence, referees taking a battering, obscene wages etc.
The view from the Roseburn Stand
On the other hand, I can’t wait for the football season, and it having gone off the boil for me over the last couple of years is probably not simply coincidental to me, a Newcastle United fan, having moved away from the North East of England.
After all, nothing quite catches the imagination like football. Even speaking as, predominantly, a rugby fan, I get swept away every Saturday by the round-ball game.
And so it was that, last Saturday, I found myself at a Scottish Championship game between Heart of Midlothian and Cowdenbeath at Tynecastle, arguably not one of the weekend’s glamour ties in British football. But, being in Edinburgh, I couldn’t not go and get my first taste of the Scottish leagues.
In any case, I’ve always had something of a soft spot for Hearts. After a bit of head-scratching, I’ve come up with three possible explanations: a career with them on Football Manager was one of my most successful ever; Tynecastle reminds me of Tyneside; and their nickname (the Jambos) makes me hungry for doughnuts. An alternative nickname is the Jam Tarts, which is even more explicit.
The football was, at times, dubious. The first 45 minutes, in particular, had quality in short supply, and I made my own entertainment by munching merrily on my Scotch pie. Behind me, the conversation soon turned to the Scottish independence referendum, held two days earlier.
The excitement levels ratcheted up after the break, though, with Hearts knocking in four to secure an emphatic 5-1 win and extend their lead at the top of the second tier (a league which also includes Rangers and Hearts’ city rivals Hibernian). After a turbulent decade which culminated in relegation last season, Hearts’ luck has perhaps changed since they exited administration over the summer.
These fans in the main stand were in no doubts as to whether they agreed with the No vote in the Scottish independence referendum
I hope that is the case, because, cheesily, the club won my Heart. The atmosphere at and outside the ground was excellent; the 17,529-seater stadium attracted almost 15,600 fans for a tie which can’t have jumped off the page when the fixtures were first released.
The crowd around me in the Roseburn Stand was friendly, knowledgeable and was at the opposite end of the spectrum to the reputation of the Old Firm clubs. Even 90 minutes was enough to make me feel at home.
Despite the at-times turgid first half, I walked back to Edinburgh trying to remember when it was the last time I enjoyed a football match this much. Great stuff, Jambos.
An Early Bath 