football rambles

 Today we have the scarf that was in the very first post on this website when I visited Kharkiv back in 2008. At the time Metalist were European regulars and had finished 3rd in the league. Fast forward to 2020 and Metalist is now 2 clubs with my friends Metalist 1925 in their 3rd season in the first league and always looking like just missing out on promotion and the shiny new Metal team, who with the help of a lot of seasoned pros and players who have no business being there are pulling up trees in the second league. I have spoken about this on the Ukrfut podcast, but it looks like this version of the club (the badge still appears on the stadium) won't be reappearing any time soon. Metalist 1925 are playing their games there, Metal are playing at Arsenal stadium. A marriage of the two clubs would be beneficial long term, but in the short term 1925 are a fan ran club (more of that when the 1925 scarf appears) and Metal are a moneyed club, which may or may not include the former ow...

  I think that this scarf came from the last game that I saw Ukraine play in the flesh, a 2-0 win over Israel, which is covered elsewhere on this site. The best game I was at was back in 2001 where they drew with Germany in the play-offs for the world cup, unfortunately they lost the second leg though.

  Well, despite having the weekend off this project and wearing a few of the ones that we have already had featured here, today we have another good one. Obolon Kyiv. This is an old school Obolon scarf that features Latin on one side and Cyrillic on the other. Also notice the controversial spelling of 'Kiev' on the one side of the scarf. this came from the end of 2002 and that was less of a bone of contention then.  My dad has the original one of these scarves, I got that one with Phil when we first met Andriy Tatarchuk. It was at a time when Obolon's first team were playing at Olympiskiy before the 'Remont' and eventual move to their own stadium. The mighty Obolon 2 were playing at the old ground in Smena at that time.  Nowadays, Obolon have their own Arena, which is often used for first league meetings and as a home for several displaced teams in the Ukrainian Premier League. I'll probably try and get to a game there next time I'm over, but last time I was...

 Here's a scarf that is a bit rammy in every sense of the year and to be honest as it is 35 years old it doesn't look too bad. It's a scarf from Derby's centenary year of 1985. The season was 1984-1985, which is what it said on the shirt that they had at the time. The yellow, blue and brown on the scarf that also appeared on the shirt was a nod to their original colours. It wasn't a great season though, as although manager Arthur Cox was to lead them to successive promotions, they finished a disappointing 7th in the old Division 3 at the Baseball Swamp. Bobby Davison helped himself to 26 goals. They also had Kevin Wilson and Andy Garner as forwards so they definitely not short of firepower. Local lad Steve Sutton would become a well-known keeper and Gary Ablett would go on to play for Liverpool. There was also the experience of Kenny Burns and John Robertson, who had tasted European glory with deadly rivals, Nottingham Forest. They probably should have done better r...

Today we have Arsenal Kyiv. Although, I'd probably think of CSKA as my Kyiv team and had some great days out at Obolon and glory nights with Dynamo, Arsenal seemed to be a team who were more of a constant. When CSKA had their place taken by Arsenal, a lot of people said that they were not going to support Arsenal, but carry on with CSKA. That was all well and good, but with most of the first league teams playing on Fridays or weird times in midweek, it was never going to be a pragmatic decision. I gave Arsenal a chance and met a lot of their fans, who seemed to want something other than the mainstream appeal and dodgy politics of Dynamo. Most of them I would consider my best friends now - even almost 20 years later. As for the scarf that was made especially for the ultras in 2004-2005. They were made in a factory in Zaporizhzhia, which makes them more authentic. I am also grateful that they got them here, as at one time they were wanting me to get a job load of Rangers scarves that...

 Another Korea scarf and one that probably saw a few games at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. I think that I wore the one that featured previously more regularly for FC Seoul games as it was more red and black than red and blue - like this one, which was the one I tended to wear for the national team. Going back to the issues with merchandise at stadiums, I think that I actually bought this from a shop of random things in Itaewon, probably in late 2005 or early 2006. The colours are more like the real deal on this one, although the red yin to the blue yang is a bit lost on a red background.

 It's been a long time since I have been to a Buxton game, but they were the first non-league team that I took an interest in. This scarf must be from the 1980s. As a kid I really enjoyed visiting the old club shop with its array of random souvenirs from other clubs and programmes from across the league. I remember getting a Barrow pennant there and for some reason the programmes from other clubs that most stick in my mind are from Wales - Bangor and Colwyn Bay. I also met Neil Warnock there and got his autograph, when he was manager of Burton Albion. That was when he was still a chiropodist rather than Colin. Strange to think that Warnock was managing Burton Albion in the Northern Premier League, considering what both he, individually and the club of Burton have done since. Buxton however are still in the Northern Premier League (which is a level below what it was then) and have also spent some time in the Northern Counties East.