Scottish Football Stories speaks to Daniel Gray – author, and editor of Nutmeg Magazine – about the beauty of Scottish football. Daniel’s book Stramash, released in 2010, charts a wonderful journey across 12 Scottish lower league matches, looking at the history of the home teams and the social histories of their towns. Read on to find out which Scottish football ground Daniel dreams about…
Scottish football is famed for its great characters and stories, what is the funniest thing you have seen at a Scottish football match?
I’m not sure anything will ever beat standing in the serene beauty of Grantown-on-Spey for a Speyside Thistle match, watching vicious oystercatchers attack and terrify burly Highland League footballers.
What’s the most memorable game you have been to in Scotland?
It’s not so much an on-the-field answer, but instead the first time I went to Central Park, Cowdenbeath, in 2005, was the moment when the strange beauty of Scottish football properly hit me. I realised it was unique, different; of course peppered in foibles and yet completely fascinating.
What is your favourite Scottish football ground and why?
Cappielow, by a vintage whisker from Somerset Park in second. It is a temple to the origins of the game, both in the way it looks and in its industrial surroundings – the crane, the sugar warehouses, the railway. It is a Subbuteo stadium made real. I dream of Cappielow.
“Cappielow is a temple to the origins of the game, both in the way it looks and in its industrial surroundings…I dream of Cappielow.”
Daniel Gray
Your book, Stramash, looks at some of Scotland’s forgotten/small towns and their teams, how did it feel exploring these places and did you have a particular favourite town?
It was such an important thing for me as an English immigrant to get out of Edinburgh and to experience the places that, let’s face it, even many Edinburgh natives never get to unless they follow football. I came away really thinking how much small towns make countries, historically and in terms of their character now. There’s something of interest everywhere – it might be an old tale you find in the tiny museum, or it might be a small town eccentric you watch in the market square.
As a favourite, Arbroath is a really underrated town. Handsome streets, a pretty harbour, a brilliant museum and of course Gayfield-Sur-Mer. And I found a shop selling proper Midget Gems.
Having covered football across the UK, do you find there are differences between attending matches in Scotland compared to England for example, or do football fans tend to be similar?
Similar, but with different songs. At a certain, lower perhaps, level in particular, we’re all united by the devotion, the misery, the commitment, the feeling that on a Saturday afternoon, this is where we belong. And that’s one beauty of the supporting life: a Kidderminster Harriers fan could meet a Montrose fan on holiday, and they’d find much in common in what they love and loathe about the game.
At Scottish Football Stories, we love walking up the stairs at a new ground for the first time and seeing the stadium open up in front of you, do you have any similar football quirks or traditions?
Oh yes, that feeling never goes away, does it. I’ve written a chapter about that one in my latest book. In fact, the three books I’ve done on the delights of football are all about these little things, really, so I’ll pick one: club lotto sellers, with their hollers, and the rituals their tickets inspire. Not least the tearing up of losing tickets and then casting remnants into the air like confetti.
Thanks for sharing your Scottish Football story, Daniel! You can find out more about Daniel on his website or follow him on Twitter.
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