Weekend of football

I've had a pretty enjoyable, if busy, weekend of football. Saturday of course was Hampden - for me, every Scotland game is a huge must-win game. Macedonia was particularly so.

I love going to Scotland games, and can't stand watching them on the tv. The atmosphere can be breathtaking, and I had a weird feeling as the team ran out, and as we sang Flower of Scotland, that everything would be ok. It took an agonisingly long time for the goal to come (and yet longer for McFadden to find the back of the net), but I was satisfied with the result. I can't wait 'til Wednesday night.

I got back home, and watched some of the England game with my husband, then went out for dinner with my mum and auntie Carol at Celinos on Ally Parade. I love going there, and I'm delighted they've started opening late Thursday - Sunday. I watched the second half of the Denmark - Portugal game when I got back.

This morning, I decided to forgo a Sunday morning lie-in to head out and see my Gran in Wishaw. My Gran White served in the Wrens in the Second World War, but had never been in contact with them after she was demobbed. An item in a Committee paper had led me to discover a contact for the Wrens Association in Glasgow, who had kindly dropped off some info for my Gran. She was very excited to find out they were still going, and I hope to take her along to their meeting on Thursday.

After a quick pit-stop back home for lunch, I headed down to Glasgow Green Football Centre, where I had been invited to the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to the memory of the founders of Rangers FC. The plaque was unveiled by Heather Lang, the grand-daughter of Peter McNeil.

Speaking to some of the attendees, it was interesting to find out that relatively little had been known about the roots of the club and that even Heather wasn't aware of her family connection. The investigative work of journalist Gary Ralston and club historian David Mason had brought a lot of the history to light, culminating in a book and the beautiful plaque itself. The plaque is obviously engraved metal, but this should give you an idea of what it says!



Later in the afternoon, I attended the finals of the UK Asian football championships at Celtic Park. This event was organised by the Scottish Ethnic Minority Sports Association, and was contested by Sporting Bengal and Punjabi Wolves. The very competitive match ended in a 1-1 draw, and went to penalties. Sadly for Punjabi Wolves, their final player to take a penalty missed his second of the afternoon, and the trophy went to Sporting Bengal.

It was a really nice event, well assembled by Dilawer Singh, President of SEMSA, and Culture and Sport Glasgow. To give the players even more credit, many of them were fasting for Ramadan and had also played in the preliminary games yesterday and Friday. Not many professional players would cope with that! There are so few players of ethnic minority origin in Scottish (and English) football, but given the talent on show today, I'm sure there will be plenty coming through.