Just a quick word / fans grateful / 18 years

The blog being semi-retired now for a couple of years, I deliberately didn't compose an annual "thank you" post last year. This year, though, I would just like to take the time to single out a couple of individuals for their efforts this in 2025.

First of all, I'd like to thank Hellas Johnny for providing me with lifts to and from various grounds in 2025. Even if he's a little bit too much like my late dad, in the sense of getting to a game way too close to kickoff for my liking (how long were we in line at the Dockerty Cup final?!), I'm appreciative of being looked after when trying to get to games in bad public transport locations, especially at night. A good thing we did eventually find your car in the back blocks of Reservoir though!

The second person I'd like to thank is Manny of Blue and White Views. The appearance of that website, and especially the fanzine, was a highlight of 2025 - indeed, prior to the turnaround in form under Sinisa Cohadzic, it may have been the only genuine highlight of the season. By the way, this is not an attempt to try and guilt Manny out of his own hiatus! The appearance of the fanzine in particular was evidence that someone in the fan base still cared enough to do something like that. Even better was seeing the interest of fans with their copies of the retro looking program, which was at the very least useful for helping identify who was out there for us without having to resort to clumsy attempts to dig for details on social media. And the collective digital and print output did is own thing - it didn't try and mimic halcyon days South of the Border, and was all the better for that.

Onward to 2026!