First game of what is going to be a busy football day. Left house at 12.45 and caught a 27 bus to Ainslie Park. Lucky I left sharp as bus arrived three minutes early. Arrived at ground at 14.30 and went to cafe/bar for a coffee. Met Jim there. He had been at Blyth Spartans earlier in the week as he is planning to write an article 'A Spartan Christmas' for a football magazine featuring his thoughts on games at the the Blyth and Edinburgh Spartans. Couple of interesting facts he told me about Blyrth Spartans. Firstly they are linked with Spain's Real Betis which I can understand as both teams were the same strip. Secondly, Blyth are sponsored by Visit North Korea, a tour company based in Shenzhen, China. I cannot see many Blyth fans wanting to go to North Korea on holiday. Todays game should be quite close with Spartans fourth in the Lowland league and Civil Service Strollers (CSS) a point behind in fifth. The 'incestuous' nature of lower league football in E

After leaving the Spartans game caught a 27 bus from Ferry Road to Hanover Street. Then walked to Easter Road arriving at the ground at 19.00. Security was over the top with police insisting on stopping fans in Bothwell Street and ordering cans to be dumped in bins, then ordering fans to walk on the pavements. On the approach to the ground Stewards were checking fans had tickets before long queues at the turnstiles as everyone was  searched before being allowed into the ground.  I was in the South Stand lower and knew that despite having a seat I would be spending the whole match standing if I wanted to see the action. There was not originally a programme showing for this game as it is impossible to get a programme at the away end of Easter Road.  However I have ordered one direct from the publishers and received an e-mail on 2nd January saying my order had been completed with the programme arriving through the post on 8th January.   I went for a coffee and a sausage roll a

Back at Tynecastle today for Hearts v Hamilton. I watched most of the Fulham v Wolves match on Sky before leaving for Tynecastle. I cannot understand how Wolves fans can relate to their side as most of the players and coaching staff are from overseas. I did however see Ian Cathro, the former Hearts manager, on the bench as he now works with Wolves. Left home at 14.05, missing Wolves equaliser and walked to Tynecastle arriving around 14.25. Fans were queueing at ticket office to purchase tickets for this game and also to collect tickets for Saturday’s Edinburgh Derby. Hearts had lost 2-0 at Aberdeen last week but the good news was that Steven Naismith made his comeback after injury in that game. The bad news was that he also received his sixth booking of the season and will now miss home league game against Dundee in January. Hearts made two changes to last weeks side, Ben Garuccio replaced the suspended Demitri Mitchell at left back while Calumn Morrison replace Sean Clare, who d

Was not sure which game to go to today as Hearts were up at Aberdeen and I could not face the journey. As I had not been to a Spartans game since late October I decided to go to Ainslie Park in preference to Civil Service Strollers v Edusport Academy. Watched the first half of Arsenal v Burnley in Sky before heading to Tollcross to catch a bus to the game. Bus was not due for twelve minutes so started walking and eventually bus caught up with me at George IV Bridge. Arrived at ground at 14.30 and after buying programme headed up to cafe/bar for a coffee. Met Jim there and after finishing coffees we headed down to grab stand seats for kickoff. Spartans gave Josh Wishart from their u20 side his full debut at centre half with other u20s Murray Hand and Cameron Dawson on the bench.It was strange to see a Spartans side without stalwart Craig Stevenson. "Grinchy" had asked for a transfer as he felt he was no longer a regular member of the team and has now signed for Penicui

I did not go to Hearts debacle at Livingston on Friday night. Weather was miserable and with game on BT Sport I decided to watch it at home. It was an appalling display and just when I thought things could not get any worse it did and Livingston finally won 5-0 scoring all their goals in the last twenty minutes. On Saturday I was going to go to Bonnyrigg v Sauchie but that was called off due to a frozen pitch. I then checked Newtongrange and Civil Service Strollers but they were also off. Even the Leith game on the 3G pitch at Peffermill was called off. However decided to go and watch the Hearts reserve game at Oriam today. Caught a 34 bus and arrived at ground at 13.40 for a 14.00 kick-off. Game was originally scheduled for the outdoor 3G pitch but was switched to the indoor pitch late on. At least they have now put a barrier behind the goals, see photo above, which allows spectators to see the goals clearly. No team sheets were issued but I recognised most of the players on the H

Had not been feeling too great recently but now feeling a bit better. Illness meant I could not attend last home game v Rangers although I did watch it live on BT Sport. I also missed out going to watch Spartans last night as weather was awful. Alex went and texted me to say rain was even reaching back row of the stand and it was freezing cold at Ainslie Park.  Watched Liverpool at Bournemouth before wandering down to Tynecastle arriving just after half past two. Hearts made two changes to the side who played at Perth in mid-week.with Olly Lee and Craig Wighton dropping to the subs bench and being replaced by Marcus Godinho and Steven MacLean. However there was also a change to formation with Hearts lining up in a 5-3-2 style. Michael Smith was playing in central defence sweeping behind Christophe Berra and Clevid Dikamona with Godinho and Demetri Mitchell as wingbacks.  The game started brightly though with Mitchell looking better as a wing-back than at full-back in a back four