Pointless

I am a fan of football. And I have an unhealthy obsession with lower league Scottish football, as does my brother. It came from a game of Football Manager that we played a few years ago where I started as Stirling Albion and my brother started as Albion Rovers, both in the Scottish Third Division. It turned out to be a great game - I took Stirling Albion to the Scottish Premiership and broke the Old Firm stranglehold on the Championship, making Stirling Albion the biggest force in Scottish football. It was my most successful and most enjoyable game I had played. My brother didn't do too badly with Albion Rovers too, getting them promoted to the Premiership.

We took a weekend break to Edinburgh, and while there took in a trip to watch Stirling Albion play Albion Rovers. Stirling won 3-0, but we were hooked. We made a pact there and then to try to get to one Scottish game a season.

Since then we have added Albion Rovers v Stranraer and Dumbarton v Albion Rovers. Small grounds, tiny crowds and shocking football. But it is how it should be!

Jeff Connor wrote a book titled Pointless about East Stirlingshire, another Scottish third division football team who were tagged "Britain's worst football club". At the end of the 2004/05 season they finished bottom of the Scottish third division for the 3rd consecutive season. They are lucky if all eleven players make it to a game and have an average home attendance at their dilapidated Firs Park ground of just 200. They were also Sir Alex Ferguson's first managerial role, though it was a short lived one!

It is an interesting read, really giving you an indside look at the problems of running a lower league football club!