Author: glen wilson

Former schoolboy, Glen Wilson writes on football and travel and has been editor of the award-winning popular STAND fanzine since before the award.
football photography

How I watched football 2014-15

by glen wilson10 Comments on How I watched football 2014-15
How I watched football 2014-15

When you get in the habit of watching live football, any live football, to the point of consuming live football, every season runs the risk of stumbling to a conclusion. A desperate scramble to watch tenth tier league cup finals and rearranged reserve team play-offs in order to get one last hit before the reality of the football-free, barbecue-smoke backed summer months hit home. For me, and 33,279 others, there was no danger of this season petering out in such a way. That’s because, ahead of us all the way through, firmly in our calendars since last summer, our end-of-season boss level awaited; Wales versus Belgium… and it didn’t disappoint. Continue reading “How I watched football 2014-15” →

fan issues, football writing, popular STAND fanzine

Editorial: On Contemplating Life Without Football

by glen wilson1 Comment on Editorial: On Contemplating Life Without Football
Editorial: On Contemplating Life Without Football

I am unable to recall when or why I fell in love with football. There was no epiphany. No great moment of clarity. Football, as far as I can remember, was simply always there; eternally bobbling about alongside grazed knees and Why Don’t You? in the goalmouth scramble of my childhood. Continue reading “Editorial: On Contemplating Life Without Football” →

playing away

Haifa a High; Wales in Israel

by glen wilson1 Comment on Haifa a High; Wales in Israel
Haifa a High; Wales in Israel

‘Oh shit! I’ve forgotten my lucky envelope as well’.

Those words are mine. They left my mouth on the morning of the game. You need not know why the envelope is deemed lucky, nor how I’d come to forget it, but for context do consider this. I am 32 years old. I’m educated. But for the duration of a morning’s exploration of Haifa I genuinely feared I had jeopardised the hopes of my nation’s football team through the act of leaving a torn dog-eared envelope in a South London flat. This is what following Wales does to you. It suspends all notions of rationality or belief and replaces them instead with a clouded fug of paranoia, superstition, melancholy, and blind, desperate, stupid hope. Continue reading “Haifa a High; Wales in Israel” →

football writing

On Football as the next Great American Drama Series

by glen wilson1 Comment on On Football as the next Great American Drama Series
On Football as the next Great American Drama Series

Last month I went to India. And yes, I had a lovely time thank you very much for asking, but I’ll save going all Judith Chalmers on you for another time, and get to my point. Whilst in India I met my girlfriend’s cousin, Nikhil, for the first time. He’s an intelligent fella, a writer who speaks multiple languages and he’s into football; he supports Chelsea – evidence if ever it were needed that who we choose to support is rarely a rational choice. Nikhil has lived near to, or in, Bangalore all is life. Bangalore are the current Indian football champions. I asked him why he didn’t support them. His answer is that he likes football, and so he wants to watch the best football in the world, and as the Premier League is screened regularly in India, it is this which he, and the other football fans he knows, watch. Continue reading “On Football as the next Great American Drama Series” →

match reports

Gillingham 1-1 Doncaster Rovers: 250 word match report

by glen wilsonLeave a Comment on Gillingham 1-1 Doncaster Rovers: 250 word match report
Gillingham 1-1 Doncaster Rovers: 250 word match report

You hear ‘goal out of nothing’ often at football matches; rarely has it been more fitting than Rovers’ opener here. The surprise at Harry Forrester’s free-kick finding the net being emphatically magnified by the forty minutes of vacuous wind-disrupted nonsense of twenty-two men repeatedly failing to control a football which had preceded it. Continue reading “Gillingham 1-1 Doncaster Rovers: 250 word match report” →