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#38 Hamilton Academical (Home, 2007/2008)
Haven't posted anything for quite a while now - I've been terribly busy. Work is really taking pretty much all of my time, more than ever.
Anyway, that doesn't mean I stopped buying shirts. Recent purchases include:
- United Arab Emirates
- Zaragoza Away
- Galicia "national" team
- Tottenham
- Ukraine 2008
- Lazio 2002/2003 (this one was picked by my brother actually)
- Bolivia (has yet to arrive)
That makes it around 80 now I guess, will have to count them again.
Now, let me tell you about the shirt above. As you might have noticed if you're scottish, it's an amazing Hamilton Academical home shirt. I am really not sure when it was used, but according to shirt photo archive Old Football Shirts, it's the 2007/2008 version, when they went on to win the First Division.
I really have a thing for hooped british teams' shirts, so I didn't think twice when I saw a portuguese seller offering the shirt on eBay. It ended up being a bargain (around €10 I think), and despite being used, it's in perfect condition. It's long-sleeved (a bonus), so I'm quite happy with it.
I didn't know much about them, but from what I've read recently, they are still the only professional team that actually started as a school team (hence the Academical I'd say).
They're some kind of yo-yo club in Scotland, going up and down several times every decade. Now they're stuck in Second Division again, after a few seasons in the SPL. I've just checked their squad but I guess they're all unkown players to me. This season they seem to have a lot of young players brought up from the youth ranks, so I am afraid things won't be so easy for them in 2012/2013. Czech keeper Tomas Cerny moved to CSKA Sofia, and some guy named Redmond moved to Wigan.
These are tough days in Scotland. Rangers are now playing 4th level football (I think), something that I think is a clear sign that things are going the wrong way in European football. It's quite worrying to see historic teams facing strong financial difficulties, and even if you don't like them, you'll end up thinking that something is horribly wrong. I did agree that the clubs voted their way out of the Football League though, as it'd be a dangerous position to be in.
The next few seasons will probably be way too easy for Celtic. The good thing is that some smaller clubs might push for a Champions League or Europa League spot, but it's predictable that Celtic will keep winning the league in easy fashion.
I met some Aberdeen supporters a few months ago, amazing lads and great club. Hope to visit them and go for a game as soon as possible. Aberdeen and Boavista were founded in the very same day - 1st August 1903 - an interesting coincidence that was enough to build a strong friendship between the fans.
The Accies play in New Douglas Park, a typical british stadium.
It seems to have only two stands though. Or two big stands and a really small one.
Their website isn't brilliant, but it has a great photo archive. So here are some pictures from their 2007/2008 promotion campaign:
Oh, poor lad.
Good to see your Accies top - not sure when exactly you posted this entry but they won promotion to the Premiership in Scotland via play-offs against Hibernian in 2014 and narrowly stayed up this year. It may be of interest to know that the guy with the bleeding nose is James McArthur now playing with Crystal Palace in the EPL and the no. 4 in one of the other pics is James McCarthy about to play for the Republic of Ireland against France in 20 minutes! Cheers Don
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