When I was a kid there was a buzz about Saturdays, mainly because all football matches used to kick off at 3pm on a Saturday and it added to the atmosphere of the league having all the teams playing at the same time.
Saint and Greavsie on the TV, the co-ordinated kick offs, the scene was set….
But in Scotland we also had the ultimate purchase on a Saturday night…The Sporting Post.
The Sporting Post, produced in Dundee by DC Thomson, was last produced after the Scottish Cup Final in May 2000. Prior to that it was the purchase for all football fans as it arrived at the local newsagents around 5.30pm on a Saturday night, men would leave the pubs to pick up their copy…workers would hang around to get one on their way home, it was an essential read.
On the front page it gave you the scores and more importantly it gave you the updated league tables which were pored over to see how that days results had affected your team. When I was young these were days when teletext was only just starting to offer up information and as for getting scores and information on your phone…well that suggestion would just have got you funny looks and a one way trip to the local loony bin.
Yes I have to say I really miss the Sporting Post, despite its Dundee slant (more United than the blue side) was always my recollection…it was a great little paper and it is simple little things like a Saturday night paper that are really missed in these days of always on internet technology via your mobile. Sadly that technology will probably mean a paper like the Sporting Post will never re-appear (And the Pink which used to have a similar place in the hearts of football fans in the Scottish capital and ended in 2002 as a separate publication and the Green Final that used to be available in Aberdeen)…information is instant now, you don’t need to visit a newsagents to find out the latest league tables.
I searched online to get a picture of the old Sporting Post front page, I could only find the version above and I apologise to all my fellow St Johnstone fans in advance for the front page it shows, but fear not fellow Saintees…we know how it has all turned out and we know which team is the better one now!!
Memories are great things though, and on this Saturday night I pay homage to the Sporting Post…sadly missed!
My Space.... 
You must be logged in to post a comment.