🩵⚪️⚪️ ⚪️🩵⚪️ ⚪️⚪️🩵 It’s Día das Letras Galegas again and thus the perfect time to pay tribute to Deportivo’s 12 seasons of shirts inspired by the Galician flag.

▪️Three relegation places doubled to six. ▪️The possibility of a seventh team (out of 18!) going down. ▪️ 40+ points doesn’t guarantee safety. ▪️ Lots and lots of permutations! ▪️ Biblical rain 🌧️ Welcome to the final day in Tercera Federación Group 7!

It wasn’t without its nervy moments, but my trip home for the Irish Cup Final was a success as I saw Coleraine lift the trophy for the seventh time in the club’s history! 🔵⚪️🏆

Pretty decent day… up the Bannsiders! 🔵⚪️🏆

The important packing for tomorrow is done! 🔵⚪️

NIFL title race pretty much done and dusted after last night. Can’t imagine Larne not picking up at least a point at home on the last day. We’ve got second place in our own hands, two wins will do it - or a win today and a draw next week.

As if to prove the point I made in my latest post, only two of the top six in Segunda won this past weekend. Defeats for leaders Racing and Las Palmas (who dropped out of the playoffs) Draws for Dépor, Málaga and Castellón. The unpredictability of the Segunda strikes again!

With three games in the next eight days, it’s a pretty huge part of the season for Deportivo La Coruña as they look to keep their promotion bid on track in one the most unpredictable leagues in the world.

A visit to the brand new Deportivo La Coruña museum at the Estadio Riazor was a highlight of my weekend in the city. 🔵⚪️

Buenos días! 🔵⚪️

Don Arsenío Iglesias Pardo. O Bruxo de Arteixo. Architect of the first great SuperDépor side which went so close to winning La Liga in 1994 and then won the Copa del Rey in ‘95.

Highlights of last weekend in Lisbon featured in my latest post on Substack! 📨 ⭐️ Estrella da Amadora, a wonderful old-school ground. 🦅 Benfica, the modern splendour of the Estádio da Luz. 🍽️ Eating incredibly well without spending a lot.

Highlights of a great football weekend in Lisbon. 🇵🇹 First up Estrela da Amadora 0-2 Tondela. Great old-school ground, superb atmosphere, tasty bifanas and an incredible array of relatives of more famous players on the pitch. João Félix’s brother! Désiré Doué’s cousin! Pierre Van Hooijdonk’s son!

In transit through Extremadura on my way to Lisbon and it looks quite nice! To my shame, it’s one of the few regions of Spain I’m yet to visit properly.

Ahead of my trip to Lisbon next weekend, I looked back at my last trip to the Portuguese capital in 2019 - and particularly my experience watching Benfica at the Estádio da Luz.

Some of the best backdrops from my football travels, featured in my latest post on Substack! andrewrgillan.substack.com/p/the-200-cl...

📨New on Substack 📨 I tick off my 200th ground with a spectacular view in Toledo and I take a look at some other great backdrops from my footballing travels.

A spectacular backdrop for football in Toledo, Spain’s ancient capital.

A new ground this Sunday morning as I ventured south of the river to see CD Goya against UD Usera B. Nice weather, some decent goals and a good bar across the road for a half time snack in the absence of anything at the ground itself!

A fun reminder that because the word “Donut” is a registered trademark in Spain owned by Bimbo, other companies ate prohibited from using the word. As a result, Lidl sells “Floopies”.

Disappointing news from Galicia this morning that Dépor are set to swap Kappa for Nike at the end of the season. Kappa’s five seasons have brought some lovely bespoke designs influenced by the history of the club and the culture of Galicia. Nike basically means a slight variation on a catalogue kit

Over on Substack, I’ve jumped on the 2016 flashback bandwagon and take a look at some of my football highlights of that year. It was a good year!

Football in 2026 might have peaked already. Featuring ruminations on the misuse of “x-goal thriller” by the media and the highest-scoring games I’ve ever seen!

I think the competition for game of 2026 might be over already. Atlético Madrid 5-5 Real Sociedad in Liga F. It seems mad to say about a game that featured ten goals, but there easily could have been more!

Merry Christmas! ¡Feliz Navidad! Here’s a Dépor-themed Christmas tree (from 2015) to celebrate. 🔵⚪️ 🎄

What is this? A new post from me on Substack? Apologies for the months of silence, I’ll try to do better in 2026, I promise. 🙏🏻

Calling it “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” is genuinely like calling the third James Bond film “Goldfinger: A Dr No Adventure”

Saturday afternoon well-spent at the Estadio Román Valero despite Mosca going down 3-1 to Intercity. Who knew that’s where Ian Mackay was plying his trade now? Going by the shouts from the crowd near me,there were a couple of Dépor fans in attendance who haven’t forgotten his head loss in Castellón…

Struggling to process the fact that Coleraine and Dépor, whisper it, might both actually… be good.

All hits, no misses. 🔵⚪️

Not much of a gap between seasons but here we are, it’s time to start the big 2025/26 match thread! 🧵 ⚽️

New Coleraine kits from Macron were definitely worth the wait. Pleased to see blue back as the predominant colour on the home shirt after the mostly white ones of the Nike years. A red away shirt is always nice too.

The best games, brilliant goals, incredible pre-match food, the luckiest kit in the world, weird weather, unconventional player and supporter headwear and more besides. It’s my belated 2024/25 awards! 🏆

Last game of the 2024/25 season for me and a fun one to go out on… Spain’s Women beat Japan 3-1 in their final friendly ahead of the Euros in Switzerland.

Not sure that having a player wearing number 51 is behaviour fitting of Champions League winners tbh.

Genuinely unhinged stuff.

As it’s #diadasletrasgalegas today, let’s take some time to appreciate 11 years of #Dépor away and third kits based on the design and/or colours of the Galician flag! 🩵🤍🤍 🤍🩵🤍 🤍🤍🩵

Had this scheduled to publish while I went under the knife to remove a screw from my ankle yesterday. Hoping for a clean bill of health to make the trip down to Boetticher for the first leg of the playoff tomorrow! 💚 open.substack.com/pub/andrewrg...

A beautiful Sunday morning back at the Boetticher for the first time since my injury and a superb win for playoff-chasing Botti over Collado Villalba. Four of the five’s goals were absolute crackers too!

Small steps towards a return to normality for me over the last few weeks.

If Dépor manage to stay up at the end of the season, it’ll be about 70% down to Yeremay and 30% down to the magic Brazil away kit.

The natural order of things has been restored. Coleraine are guaranteed to finish sixth now. Alternatively, five games left and only five points off second, dare we dream of Europe?

Didn’t enjoy season 3 anywhere near as much as the previous two and the way it ended seemed as good a place as any to wrap it all up.

📨 New on Substack My first tentative steps towards my comeback from injury and an insight into the realities of navigating football in Madrid on crutches! ⚽️ 🩼

Everyone saying this is an excellent advert for the new Champions League format. Because in the old format, no team never waltzed through the group stages and then lost to someone who just scraped through.

An important step in my recovery today - my first football match since my ankle operation. A slightly restricted view but better than nothing!

Clearly no one at FIFA has heard of, or understands the fact that you *can* have too much of a good thing.

Strange season for Dépor, struggling at Riazor (fifth worst home record in Segunda) but only Racing and Levante have picked up more points in away games.

Today is obviously a day for watching 5-1 home wins. @futbologyapp.bsky.social

Yay! Season 4 of Abbott Elementary is on Disney+! Boo! It stops at the episode before the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover.