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.

Well, Barça-Atleti was fun. Imagine they were playing the second leg next week instead of, erm, April.

I wrote a little something about my injury lay-off.

Much needed! We’ve been nowhere near good enough this season but somehow are still in a position where if we can string a few results together we could finish in the top half and make a run at the Euro play-offs. Do I think we’ll do that? Well… 🤔

Been a bit quiet online for the past week and here’s why. Had a bit of an accident while out walking last Sunday morning. The result - damaged ankle ligaments. Spent the last eight days in a heavy cast (not something I’d wish on anyone) but had surgery this morning.

At least one of my teams wasn’t a total embarrassment this weekend. Forza Depor! 🔵⚪️

📨 New on Substack 📨 A weekend in Burgos with the best away supporters in Spanish football. Just my highly objective opinion… 🔵⚪️

A sad day. In a movie, Lucas would have finished his career at Dépor, but life is messy and complicated. Thankful for all the times I got to see him pull on the shirt, especially in the last two years . What he did to help dig Dépor out of Primera RFEF will never be forgotten.

Matchday! #Dépor 🔵⚪️

Burgos away #Dépor 🔵⚪️

It might have been hard to see, but Coleraine still managed to find the back of the net five times and progress to the Irish Cup sixth round. 🔵⚪️ 🏆

A very foggy Irish Cup fifth round day here in Coleraine! 🔵⚪️ 🌫️

All set for my first big football adventure of 2025. Burgos v Dépor on 19th January.

Happy New Year! 🥳

So after last night’s winning trip to Loughgall, that’s a wrap for my football-watching in 2024. Some great games, some brilliant memories and some exciting plans already in place for 2025! @futbologyapp.bsky.social

Victory to close out the year! 🔵⚪️

Currently have the misfortune of being in a car with TalkSport on the radio. How do people listen to this?

At the biggest game in the world for the second time this month! @futbologyapp.bsky.social

Losing 2-0 at half-time after conceding two incredibly sloppy goals but the second half was much improved. Not really sure how we didn’t manage to win in the end.

To The Showgrounds! 🔵⚪️

It’s Christmas Eve, so you know it’s time!

It was too dark and miserable to go and take a photo yesterday, but here I am officially announcing that I’m home for Christmas!

I book-ended my Spanish football watching in 2024 with two Colonia Moscardó games. The events of the 12 months in between are quite the story!

One last Spanish game for 2024. Colonia Moscardó 1-3 Deportivo Guadalajara. Good competitive game, but Mosca ultimately fell short against the league leaders. Lovely back heel assist for the game-clinching third goal late on.

The future is here! #Dépor 🔵⚪️

Dépor goals at Riazor in the first nine home games of the season - 6️⃣ Dépor goals at Riazor tonight - 5️⃣ Normal team.

Well, I guess this is where the money for Cooper is coming from… January’s going to be interesting. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

Now that I’m on here a bit more often, it feels like a good time to start posting my big 2024/25 match thread. I’ve already seen some great games this season, hopefully plenty more to come!