As a Hearts supporter I was very sorry to read that Robbie Neilson left MK Dons on Saturday night. It is clear that the Dons made the right decision to sack ex Jambos boss Robbie. The old adage that football is a results business applies and Robbie did not get enough wins. When he left Hearts on a Thursday in early Dec 2016, the previous evening Neilson's stylish Hearts had beaten Rangers 2-0 and if the score had been 5-0 nobody would have complained. Robbie Muirhead scored both goals and played like a God that night. Neilson left Hearts with the Jambos lying second in the Scottish Premier Lea ..read more

Hi everyone Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to everyone who has followed this blog ! It has been a blast and I may even continue to post the odd observation relating to the beautiful game here. The blog of course became a book "The Road to Wembley from Scotland" - the story of the 2016-17 FA Cup ... with a Scottish slant! .. and I commissioned an initial print run of 160 copies and 156 of them have been sold. So if you want one of the last four copies email me via chris@donkinitex.co.uk Festive greetings ..read more

An irritating delay. Yesterday I received what I hoped would be the final test copy. Unfortunately a printing glitch had kicked in. The major problem with the test copy back from the outsourced printers is that on more than 600 occasions the test copy has replaced a single opening quote (i.e. a ') by a double comma (i.e. ,,) hence we have stuff like 'The Road' becomes ,,The Road' 'The Professor' becomes ,,The Professor' 'Stroller' becomes ,,Stroller' and so on and so on and so on ... really very irritating - especially as the last-but-one test copy did not have this glitch ..read more

Hi readers. There has been an unforseen problem with the printing of the book 'The Road to Wembley from Scotland'. I won't bore you with the details but the short story is that copies will not be available this weekend. In fact the book won't be available for purchase until the end of August. I have decided to take advance orders for the book  So if you want to buy a signed copy of one of the 'first edition' books then email me via chris@donkinitex.co.uk and I will log your interest and I will only send you payment details when I have the copies in my possession. I won't be taking any ..read more

The book is almost ready. The test copy has been proof read and (slightly) re-formatted. I am expecting a second test copy tomorrow. I am not anticipating a major re-write so I am hopeful that copies will be available for purchase from Monday the 31st July. The 'back cover' of the book The price and the purchase arrangements will be detailed (hopefully) on this blog next weekend. In the meantime ... here is the Press Release! (below) The Road to Wembley from Scotland by Chris Donkin: Press Release On the 5thAugust 2016 I set off to watch Penrith play against Sunderland Ryhope Commu ..read more

There has been a  slight delay in the production of the book 'The Road to Wembley from Scotland'. The test copies for Kev Panther and I to proof read have not arrived yet but should be with us in the next couple of days. I am still on course to have copies of the book available for the 5th August. However, some fantastic news over the weekend. Robbie Neilson, manager of MK Dons, ex manager of Hearts and a key Scot on the 'Road to Wembley from Scotland' has produced the foreword for the book. Thanks Robbie! A foreword thinking gaffer! Robbie before the MK Dons v Charlton replay A ..read more

So, after blogging for over a year now I reach the last post. Blow the bugle for the last post or maybe it should be a fanfare. Before rounding things up, I want to thank my youngest daughter Morag and her dog Dougal for helping me to promote this project. From the first time I saw it I have loved the ‘crazy baldheads’ logo that she designed. Special thanks also to Mo for designing the cover for this book. The Road to Wembley from Scotland t-shirt worn by the designer Barking Mad! Dougal shows off the crazy baldheads It is in this post I will try to make sense of what it ..read more

Just a brief update this weekend – for those who are interested. The publication date for the book was reported last week as Saturday the 5th August (to coincide with the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup season 2017-18). The book will definitely be available on this date. In fact there is a very strong possibility that it will be available for purchase even earlier – maybe even significantly earlier. Putting it all together is a painstaking experience but I am getting a massive amount of help from Kev Panther the programme editor for Skelmersdale United FC. Words can not express how grate ..read more

Well dear readers you will have noticed that the posts are becoming more intermittent and it is highly likely that this post will not make it into the book. The posts will continue on a sporadic basis until the book is published. However to bring you all up to speed on the progress towards book publication I offer the following update. I have sourced a publisher! The book ‘The Road to Wembley from Scotland’ will be published by FlexiPress of Ormskirk in Lancashire. One of the great joys of the ‘Road’ journey has been sharing experiences with fellow football anoraks. In September I first met t ..read more

So, a week has gone by since the FA Cup final when I finally completed the 10 month long Road to Wembley from Scotland. Over the last week, the victorious Arsenal have offered their manager a new two year contact and I have made some very small progress with getting this blog published as a book! Those of you who have been following the blog in the latter stages of the FA Cup will know that a major sub plot was the Arsene Wenger story. On many occasions over the last three months it has looked like the ‘The Professor’ was going to be hounded out of the hot seat at The Emirates due to a combin ..read more