Andrew Gillan
@andrewrgillan.bsky.social
Writer/English teacher from Northern Ireland, currently based in Madrid. 🇪🇸
✝️ | Football | Travel | Sunsets | Tea
Author of A New History of Coleraine FC
✝️ | Football | Travel | Sunsets | Tea
Author of A New History of Coleraine FC
Pinned
Andrew Gillan
@andrewrgillan.bsky.social
· Jul 17
Not much of a gap between seasons but here we are, it’s time to start the big 2025/26 match thread! 🧵 ⚽️
Struggling to process the fact that Coleraine and Dépor, whisper it, might both actually… be good.
September 13, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Struggling to process the fact that Coleraine and Dépor, whisper it, might both actually… be good.
All hits, no misses. 🔵⚪️
July 25, 2025 at 10:47 AM
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! 🧵 ⚽️
July 17, 2025 at 8:33 AM
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.
July 5, 2025 at 10:13 AM
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! 🏆
It’s my belated 2024/25 awards! 🏆
🏆 It’s the 2024/25 Awards! 🏆
A look back at the good, the bad, the ugly and the just plain weird of my last year watching football.
open.substack.com
July 5, 2025 at 9:49 AM
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! 🏆
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.
Spain’s Women beat Japan 3-1 in their final friendly ahead of the Euros in Switzerland.
June 28, 2025 at 7:38 PM
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.
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.
May 31, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Not sure that having a player wearing number 51 is behaviour fitting of Champions League winners tbh.
Genuinely unhinged stuff.
So, there’s a new Panini album for the Club World Cup, and there’s a collectible gold sticker for a mystery star striker, guess who it is? You’ll probably not be surprised. 🙄
There’s a type of neediness to some of this behaviour that is hard to explain.
There’s a type of neediness to some of this behaviour that is hard to explain.
May 29, 2025 at 10:47 AM
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!
🩵🤍🤍
🤍🩵🤍
🤍🤍🩵
🩵🤍🤍
🤍🩵🤍
🤍🤍🩵
May 17, 2025 at 10:10 AM
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...
open.substack.com/pub/andrewrg...
May 17, 2025 at 9:16 AM
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...
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!
April 6, 2025 at 8:31 PM
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.
Small Steps
The last couple of weeks have seen my recovery take some small but significant steps forward.
open.substack.com
April 5, 2025 at 6:22 PM
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.
March 29, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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?
March 22, 2025 at 5:21 PM
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.
It’s time to believe in believe again — #TedLasso Season 4 is officially happening at Apple TV+, with Jason Sudeikis set to return as everybody’s favourite moustachioed football coach.
Read more: www.empireonline.com/tv/news/ted-...
Read more: www.empireonline.com/tv/news/ted-...
March 14, 2025 at 5:10 PM
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! ⚽️ 🩼
My first tentative steps towards my comeback from injury and an insight into the realities of navigating football in Madrid on crutches! ⚽️ 🩼
The Comeback
After a six-week injury lay-off, I finally made my return to football in Madrid at the weekend, despite the best efforts of the weather to ruin everything.
open.substack.com
March 12, 2025 at 2:08 PM
📨 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! ⚽️ 🩼
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.
March 11, 2025 at 11:18 PM
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!
March 9, 2025 at 9:07 PM
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.
Fifa will consider expanding World Cup to 64 teams for 2030 tournament
Fifa is to consider a proposal to expand the 2030 men’s World Cup to 64 teams, an adjustment that would mean more than a quarter of its 211 member associations would take part.
www.theguardian.com
March 6, 2025 at 4:20 PM
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.
March 4, 2025 at 3:43 PM
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
March 4, 2025 at 3:19 PM
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.
Boo! It stops at the episode before the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover.
February 28, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Yay! Season 4 of Abbott Elementary is on Disney+!
Boo! It stops at the episode before the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover.
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.
February 25, 2025 at 10:35 PM
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.
An unlucky break
A nasty injury puts my season on hold and gives me first hand experience of Spain’s public health system.
open.substack.com
February 13, 2025 at 5:01 PM
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… 🤔
February 8, 2025 at 5:17 PM
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… 🤔