Lockdown highs and lows
Alastair Stupart’s book looks at pandemic football and relegation
WITH A FOREWORD Ian Murray MP, the former Chair of Foundation of Hearts, this is one fan’s light-hearted look at the pandemic and lockdown fortunes of Edinburgh’s Heart of Midlothian FC and their supporters. Hearts is the biggest fan owned football club in the UK.
The time period covered begins in March 2020 with Heart’s Covid enforced relegation to a lower division.
Then the subsequent summer of disquiet and “civil war” in Scottish football, before the season finally started in October with no fans allowed due to the continuing pandemic.
There is a game-by-game account detailing the build up, the press coverage, performances, results and post-match reflections.
There are plenty of football statistics, humour and trivia/facts (principally Hearts but also other clubs, grassroots game and the Scottish national team).
All profits from the sale of the book will go to Foundation of Hearts.
Stupart is a first time author, Edinburgh born and bred, and he says he always wanted to write a book. He has written this one largely as a result of lockdown, and used his own photos.
Set against the Covid-19 pandemic the light-hearted read examines how fans managed to follow Hearts while coping with lockdown (beer, mates, empty stadiums, stress, streaming, Zoom parties and the rest).
At the same time Scottish football fans came to the fore to rally support both for their clubs and themselves through the dark days of the pandemic. The book touches on mental health, fan ownership, the importance of community and the good that sport can do for us all.
It would not be a Hearts book without making fun of Hibs and so there is a chapter called “Hibsed It”.
Stupart’s second book is already written for next Christmas.
“We came by railway - 45 years of Jambo away days” and Stupart intends to complete the trilogy by Christmas 2023.*