A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Our 399th post comes from Mat Jolin-Beech and goes some way to explain his absence from our upcoming 400th post. In the past Mat has given us a taste of his travel adventures with trips to Japan , South Korea and Singapore with accompanying tenuous links to football stickers. This time he’s taking it to strange new places. Over to Mat. Inspiration can come in many forms. Especially on a blog like this. We’ve delved into childhood heroes . And villains . Schoolboy Sunday league careers. First matches. Last matches. But this must be a new one. A metro line. Now, let me give you some context as to how an urban public transport line links with the now-Millwall player, Barry Bannan. It all started back at the end of 2025 - remember that? My wife was heading on holiday to Taiwan when, actually still in Heathrow, she completely ruptured her Achilles tendon. Yet, not knowing the full extent of the injury, she flew with her mum to Taiwan. The day after they landed, she, somehow, walked for f...

Prior to the Reformation the number of holy days, or holidays, in Britain is believed to have numbered somewhere between forty and sixty per year. As well as a church service, where a majority illiterate population would hear some Latin and be told they were off to Hell, these days were often accompanied by festivals and public gatherings. Sometimes a kickabout broke out with various forms of ‘mob football’ played across the country generally involving transporting something vaguely spherical from one village to another with church gates or doors serving as goals. The injury rate was such that both Edward II and Edward IV attempted to ban the game in order to ensure their kingdom had enough blokes left for their difficult second legs against Scotland and the Lancastrians respectively. Up until the nineteenth century the aforementioned spherical object was often an inflated pig’s bladder before more uniform leather creations began to be used as the game became codified and expanded. Sim...