Mr Blobby

Season ticket holder for Edinburgh City FC.

Not much will appear on this profile unless I get up off my arse and do something this year which is highly unlikely.

Our Motto: "Let 2016/17 be the season where you perform the ‘reverse-Trump’: let’s take down the walls and build some bridges".

The half way stage in the Scottish League 2 is a fitting place to take stock, as the nights draw in, the cold weather begins to bite and games are inevitably called off. It seems such a long time ago now since we took up the Mark Bradley Fan Experience Challenge and became mystery fans in July 2016.

See here  http://bradleyprojects.com/blog.php?id=62 and here http://bradleyprojects.com/blog.php?id=67 for some explanations.

Mark sent us all the tools we needed to build up a persona and left the rest to our imagination. We picked newly promoted Edinburgh City FC in Scottish League 2 and took the unusual decision to follow them, not for just a few games - as is the case in most Mark Bradley Fan Experience Projects, but for the whole of the season in 2016/17.

Having read through 'Ten Ways To Grow Attendances' we focused on item Number 9 - Be Different. '

'So what makes your club unique? Is it an aspect of the club’s history, the industrial heritage of the town, a local food item or a story? I recall AFC Telford United celebrating the local village of Dawley by resurrecting connected icons (Captain Webb, Fatty Foulkes, George Cadbury and the Pig on the Wall – don’t ask) and featuring them on that match day. Lewes FC does it through imaginative promotional posters and a match day experience aligned to something much more abstract than a simple game of football, but few others even consider this. If you’re not going to be sweeping all before you on the pitch, then what’s making you different off it? Make 2016/17 the year you discover niche marketing.'

Edinburgh City FC had a lot going for it in the 'unique' department. It was a relatively new club with a small fan base working out of the large Meadowbank Stadium, the venue for two previous Commonwealth Games competitions - not to mention events like the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977 and various concerts and gatherings. There was also the loose connection with a team formally known as Meadowbank Thistle and all the history that went with it, like Mr Blobby and the club's fanzines.

So what better than to start our journey in the Betfred Scottish League Cup Group stage on Wednesday 20 July 2016 at 19:45 in the Meadowbank Sports Centre. Edinburgh City v Livingston - the Scottish equivalent of AFC Wimbledon v MK Dons. We took along a blow-up Mr Blobby and the idea of creating a fanzine for Edinburgh City germinated when we accidentally met 4 former Meadowbank Thistle fans outside the stadium - David Baxter, Colin McPherson and two who's names are as yet unknown to me. The 0-3 result was the start of a losing streak that went on for some considerable time for Edinburgh City until a 1-1 draw away to Stirling Albion on 10th September brought some relief. Two more draws followed. 1-1 away to Annan Athletic on 24th September and a 3-3 home draw with Arbroath at Meadowbank on 1st October. But it was not until Edinburgh City beat Forfar 1-0 in the Scottish Cup on 1st November at Station Park that they recorded their first win of the season and then went on an unbeaten run that saw them soar up the League table winning plaudits, and awards, as they went.

The saga continues at Central Park, Cowdenbeath on Saturday 14th January 2017. (Weather permitting)

Update on the Mark Bradley Fan Experience with Edinburgh City (19, February, 2017, about tea-time).

So here we are again, three quarters of the way through the season and as luck would have it, the Cowdenbeath match was postponed due to the weather and the match has been rescheduled for Tuesday 28th February - Kick off 7.45 PM. Bit of a pain that one but we need to make it as we missed the first away game at Central Park and this will be our last chance to pick up a Cowdenbeath club badge. Before that one is a second visit to Stirling Albion's Forthbank Stadium on Saturday. Mr Blobby, our unofficial mascot and gimmick, was of course banned from entering the Forthbank stadium and we had to return him to our vehicle. Mr Blobby was said to be a health and safety risk by the security guards we spoke to and the message came from the Chief Health and Safety Officer no less but it was more like an over-reaction to the earlier kick-off Old Firm match at Parkhead we think where Celtic fans hung two blow-up dolls effigies of Rangers fans and it caused an outrage. The story (about the blow-up effigies) ran for a whole week in the Scottish Sun, with pictures, and I believe they uncovered the culprit who may or may not have been charged. I didn't follow up the whoile story in the end but I can understand the Chief health and safety Officer's concerns . 

Anyway, I'm intrigued to see how Mr Blobby will be received on Saturday. Either way, I'm not that bothered if he is allowed in or not to be honest. We had agreed in the past that if Blobby was refused entry to any of the grounds this season, we wouldn't go in either and just walk off. But a change of heart and the need for pictures and a story for the City fanzine meant that we'd go in, Blobby or no Blobby.

Cowdenbeath Update 01/03/2017

The Edinburgh City win last night means Cowdenbeath certain for the bottom spot unless a miracle happens and Clyde go into free-fall.

Josh Walker performed well again. Looks like his signing makes all the difference between winning and losing. City's place in the SPFL is now safe.

Final quarter of the season begins. After the Berwick Rangers game on Saturday, Edinburgh City will play all the other teams in the league again once plus a trip to Spartans in the East of Scotland Cup. Change of tactics from now on. We'll be concentrating on each of the away team's formations instead of watching Edinburgh City now that the Citizens are safe.

Expectations? Half-heartedly celebrated the City goals tonight. It's just a case of getting through the last issues of the City Fanzine and drafting a copy of our final summing up and review of the season in Issue 20 (which will be the last Issue of the fanzine to be produced and based on similar lines to David Baxter's review in The Thistle 1995 series). The concept for Issue 20 came into my head yesterday. Front Cover - the usual format. Pages 2 to  11 will be a monthly review of what happened. A kind of  'Best of .... July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April.' The Back page feature will be called 'The Confession Box'. That'll be my personal story of the journey following Edinburgh City as a secret shopper for the Mark Bradley Fan Experience Company.

Our Co-Editor Jackie has already picked the team for next season. It's to be ice hockey and the team formally known as Murrayfield Racers -Edinburgh Capitals. Looking forward to researching the re-branding of Murrayfield Racers and I can do another comparison along similar lines to the Meadowbank Thistle - Livingston - Edinburgh City rivalry and the similarities to the breakup of Wimbledon - MK Dons and resurrection by means of AFC Wimbledon by the die hard Womble fans.

So for the final quarter of Edinburgh City's season, I have to put on my investigative journalist hat once more. I cut my cloth with the last project which lasted from October 2012 to January 2016. That was some project and Jackie was glad to see the back of that one, lol. Although I really miss the interactions with the other journalists from the Scottish Sun, The Daily Mail and the Sunday Times. Not to mention all the photographers and the people from the documentary companies. Sadly, It looks like the script writing and film company is never going to go ahead with the Biopic for our client. The 5 year life-rights contract expires in the summer and the only option is to tear up the contract if they can't produce the film. Memo to self. Contact James and Nick and ask if they can send me the draft copy of the  film script. Push them in July and contact Neil again to see if he'll buy the freed up life-rights to make the biopic into a TV Drama instead.  (In fact, f**k it. Email Nick and James now and ask them to send me the script and get them to tell me one way or another if they're pulling out of the deal - then contact our client with the news.)

The Next update will be at the end of the season. Until then, lets hope Edinburgh City can stay off the bottom spot. I don't fancy having to do a Pyramid Play-Off Final Fanzine for a match against either East Kilbride (most likely) or Brora Rangers or Buckie Thistle (preferred).