Archaeologists find 'world's oldest football pitch' in Scottish field
The Times reported that the newly-uncovered archaeological evidence, found a mile west of Gatehouse of Fleet near the Solway Firth, showed that modern football had originated in Anwoth, in Kirkcudbrightshire.
O'Brien's discovery is due to be broadcast on BBC Scotland's A View From The Terrace on Friday evening.
READ MORE: Is football 'coming home' to England? No – Scotland invented the modern game
The historian told The Times that the first clues had come from Samuel Rutherford, a minister at Anwoth Old Kirk from 1627 to 1638 and later professor of divinity at St Andrews University.
The letter says there 'was a piece of ground on Mossrobin farm where on Sabbath afternoon the people used to play at football'.
O'Brien told The Times: 'This is one of the most important sentences I have ever read in football history, because it specifically identifies the exact place the football pitch was.'
He added: 'I have always thought football has been played in Scotland for hundreds of years. Not mob-football, but proper football. Of course it has always been very hard to prove it because working people never kept records.
'Rutherford is enraged by the fact his parishioners played football every Sunday, and so one day he heads out after doing his preaching to remonstrate with them and say that 'as the stones around him were his witness they were doing wrong'.'
READ MORE: 'More than a game': The history and psychology of Scottish football
O'Brien said that Rutherford had stones put across the pitch to stop the weekly games – and a team of historians set out to find them.
They found 14 large stones in a row across a flat area at the former Mossrobin farm, and soil tests suggest they had been arranged in place at around Rutherford's time.
O'Brien said the common belief was that modern football originated in English public schools like Eton and Harrow in the later 1800s.
However, he told The Times: 'If you're playing football every Sunday of every year, you've got rules because you have to agree on rules. You couldn't play violent football because you needed to work on Monday so you're thinking about your football, you're playing regular football.
'This is the ancestor, the grandparent, of modern world football, and it's Scottish.'
He added: 'In 1872, the minute international football started, Scottish clubs were absolutely destroying English teams.
'It's absolutely no surprise because these people are 200 years in front of what England is doing.'
A View from the Terrace will be shown on BBC Scotland on April 25 at 10.30pm.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
5 hours ago
- Spectator
Nothing can save test cricket
Forgive me if I don't join the general 'Make mine a treble' hoo-ha about the future of Test cricket after the theatre of the final day of the Oval Test against India, as an injured Chris Woakes made his way to the crease. Why was Woakes ever allowed to bat? His shoulder was dislocated and he was clearly in agony. Of course he wanted to help his country but he should have been stopped by Ben Stokes or Baz McCullum. This was a game of cricket, not the search for the nuclear codes. We knew the last pair would have to run to try to keep Woakes off the strike. What if he had tripped? That happens on cricket pitches – a lot. And what if he had had to face a ball? Some poor Indian bowler would have had to work out what to do with a very hard ball that he was about to hurl at somebody seriously injured. I love a plucky last-wicket stand as much as the next man but Woakes should not have been out there, whatever he was willing to do. The series was certainly thrilling, with the right result. As for the scheduling, it seems a pity that Test cricket is now over halfway through the summer. White ball series against South Africa and Ireland in September are not much to look forward to. The cricket calendar is a mess with no solution in sight. Test cricket is well and truly alive in England and Australia when England or India are touring, but that's about it. Tests in the West Indies are all but over except when they can be staged as tourism events for English visitors. It's heading the same way in Sri Lanka and South Africa. Unless we are careful, Test cricket will soon be like riding a penny farthing in a top hat. Nice and vaguely skilful but nobody gives a damn. I am sure there will still be an Ashes in a decade but viewed as a period piece. All fine and dandy but teetering on the brink of pastiche. How cheery to see two palindromic footballers up against each other when Liverpool's Hugo Ekitike met Palace's Eberechi Eze in the season's opener. Palace seems to be a haven for palindromes, with the likeable Romain Esse yet to step out for the Eagles. Palindromic footballers are not that common though scholars might recall Marcelo Salas, the scary-looking Chile striker, or Massimo Oddo, the Milan academy coach. It's tennis where palindromic players flourish, with three grand slam-winning palindromes. Monica Seles and Marin Cilic spring to mind; Lottie Dod is more difficult to recall, though she won Wimbledon five times in the late 19th century and is still the youngest ladies' singles champion at 15. Invented 500 years ago by Scotsmen knocking pebbles around in sand dunes, golf continues to be a funny old game, as we were reminded last Sunday when Englishman Justin Rose kept on winning at the age of 45, while his 34-year-old compatriot Tommy Fleetwood kept on losing. Rose's victory in the $20 million St Jude Classic was his 12th on the US PGA tour; Fleetwood on the other hand has played 162 events on the tour without winning, despite coming close several times. He has the highest PGA tour earnings without a victory, having trousered more than $31.4 million for the honour of being a perpetual loser. Why is it, however, that men of a certain age tend to stop winning golf events when a 50-year-old is just as capable as a 20-year-old of reaching the green of a par-four hole in two shots? Experts say it is the putting that sorts the old men from the boys. Rose's defiance of the putting yips is remarkable; he puts it down to physical fitness and concentrating on 'the feel of the stroke' rather than the outcome. A concept that might have baffled those early Scottish pioneers as much as the fact that Rose has picked up £54.5 million in prize money – and that's just on the PGA tour.
Daily Record
7 hours ago
- Daily Record
Panutche Camara hoping Dundee Utd lightning strikes twice against Rapid Vienna as he eyes up Euro play-off spot
The Tangerines are gearing up for a mega night at Tannadice on Thursday in their Conference League qualifier Panutche Camara is hell-bent on making history by firing Dundee United past Rapid to the brink of the Conference League group stage. United sit 2-2 after their first leg heroics in the Allianz Stadium in Vienna last week. They know a home win on Thursday in front of a sell-out crowd at Tannadice would be enough to take them into the play-off round, where the winners of AIK Stockholm and Gyor await the victors. United famously saw off Rapid in the quarter-finals of the 1984 European Cup and will be looking for lightning to strike twice. Camara said: 'Yeah, I think everyone has a chance to make a story for this big club tomorrow if we win. I think the game is going to be important. "I think it's one step for us. If we win that game, I think we're going to go to the group stage, 100 per cent. 'We're so excited about tomorrow and we are so ready. We have prepared for the game very well and we're going to fight. 'I believe in our squad. It's a good group. We were very, very young and everyone has ambition but in a good way.' Camara is well aware that it's winner takes all and the Tangerine Army can play its part. He said: 'I think it's going to be nice [a sell-out]. 'Even in the away game, we saw that and tomorrow it's going to be massive. Now, we're going to face the game like we faced the first leg. "Yeah, I think we're going to play very well and we've got more confidence now. 'They're (Rapid Vienna) going to come here to our stadium. We expect it to be a really, really good game. 'I think it's going to be a good experience for all of us players because if you go through, it's going to be a massive journey in our career. I've never played in Europe. 'I came here to play in Europe then I'm going to give everything on Thursday night.' The 28-year-old has been a big player for Jim Goodwin as he has looked to bring more power and pace into his squad. Camara said: Yeah, I think that's my big strength in football. 'I can run all day, no problem for me. I can run 12km every week, it's no problem.' Camara has played both games in the wins over UNA Strassen and then the draw in Vienna last week. Some people were surprised by that result but not anyone in the United dressing room. The player said: 'No, because we know what we're going to do. We know what the gaffer asked us to do and then we did it. 'They think because in the press conference they said they looked like a physical team, or Scottish football is physical. 'But we played. I think we're good on the ball.' Camara came up from Crawley Town in the summer. United were able to sign him after a relegation clause was triggered. The midfielder admitted he had other English options but the chance to play in European football for the first time was a massive lure. He said: 'I had a couple of clubs interested in England but I wanted a new challenge. 'When I was invited to come in to Dundee United, I didn't think too much. I spoke to the manager and then I said, I want to go there. 'I didn't know the Scottish Premier League but when I came in to training I saw it's different to what I had heard before. 'Before they talked about physical stuff but it's a really tough league. Some clubs play really, really good football.' The Guinea-Bissau international has international experience and was also in their squad for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, where he played against the likes of Mo Salah's Egypt. The former Ipswich Town player believes that will stand him in good stead. He said: 'Yeah, it's given me some good experience. 'I've played internationally, in England as well. I've played for quite a big team, Premier League team, Championship team. 'I think the level to Rapid is quite similar.' Max Watters is fit but United are without Ross Graham, Kristijan Trapanovski, Ryan Strain, Isaac Pappoe and Dario Namoo. New signing Julius Eskesen is not eligible but would be available if United were to progress into the Europa League play-off round.
Scotsman
7 hours ago
- Scotsman
Can 'nightmare' striker help Hibs hit UEFA Conference League targets?
Ex-Fulham forward Kieron Bowie - created in Scotland, perfect for European football Sign up to our Hibs football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A physical freak with a maturity well beyond his years, Kieron Bowie's value to this Hibs team should be obvious to anyone who has ever watched a game of football. Partizan boss Srdjan Blagojevic identifying the Scotland forward and strike partner Martin Boyle as the biggest threats to his team tomorrow night hardly earns the experienced Serbian coach a merit award for tactical insight, given the damage done by the pair in Belgrade last week. But it would be wrong – lazy, even – to dismiss the 22-year-old Bowie as merely some old-fashioned monster of a target man, perfectly suited to the blood and thunder of the Scottish game. In the European arena, Bowie is more than proving his worth. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I could only imagine me as a defender having to play against him; it would be a nightmare and be so frustrating,' said David Gray, the Hibs boss – a former fullback – referencing Sunday's clash with Kilmarnock as he added: 'You saw at the weekend, no matter how many times you kick him and not matter how many times he got thumped, he was back up again, and he just really enjoys that side to it. Youngster 'like a 30-year-old man sometimes' - David Gray 'He's getting better all the time as well. You forget the size of him, physicality, and even how he lives his life. 'You'd think he was a 30-year-old man sometimes, the way he goes about! He's settled, he's got kids, he's got a dog, he's really got his feet on the ground, which is fantastic. 'He is striving to be better every day, which I see all the time. And benefiting from being fit and playing all the time and enjoying football, which is the key thing.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Hibs hold two-goal lead over Partizan with play-off at stake Boyle's double at the Partizan Stadion last week, taking his goal tally for the club to a spectacular 101, gives Gray's men a clear advantage going into tomorrow night's return leg at Easter Road. At stake is a UEFA Conference League play-off against Legia Warsaw, almost certainly, with the Poles 4-1 down to Cypriot side Larnaca in their Europa League qualifier. Insisting that Bowie's skillset makes him equally adept to whatever challenge he may face in UEFA competition, Gray explained: 'Definitely. Because he's not just a big battering ram, you see the quality he's got as well. 'He uses his body well. He's got a good left foot. He's got, you know, a lot of really good attributes which is again why you would you look to have him in your squad for what he gives you - and a good work ethic. 'So I think all in all he's been a very good addition to the group. And another one who is a really good character and settled in really well. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'And as you said there about playing in Europe, different players playing against different styles and what that looks like. Which gives us something different to play with.' Hibs have directly benefited from the dozen minutes Bowie was given by Scotland boss Steve Clarke in a low-key summer friendly thrashing of Liechtenstein. Having impressed with the under-21s, the former Fulham and Raith striker now harbours realistic ambitions of leading the line for the senior team in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers; he's certainly at least one of several contenders for a traditional problem position. Fully fit after undergoing surgery to repair a hamstring problem sustained on international duty with the 21s last season, Bowie actually limped out of Sunday's 2-2 draw against Killie at Easter Road after one thunderous collision too many. But he trained today and is expected to be in the starting XI alongside Boyle, who started the Kilmarnock game on the bench. 'We always said Kieron would really benefit from a run of fitness, a really good pre-season,' said Gray, who clearly loves having an all-international strike force at his disposal, the former club captain adding: 'I've already mentioned this before, but during the summer getting Scotland recognition and what that does for your confidence as a player, especially when you think about the players that played in that position for Scotland over the years. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I think it would be a dream for him as a young boy growing up to go and try and represent a country, especially as a No. 9. I think that's something that would be right at the very top of his list. 'So to be thought of in that way would give him loads of confidence. And we've definitely seen that at the start of the season. He's enjoying his football, he's working hard, and I keep saying that there's a lot more to come. 'Martin Boyle has always delivered for the football club; he's always been a threat at this level. We've seen that and even on the international stage with Australia, how important he is for them and how effective he can be.'
