After a controversial round of matches for
Scotland, the dust is beginning to settle, and despite our
second place, the grim reality is that having played all four
teams in our group, we've only been able to beat one of them
so far.
Photos from both of the double-header games
have been added, including a job lot from our Hampden tour
the day after the Iceland victory.
Anyway, there are still three games to go
including a trip to that least enticing of destinations, Oslo.
Travel details for that trip, plus news about a controversial
trip to Japan in October, have been added to the Travel Details
page.
Our next update is anticipated in either
late May or early June. Although the season is already over
for some (including, sadly in mine and Rich's opinion at least,
Southampton FC), things are just heating up for others. With
a potential Fortuna play-off looming, and possibly clashing
with Clydebank FC's greatest moment since their renaissance
(congratulations to the Bankies for reaching the Scottish
Junior Cup Final against all odds!), as well as Worthing facing
play-offs this coming week, it will at least be an exciting
month!
Paul's Fortuna Düsseldorf website has also been updated
with photos and background info... more
STOP PRESS: Sunday 15 March 2009
Just to get you in the mood for the Amsterdam
trip, here's a cracking short song
from Ally about Paris (right click to save as a 3mb MP3 file).
There's also a guide to the
superb German city of Regensburg, plus some photos
of Paul and Helen's trip there last weekend. Back with a proper
update in April!
UPDATE:
Saturday 28 February 2009
Exactly one month to go before we start
on the campaign trail again, and everyone is wondering if
we'll have to suffer a repeat of our last trip to Amsterdam,
or whether a repeat of Paris 2007 is on the cards.
You can now read up on our last away game
- our only success to date - to whet your appetite for the
upocoming trip. We've also got a very detailed and opinionated
questionnaire from NATA's own Ladies Man, as well as a link
to a worthy new business venture from a NATA member.
Finally, this update also sees a long overdue
overhaul of our popular Prague Pub Guide, with lots more pubs
added and even some pub crawl suggestions.
Being realistic, we're unlikely to manage
an update in March, however we will be back in April with
photos and gossip from the double header against the Netherlands
and Iceland, as well as any other nuggets we can come up with
in the meantime. For now, have a good month and savour the
anticipation of our next game!
Bringing us back up to date on the diary
front, for one more month at least, here's the tale of 2 nights
in Iceland and Scotland's only win in theWC campaign to date
...more
Chapter and verse from NATA founder member
Rich, including a rare admission of an embarrassing incident
from the usually unflappable Ladies Man ...more
After two weeks in Prague in the space of
a month last summer, we felt it was time to update the Prague
Pub Guide, now with far more pubs and some cracking pub crawl
suggestions ...more
Safe sex and balloon animals* are both lots
of fun, and both have been made easier thanks to SuperiorCondoms.com,
a new business venture from one of the NATA boys.
* We're not suggesting that these two activities
should be combined!
UPDATE:
Sun 4th January 2009
First of all, sorry for the website laying
low for the past three months. What caused the hiatus? A variety
of things, basically: pressure of work; reluctance to commit
to PC time when relaxing at home; travel; but, most of all,
simple creative writing block, I suppose. It's very disheartening,
as there's only been a handful of months without updates since
the site's inception 7 years ago this month, but c'est la
vie...
Anyway, we're back now and that's the main
thing! What I can bring you is not one but two photo galleries:
the comprehensive Macedonia gallery and a smaller one for
the Noway home match. I've also managed to shake off my creative
shackles and knock out a diary entry for the Skopje trip (and
the Iceland one is almost done - next month, honest!). Finally,
it's my own turn to complete the Meet NATA questionnaire (for
the second time, may I add).
I really, honestly do envisage being able
to update the website again before the end of next month,
and plan to bring some of the following: the Iceland diary,
an update to the Prague pub guide, a new questionnaire and
the final tweaks to the Meet NATA page.
Between now and then, I'm really hoping
that the SFA do something about our friendly calendar for
the remainder of the year, as it really is looking quite sparse.
Whilst I fully appreciate that the priority has to be meeting
the squad's needs, surely a little bit of communication and
forward planning wouldn't go amiss?
The biggest gallery we've ever done - no
less than 368 photos covering our 5 days in Macedonia, including
the infamous bus trip/mountain hike at Matka ...more
And continuing our Questionnaire series,
it's webmaster and co-founder of NATA, Paul's turn. Read all
about his favourite trips, stadia, drinks and Scotland tops
...more