@pollokfc/TwitterThe internet loves this dog watching Scottish Junior Football
This good boy loves watching the lads from the stands
Sometimes you see something that just makes you fall in love with this silly old game all over again.
Something that reminds you of why, among all the dead-eyed corporatism, the price hikes, the TV rights, the forced player transfers and the endless, endless debates about VAR, you still keep coming back to this cruel mistress.
Something like, say, a photograph of a golden retriever, enjoying a Scottish Junior football fixture.
You really do love to see it, don’t you? Not a selfie stick in sight. Not even a stick in sight. Yardley isn’t interested. He’s too absorbed, entirely present, living in the moment, a silent emblem of loyal service to the cause of ‘real football’.
GettyimagesYardley came to notoriety over the weekend after the above picture was shared by Ned Zelic (of all people) – an Australian former professional footballer himself, who won the Bundesliga title with Borussia Dortmund in 1995, got to a UEFA Cup Final with them and also played for QPR.
All this raises the question: does Ned follow Scottish Junior Football?! Any leads on that (pun absolutely intended) appreciated.
The picture was originally shared on the Pollok FC's Twitter account back in August in a celebration of four-legged fans more generally.
Fans were quick to point out that the shot is likely from a Pollok FC away fixture at Benburb FC’s New Tinto Park. Anyway, they're lapping it up.
Yardley features in a 2016 promotional video for the club, which riffs on the famous Trainspotting ‘Choose Life’ sequence and is a bit of a gem in itself.
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“Choose not to be fashionable, choose getting change from a tenner…choose buying your pie from a hut and sharing it with a dog,” the video beseeches us.
The lads and lassies at BBC Sport Scotland also ran a feature with Yardley’s owner in 2016, who explained that he stopped going to see St Mirren and started coming to Pollok instead because the latter allowed dogs into the stands and also that he and Yardley travel home and away. His owner also explains that Yardley is a ‘therapet’, cheering people up at the local hospital. This dog!
We support Yardley now. Every club needs a dog like him.
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