Christmas is hurtling towards us and all your apps are telling you your various stats and wraps for the year. So far be it from me to not jump on an already stacked bandwagon and tell you the best, worst and downright ugly of 2025.
Best moment (TV)
Reservations about ownership aside if you cast your mind back to March you’ll remember that Newcastle won a trophy. Tears were shed as Isak hit the back of the net not least by me, over 30 years a fan with no reward, this was way more emotional than I expected.
While Isak has swapped sides, Newcastle remain in the Carabao hunt (at least at time of writing) but the thought of going back to back feels like a step too far!
Best read
Chris Lee’s ‘Shades of Green’ was my standout read of the year.
Chris journey around Ireland taking in the atmosphere, the sights and the history of some of the biggest clubs on our little island. Great insight into the growing football culture (particularly in the League of Ireland)as well some of the personal insights that only an outsiders eye can give. Also any mention of Dundela in a football books’ pages will always score highly in my eyes.
Chris you are more than welcome at Wilgar anytime and a pint at the bar is on me!
Best moment on the terrace
Dundela 3 - Warrenpoint 2
Is there anything better than a last minute winner? Particularly when your season has been tough going and you site bottom of the table?
A rollercoaster of a game that included the Duns going down to ten, going 2-1 down and then well….scenes.
Celebrations that meant the world, a release for all involved and unashamedly jumping into embrace those who I regularly stand with week by week. These are the moments that live long in the memory when leagues are settled and all is said and done.
All hail the wonders of the Wilgar terrace!
Best football shirt
So many shirts, not enough time really.
The adidas World Cup kit release was pretty special, in particular that final Germany home shirt with adidas - one to be picked up at some point particularly given its nod from the 1990 World Cup shirt, which is my all time favourite and holy grail item.
But my winner is this Cadiz 25/26 away shirt!
I have zero knowledge of Cadiz as a team but this shirt really grabbed my attention. The colour, the pattern, the trim around the sleeves. Everything about just screamed quality and I had to pick one up.
A doff of the cap as well to Macron who have outstanding this season with their outputs and designs for 25/26. While adidas remain steady and Nike appear asleep at the wheel, Macron are slowly becoming one of the best in the business.
For instance Almeria away anyone?
Right let’s get into it the bad stuff!
Worst moment
I mean a picture says a thousand words or so they say.
Has there been any lower point than this? The whole thing screamed vanity project.
I would say more but I already have in a previous post so you can check that out for why this was such a horrible moment!
Worst footballing moment
Was there anything sadder than seeing Nick Woltemade have to go clap the away contingent at the Stadium of Light after scoring an incredible own goal to hand Sunderland the derby win?
Was there a worse game of football on TV this season?
Has there ever been lower xG recorded?
We all love a derby but often they are not exactly filled with footballing wonder. More often that not they are wars of attrition. This game was more wrestling match than anything else with Dan Burn suffering the most with a broken rib and punctured lung after a tackle.
Fair play to Sunderland though. Despite the lack of football from either side in truth, a derby win is perhaps more satisfying than any other win in a season.
Worst shirt / Downright ugly
Combing the worst shirt ‘award’ and the downright ugly of the season because there only really is one contender.
It does not matter how many goals he scores. He’ll never be able to make this shirt look good doing it! A tribute to the rain in Manchester. One of the worst things about a decent city.
Presumably next season they will wear some sort of tribute to Manchester’s terrible, over zealous airport security that has everyone queue for way longer than necessary as their third shirt should this trend continue.
If you are a Man City fan who bought one of these please do let me know and send me some explanation as to why you would do this to yourself!
Check back in though in a few years time though when some content creator / Youtuber tries to tell us that this is an underrated classic.
And finally….
Just a thank you. There’s more of you reading, subscribing and interacting with all the 3pm Somewhere content across Substack and Instagram and it really is appreciated.
Onwards to 2026 and beyond!
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