Buckie Thistle 2016/17 Home Shirt

A carpet shop on the chest, a bed shop on the back and a title at the end: Highland football in all its glory. In 2016/17, wearing this shirt of hometown sponsors, Buckie Thistle won the 11th Highland League championship in their history, and won it in the most dramatic way possible: level on points with Cove Rangers, the title came down to goal difference, sealed on the final day with a 9-0 demolition of Strathspey Thistle at Victoria Park. Then came the play off for promotion to the Scottish professional league, and there the story twisted: 2-2 at home with East Kilbride and a 2-1 away defeat, promotion escaping by a single aggregate goal. The number 15 on the back, still unattributed, belonged to someone in that championship squad. Between Sandy's carpets and Forty Winks beds, this shirt tells the best of small town football: sponsors who greet each other in the street, a title won on goals scored and a promotion dream that died at the margin. In the Highlands, even the glories fit in a shop window.

Here at Hoopster this shirt smells of sea air and silverware: the Highland League decided on goal difference, with a 9-0 on the final afternoon. Village football knows how to write cinema endings too.