Buckie Thistle 2018/19 Home Shirt

Two seasons after the title, the manufacturer changed and nothing else did: Joma succeeded Nike on the Buckie hoops, and Sandy's Carpets stayed on the chest with Forty Winks on the back, the same carpet and bed duo from the town paying the club's bills. That is the loyalty Highland football keeps and big football lost: sponsors do not rotate with contracts, they stay, because they are neighbours. The 2018/19 season belonged entirely to Cove Rangers, who dominated the league in their farewell: champions and finally promoted to the Scottish professional league, closing 33 years of Highland League membership and leaving the competition with seventeen teams and a vacant throne. The Jags sat in the chasing pack watching the era change, not yet knowing that the road opened by the Aberdeen giant's departure would lead them to a 12th title a few years later. The number 11 on this shirt, still unattributed, ran through that season of transition. In the Highlands, eras are measured like this: by the neighbours who leave and the shops that stay.

Here at Hoopster this piece celebrates the loyalty big football lost: the brand changed, the town's carpets and beds stayed on the chest. In the Highlands, sponsors do not sign contracts, they sign neighbourliness.