Back then, we had no idea whether anyone was visiting our blog site in any great numbers, but we didn't care. We simply enjoyed writing about football and that was all. SPAOTP, as we often called it, was our little piece of pride and joy.
When Martin moved on to pursue other interests in March 2008, Some People Are On The Pitch very nearly came to an end, but it was my great good fortune to meet two new friends that offered to write some articles of their own and build on the great work Martin had done before.
Terry Duffelen and Graham Sibley came to the project as experienced bloggers in their own right, not least through their flagship website, The Onion Bag, to name but one. Bringing their own talent for writing knowledgably about football, SPAOTP turned a corner and continued in a new direction. Guest writers contributed posts of their own; Chris Nee with 'Football Americana' and Seb Gevers with 'Seb on Scotland.' A new podcast, The Sound of Football, was created as more and more blog posts reached a wider audience.
Alas, as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. So it was that Some People Are On The Pitch drew to a close in July 2010 having spawned nearly 1,300 articles and countless podcasts besides.
This is my reinterpretation of what that blog site was like. Most of the original content has remained intact, although some of the links may not work as they did (for which I apologise). Unfortunately it hasn't been possible to retain the original author name for each post either, but rest assured all the credit collectively goes to Martin, Terry, Graham, Chris and Seb. Without their help, this little piece of pride and joy could not have happened, and my thanks go to them for making this such a wonderful project to work on.
Chris Oakley
7 May 2016