This week we venture north of the border and way back to 1989 for our #FloodlightFriday escapade. It is actually a return to Only the Lonely which was the biggest and best Airdrie fanzine (OK it is the only one we’ve traced but it was superb https://footballfanzineculture.blog/2026/02/27/floodlightfriday-only-the-lonely-airdrie/) but this time it’s a home fixture. The fanzine was always packed full of great features on the travails of the club, football in general in Scotland and other fanzines, all done with a great sense of humour. You can still find the guys on twitter with the @OTL_Podcast

I’ve a few issues and it never dips below 32 pages, even in this issue, number 3. By issue 13 it reached 56 pages and all for 50p. Anyway, floodlights..well, floodlight. This week from the back cover including the legendary Drew Busby in some terrifically bad quality action photos (50p and 32 pages remember). They had to name Drew because otherwise you probably wouldn’t have recognised him

Yes, that is how the Broomfield Park floodlights looked, here’s a colour image from roughly the same sort of place to prove it. Some of the greatest floodlights to ever grace a football stadium and don’t get me started on the MAGNIFICENT corner pavillion. Broomfield is not the only thing gone of course, the complete debacle of selling Broomfield without anywhere to go in 1994 lead eventually to Airdrieonians being liquidated in 2002 and replaced by Airdrie United In 2013, the SFA permitted Airdrie United to formally change their name back to Airdrieonians. Broomfield Park was replaced by a bloody Morrison’s store.

Drew Busby was rightly revered by many fans from many clubs and is remembered by most for his 178 appearances for Hearts but his record for Airdrie was quite incredible with 43 goals in 93 games. The club had to sell him to Hearts for £35,00 in 1973 with relegation from the top tier a certainty. The list of clubs he played for is magnificent; Third Lanark, Partick, Vale of Leven, Airdrie, Hearts, Toronto Blizzard, Morton, Queen of the South. Obviously he retired to run a pub in Dumbarton.

Tha fanzine itself recorded perhaps the greatest period in the club’s history with promotion back to the top tier, two Scottish Cup final appearances and a sojourn into the European Cup Winners Cup. Here they are in front to that magnificent pavilion wearing their superb diamond kit walking out to play Sparta Prague.

How great was Only The Lonely? In issue 3 alone aside from floodlights and Drew Busby you have a lovely piece about Hughie Gallagher, this mysterious hand written ad for a music guide and best of all it includes a review for a fanzine I’d not heard of before but is now on the list, This Way Up is entry number 1,866!