I’m sure I’ve said this before but more often than not when you pick up a lower league team’s fanzine you find fanzine gold. Such is the case with Son of a Ref issue 2 plus a goldish cover in this case, as they pay homage to Scunny’s away kit that year.

I’m assuming this was a reincarnation of another Scunthorpe classic, Get a Grip Ref but that’s an assumption as Mik Henry and Steve Askew seem to have changed their names to Harry Golightly and Dr John Smith. Difficult to date this one as they clearly don’t think anyone will be reading it years into the future and need the date so he can catalogue it. Bastards. There is mention of a 3-2 defeat to Carlisle so it was off to the inestimable 11v11 website…Do you know how many times Carlisle beat Scunthorpe 3-2? Well it’s 3 times, all between 1990 and 2004 which in terms of fanzines isn’t much help. Then there was the match vs Wrexham in the FA Cup…they met 5 times in the cup between 1996 and 2004….bloody hell. Anyway we’ve plumped for this being issued in January 1997 because in December 1996 Scunthorpe lost 2-3 to Wrexham in an FA Cup replay at Glanford after being 2-1 up with 3 minutes to play…which leads us to the “noticebored” editorial. Terrific name.

This goes on for three and a half pages, because football fans are such sane, rational people. At the end of the piece they promise another issue in 2 months, I assume dependent on whether the editor has recovered by then.

Next is a lovely little piece of social history with an advert for record village which sells the fanzine and has “two floors of the biggest sounds at the best prices” I’m sighing wistfully at this point. Of course I looked, record village adorned the streets of Scunthorpe for over 30 years, run by a chap called Dave Greaves ( a classic record store owner name) before closing in 2007 to move on line due to “rising business rates and changing shopping habits drawing footfall out of the town centre”. People who are moaning about the same stuff happening in 2026 need to think on, the high street changes constantly. Anyway, record village is below, their frontage matching the carrier bags they used apparently, as well as Scunthorpe’s away kit that season.

A free gift you say? Why yes, there is a free Mick Buxton mug in the centre pages which will turn every tea break into a Buxton break! Please carefully read the warning before making your Buxton mug.

A Mick Buxton mug not enough? Well there is an episode of the X Files in the zine as well. Probably breaks a few copyright laws but still, you don’t see FIB Mulder and Scully at Glanford park every day.

In medical news, Scunthorpe hero John Eyre (51 goals in 172 appearances…) is interviewed by M Biber and claims alcohol is good for you. It makes a lot of sense to me. Eyre’s wiki concludes with the following incredible sentence “Following his retirement from playing football, Eyre briefly became a football agent, before a stint as a car salesman. He now works for hometown club Hull City as their kitman”

More telly comes with an edition of Scunthorpe Countdown. Mick Buxton’s numbers game is a beautiful thing and the conundrum, well imagine the amount of time it took to come up with this. Fabulous creativity.

The lads are in a dudgeon about the Telegraph calling Scunthorpe unfashionable and a footballing outpost.

Finally, there is even creativity on the back cover with a player themed box of chocolates for Valentines Day.

A masterpiece, rising bile, sarcasm, incredible creativity, copyright infringement, social history, chocolates and a free gift. I’ve just obtained another 7 of these so we will have to return to this place another time.