Tam McManus likes Hibs whiff of change with Friday night football after American initiatives left stench of dog s***

When it comes to initiatives to attract new punters to sport then you can usually take your lead from the Americans. Just not literally as I was to find out during one of my spells playing across the pond. From the brilliant to the barking I saw all sorts of ideas during my time at Colorado Rapids and Rochester Rhinos.

So it’s no surprise the Friday and Saturday evening kick off trials in Scottish football are being conducted by clubs with American owners. Good on Hibs for volunteering to test the return of Friday night football next month because we need to freshen our game up. Just don’t go down the Charleston Battery route which ended up stinking out one 90 minutes I’ll never forget.

The majority of initiatives in the MLS and USL Championships involved cheap food or drink included in the price of the ticket - pizza for a dollar or pints for a couple of bucks type stuff. Sometimes it was a carnival for the kids or bring a pal for free.

But the good people at Charleston decided to go further and make that bring your DOG for free. Needless to say it was chaos. They’d set up a puppy assault course type things at the side of the park as if it was Crufts. But the dogs weren’t interested and just charged onto the pitch before the game for some canine capers.

There must have been over a hundred dogs going mental and doing their business on the park and the game had to be held up so they could clear all the cr*p! There was dog sh*t all over the astro but even when the game kicked off the stench was still there and anyone eyeing up a slide tackle was soon thinking better of it. The punters probably thought they should have cleared us off with it because the game was every bit as rotten.

I’ve been used to taking a hounding