Image Credit: Ruby Adam Photography
There are some numbers in football that transcend the back of a shirt. They become stitched into the very fabric of a club, woven into its history, its memories, its soul. Number 37 at Falkirk is one of those numbers.
Scott Arfield, the hometown hero, the prodigal son, has returned to the Bairns. And when he stepped onto the pitch at the Falkirk Stadium, he isn’t just be wearing a number on his back—he is carrying a legacy. A tribute. A memory of a boy who should have been right there alongside him.
Craig Gowans. A name that still echoes around the club. A player with potential, with drive, with that youthful hunger that football so often romanticises. A life cruelly cut short at just 17 years old. Gone too soon, before he could make his mark on the game he loved. But Falkirk never forgot. His teammates never forgot. And Scott Arfield? He made sure no one ever would.
Arfield, who came through the same youth academy as Gowans, has carried his memory throughout his career, taking that number 37 with him from Falkirk to Burnley, to Rangers, to Charlotte, to Bolton. Each time he pulled on that shirt, it was for Craig. A silent tribute, an unspoken dedication. And now, back at Falkirk, it comes full circle.
“This is where it belongs,” Arfield says, looking down at the shirt that means more than just a squad number. “It’s always been for him.”
And what a way to mark his return. A hat-trick on his second debut, a statement, a reminder, a love letter to the club that made him. Football is funny like that. It has a way of writing its own poetry, of crafting moments that feel preordained.
When Arfield leaves Falkirk for the final time, number 37 will be retired once again. No one else will wear it. Because some numbers don’t belong to just one player. They belong to something greater.