Saturday 15th March 2025 ko 13:45

East of Scotland League Division Two

WEST CALDER UNITED 4 (Wilkins 21 45 McConnell 66 Young 83og)

KENNOWAY STAR HEARTS 3 (Nugent 23 Lawrie 54 Walker 90+1p)

Att 336

Entry £8

Programme £2

From Harthill it seemed like no distance at all to West Calder, another village that owes its existance to the mining industry- in this case shale. We passed “The Five Sisters” on the way- huge bings, or spoil heaps that sadly you can’t see from Hermand Park.

West Calder have played here since 2010 when they left the more centrally placed Burngrange Park, now housing. The coach pulled up by a small building with WC marked on it. Now I’m sure it wasn’t and isn’t a WC but I and a few others did wonder…

Elsewhere I walked into a well hosted hop game. There was a small misunderstanding over posting up the team line-ups. A team squad list was produced for the home team only, so I dashed to the referee to get the full information, only to find out the SFA are gradually rolling out the “Comet” system that’s used in Wales and both sides of the border in Ireland.

It’s not fully implemented in Scotland (as yet?) so the “My Scottish Football” App isn’t as comprehensive as its sisters’, and the lines for this game were only available to the referees. Fortunately they were happy to help out! The club were notable for some imaginative catering. By reputation the Scottish Hop is reckoned to be extremely pastry heavy so seeing a curry on sale was both welcome, and I trust profitable. I’d like to think future host clubs might take note of their example!

The visitors Kennoway Star Hearts are the result of a merger of two Amateur clubs Kennoway AFC and Star Hearts to create a club for the East Region Juniors. The two Fife-based clubs near to Glenrothes played in adjoining villages of Star of Markinch and Kennoway but now use Treaton Park, the former base of Star.

Whatever the two clubs’ backgrounds they certainly served up a quite wonderful game. Both sides gave it absolutely everything. Star fought to prevent West Calder getting more than a goal in front until the last five minutes. The late penalty narrowed things up again but despite a fair amount of time being added on for stoppages West Calder prevailed.