Tag Archives: Scotland

Walfrid

26 Tuesday Jan 2021

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Sunday 11th May 2008 12.30

Scottish Premier League

CELTIC 2 (McManus 37 McDonald 87)

HIBERNIAN 0

Canning sent off (2nd Booking) 83

Murray sent off (DOGSO) 90

Att 58,515

Entry £26

Programme £2.50

Now you might find this hard to believe but this was actually something to do break up a journey home to Oxfordshire!  Watching a game at Wick Academy had become a mission, and so when I finally managed to get it done at the third attempt a day earlier I  sat in a cheap hotel in Perth contemplating a beast of journey home! It needed something to break up the drive back to Banbury, so a few days earlier I’d looked for a game on the way. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought about Celtic, it certainly isn’t due to any sectarian thoughts, you’re reading the thoughts of the product of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother after all! Continue reading →

Racing Colours

19 Tuesday Jan 2021

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Saturday 26th December 2009 ko 15.00

Scottish Premier League

MOTHERWELL 1 (Jennings 39)

ST JOHNSTONE 3 (McDonald 55 58 71)

Att 4,140

Entry £22 

Programme £2.50

It wasn’t the most straightforward of Boxing Days. I was still with the ex-wife back in 2009 and we’d finally managed to cope with parental Christmas blackmail (“If you don’t spend Christmas Day with us we won’t bother celebrating it” – How could we be in two places at once??) by booking ourselves into a log cabin in the Lake District for Christmas week. Perhaps the familial gods saw what we did – we promptly got snowed in, and I needed a tow just to get the shopping home! In the end, I ended up parking up half-a-mile from the cabin just to allow myself transport while we were there. It also had the (un) intended benefit of allowing me to go to football!

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The Bible Club

04 Monday Jan 2021

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Saturday 24th January 2009 ko 15.00

Scottish League Division One

QUEEN OF THE SOUTH 2 (Dobbie 10 Tosh 56p)

PARTICK THISTLE 2 (Doolan 17 Chaplain 77)

Att 2,811

Entry £15

Programme £2

Iain and I go back a mighty long way, back to the late 1990’s working for a high street bank with a CEO without a “Shred” of dignity, I met him once!. We didn’t meet in the most auspicious of ways, a 2 week business banking course at a golfing hotel just outside of Tewkesbury. I don’t play golf, and Iain couldn’t take his clubs on the plane down from Dumfries each week. We were bored, the hotel isolated, with an expensive bar, and the fruit machine was seeming set against us. We passed (somehow) despite another delegate having his room completely emptied by a burgler (save for a pair of underpants) on the final night, but we kept in contact.

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Vanilla

20 Monday Jul 2020

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Saturday 30th July 2011 ko 15.00

Scottish League Cup 1st Round

PARTICK THISTLE 1 (Cainey 28)

Paton sent off 47 (DOGSO)

Balatoni sent off 78 (DOGSO)

BERWICK RANGERS 3 (Gray 34 Noble 73 P Currie 78p)

Att 1,255

Entry £10

Programme £1.50

I’m sure there’s little truth in the story about a traveller taking a taxi from Glasgow airport and the cabbie asking whether his passenger was Celtic or Rangers. The response of “Well I like Partick actually” elicited the response “Ah you like your football vanilla then?” While the tale does Partick Thistle a massive disservice there is the kernel of an alternative truth in it. Continue reading →

The Kink

02 Thursday Jul 2020

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Saturday 3rd January 2009 ko 15.00

Scottish League Division One

DUNDEE 1 (Paton 67)

DUMFERMLINE ATHLETIC 0

Att 5,033

Entry £17

Prog £2

Back in the day I used to have use of a holiday cottage in a Highlands village called Insch, near Aviemore. Looking back it was an rustic place, it had internet but no phone, central heating or gas. We used to have to decommission the place when we we left! But it did allow ample opportunity to visit no end of Highland League grounds! But Christmas 2009 did give me a problem. Continue reading →

Methil No More

30 Tuesday Jun 2020

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Saturday 25th July 2009 ko 15.00

Scottish Challenge Cup 1st Round

EAST FIFE 0

FORFAR ATHLETIC 2 (M Fotheringham 28 K Fotheringham 78)

Att 446

Entry £13

Programme £1.50

“Do we not love her?
Do we not say we love her?
Do we have to roam the world
To prove how much it hurts?
Bathgate no more
Linwood no more
Methil no more
Irvine no more!”

“Letter from America” Reid/Reid

I do think Methil gets a bad name. The Proclaimers’ song that dovetails the Highland clearances with de-industrialisation in the 1980’s cites the Fife town as an example of deprivation. Heck, even the football club doesn’t bear the town’s name! Even Jim Kidd, the most lyrical of Scottish groundhopppers described New Bayview as thus,

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Dancing In The Streets

27 Saturday Jun 2020

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Saturday 9th May 2009 ko 15.00

Scottish League Division Two

RAITH ROVERS 0

ARBROATH 0

Att 4,426

Entry £14

Programme £2

Its the oft uttered line isn’t it? “They’ll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight!” is often described as “Colemanballs” even if it was the BBC’s Sam Leitch that said the line. Of course Raith Rovers are from Kirkcaldy, Fife. Raith isn’t a specific settlement, it refers to the area between Kirkcaldy and Loch Gelly. But the famous error wasn’t the first time someone called Leitch had an impact on Raith Rovers. Continue reading →

Cappielow

22 Monday Jun 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 31st January 2009 ko 15.00

Scottish League Division One

GREENOCK MORTON 0

ST JOHNSTONE 0

Att 2,810

Entry £16 (seat- main stand)

Programme £2

Can I be honest with you? I wasn’t intending to write about Greenock Morton but such was the reaction from the Ayr United article that I feel honour-bound to put something together, because so many people agree with me, if you want two great Scottish League grounds you head to Somerset Park and to Cappielow Park. Continue reading →

Somerset

18 Thursday Jun 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 23rd February 2008 ko 15.00

Scottish League Division Two

AYR UNITED 0 

Lowing sent off 45 (dangerous play)

Williams missed penalty 57

BRECHIN CITY 3 (Weaver 11og Paton 19 N Walker 90)

Att 1,103

Entry (seat in main stand) £14

Programme £1.50

On occasion I get asked which Scottish League grounds I’d recommend, and my answer is always the same two clubs, Greenock Morton, and Ayr United. That’s no disrespect to any other clubs and their stadia, and I’d recommend a trip round the Leitch stand at Ibrox too, but I’d argue that if you love traditional Scottish football grounds, then you really do need to visit Cappielow and Somerset Park. This is all about the latter. Continue reading →

Taking Stock

14 Sunday Jun 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 2nd August 2008 ko 14.20

Scottish League Division 3

COWDENBEATH 1 (McQuade 16)

ANNAN ATHLETIC 4 (Jack 30p 48 Archibald 58 Johnstone 90)

Att 596

Entry £10

Programme £1.50

There are of course no lack of towns that with the greatest of respect to their residents, that you’d never visit for tourism but would for football.  That said I do know one couple where the wife made the rather rash decision to let hubby book their summer holiday. They were due to visit Sunderland this June had it not been for Coronavirus. Cue the complaints from the Sunderland tourist board….. Continue reading →