Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Ground 4: St Mirren Park

St Mirren Park: it was sunnier than this for most of the game. Honest.


Game: St Mirren 1 vs. 2 Hibernian
Date: 18th August 2012
Competition: Scottish Premier League
Attendance: 5,039
Admission: £20
Programme: £2.50


This post won’t be as long as I would like as unfortunately I’m struggling for time with a combination of work and heading off on holiday this weekend which will mean this is the final post for a few weeks.

As I left Stair Park I wasn’t sure what game I’d go to but my friend Mark suggested a trip to Paisley for the Hibs game and it sounded good to me – the prospect of seeing my team in the flesh for the first time this season added to the fact that this was a top vs. bottom clash (albeit after two games) made it an enticing match.

We headed through on the train to a warm and muggy Paisley to be greeted by tens of fire engines in the town square. Slightly surreal but certainly a bit different. We had a quick pint whilst watching the end of the Ross County-Celtic clash which saw Saints’ fans taunt the sole Celtic supporter with a “we’re top of the league and you’re no” chant which was very amusing.

A quick ten minute walk north west towards the ground and we’d arrived at St Mirren Park, St Mirren’s stadium that opened in 2009 following the sale of former ground Love Street to Tesco. On my previous and only visit in  2009 I felt the ground lacked a certain amount of identity, that it could have been anyone’s ground. Not much has changed although on this Saturday afternoon with a big crowd it certainly felt like a better ground than my previous visit.

I’ve embedded a video clip of the highlights from the game to save me from my awful prose on the game, but I’d like to mention a few key points from the game. Firstly, Dougie Imrie, playing on the left wing for the Saints was dangerous throughout the ninety minutes. A shrewd acquisition from Danny Lennon, who has moulded the team in his own image: talented and comfortable on the ball but tough and mean off it. As a Hibs fan, this was the first performance in several years that I’ve taken any comfort from – we finally look like a side going places and although far from being a complete side there is the green shoots of recovery which is very pleasing. Hibs were lucky to come away with the three points and had the game lasted ten more minutes I’m sure it would have been a draw.

Apologies again for the lack of content in this week’s post but hopefully normal service will be resumed in a few weeks when I’m back from my summer holidays.


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Ground 3: Stair Park

Stair Park, Stranraer

Game: Stranraer 1 vs. 1 Arbroath
Date: 11th August 2012
Competition: Scottish Football League Division 2
Attendance: 290
Admission: £12
Programme: £2


I’ve learnt the hard-way that a 14 hour round trip to Stranraer is not best undertaken with a hangover. When my alarm went off at 8am on Saturday morning I was cursing myself and wishing I’d foregone that last pint at 3am.

So I found myself dozing off on the Citylink on the M8 on the way from Edinburgh to Glasgow and then floating down Buchanan Street in a hungover haze to Central Station. Central Station is a wonderful station but it didn’t feel that way then hundreds of families and young people hogging the concourse as they made their way to west coast beaches to enjoy that rare commodity: Scottish sunshine.

Remaindered carriages took us passengers westward to Paisley and then south down the Ayrshire coast towards our eventual destination. It must be said that once south of Ayr, the views can be spectacular on this line: Carrick looks fantastic, Ailsa Craig looks unworldly and as you enter Galloway the landscape reminds you more of the Highlands than the South of Scotland. Adding to the Highlands flavour was the fact you lose phone reception for much of the journey between Girvan and Barrhill and Barrhill to Stranraer.

Two hours and twenty minutes after our train left Glasgow Central we find ourselves passing Stair Park, home of Stranraer Football Club and into Stranraer harbour. Exiting the train, you can look right and literally see the end of the line, beyond it, Loch Ryan.
Abandoned ferry terminal at Stranraer

As you leave the train station you see what remains of what once was a thriving port. Several times I’ve been in Stranraer briefly to catch the ferry to Northern Ireland, but that is no longer the case. Stena Line closed its operations in Stranraer to move a few miles along to the road to Cairnryan, with a deep water port. It now means that the famous ‘Rail & Sail’ deals from Glasgow to Belfast and vice versa no longer run and Stranraer is entering a critical time as a town. It’s because of the withdrawal of the harbour that I find myself here so early in the season. The Scottish Government has launched a scheme for £15 return rail tickets between Stranraer and Glasgow for the whole of August and September to stimulate economic development and encourage tourism. I question the wisdom of how cutting train fares by 65% will work for just two months, but then perhaps the fact I am here indicates its success.

After a short walk I find myself in Stair Park, which contains Stair Park the football ground. This is a bit of a novelty for a football ground and it looks fantastic, tennis courts, playpark and most magnificently of all, a bandstand. It’s idyllic. As I approach the turnstile, there is a fair bit of excitement coming from the cars parked in the park – it turns out Peterhead have taken a lead over Rangers in the lunchtime game in SFL3. The smiles of those near the cars would suggest that there’s quite a few closet Peterhead fans living in Stranraer...perhaps there’s solidarity for their brothers in blue playing in the very opposite corner of the country?

I pay my £12 at the turnstile and I’m given a teamsheet featuring the line-ups for today’s game as well as advertising for all manner of local businesses. Quite a clever idea and one I’d like to see replicated across the country. I pay for my programme and a couple of tickets for the half-time draw (surely if I play every week I can recoup some of my expenses at some point?). The programme, Beyond the Bandstand (what a title), is a very well put together production which puts Falkirk’s efforts last weekend to shame with features on Arbroath’s squad as well as a profile of the town itself, a historical feature of when Rangers came to play at Stair Park, football book reviews and a profile of other European leagues, an acknowledgement that there is much more to football programmes that anodyne features and adverts for the club shop.

What was also noticeable in the programme was the chairman’s column where he recognised that this season could be a long one for the club – they were only promoted to Division 2 in the last month after the Rangers debacle and the previous weekend were on the receiving end of an 8-0 home tonking from Livingston. There was a heartfelt appeal to support the club as much as each individual fan could as well as asking to bring others along to Stair Park. As I sat on the wooden benches in the far-stand, I couldn’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to come to this smashing wee park – in front of me was an impressive main stand, to the right was a covered three stepped terrace, to my left was a tree lined goal and I was sitting in a proper ‘old-fashioned’ stand that reminded me greatly of my first games at Easter Road sitting in the old North Stand. At that moment, one of my friends tweeted that he was in place at Wembley for the Olympic final, but in all honesty, I wouldn’t have swapped the authentic Stair Park for the corporate dwellings of the FA. But then I’ve always been quite strange.

I even had a reason for not wanting to enjoy this visit. Stranraer FC were responsible for my first falling out of love with football when I was 11 years old. Hibs had just been relegated to the First Division and I went to the first home game of the season, against Stranraer who had just been promoted. Stranraer caused a shock and beat Hibs 2-1 through goals from Jason Young (I can still remember them now) that caused me such heartache that I couldn’t bare to watch Hibs the rest of that record breaking season where they went on to dominate the First Division and swiftly gain promotion back to the SPL. I couldn’t bring myself to go to game in fear that I’d become a bad luck charm and could effectively derail our chances of success. So I deprived myself of the arrival of Russell Latapy and Franck Sauzee and the start of an exciting era at my club because of bloody Stranraer.
Arbroath player-manager Paul Sheerin launches a ball forward
 I digress (and now hold no grudges). The game got underway in the glorious sun with Arbroath looking the better of the two sides as you would expect. Arbroath player manager Paul Sheerin looked lively on the left as his team edged the proceedings early on. Playing alongside Sheerin was Brian Kerr, a former Hibs player who from a very promising start at Motherwell has plummeted down the divisions and still doesn’t look like he has found his level. Much like Barry Ferguson, I cannot understand what Kerr does apart from dominate proceedings in the centre circle and do a lot of pointing.

As their chairman pointed out in his programme notes, it looked like it was going to be a tough season for Stranraer, in this Division 2 season opener. They haven’t had the summer to budget and plan their squad accordingly and they currently have a small squad. Perhaps loan signings might help them but due to their geographic location they are restricted to the number of clubs that would be willing for their young prospects to travel. As Arbroath began to tighten their control of the game, it looked only a matter of time before they put themselves in the lead, a lofted shot from Steven Doris hit the bar to compliment the half volley near miss from Darren Gribben earlier on.

The match was much more of the rough and tumble fare that one would expect of the lower leagues, much more so that the Berwick-Queen’s Park from a fortnight ago. There was a lack of ability to find that neat pass in the final third so the ball tended to be played out to the wings and lumped into box in the hope that something would come off. It was a cross from Stranraer’s impressive Sean Winter that proved the most effective in the first half, met by the hairless Michael Moore who powerfully headed home to give the home side the lead in a match that they had struggled to get a foot in.
A Stranraer attack late in the first half
 The goal brought Arbroath back to life who hit the bar and missed a free header just before half time to go in a goal down in a game they, for the most part, had controlled. Over half time and an average pie, I contemplated titles of songs about Stranraer such as ‘The Ferry Don’t Dock Here No More’ (a country tune obviously) and ‘Sunshine over Stair Park’. Like I said, I was hungover and my even at the best of times my chat isn’t that great.
An Arbroath free-kick
 My decision to watch the second half from behind David Mitchell, Stranraer’s goalkeeper’s goal was vindicated within minutes as Arbroath took advantage of hesitancy in defence and Darren Gribben capitalised with a good finish just inside the box, he had all the time in the world to level the scoreline.

It must be said that the rest of the game couldn’t be described as a classic but it was a back and forth encounter that could of gone either way if one of the sides had taken their chances.

As the final whistle blew and the tannoy encourages fans to come back and bring friends with them, the fans drudged off through Stair Park. I had two hours to kill until the next train (adding to a sense of remoteness that a trip to Stranraer brings) so I walked around the town centre for a bit as the shops closed for the night. Whilst there was a lot of pubs and takeaways there wasn’t anything unique about the town centre that would encourage those from out of town to come and visit I’m afraid. I’m absolutely delighted I took a visit to the charming Stair Park but its remoteness will put off many more and no doubt it’s a contributing factor to Stranraer’s lowly status within Scottish football.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Ground 2: The Falkirk Stadium


The view from the Falkirk Stadium looking towards Grangemouth
Game: Falkirk 2 vs. 0 Elgin City
Date: 4th August 2012
Competition: Scottish Communities League Cup 1st Round
Attendance: 1,549
Admission: £12
Programme: £2

The second Saturday of the season was also the first round of Scotland’s secondary cup competition, the League Cup. It’s a competition I’ll always have affection for as it was the 1991 League Cup final at Hampden between my team Hibernian and Dunfermline Athletic that was my first ever football match. Suffice to say, much of the following twenty one years have lived up to that glorious Hibs victory.

I’ll make no bones about the fact that Elgin may be a club I’ll see a lot this season as they are my family’s second side with both my parents moving to Elgin in their teens (separately). We’d visit Elgin several times a year and my brother and I would be checking the fixture list to see if the Black and Whites were at home. Therefore when Elgin were drawn against Falkirk in the Scottish Communities League Cup 1st Round I knew I’d be heading to the Falkirk Stadium.

As I was attending the game with my father and his friend I had to bus out to my parent’s house to get a lift to Falkirk. My immediate reaction was that I should have worn shorts as Edinburgh had been blessed with a rarity: the sun shining over a period of hours.

The sun was still shining as we took the M9 north west in the direction of Falkirk. Falkirk’s new stadium was built in 2004 and is on the outskirts of Falkirk between the town and Grangemouth. For a first time visitor I have to say the signposting was limited – at one roundabout we were directed by a sign for away fans, however, there was no follow up signs and there was an element of intuition and guesswork that delivered us to the ground.

Arriving at the impressive looking away stand we encountered my first gripe of the season: car parking was priced at £4. I’ve been to grounds where £2 was the standard fare but £4 is absolutely ridiculous, especially when I opened the door to put my foot in a puddle – not even a tarmac-ed car park at that! I understand club’s have to maximise as much money as possible but when you build a ground out-of-town and still expect fans to come (and away fans to come from further afield), £4 on top of a £12 admission isn’t going to encourage casual fans I would argue.

The whole day had an element of pre-season friendly about it: the stand which normally houses away fans was shut (clearly not expecting hordes of fans from Elgin) but it wasn’t signposted where Elgin fans should enter the ground. Further to that, there was a thin programme produced for the game which for £2 certainly didn’t represent value for money.
The North Stand: closed to away fans

Eventually we found ourselves inside the stadium with minutes before the game was due to start. Falkirk’s stadium is made up of three stands – two behind the goal and a main stand where we were seated. From our seat we could look left and enjoy a view of the Ochil hills in the distant and in front of us was the industrial town of Grangemouth, it felt strange to sit in a main stand with a massive vista in front of you, but it’s something I enjoyed.

The players tropped onto the sound of Faithless’ Insomnia which thankfully did not turn out to be an omen for the match which was an entertaining affair. Falkirk for years have placed a lot of faith and money in their youth system developing some fantastic footballers and this tradition continues under current boss Steven Pressley, found immaculately turned out in his three-piece grey club suit and brown brogues. Elegant he looked and this was a mirror image of the football played on the park – Falkirk in their away yellow strip passed neatly, quickly and attractively, with their little triangles causing havoc for Elgin. From kick-off Falkirk were the team on top, dominating their part-time opponents but not quite delivering in the final third of the pitch. Elgin, when they did had the ball suffered from a lack of composure, lumping the ball forward instead of finding a pass to feet, which was hardly surprising as the Falkirk midfield did a tremendous job of closing down the space to ensure Elgin had few options. Elgin’s keeper John Gibson kept them in the game several times in the first half. The best chance came late in the first half when Elgin’s Cameron found himself in the box but his effort was saved following a quick attack from the black and whites.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first as Falkirk’s dominance continued as Elgin started to wilt after playing their backs against the wall for so long. Falkirk countered an Elgin counter attack (if such a thing is possible) and stretched the Elgin defence to allow 18 year old left back Stephen Kingsley to slot home. The Falkirk Stadium familiar fanfare of Tony Christie’s Is This The Way to Amarillo blasted out the PA and Falkirk were firmly in charge. Elgin shuffled their pack by making a few substitutions but it failed to spark the Third Division team to life. Both Andrew Haworth and Lyle Taylor shone for Falkirk, both immensely comfortable on the ball but lacking that killer instinct (which would be the reason for playing at this level). With two minutes to go, Taylor did what he had threaten to do all game and put the ball in the back of the net with a volley to kill off any chance of a surprise Elgin comeback and secure Falkirk a place in the next round of the League Cup where they will travel to Ibrox to play Rangers.

All in all, I enjoyed my first visit to the Bairn-abeu, where there is a real emphasis on playing attractive and entertaining football. Falkirk have a great set-up and I’m looking forward to seeing how they get on this season. Pressley deserves credit for trying to get a team to win ‘the right way’ in what is a fantastically difficult division to gain promotion from. Whilst the atmosphere at the Falkirk Stadium may have been a little flat as it was a fairly routine win for the Bairns. The real test will arrive this coming Saturday when they travel to fellow promotion contenders Partick Thistle. I’m  looking forward to watching some cracking First Division matches during 42 Grounds.