30 Nov 19 – Rossvale v Auchinleck Talbot

Heavy overnight frost put paid to all but three of the entire West Region fixture list, my initial preferred destinations of Shotts and Whitletts included. Luckily however, artificial surfaces came into their own and I found a cup game to go to: Rossvale v Auchinleck Talbot.

Although Rossvale have their own ground (Huntershill), their (or owners, East Dunbartonshire Council’s) current unwillingness to invest in developing the ground to meet the required standards means that they are groundsharing at Benburb’s New Tinto Park this season. I visited New Tinto Park as recently as October but, under my own self-imposed rules, I still had to see Rossvale play on their home (astro)turf so this was as good an opportunity as any.

Rossvale are very much the new boys in the Scottish Junior League West Region, having formed their Junior side as recently as 2010. In that short time they have climbed to the West Region Premiership but, even so, my immediate thought was that they would be up against it today – Auchinleck Talbot are a big name in Junior football and are the current cup holders.

The current Premiership table makes interesting reading with Rossvale in 10th place, one position and two points above Talbot, but the visitors have 6 (SIX) games in hand and could climb right to the top of the league if they were to win them all. Today was a cup day however and all was to play for.

Arriving at the ground in plenty of time, I was surprised to find a long queue at the turnstiles. Auchinleck obviously travel well and, with it being cup game and one of the very few games still being played on the day, Rossvale looked set to cash in. I spoke to a Clydebank supporter in the queue and then, more unlikely, a couple of Cowdenbeath supporters from Leeds who’s game of choice at Albion Rovers had been called off.

The large crowd (I would estimate over 400) witnessed a first half of few chances. The only goal came late on for Rossvale from the penalty spot. I was queueing for a pie at the other end of the pitch at the time so I didn’t really see the foul but it did appear that the striker was tripped and no one complained.

The Vale started on the front foot after the break but were undone when Talbot equalised slightly against the run of play. After that, the visitors tail’s were up and the only surprise was how long we had to wait for their winner – this came with about five minutes left on the clock. To be honest, the plummeting temperature was occupying my mind more than the football by that time so I wasn’t unhappy when the final whistle went.

FT: Rossvale 1 Auchinleck Talbot 2

17 Nov 19: Glasgow Girls v Dundee United WFC

Something a bit different this week as I move away from the men’s game and take in my first experience of the Scottish Women’s Premier League by watching the SWPL2 game between Glasgow Girls and Dundee United WFC.

Although this was my first women’s league game, I’m not a complete stranger to women’s football having seen a USA team (featuring, amongst others, future World Cup stars Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Hope Solo) beat France 4 – 2 at Hampden Park in the Olympics back in 2012. If this was half as good as that game, I would be in for a treat although, if I’m honest, I wasn’t expecting a particularly high level of football from this one (shame on me).

Glasgow Girls have been in existence since 2008 and boast a number of teams at various age levels. This was the last game of the season for the senior side who are due to be rebranded as Glasgow Women in 2020.

The game was being played at Glasgow Green rather than Glasgow’s home ground of Budshill Park but, to be honest, that made it easier for me to get to, and with a combination of my rail season ticket and no admission fee to the game, it was a freebie for me. What’s not to like?

Glasgow Green Football Centre is pretty much what it says on the tin. A collection of grass and artificial pitches catering for both 5-a-side and full games. There are no amenities to speak of although there is a burger bar just outside the complex.

A crowd of just under 50 assembled to watch the game. While this might seem a derisory number, I’ve seen a few Lowland League games attract similar numbers and that is effectively Division Five of the men’s game in Scotland!

The game proceeded with a varying level of quality: some nice pass and move football interspersed with moments of weak head tennis and hopeful punts of the ball into the air. It was an enjoyable spectacle however and it was nice to see some hard challenges being shrugged off without fanfare and a complete absence of the ‘macho nonsense’ squaring up of players that you regularly see in the men’s game. It made me wonder about the term ‘handbags’ and whether it should be replaced with ‘manbags’ in the future.

The away side were probably the better side in a first half that was nevertheless anyone’s game. United took the lead in the 35th minute with the help of a wicked deflection that wrong footed the Glasgow keeper who, up until that point, had looked very competent despite her fairly short stature. Just before half time, however, the Girls were level courtesy of a route one clearance which ended with the striker holding of the last defender and emphatically hammering the ball into the net. 1 – 1 at half time and all to play for.

Both sides had ambitions of finishing 3rd in the table and a draw wasn’t really any good for either of them so I hoped to see plenty of attacking football in the second period. I got it. A little under a third of the way through the half, United forced a corner from which a towering header (from a defender) put them back into the lead. This was followed, ten minutes later by a calamatous mix-up in the home defence which saw a wayward back pass roll passed the outrushing keeper and into the empty net for a second own goal to make it 1 – 3.

This seemed to rock Glasgow and for a while it was girls against women as Glasgow found it hard to get out of their half and Dundee threatened to run riot. To their credit, Glasgow weathered the storm and with twenty minutes to go, reduced the defect to one with a close range finish following a corner. For the remainder of the game, Glasgow were on top although Dundee looked dangerous on the break. There were no more goals however and it was United who claimed all three points and a 3rd place league finish in (apparently) their first season in SWPL2.

All in all, this was a thoroughly entertaining game and I will be happy to watch more women’s football in the future.

9 Nov 19: Darvel v Beith

The overnight frost failed to do anything serious to the pitch so it was West of Scotland Cup action for me as I headed into Ayrshire for the First Round clash between Darvel and Beith.

I couldn’t find anything partuclarly interesting pre-match about Darvel JFC, who have had little glory in their 130 year history, although they were runners-up in the 1975/76 Scottish Junior Cup. The town of Darvel however was the birthplace of none other than Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, so we should all thank Darvel for that.

The Vale currently ply their trade in the West Region Championship, so they were hoping for a ‘giant killing’ over their Premiership visitors.

Interestingly (or not, you decide), Beith’s Bellsdale Park was the first Junior League ground I visited, back in December 2016, when Kenny the Panda and I saw them go down 0 – 6 in the Scottish Cup against senior league side Morton.

The journey to Darvel was uneventful but, as often the case when I rely on postcodes, the BlissNav only got me close to the ground. The natives seemed very friendly however and helped me with fine tuning so that I arrived at Recreation Park with 20 minutes to spare (plenty of time to find alternative parking, as a large crowd meant no spaces immediately outside the ground.

This was another ground that I immediately took a liking to. Two covered areas span more than half of one side of the pitch with a small social club and food outlet at one end. The remainder of the perimeter is served by a mixture of grass and terracing and, like Dalbeattie the previous Saturday, I found a good vantage point on a raised bank in one corner.

Darvel started the game well and forced a save from the visiting keeper in the first minute but their attacking promise was for nought when they found themselves two goals down within the first ten minutes of the game – Beith’s first two shots on goal. The Mighty failed to add to this lead in the first 45 minutes although it seemed only a matter of time until they did. Darvel, to their credit, got over the early shock to play their full part in the first half although Beith always looked the more polished act.

The second half started in a similar vein but it soon looked like any faint hope of a comeback was over when a hard challenge on a Beith player forced the referee to reach to his pocket for a yellow card for the offending Darvellian. Before he could write his name in the book however, something was presumably said by a team mate and the referee abrubtly changed direction and reached into his other pocket, pulling out a red card and reducing the home team to ten men.

Strangely (as often seems to happen) this adversity seemed to spur on The Vale and, within minutes, a goal mouth scramble ended with a Beith defender putting the ball into his own net to make it 1 – 2.

The comeback suddenly seemed possible as Darvel continued to take the game to Beith but, just as the tide appeared to be turning, the visitor’s regained their two goal cushion with a strong finish from the edge of the box. Now, it was surely a case of how many Beith would score…

… No! With only minutes left on the clock, it was the ten men of Darvel who found the back of the net. 2 – 3, game on, could they do it? Almost, was the answer as the ball was lashed inches wide after a corner, but time was not on the side of the home team and the whistle blew soon after.

A decent afternoon’s entertainment in the bitterly cold East Ayrshire.

2 Nov 19: Dalbeattie Star v The Spartans

Another milestone in my footy travels as I get to the final unvisited ground in the Scottish Lowland League.

By my own self-imposed rules, I haven’t quite finished with the Lowland League as I’ve yet to witness BSC Glasgow play a home game. As they play in Alloa however, and I have been to their ground (twice) already, they will have to wait.

It’s a reasonable trek to the Islecroft Stadium (the best part of a two hour drive to Dumfries and Galloway) but I was happy to make the journey to see my first ‘Star’ team. My pre-match research gave me no clue as to why Dalbeattie are a ‘Star’ but I was intrigued by their club badge which looks like a cross between some sort of pagan cult and the Ku Klux Klan.

In the end, I decided that it is a crude depiction of Kronos from the Jon Pertwee era Doctor Who story, The Time Monster:

Other than an obvious(?) Doctor Who fixation, I found out nothing particularly interesting about Dalbeattie Star but I did discover that Dalbeattie was the birthplace of William McMaster Murdoch who, as I’m sure you all know, was the First Officer of the RMS Titanic. I made a point to look out for icebergs on the journey down.

The easy thing to find out was their form to date which saw the Star in 11th place in the 16 team league having lost 8 of their 12 games to date and boasting an unenviable goal difference of – 22!

Today’s visitors, The Spartans, had hardly set the world on fire so far this season but, even so, they sat five points and two places above their hosts having played three games less. I decided Spartans were the likely winners today.

I was to be joined, for this one, by semi-regular footy companion Kenny the Panda, but a severe case of ‘man cold’ struck him down during the week and he failed a late fitness test on Saturday morning. No birthday pie for The Panda this year (see my East Fife blog if you’re really interested). My thoughts and prayers are with you, Kenny, at this difficult time.

Despite a reassuring “I’ll be amazed if the game is called off” from the club on the Wednesday before the game, plenty of rain in Glasgow in the days that followed and gales elsewhere in the country the night before had me questionning whether I would make it. Appeals on Facebook and Twitter on Saturday morning were met with stony silence although I was buoyed by a tweet from Spartans at about 10.00am that suggested it was on. I took the chance on the two hour drive south but was more than conscious of the rain that accompanied most of my journey and the clock ticking past the 13.45ko time of my Junior League options. Although the rain stopped as I approached my destination, the puddles on the fields just outside Dalbeattie were ominous.

I needn’t have worried though as the full car park outside the Islecroft Stadium showed that all was well and, as I emerged from the car, I could hear the telltale sounds of teams warming up.

Having chatted to the friendly staff on the gate, I entered to find a nice little ground (I hesitate to call it a stadium) which I instantly liked. The grass pitch is enclosed within an oval perimeter fence with the dugouts on one side and a quirky old stand on the other. A fairly steep grass bank at one end affords a good elevated view of the playing surface.

There was a good showing of youngsters in attendance (the next generation of Star supporters) with the younger ones entertaining themselves pre-match on the bank behind the goal while the older, ‘cooler’ kids inhabited the stand with their mobiles.

The game was keenly contested and, although Spartans probably edged it, the game was in the balance for 85 of the 90 minutes. Spartans took the lead midway through the first half and Star equalised midway through the second. After that, both sides had half chances but the visitors got the decisive strike with five minutes to go before seeing the game out by the corner flag in a very professional (but not very entertaining) show of ‘game management).

I enjoyed a good chat with a local supporter during the second half, during which I discovered that nobody really knows why Dalbeattie are Dalbeattie Star (although stars appear in the town crest). Maybe we’ll never know…

So, Star were Dalbeaten 1 – 2, but I enjoyed my trip to the Islecroft Stadium. It’s just a shame it’s so far away.