Recent weather has thrown my groundhopping plans into disarray as I try to visit a few ‘target’ grounds before the end of the season.
Kello Rovers, based in Kirkconnel in Dumfries & Galloway is the furthest destination left for me in the three WoSFL Conference leagues and I’ve been thwarted a few times from making this journey in recent weeks by heavy rain, snow and high winds. Despite more snow earlier this week, Twitter correspondence on the Friday night gave me hope that today could be the day I got to Nithside Park and, when I woke on Saturday morning, the game was still on!
As usual, one of the first things I did pre-match was have a look at the table. This revealed that ‘Super K’ sat in the not so super 11th spot (of 15) with 5 wins, 5 draws and 20 points to show from their 22 games. A minus 22 goal difference also suggested a potentially leaky defence.
In contrast, their Glasgow-based visitors, Cambuslang Rangers, sat proudly, 5 points clear at the top of the table with games in hand over their three nearest rivals. A record of 19 wins and 2 defeats from 21 games had amassed 57 points and an impressive plus 57 goal difference.
My pre-match prediction was a 0 – 3 win for Rangers.
Google Maps told me that it would take an hour and thirteen minutes to drive to Kirkconnel and I left the house with the Satnav telling me I would get to the ground twenty minutes before kick off. Wrong!
I started badly my taking a wrong turn within minutes of setting off and, just as I’d made up the resulting lost time, I hit slow traffic which started to eat up my contingency time. Worse was to come as I approached Kilmarnock as, following a traffic jam caused by roadworks, those same roadworks then prevented me from taking the required exit from the motorway and immediately, my predicted eta shot from 10 minutes before kick off to 5 minutes after! A further road closure and diversion made things even worse but, in the end I clawed back sufficient time to park up outside the ground at two minutes to two.
It wasn’t enough. Not unusually in my WoSFL experience, the game kicked off early and, as I got out of the car, I could clearly hear the shouts of the players on the other side of the wall signalling that the game was underway. Never mind, I doubt I missed any more than a couple of minutes.
After the unexciting leisure centre AstroTurf pitch of Kilsyth Athletic last week, Nithside Park proved to be a much more interesting ‘proper’ ground comprising a large covered standing area on one side of the grass pitch and a smaller one on the other. Snacks were available from the back of this smaller area and, although closed on the day, there was a portacabin bar (the Rovers Return) alongside the dressing rooms.
It was clear from the start that Cambuslang were the better team but, although they offered little threat, Kello kept them at bay until a Rangers player broke through on the left and put the ball past the keeper into the far side of the goal with about ten minutes on the clock. There were loud appeals for offside from the home bench but I was to learn over the next eighty minutes that they made similar appeals every time their opposition got into the last quarter of the pitch, regardless of whether or not their was any merit in that appeal.
Less than ten minutes later, Rangers doubled their lead and I sensed that my 0 – 3 prediction might not have been high enough. As things turned out though, that was the end of the scoring for the first half and, while the visitors remained in firm control, the Kello defence repelled their attacks effectively.
I wandered around the pitch at half time and ventured into the snack bar thinking that I was too late for a pie. I shouldn’t have worried as one of the two pies remaining in the heated cabinet was a very tasty chicken curry pie. Definitely the league leader in footy pies so far in 2022.
Into the second half and, just when I was telling myself that Kello were defending well, two more quick fire goals from Cambuslang, the second a very well taken lobbed effort, effectively ended the contest.
Kello pulled one back with 25 minutes remaining but there was no real chance of a comeback (sorry Francis) and Rangers added a fifth before the final whistle was blown.
FT: Kello Rovers 1 Cambuslang Rangers 5.
As I left the ground and headed back to my car, a group of lads made a comment about my hat and asked if the badge was Plymouth Argyle. When I answered yes, two of them chorused “Green Army!” and I drove home with a smile on my face that, even in a small village in Dumfries and Galloway, close on 500 miles from Home Park, there is still an awareness of my English League One heroes.
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