17 Sep 22: BSC Glasgow v Campbeltown Pupils

Another foray into WoSFL Division 4 as I travelled to Peterson Park, the new home of BSC Glasgow.

The name BSC Glasgow has been on my radar for some time, initially as a Lowland League side but they hadn’t taken any sort of priority as they had been groundsharing at a ground that I’d already been to (I want to say Alloa but that may not be correct).

In more recent years things have become more complicated and, for reasons I’ve not been able to discover, in 2021 the club split into two. The Lowland League side rebranded themselves as Broomhill FC while the BSC Glasgow name lived on as a separate team in the development section of the WoSFL – now Division 4.

Having been homeless for a time, the new BSC Glasgow announced in May 2021 that they had secured a home of their own: Peterson Park in the Knightswood area of Glasgow. By the sounds of it, Peterson Park was an unremarkable grass pitch at the time but the club have ambitions to develop it into something more substantial over the coming years. I wasn’t expecting much of a spectacle today but it might be worth a re-visit in the future to see what has been achieved.

Form

Obviously, it’s still very early in the season and the table may not be telling the full truth just yet but, going into the game today BSC were in 5th place (of 12 teams) having won 3 and lost 2 of their five league games to date. Visitors, Campbeltown Pupils had played a game fewer and their 1 win, 1 draw and 2 defeats saw them sitting 8th in the table.

My (totally uninformed) pre-match prediction was a 2 – 0 win for the hosts.

Having experienced navigation issues before, I wasn’t overly surprised when my SatNav heralded my arrival at my destination with no pitch in sight. Switching to Google maps, I was directed to an alternative destination a mile away but this turned out to be a cul de sac in the middle of a housing area. Some friendly locals took pity on me and gave me a series of confusing directions, mostly involving left turns but, having got no closer to finding the park, I ended up driving in the rough direction of some pitches I’d spotted when driving over a flyover. This led me back to where the SatNav had initially directed me and, after driving into another dead end, another local tipped me off to where I was going wrong. It turns out that an innocuous metal gate, alongside what had appeared to be a row of derelict shops, actually led to a small car park and the elusive Peterson Park.

I finally arrived having missed nearly ten minutes of action although the game remained goalless at that point.

The ‘ground’ was much as I’d expected, a grass pitch surrounded by brand new white plastic railings and two temporary tent-like dugouts on one side. There was nothing else to see although a whiteboard advertised toilets and refreshments in a hall alongside which evidently also housed the changing rooms.

The Match

The first half was very poor and I didn’t regret missing nearly a quarter of it. The deadlock was broken by Campbeltown courtesy of a penalty after one of their players had been upended in the corner of the box. Just before the break BSC were reduced to ten men when one of their players failed to learn his lesson when being booked for dissent and saw a second yellow card almost immediately afterward when he obviously said something else.

The second period was an improvement and surprisingly it was the 10 man hosts that pressed the advantage. Two quick goals with only ten minutes or so on the second half clock saw them turn the game on it’s head and they went on to pretty much control the game thereafter . With only minutes to go, BSC forced a corner and, ignoring one of the supporters on the touchline telling him to “keep the ball in the corner”, the player delivered the ball into the box where it was met with a team mate’s boot that directed it into the back of the net to seal the points.

FT: BSC Glasgow 3 Campbeltown Pupils 1