St Mirren Park (Scotland U21 v Norway U21)

Last Wednesday I went straight from work to St Mirren Park to see Billy Stark's Scotland Under-21 team take on their Norwegian counterparts. The 4pm kick-off time was slightly inconvenient but it also made it possible to see both the youngsters and the full Scotland team in action in one day. Craig Levein's men were playing Denmark in a friendly, or 'international challenge match' as they are called these days but I had already decided that one game was enough on a school night. The horrendous weather helped me not to change my mind!

I was pleased to hear that all home qualifiers for the Under-21 European Championship will be played at St Mirren Park, which means regular international football at my doorstep including the crunch match against my home country on 29th February 2012 (I do not think I have seen many games on 29th February by the way). I can recommend the U21 games, you will see some good football and they are great value and it was a shame only 1,654 fans turned up. Tickets for the game on Wednesday were only a fiver but I was lucky to get a free ticket from a Scotland fan outside the ground who did not want any money for it.

It was a great Scottish performance but it was marred to an extent by Steven Saunders' Achilles injury early in the first half. Hull City's Tom Cairney scored the opening goal in the first half. Aberdeen's Ryan Jack made it 2-0 after 30 minutes into the second half and three minutes later Dundee United's Stuart Armstrong scored the third. A convincing win for Scotland and hopefully they will be able to build on this for the upcoming qualifiers.

For pictures of St Mirren home games at St Mirren Park see this post and this one. For last year's U21 game against Sweden at St Mirren Park see this post.


Wednesday 10th August 2011
Scotland 3 Norway 0
Vauxhall Under-21 International Challenge Match
Goals: Cairney 20, Ryan 75, Armstrong 78.
Att: 1,654

St Mirren Park (Scotland U21 v Sweden U21)

Last Wednesday I made the short journey to St Mirren Park where the Scottish under-21 team were hosting a friendly (or 'challenge match' as they are called these days) against their Swedish counterparts. On the same night the Scottish first team were ripped apart in Stockholm 3-0 the U21 team fared slightly better and managed a creditable draw against the Scandinavians.

The atmosphere in St Mirren Park left something to be desired especially in the first half. I know it can be quiet on Greenhill Road but I had never heard it as quiet as this! Helsingborg's Denni Avdić scored for Sweden on sixteen minutes. The Scandinavians looked the better side but they were not able to add to their tally before the half time whistle. After the interval (and a fifteen-minute for a steak pie that was sold out) Scotland created more chances and the reshuffled side looked a lot more dangerous. In injury time Dons player Chris Maguire, who had an excellent game, had an impressive run forward and provided Hibee David Wotherspoon with the only Scotland goal of the night.

For pictures of St Mirren Games at St Mirren Park see this post and this one.

It was pay-at-the-gate tonight.


The main facade of St Mirren Park.


A healthy crowd in the West Stand.


The national anthems before the match. The South Stand was not open tonight...


...and neither was the North Stand.


Celebrations after Avdić's goal for Sweden.


Sweden U21 manager Jörgen Lennartsson.

Wednesday 11th August 2010
Under-21 International Challenge Match
Scotland 1 Sweden 1
Scotland: Wotherspoon 90+1.
Sweden: Avdic 16.
Att: 2,726

Cappielow Park (Greenock Morton v St Mirren)

After last Saturday's trip to Peterhead I stayed a bit closer to home last Tuesday. I took the train to Greenock, for the second time that day as I work in Greenock, for the annual Renfrewshire Cup 'final' between Morton and St Mirren. At least the Ton went through an actual semi-final to reach it, thrashing amateurs Moorcroft 13-0. According to Morton chairman Rae Douglas in tonight's matchday programme the amateur team played 'well and competed well.' At least that's something I suppose.

Morton and St Mirren have enjoyed a longstanding rivalry for decades and it has remained strong despite both teams not having played in the same league for over a decade. This traditional pre-season 'friendly' is always fiercely contested and never meaningless to use a pre-season cliché. Saints were poor against last year's First Division strugglers but then again I do not think anyone has been expecting an easy 2010/11 season for the Buddies. The loan deal Celtic's Paul McGowan had signed shortly before the game at least was a bit of good news. The ex-Morton player came on as a replacement for Steven Robb eight minutes before time and added a bit of spice to the occasion.

There were no goals during 90 minutes of regular time which is worrying for St Mirren as they still seem unable to find the net easily, even against opposition from the second tier. It also meant I would not be able to make my 9:31pm train back to Paisley. Expecting extra time I went to the snack van for a coffee, no pies in the away end unfortunately, just something resembling a hamburger. Then it turned out there was no extra time and the teams had already started taking penalties. When John Potter scored the deciding 4-3 for St Mirren I had lost count. As there was no extra time I could still make the 9:56pm train from Cartsdyke to Paisley. Both sets of fans were separated at the station to prevent a repeat of the ugly scenes seen in recent years.

For more pictures of Cappielow see this post.

Long queues at the turnstiles.


The Grandstand before kick-off.


The Cowshed before the start of the game.


Saints fans in the Wee Dublin End.


Quite amusing, thirteen-year-olds taunting other thirteen-year-olds: 'Fatty, gie's a wave!"

Will there be a fifth consecutive Renfrewshire Cup at the end of this rainbow?

Cappie the Cat's bizarre antics...I really had no idea what he was up to. Well-nourished cheerleaders in the background.

Saints won the penalty shoot-out.

The Cowshed after the game.

The Grandstand after the final whistle.

Fans were separated by the police at Cartsdyke station. Not much happened. Some Morton fan threw an egg...better than a brick I suppose, see this report from two years ago.

Tuesday 27th July 2010
Renfrewshire Cup Final
Greenock Morton 0 St Mirren 0 (after 90 minutes, St Mirren win 4-3 on penalties)
Penalties:
Morton: Holmes missed, Monty scored, Kelby missed, Tidser scored, Smyth scored
St Mirren: Higdon scored, Van Zanten missed, Brady scored, McGowan scored, Potter scored
Att: 3,422

Celtic Park (Celtic v AZ)

Last Wednesday night I watched Celtic take on Dutch league champions AZ in an almost empty Celtic Park. The friendly had originally been planned for Wednesday 21st April but the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland meant the club from Alkmaar were unable to travel to Scotland. Despite the fact that season ticket holders could see this game for "free" only about 2,000 fans bothered to show up. Celtic had organised the friendly because they had played no Scottish Cup home games this season and basically owed their supporters one game. As a follower of Dutch Eredivisie football this fixture immediately appealed to me but this sentiment was apparently not shared by most of the Celtic fans.

I went to the game with two guys from my work, one of them an AZ fan, so I got tickets as close to the away section as I could. About 14 AZ supporters had followed their club to Scotland. From what I understood more fans had planned to travel to Glasgow on the 21st but the postponement had made things difficult for many of them. We took a train from Glasgow Central to Dalmarnock train station from which it is only a ten-minute walk to Celtic Park. I immediately noticed that it was very quiet near the ground. I even forgot to buy a programme because I did not see any vendors. It later turned out that programmes were sold but I was unable to obtain one after the game so I am trying to source one on eBay now!

The game was a typical friendly with not much of an atmosphere coming from the sparsely filled stands. The biggest cheer came when it was announced that Celtic had beaten Rangers to win the Youth Cup Final at Hampden (another reason cited for the small crowd tonight). The highlight of the game for me was when one of the Dutch fans took of his AZ shirt and put on a Celtic shirt which was applauded by the Hoops fans on the Lisbon Lions Stand.

On the pitch, Georgios Samaras gave Celtic the lead, but Graziano Pelle equalised before half-time and Jonathas scored from the penalty spot in the second half to give Dick Advocaat's men an undeserved lead. Celtic created many chances but were very wasteful and never managed to equalise.

For more pictures of Celtic Park see this post (v St Mirren),this one (v FC Utrecht) and this one (v Rangers).

Approaching Celtic Park.


The Lisbon Lions Stand.


Samaras puts Celtic 1-0 ahead.

Jonathas scores the winning goal from the spot.

The North Stand.

The small contingent of AZ fans.

The South Stand after the game.

Wednesday 28th April 2010
Friendly
Celtic 1 AZ 2
Celtic: Samaras 36.
AZ: Pelle 40. Jonathas (pen) 75.
Att: 2,000 (est.)

Broadwood Stadium (Clyde v Man Utd XI)

Today I went to Cumbernauld to see Clyde take on a Manchester United select in a friendly at Broadwood Stadium. After an 11-minute train journey from Glasgow Queen Street I got off at Croy. From there it is a 20-minute walk to Broadwood, a modern ground that was opened in 1995. An interesting bit of trivia is that Broadwood is the highest ground in Scotland (in terms of altitude). The capacity is about 8,000 divided over three stands. There is no stand at the northern end of the ground, and it looks like there will never be one either as a leisure centre has now been built at this end. There does not seem to be a need to expand the ground anyway, only 663 witnessed the Bully Wee losing 3-1 to Peterhead yesterday.

There were a few more in attendance today but still by far no full house. There was a sell-out crowd when Clyde entertained the Red Devils in July 2005. Today however it was not Sir Alex's first team showing up but Ole Gunnar Solksjaer's reserve squad. Nevertheless the Reds proved much too strong for the Scottish part-timers who counted themselves lucky to be only 4-0 down when the referee blew the final whistle.

Approaching Broadwood Stadium.


Queues at the turnstiles.

The South Stand.

The West Stand remained closed today.


The Main Stand.


Rafael da Silva with the 'Advance Construction Scotland Trophy' and he seemed really pleased with it.

Sunday 18th October 2009
Friendly
Clyde 0 Manchester United XI 4
Goals: Stewart (o.g.) 22, Brandy 29, Da Silva 59, Eikrem (pen.) 89.
Att: 2,365

Cliftonhill Stadium (Albion Rovers v Celtic XI)

Today I visited my second new ground of the new season, Cliftonhill Stadium in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, home of Scottish Third Division side Albion Rovers. Today they were playing a Celtic reserve team, led by Neil Lennon for the first time, for the (apparently annual) Jock Stein Friendship Trophy. The Wee Rovers had never won this pre-season cup and today was not their day either even though they came close this time. There was a no crowd segregation and the Celtic fans, who were in the majority, created an excellent atmosphere.

From Glasgow Queen Street it is only a 20-minute train journey to Coatdyke station and from there it is a 10-minute walk to Cliftonhill. The ground can be accessed from Main Street only which I did not know at first so I starting looking for the entrance when I noticed a couple of guys walking up a hill in Albion Street from which it turned out you have an excellent view of the pitch. Obviously I did not mind paying the £5 to get in but there were some good photo opportunities.

The first half was quite entertaining but the second half was a right bore and there were no goals so a penalty shoot-out was required to decide who would win the 2009 Jock Stein Cup. After 16 penalties Celtic won 5-4, meaning that for seven players the pressure was already too much which does not bode well for the new season I suppose, considering the irrelevance of this match.

The Main Stand seen from outside the ground. It is possible to watch the action on the pitch without having to pay admission.

These are the only turnstiles in use nowadays.

The club shop remained closed and has remained closed now for a while by the looks of it.

The covered terrace opposite the Main Stand does not seem to be in use anymore.

No stands behind either of the goals. Some freeloaders can be seen in the background.

Also here some non-paying supporters.

The Jock Stein Friendship Cup

The Main Stand seen from outside the ground after the match.

The Albion Street Terrace seen from outside the ground. It is starting to get overgrown and I cannot imagine this terrace in use again any time soon.

Another picture of the Main Stand, this time taken from behind the roofed terrace. The Celtic players can be seen celebrating winning what surely is not the most important trophy of the season.

Monday 20th July 2009
Jock Stein Friendship Cup
Albion Rovers 0 Celtic 0
Celtic win on penalties 5-4
Att: about 1,000

Ochilview Park (Stenhousemuir v Falkirk)

Yesterday I kicked off the new football season with a visit to Ochilview Park to see Stenhousemuir take on Falkirk for the Stirlingshire Cup. This all took place in the village of Stenhousemuir in, you guessed it, Stirlingshire.



I took the train from Glasgow Central to the village of Larbert. The train journey took only 20 minutes and from Larbert station it was only a ten-minute walk to the ground which, as of last season, is now also home to East Stirlingshire FC. The ground is, as you would expect, fairly small with only two stands. The Tryst Road Terrace is a roofed terrace at one end of the ground. This stand housed the Falkirk supporters last night, although it is my understanding that there is no segregation in place at most Stenhousemuir home games. The Main Stand is a fairly modern all-seater stand. It is now called the Norway Stand as it is sponsored by a group of Norwegian supporters (yes, Norwegian supporters).



The game was quite entertaining, even though Falkirk fielded a team consisting mainly of youth players. Andrew Stirling opened the score for Stenhousemuir after 17 minutes. Craig O'Reilly then made it 2-0 to the Warriors six minutes later before Paul Sludden scored for the Bairns after another 6 minutes. Three goals after less than an hour played is of course not bad but unfortunately none of the players were able to find the net in the 60 minutes that were to follow.

All in all an entertaining night and I was able to do it on a budget, £5 to get inside the ground and the programme was free. Also, because I was working that day there was no time to go to the pub so a very cheap night indeed. I will have to go back soon to visit an East Stirlingshire game.

Turnstiles leading to the Norway Stand.

The Tryst Road Terrace after the game.

The Norway Stand after the game.

The Norway Stand seen from inside the ground.

The Tryst Road Terrace housed the Falkirk Fans who showed up in good numbers despite the fact that there was no mention of this game at all on the Falkirk FC website.

No stands on the other side or other end of the pitch.

Tuesday 7th July 2009
Stirlingshire Cup
Stenhousemuir 2 Falkirk 1
Stenhousemuir: Stirling 17. O'Reilly 23.
Falkirk: Sludden 29.
Att: 701