New Douglas Park (Hamilton Academical v St Mirren)

Last Wednesday I visited New Douglas Park to see Hamilton Accies take on St Mirren. I had already planned to see this match as a St Mirren fan anyway but the decision of the Lanarkshire club to cut down the gate price to £5 removed all hesitations I might have had. As per usual I took the train. It is a 20-minute journey from Glasgow Central and an off-peak return ticket from Paisley is only £4.90.

It was a good thing I did not have to pay full price (which is a staggering £22, no wonder Accies have the lowest crowds in the SPL...then again only just over 3,000 fans turned up tonight) because this end-of-season affair surely was not worth much more than a fiver. I could have witnessed a twelve-goal thriller a couple of miles down the road at Fir Park for a tenner but it was not to be. Had St Mirren won they could have leapfrogged Aberdeen in the final league table (the Saints are welcoming the Dons tomorrow) but to be honest the Buddies did not deserve the three points. Marco Paixao's 40-yard shot, only minutes into the game, was the highlight of the game. The ball hit the crossbar and bounced towards the line but no Accies goal was given. From what I have seen on the telly the referee's decision was correct as the ball did not appear to cross the line completely but it was very close.

After last Saturday's 1-1 at Falkirk it had already seemed highly unlikely that St Mirren would go down however after this 0-0 draw it became official: the Saints will play in the SPL for at least another season. Happy days!

For other pictures of New Douglas Park see this post.

The Reid Furniture Stand before the game.

Outside the ground.

St Mirren fans in the North Stand.

Still no stand on the southern end of the ground.

The Reid Furniture Stand housed the home support.

The temporary stand which I have never seen in use.

Wednesday 5th May 2010
Scottish Premier League
Hamilton Academical 0 St Mirren 0
Att: 3,102

New Douglas Park (Hamilton Academical v Motherwell)

For other pictures of New Douglas Park see this post.

On Saturday 20th December Martijn and I got on a train with destination Hamilton West to visit the Lanarkshire derby between Hamilton Academical and Motherwell. Hamilton had only been promoted last season and were plying their trade in the top tier for the first time in 19 years. I thought this would be a fiercely contested battle but how wrong I was. Only 3,527 fans showed up to see this game which was probably also due to the fact that this game was all-ticket.


This was my second trip to Hamilton in five days as I had to purchase the tickets at the ticket office at New Douglas Park. I had phoned the club to enquire about availability, fearing this might become a sell-out when I was told that they could not accept credit card bookings because the bank, either the Bank of Scotland or the Royal Bank, would not let the club accept credit card payments since they got into financial trouble a few years ago. As it happened I had a day off on the Tuesday before the game so I went to Hamilton just to get a couple of tickets. To be honest it is easy to travel to from Glasgow Central, about 20 minutes on the train, and the ground is a ten-minute walk from Hamilton West station.


The game was quite disappointing. Motherwell fans chanting 'We hate Airdrie more than you' was an indication that this was not going to be the intense derby I had hoped for. One who did not disappoint was Hamilton's 18-year-old gem James McCarthy who scored both goals.

The ground was not very impressive either. Only two proper stands, The North Stand (or Spice of Life Stand) and the Main Stand (or Reid Furniture Stand) give the impression that the stadium is still under construction but last season's attendance figures do not suggest that further development is required. This seems to be something typical of Scottish football. Rather than building a complete stadium with the required capacity some clubs insist on building individual stands that are much too big and you end up with a half-built stadium, see also Falkirk. Despite all the criticism it gets I think a ground like New St Mirren Park is a much better solution and provides a better atmosphere as well.

The Spice of Life (North) Stand housed a slightly disappointing number of Motherwell fans.

The 'Temporary Stand' remained empty.

No stand (yet?) at the southern end of the ground.

We had started off our visit to Hamilton with a couple of pints in The Tap Room near Hamilton West station.

Saturday 20th December 2008
Scottish Premier League
Hamilton Academical 2 Motherwell 0
Goals: James McCarthy 45, 67.
Att: 3,527