Scottish Groundhop 2021

After a delay of 18 months, for the obvious reasons, the Scottish groundhop originally scheduled for March 2020 finally took place over this weekend. I was lucky as four of the six grounds I needed to visit were all on the Saturday, meaning I could do a day trip rather than stop over. It was an early start to arrive in time for my first game of this extravaganza...

11:15am East of Scotland League, Conference A

King's Park 

Dalkeith Thistle 8-2 Tweedmouth Rangers

Att: 309

The visitors were actually winning at half time before a red card for an off-the-ball incident saw Tweedmouth down to 10 men. The collapse was unreal as they proceeded to conceded 7 goals, with Dalkeith hitting the woodwork on numerous occasions which could have made the scoreline even more embarrassing. The steak pie on sale at the ground was tremendous.

Goals:

Dalkeith Thistle: Ryan Weston (32, 61) Darren McTernon (50) Darren Leslie (58pen) Greig Callaghan (66) Own Goal (70) Danny McFadden (76) Jack Burrows (90)

Tweedmouth Rangers: Michael Robinson (6 & 35) plus red card (46)

2pm Lowland League 

New Dundas Park

Bonnyrigg Rose 2-1 Dalbeattie Star

Att: 517

Bonnyrigg looked the stronger outfit throughout but couldn't convert their chances. Dalbeattie looked short of ideas in the final third but could have nicked a point right at the death. I must give a special mention to the doner pies that were on sale. They were superb!

Goals:

Bonnyrigg Rose: Lewis Turner (17) Kerr Young (59)

Dalbeattie Star: Lewis Todd (46)

5pm East of Scotland League, Conference B

Newbattle Complex 

Easthouses Lily Miners Welfare 2-5 Glenrothes

Att: 208

A good game. Visitors much the better team in the opening exchanges but after racing into a two goal they were pegged back by the homesters. A late flurry of goals though ensured victory for Glenrothes, including a hat-trick from Graeme Walker. I completed my own hat-trick with a Chicken Balmoral pie which was an absolute winner!

Goals:

Easthouses Lily: Lewis Sives (60 & 63)

Glenrothes: Graeme Walker (7, 56 & 90) Reece Brown (79) Lea Schiavone (90)

7:45pm East of Scotland League

New Victoria Park

Newtongrange Star 2-2 Tranent Juniors

Att: 401

Bottom vs Top but Nitten thoroughly deserved their point after twice taking the lead. A tremendous encounter concluded a fabulous day of football. Great to catch up with people but my tight schedule meant it was all too brief. I was home just before 3am but it was well worth it. The next Scottish Hop is scheduled for March 2022. I cannae wait!

Goals:

Newtongrange Star: Chris Robertson (27 & 37)

Tranent Juniors: Sean Wringe (31) Craig Stevenson (62 pen)

The aforementioned doner
kebab pie. Delicious!

TYNECASTLE FC (Meggetland Stadium)

EAST OF SCOTLAND LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION, TYNECASTLE 3-2 SAUCHIE JUNIORS, ATTENDANCE: 72 (h/c)

The beauty of this hobby is how quickly plans can change, in the case of today, it was overnight. I should have been heading for a day on the North Ayrshire coast, watching Largs Thistle, but I ended up on the opposite side of the country as a very interesting double presented itself.

The Berwick Charities Cup Final was taking place at 6.30pm at a venue that, after seeing photographs and reports over the last few weeks, simply must be visited so, with this in mind a game nearer to Berwick upon Tweed was required and, after discussion with the others in the travelling party, we ended up at the rather splendid Meggetland Stadium.

The Meggetland Stadium is a council owned facility in Edinburgh and the main pitch has a 500 stand. The grass pitch is used by Boroughmuir Rugby Club but in 2018 Tynecastle moved to set up home here.

Tynecastle FC were formed in 1928 as a boys club and remained so until 2005 when they merged with Tollcross United and the joined the senior football ranks. The club played at Tollcross United's Fernieside Recreation Ground before moving to share the Saughton Enclosure with Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale in 2015. The club certainly fell on their feet when the moved to the superb Meggetland in 2018. As you can guess with a club called Tynecastle, they play in the same maroon colours as Heart of Midlothian.

It was a boiling hot afternoon and the initial pace of the game reflected this but once Sauchie opened the scoring through Connor Kelly, after a howler from Tynecastle goalkeeper Kyle Leiper who let the ball squirm under him, the game certainly livened up. By half time the homesters were 3-1 up, thanks to a Luke Kennedy double and an effort from Taylor Hendry. All of the goals were excellent and well worked, the football clearly doing justice to the wonderful playing surface.

The second half continued in similar fashion to the first with both teams going for it, obviously Sauchie were susceptible to the counter as they chased the game. Ross Crawford pulled a goal back for the visitors, again Leiper not covering himself in glory, before Tynecastle had a chance to extend their lead when they were awarded a penalty. Kennedy missed the chance of a hat-trick when his effort was saved by Chic Bell.

With 5 minutes remaining Sauchie were awarded a penalty of their own and the chance to grab a point but Leiper redeemed himself by saving Kelly's spot kick to earn his side the victory. A thoroughly enjoyable encounter and credit to both teams who played some excellent football throughout.

East of Scotland Qualifying Cup Final (Oriam, Riccarton)

FOOTBALL NATION QUALIFYING CUP FINAL, SPARTANS 2-1 LOTHIAN THISTLE HUTCHISON VALE, ATTENDANCE: 300 (est)

I was drawn to an historic occasion today as Scotland hosted a first ever senior cup final indoors. The Final of the 2017 Football Nation Qualifying Cup took place under the roof at the Oriam.

Oriam, which is Gaelic for gold, is Scotland's brand new national performance centre for sport, based at Heriot-Watt University's Riccarton campus in Edinburgh. The Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Rugby Union both use it as their new training facility.

The idea for the centre was first proposed in Henry McLeish's report into Scottish football and this venue was built in the mould of St George's Park, England's development centre at Burton-upon-Trent. Costing around £33m to build it is hoped that "a more technically proficient type of footballer" comes through to play for the Scottish national side.

The pitch is fully synthetic and the dimensions are supposedly same as Hampden Park. The arena is fully air conditioned and it was actually quite chilly watching the game. There are 500 seats for spectators, which are down one side of the pitch but they are raised above playing level so you are looking down on the action. It is a decent view from the seats. However, considering it was a major cup final, the atmosphere was very sterile. It all felt very strange indeed. 

The East of Scotland Qualifying Cup dates back to 1897/98 when Raith Rovers won the inaugural competition and it was set up as an eliminator competition to the East of Scotland cup, where the winners of the Qualifying cup had a chance to pit their wits against Scottish league sides such as Hibernian and Heart of Midlothian.

Over the years the so called big teams have withdrawn and now the winners of the Qualifying cup are playing for right to play either Edinburgh City or Berwick Rangers. Indeed, Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale have already beaten Berwick Rangers in the semi-final of East of Scotland Cup before they have actually played the qualifying final!

East of Scotland League, and 2015 winners, Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale were taking on Lowland League, and seven times winners, Spartans. Both teams are doing well in their respective leagues so a tight encounter was anticipated.

Arguably Spartans held a slight advantage as they play all of their home games on a synthetic surface but it was Lothian Thistle who dominated the first half proceedings. They took the lead after 9 minutes when John Sherlock's cross sailed over everyone and into the back of the Spartans net.

This come moments after Chris Townsley had crashed an effort against the Lothian crossbar and not long after they almost equalised but the woodwork again rescued Lothian as Alan Brown's effort came back off the post. Lothian had chances to extend their lead in the opening half and would come to rue those missed opportunities.

The Spartans must have had a half time roasting as they looked a yard faster in the second period. After 52 minutes they were level when Jack Beesley's cross was turned home by Scott Maxwell. As he scored, Maxwell collided with Lothian 'keeper Kevin Swain and there were some worrying moments as he lay there motionless before eventually getting to his feet.

He had fully recovered and by the 64th minute he was crossing the ball for Ross Allum to fire home what proved to be the winner. Lothian Thistle had late chances to force extra time but Spartans held on to take the cup back to Ainslie Park.

A worthwhile trip to the Scottish capital but I am not sure I would want to watch football in this type of environment on a more regular basis.