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!

HAWICK ROYAL ALBERT (Albert Park)

LOWLAND LEAGUE, HAWICK ROYAL ALBERT 2-4 EAST STIRLINGSHIRE, ATTENDANCE: 287

From Musselburgh it was a trip down the winding, but very scenic, A68 to the borders town of Hawick. Built around the River Teviot which flows through the town, Hawick is more famous for it's Rugby (legendary commentator Bill McLaren was born, and died, in Hawick) but I was here for purely for the round ball game.

Hawick's Albert Park is adjacent to the Rugby ground and has a large old wooden seated stand, with the other three sides of ground grass banked. The stand was constructed using steel remnants left over from a fire at the Wilson & Glenny wool factory in 1959.

 photo courtesy of Lee Vaughan 

At the top of the stand there is the social club, which was absolutely rammed this evening, and the snack bar were selling absolutely superb Haggis pies. I know I shouldn't have, but...

Hawick Royal Albert were founded in 1947, after separating from Hawick Railway FC, and get their name from Larkhall based Royal Albert FC, Larkhall being the home of Hawick RA co-founder William Bunton.

The club have spent most of their history in the East of Scotland League but in 2016 they were one of the successful applicants for promotion to the expanded Lowland League, though they are currently near the foot of the table.

Hawick's opponents tonight were East Stirlingshire, who dropped into the Lowland League last year after losing the relegation play-off final to Edinburgh City. The Shire are up near the top of table but still well adrift of runaway leaders East Kilbride. A victory tonight will, mathematically anyway, keep the title race alive for another week.

It was a tremendous game to watch as both teams went on the attack from the off. Given the respective league positions of the teams, a Shire walkover was expected but it was The Royalists who took the lead after 13 minutes. A free kick was parried into the path of Hamish Hunter, who was on the spot to turn the ball home.

Andy Rodgers headed home East Stirlingshire level after 33 minutes, and it was scenes behind the goal as the dozen or so Shire fans celebrated. Shire had chances to take the lead but it was all square at the break.

After 58 minutes Kris Mitchell latched onto a through ball and just about generated enough power to prod the ball home to restore Hawick's lead. Shire applied the pressure but they couldn't find a way past Andy Jack in the Hawick goal, who pulled off a string of fine stops. However in the 76th minute substitute Jamie Glasgow finally found the net when he headed home an equaliser.

Shire finally got themselves in front for the first time with 10 minutes remaining when Hawick failed to clear their lines after a corner and the ball eventually found it's way to Rodgers whose shot nestled in the bottom corner of the net for his second of the night.

There was then an amusing moment when Hawick goalkeeper Jack went from hero to villain. Clearly feeling there was a foul in the build up to the goal, he was shown a yellow card for protesting to the referee and continued to vent his spleen, so was promptly shown a second yellow. He then had an almighty wobble as he walked off the pitch which involved kicking the post, hurling his shirt to floor and tossing his gloves away.

This obviously handed the initiative to Shire but it wasn't until stoppage time that they finally secured the points when Paul Sludden fired home their fourth goal.

A fine evenings entertainment and, as this was a "groundhop" game there were plenty of familiar faces amongst the crowd, so it was also good to have a catch up and a chat with those who had travelled from far and wide to be here. Until next time!!

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.