Scotland’s Football Grounds in the Black and White Era, D C Thomson Media, 2018, 257 p. With a foreword by Chick Young.

Annfield, Bayview, Boghead, Brockville, Broomfield, Cathkin Park, Douglas Park, Firs Park, Love Street, Muirton, New Kilbowie, Shawfield, Telford Street, Kingsmills. Names to conjure with – and all gone to dust (or housing, or supermarkets.)

To Scottish football fans of a certain age (which I am) this book is a magnificent nostalgia fest. It features 41 of the historic grounds of the present day SPFL football clubs, plus two more, Shielfield (at time of publishing Berwick Rangers were still in the SPFL,) and Firs Park. The only ones missing are Peterhead’s former ground at Recreation Park and Annan Athletic’s Galabank. The criterion for inclusion in the book was that a photograph had not been widely published before or else illustrated some quirk of the ground concerned. (I was somewhat disappointed that only one photo of Boghead, former home of the mighty Sons of the Rock, appears; but I have my own memories to savour.) And of course for Inverness Caledonian Thistle you get two former grounds, Telford Street and Kingsmills. In the course of following the Sons I have visited most of the stadia here in their heydays, excepting only those belonging to the ex-Highland League clubs (though I have walked past Telford Street Park several times and even been to Clachnacuddin’s Grant Street Park in Inverness for a game – a pre-season friendly they played against East Fife; in 1976, while I was in the town.) I have frequented many over the years since.

The book is a delightful celebration of the history of the beautiful game in Scotland – and also a memorial to what has been lost. Cathkin apart, all of the grounds on the list above have been replaced by bright(ish) new(ish) stadia but most of those have yet to invoke the glories of these now mouldered (Cathkin again) or vanished (most of the rest) temples to Scotland’s abiding sporting obsession. With only one exception, Hampden, the book tends not to delve as far back as pre-World War 2, hence the absence of even longer gone grounds such as the Gymnasium, home to St Bernard’s FC, of which photographs would in any case be vanishingly scarce.

There is a 1930s, Art Decoish-looking, building in the pictures of Shawfield that I don’t remember from my only visit there and which I assume was demolished years ago. My favourite old ground, Firs Park, is shown in the days before that huge concrete wall was erected at one end to stop the ball going on to the access road to the retail park beside the ground; before, even, the office building that overlooked that end of the park in the 1970s. That other redolent relic, Cliftonhill, is shown lying in a natural bowl perfect for siting a football stadium.

The text is studded with various titbits of arcane information. Glasgow had at one time three of the biggest football grounds in the world in Hampden, Celtic Park and Ibrox. And there were plans to extend Shawfield’s capacity to add to that list of superstadia. The world’s first penalty kick was awarded against Airdrieonians (away at Royal Albert in a charity Cup match) and was scored by a James McLuggage. (Not from a penalty spot, that had yet to be invented; from any point along a line twelve yards from goal.) A WW2 pillbox was constructed at Borough Briggs with slit windows/gun ports all round (those sly Germans could after all have attacked from any direction) and remained in place till Elgin City joined the SFL in 2000. It was Ochilview which hosted the first ever floodlit match in Scotland. Falkirk once held the world record for the highest transfer fee and Brockville was the venue for the first televised floodlit game. Rugby Park used to be ‘mown’ by a resident sheep – three in total over the years. Hampden’s square goal posts now reside in St Etienne’s museum as they were held by that club to be responsible for their defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich in the European Cup Final of 1976 since two of their team’s efforts rebounded out from the goal frame instead of scraping over the line. Les poteaux carres is still used as a phrase for bad luck in the city.

Attending football matches is no longer as economical as it was back in the day. One photo shows a 20p entrance fee at Firhill in 1970. After inflation that 20p would equate to £3 in 2018. Try getting into even a non-league ground for that now! Some things definitely were better in the good old days.

Pedant’s corner:- “the current club were established” (was established,) “the club were on the up” (the club was) sprung (sprang, x2.)

Our reward for beating Elgin City in the Cup at the weekend is a trip up north to Peterhead on 20/1/2018.

They’re going quite well in the fourth tier. This could be a tricky one.

Scottish Cup, Round Three, The Rock, 18/11/17.

Well, it’s not the debacle of last year’s Cup effort….

But a win’s a win and we’re in the hat for the next round.

Can’t ask for more really.

And we still weren’t at full strength. Three clean sheets in a row ought to be good for confidence but next up is Dunfermline away in the league. They were scoring for fun earlier in the season.

Sons have drawn Elgin City at home in the Scotish Cup third round. The game is to be played on the third weekend in November.

SFL Challenge Cup, The Rock, Round 1, 29/7/12.

Why do we bother entering this competition? We’ve only ever won about two games in it in its entire existence. Even newish boys Annan Athletic have a better record in it than us. East Stirlingshire and Elgin City too.

The first half was dominated by QoS. Stephen Grindlay made three good saves in the first fifteen minutes and QoS had another good chance which the boy volleyed wide. Their keeper didn’t have a save to make until just about the last kick of the half when an Agnew special made him work.

The second half was more even but our two best openings fell to James Creaney and the keeper was up to both of them. Otherwise there was a slow motion scramble on their goal line after a corner and that was about it for us. Midway through the half the game lost all cohesion with both sides resorting to balls over the top and it was from one of these that QoS scored, their tricky no 11 cutting out Grindlay with a ball back for an unopposed header. A similar incident earlier had seen their player miss what amounted to an open goal.

We lacked penetration and punch though Jim Lister can hold the ball up and win headers. I liked the look of Phil Johnston when he came on for Mark Gilhaney, willing to take on the defender and run.

The new strip is cracking though.

QoS have just been relegated from the Division we’re now in and we looked way off them.

It says it all that Stephen Grindlay won man of the match. I wouldn’t disagree.

I can console myself with the thought that we usually start slowly. We night need our usual post-Christmas good run desperately.

Edited to add:- I meant to put in that the new centre back pairing (Alan Lithgow with Andy Graham) was a bomb scare throughout. In particular Andy Graham looked very uncertain and it seemed to infect Lithgow.

New Bayview, 6/2/10

Or, as Onebrow put it to me after he scored their (and his) second, “Are we playing Stevie Crawford on his own?”

This was a good open game with both sides trying to go forward and something of a goal fest for the first quarter hour when I thought that it was going to be one of those goal-every-nine-minute fiascos.

We started off brightly with some good passing and movement but it was still something of a surprise when Ben Gordon headed in a corner unchallenged. East Fife hadn’t really threatened when they equalised. Our defence failed to clear properly and the ball was swept across the six yard line to where Crawford couldn’t miss.

Our second was a peach, a great pass from Ryan McStay hit on the half turn by Scott Chaplain. The third was pure Del Boy. He thoroughly outpaced the defence, rounded the keeper and seemed about to pass to an unmarked player in the box from near the by-line but instead thumped it into the net. A bit like one of his goals in the 6-0 against Elgin last season.

Their second was one of those great strikes you can’t do much about. I suppose Chris Smith might have got more depth on the clearing header but if it had fallen to anyone else it wouldn’t have been a goal. It was a brilliant volley, an internationalist’s goal.

With twenty minutes to go we started to fade badly. Ryan McStay in particular looked all in. Only to be expected I suppose with the lack of games recently. But we held out.

The ref had a good game, letting it flow and only reaching into his pocket in the last ten minutes, more or less when he was forced to. None of the offenders could quibble. He might have given E Fife a pen in the first half when Ben Gordon seemed all over one of their attackers but there was something similar he could have given us late on so it maybe evens out.

Scarily, we’re only seven points off top spot.

PS: I wish Dr Jan would catch the ball rather than punch it; he did this several times today and it gave me kittens every time. He’s a good shot stopper, though. He had one great tip-over in the first half.

The Rock, 2/5/09

I still don’t quite believe it. Barring a catastrophe we’ve won the league. Even a Dumbarton side surely can’t blow a three point and eighteen goal lead in one game; so Division 2 beckons.

Firstly, Elgin were poor and looked like a team who wished the season was already over: ideal opponents for a day like today. We took a while to score, though, and it was one of those that happens to a team at the bottom of the league. Their keeper made a good parry to Derek Carcary’s shot but it looped up and dropped down over the line despite a defender’s effort to clear. The second was beautifully worked (great cross for Dennis McLaughlin to more or less tap in) as was the third (Carcary rounding the keeper after a fine move.) The fourth was an individual effort, Carcary running almost half the length of the pitch with the ball and putting it past the keeper from what looked, from where I was, an impossible angle. Game was over and we awaited updated scores from Central Park.

The second half was a nothing, really. Carcary got his fourth taking advantage of a defensive error to round the keeper again, and Stevie Murray took a through pass and scored despite the keeper getting his hands to the shot. (But he was offside: I was in line, he wasn’t. Still, we’ll take it; it more often goes the other way.)

And the club record for consecutive minutes played without losing a goal was broken today. Considering our lack of clean sheets earlier in the season this is a minor miracle. Seven straight games now, and counting. This is Dreamland.

Borough Briggs, 31/3/09

Back up to second.

I’d have taken a scabby one-nil, but two is even better.

And a welcome clean sheet; away from home.

Pity Stenny won too.

Sets up Saturday nicely, though.

We could drop down to fifth then.

The Rock, 10/3/09

Another win, another clean sheet and two forwards scoring.

That’s three wins in a row now and no goals conceded.

I’m getting jittery.

Borough Briggs, 9/8/08
Hmm. Maybe a longer, harder season than the first half at Airdrie suggested. Worrying echoes of last season when Fergus Tiernan was top scorer after two games.
Seventh after two games and both teams we’ve played still below us is not good news.
Still we were injury ridden, remain unbeaten in the league and it’s three games in a row now we’ve come back from 1-0 down. That wouldn’t have happened under Gerry McCabe – or Paul Martin.