Ground 33: Cliftonhill

The Main Street entrance to Cliftonhill

Game: Albion Rovers 1 v 2 Forfar Athletic

Date: Tuesday 2^nd April

Competition: Scottish Football League Division 2

Attendance: 220

Admission: £12

Programme: £2

If any of you follow me on twitter, you will probably be aware that I managed to drop my phone down a drain on Saturday evening (no drink consumed I can assure you) and thus, my notes and more pictures from last Tuesday’s match at Cliftonhill went with it too. I’ll do my best with this post despite my atrocious memory.

I had hoped to make a day-out of my visit to Coatbridge to see Albion Rovers play, as Summerlee Industrial Museum in the town was one of my favourite places to visit as a child. Sadly, due to fixture congestion, I had to settle for a Tuesday evening. One, that when we left Edinburgh seemed warm but by the time we arrived in Coatbridge the temperature had dropped.

We were joined by 218 other hearty souls who decided to watch this second division clash between the struggling home side and the play-off pushing visitors instead of watching Champions League on television in the comfort of their own homes.

Cliftonhill is on Coatbridge’s main street and covers a substantial area as demonstrated by this photo. I know many Scottish football supporters are not a fan of the ground but I like it – it’s certainly remaindered but I think that’s part of its charm. The currently capacity of the ground is just 1,238 but in its heyday (the 30s), Cliftonhill once hosted 27,381 for a match against Rangers. Like Central Park in Cowdenbeath and Shielfield in Berwick, Cliftonhill has also hosted motorsports in the ground.

Albion Rovers have played at the ground since 1919, but there have been consistent rumours about a move away from the ground. Those plans appear to be shelved in favour of redeveloping the ground as a sports complex and turning the pitch 90 degrees to create more space. It would certainly be interesting to see these plans developed so Rovers could continue to play at Cliftonhill.

We took our place in the paddock as the teams emerged onto the field. For much of the match it would be difficult to work out who were the team facing relegation and who were the team on the cusp of promotion as Albion Rovers flew out the traps, determined to capitalise on recent good form which had seen them win two out of their last four.

And Rovers did capitalise just seven minutes in when David Crawford (who was the best player on the park in my opinion) crossed for Christopher Dallas to net with a good finish. At the same time, news filtered through from Glebe Park that Brechin were giving Rovers’ relegation rivals East Fife a thrashing. With Rovers on top at this stage in the game, looking more dangerous that the Loons, it looked like a great relegation escape might have been on the cards.

However, the game flipped on the cusp of half-time. Forfar were awarded a dubious free kick 25 yards from goal. Forfar left-back Iain Campbell fired the ball at goal and Rovers keeper Matthew McGinley managed to let it slip through his hands and into the net. It was a fortuitous goal that was really against the run of play, but ultimately it led to Rovers losing their control on the match.

The home team started brightly in the second half and squandered two good chances but the precision and control they’d demonstrated in the first 45 was now missing and the game became a great deal more harried and frantic. It was entertaining fare, but not particularly high on quality.

Twenty minutes from time, just as Brechin had gone 6-0 on East Fife, Forfar grabbed a goal that would steal the points for the Loons. The winner was almost as bad a goal to concede as the first. A through ball wasn’t dealt by McGinley again and both he and Forfar striker Chris Templeman went to ground. However, it was Templeman who was able to adjust better and swung his leg at the loose ball and it found itself in the net.

The game then went very end-to-end with the focus on goal scoring chances not quality of play. Both sides came close, with Forfar hitting both the bar and post and Crawford and Marvin Andrews came close for Rovers. But there was to be no grandstand finish.

Rovers will rue not making more of their first half chances, but as soon as Forfar equalised the men from Coatbridge looked less relaxed and more pressured on the ball. When you’re down at the bottom of the table you need all the luck you can get, but sadly for Albion Rovers on this night, all they got was bad luck and indefensible defending.