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| Shielfield Park |
Game: Berwick Rangers 2 vs. 2 Queen’s Park (AET. Queen’s
Park win 3-2 on penalties)
Date: 28th July 2012, 3pm
Competition: Ramsden’s Cup 1st Round
Attendance: 372
Admission: £10
Programme: £2
All close seasons are a form of purgatory, but the
most recent close season has been a particularly painful one. Whilst the
majority of football fans around the world were enjoying the European
Championships and our neighbours to the south were signing a £3 billion television
contract, those of us in Scotland were watching on as the game threatened to
tear itself apart. This isn’t a blog about the summer (although some of the
issues will no doubt turn up in other posts throughout the season), and it was
with great delight I took a train from Edinburgh Waverley down the east coast
line to Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Every adventure has to start somewhere and 42
Grounds is no exception, so why Berwick-upon-Tweed, home of the ‘other’ Rangers
in Scottish football, Berwick Rangers? When I was perusing the Challenge Cup
draw, the Berwick-Queen’s Park tie was the first to ignite my imagination. A
blog about Scottish football grounds featuring a match between a club in
England and a club that was once finalists in the English FA Cup seemed like a
quirky enough beginning.
Berwick is a mere fifty minutes or so away on the
train, but on my train southwards it felt much longer as my carriage was choked
full of children on their way to some sort of musical summer camp. That I could
deal with. However, when a ukulele was produced by the time we reached
Meadowbank I knew that this was going to be a long journey.
Thankfully the singing wasn’t too boisterous and I
quickly departed my train when it reached Berwick just before 1pm on what was a
very sunny day in Northumbria. Walking through Berwick it was clear that
despite being in England, this could be any small town in Scotland. Regular
local opinion polls state that the population of Berwick would like to be
considered to be part of Scotland, although the local pubs detailing drinks
offers demonstrated that we weren’t in Scotland anymore, as did the abundance
of Newcastle United shirts.
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| The town walls created to keep the then-Catholic Scots out of England |
Berwick has a pleasant town centre (after you pass
through the town walls to keep the Catholic Scots out) that was filled with
holidaying families, market stalls and the sound of seabirds. It’s easy to see
why the artist L.S. Lowry found Berwick such an accommodating retreat. Walking
through Berwick across the Tweed towards Shielfield Park was a very pleasant
way to spend an hour.
Shielfield Park is in the Tweedmouth area of the
town and is easily found (and spotted from the train lines). As I arrived at
the ground the heavens opened and I was soaked. The changeable weather was to
be a theme of the afternoon. I paid my £10 and entered the ground. Shielfield
Park, like Cowdenbeath’s Central Park, doubles as a speedway racecourse with a
track around the pitch to supplement income for the club.
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| Entrance to Shielfield Park. Circus big top to the left, but the real entertainment was inside the ground |
The ground has two covered stands – the main is
seated and the far-side terraced. Taking my seat in the comfortable main stand
to read the programme I was interested to read that Berwick’s manager Ian
Little wouldn’t be in attendance at today’s game as he was going to be Best Man
at his brother’s wedding in San Francisco. It was a gentle reminder that there
are things in life that are bigger than football.
By the time kick-off arrived we’d already
experienced around five spells of rain followed by terrific sunshine, which
stayed around as the teams took to the field. Berwick played in their gold and black
shirts whilst Queen’s Park (the only amateurs playing in the Scottish Football
League) wore their ‘Irn Bru’ away kit (the club are sponsored by Barr’s finest
soft drink) of blue and orange. Despite
this being the first competitive game for both sides I was impressed by the
level of neat passing and the attempts from both sides to play to feet.
Admittedly, both sides won’t be playing on beautifully manicured pitches by
December time, but it was lovely to see a lack of ‘hoofball’ with both
goalkeepers attempting to build from the back, passing goal kicks to their
full-backs. Interestingly, the passing approach may be a result of the number
of 4G artificial pitches that are now becoming more common in the lower
leagues.
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| An early Berwick attack |
Berwick started the game stronger and twice in two
minutes they had Queen’s clearing the ball off the line. What was also encouraging
was the level of support from both sets of fans in the main stand; they
supported their teams loudly and chided them softly. The Berwick fans surrounding
me were far more respectful than your average fan as demonstrated when the
referee wished to speak to Berwick’s left-back Damian Gielty and a man behind
me shouted “dinnae argue with the ref son, just listen and walk away.” It was a
sentiment shared by many in the main stand.
The first half was end-to-end football, with
neither team seemingly capable of finding a cutting edge but what it was
lacking in quality was being made up in entertainment and competitiveness and
finished 0-0.
With the half-time came the now seemingly
obligatory half-time entertainment, featuring two sides of Berwick’s under 16
team facing each other in a ten second challenge. It was at this point I took
the opportunity to check out Berwick’s catering options. Whilst in the queue
weighing up my options (a good selection of scran it must be said) I spotted a
guy who was a dead ringer for Darren Fletcher ahead, who was leaving the kiosk
with his chips. Whilst he was putting sauce on his chips he was approached by two
young children for a photograph. Sure enough, it was the Manchester United star
as the man behind me in the queue confirmed this telling me that he was Damian
Gielty’s cousin and that he’d already been down at Shielfield already this
season to watch Berwick in pre-season. The sights you see at Scottish football
grounds!
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| It's a fair distance to the goal |
For the second half I decided to take the game in
from the terracing on the far side. Because of the speedway it means that the
ground is more oval shaped than rectangular so the furthest you are from the
pitch is in fact behind the goals. The weather had become more and more
changeable and the wind had picked up. On the far side of the ground something
became noticeable which wasn’t apparent from the main stand – Shielfield has a
rather pronounced slope! The slope may have been responsible for Queen’s
somewhat sluggish play in the first half as they seemed to push on at the beginning
of the second forty five, Owen Ronald created an opening down the right wing
and played the ball across for Queen’s number 9 Anthony Quinn to slot home
first time.
With the wind picking up and Queen’s not needing to
score the game’s pace started to get a little bit slower with Queen’s being a
tad lacklustre in their attempts to fetch balls for goal kicks and throw-ins.
Berwick were starting to get a bit more desperate, lumping the ball up the
slope and conceding silly fouls that they hadn’t in the first half. Berwick’s
introduction of substitutes Phil Addison and Ben Miller turned the game and
gave Rangers an added dimension to their forward play that hadn’t been in
evidence during the previous hour. Berwick equalised through a neat Neil
Janczyk header from a corner.
Following the goal there was a bit of needle
between a Queen’s Park fan and a few Berwick fans, nothing particularly serious
– it could have just been one idiot trying to create a scene but it’s nothing I’d
previously seen at games at this level. Perhaps the early season tension was
getting to them...
The 90 minutes finished at 1-1 so we were headed to
extra time and I was glad that I’d taken this possibility into consideration
when booking tickets. Berwick had lost the impetus from their equaliser and
started extra time sluggishly so it wasn’t surprising in seeing the home side conceding
a penalty after they backed off from the ever dangerous Owen Ronald before
upending him in the box. Ronald took the penalty himself and hammered the ball
off the post. Quinn reacted quickest leaving the Berwick defenders dead in
their tracks, finishing to give Queen’s the lead.
Going behind for the second time kick startled
Berwick and they threatened several times in the second half of extra time with
Fraser McLean moved further forward from the right wing who created several
chances. It was from one of these chances that Berwick secured another corner
and for the second time it proved successful for the men in Black and Gold. A
well-worked short corner allowed Kevin McDonald to fire a low shot past Neil
Parry into the back of the net.
The remaining six minutes of extra time were
enthralling, with plenty of chances for both sides, although Berwick looked the
most likely the grab a winner and secure a spot in the second round. However,
neither side netted which meant this tie was going to be determined by a
penalty shoot-out. In my 21 years and attendance at hundreds of games, I’d yet
to attend a match that went to penalty shoot-outs so the 42 Grounds project is
already bringing me new experiences!
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| The drama of a penalty shoot-out |
What followed, in the words of a Queen’s fan on the
way out the ground was, “the worst penalty shoot out I’ve seen in my puff” and
it wouldn’t be difficult to argue with that statement. The majority of the spot
kicks were saved or blasted over, meaning that we went into sudden death, which
also prompted one of the funniest moments I’ve ever seen at a football match.
When Ben Miller missed Berwick’s sixth kick, Queen’s defender Ricky Little
charged forward from the centre circle to celebrate, followed by absolutely no
one as Queen’s had yet to take their pen! Fortunately for Little, goalkeeper
Neil Parry saved his blushes by scoring for Queen’s to seal victory for the
Hampden Park side by thumping his penalty off the bar and in.
Walking back towards the station I reflected that
if half the games during this 42 Grounds season are as entertaining as today’s
effort then I’m in for a real treat. A nice ground, knowledgeable fans and a
cracking 120 minutes of entertainment made for a cracking day out. After a
close season of doom and gloom, all I can say is that I’m delighted that
football is back.
