Ground 38: Cappielow

Cappielow in the April sun

Game: Greenock Morton 0 v 2 Hamilton Academical

Date: Saturday 27^th April

Competition: Scottish Football League Division 1

Attendance: 1,541

Admission: £15

Programme: £2

Although I’ve only got four grounds to go, I think I can safely say that I’ve found my favourite ground in Scottish football. Welcome to Cappielow, home to Greenock Morton. Obviously, all these things are subjective, and should I have been here in a wet and windy February evening I might have said something different. But I was in Greenock on a mild spring afternoon and the sun was shining. Perfect conditions to watch some football.

Perhaps the fact that this was Morton’s final home game of the season and second place was assured added to the relaxed atmosphere my Dad and I experienced. There was little tension, just a leisurely encounter between two teams who are no doubt already dreaming of next year. Hamilton could potentially finish 3^rd in the First Division, but it would be some distance behind Morton, who ran Partick Thistle close until the start of April.

We arrived at Cappielow around thirty minutes before kick-off which gave us enough time to admire the old ground. Home to Morton since 1879, it’s a compact but fantastic ground. We entered at the Sinclair Street side of the ground and stood for a bit admiring the view of the big crane in the distance. As you can see from the photos it’s a smashing ground and I’d thoroughly recommend you going if you get the chance.

We took a standing position on the half-way line in the covered Cowshed. A pie and a Capri Sun later, I couldn’t help but notice that it wasn’t the first SFL ground I’ve been to this season where the ground didn’t stock the league sponsors product (Irn Bru). I have to say, I find this very bizarre and I’d be interested to know why this isn’t the case.

Another terrific aspect of Cappielow is the playing surface. It looked immaculate, only Peterhead could compare from what I’ve seen this season. The pitch also had an ‘old school’ feel to it as there was a definite slope on the pitch, which reminded me of Easter Road when I first started attending games. The Cowshed was also terrific at retaining a lot of noise, I bet it sounds terrific at big cup games and matches against local Renfrewshire rivals St. Mirren.

The game, however, was far from a classic. So far this season, Morton had failed to register a victory over the Accies and today was no different. Accies, who are in the midst of six (now seven) game undefeated streak looked more comfortable and confident on the ball. Morton seemed to have their tactics all wrong. They pumped long balls forward (not the first team I’ve seen down this against the towering Accies’ centre halves) unsuccessfully. More disappointedly, whenever Colin McMenamin or Archie Campbell did break, the support from midfield was lacking.

Even in a benign game like this, there’s still the potential for the referee to wreak havoc, and Alan Muir did that, with a series of poor decisions that were inconsistent and hard to explain. He never once looked in charge of the game.

Accies took the lead in the 39^th minute when an Ali Crawford cross found the prolific Stevie May just inside the box. With some good play he managed to curl the ball into the corner of the net. It was a well-worked goal that even some of the ‘Ton fans surrounding us applauded. A nice touch that was only making it easier for me to enjoy my trip to Cappielow.

May never stopped moving the entire 90 minutes and it will be interesting to see where he’ll be next season after his year-long loan to Hamilton from St Johnstone finishes. He’s had a terrific scoring record in both this and last season, and he grabbed his 14^th for the month ten minutes into the second half when a Michael Devlin header was knocked to the back post for May (who had lost his marker) to poke in.

Morton shuffled the pack, making all three substitutions by the 63^rd minute, but truthfully they were too lumbering on the ball and were caught in possession far too often. They looked most like scoring through Martin Hardie free kicks, but nothing came off for the SFL1 runners-up.

The final whistle brought celebrations from the small band of Accies fans housed in the main stand and warm applause for the Morton players, who were being recognised for a great overall season, rather than today’s off-key performance. 

Ground 36: Braidwood Motor Company Stadium

Spring sunshine at Almondvale

Game: Livingston 0 v 0 Hamilton Academical

Date: Tuesday 16^th April

Competition: Scottish Football League Division 1

Attendance: 787

Admission: £17

Programme: £2

Highlights: http://www.livingstonfc.co.uk/livitv/hamilton160413/livitv.php

All things considered, my visit to Livingston didn’t quite work out as I’d planned. The game was first scheduled to take place on the last Saturday of December, but was postponed. And then postponed again. And again. So I was getting to the Braidwood Motor Company Stadium (or Almondvale) on the fourth attempt. The original game was scheduled to be Livi’s Football for a Fiver match, but due to postponements, Saturday’s clash between the two teams was designated as the £5 gate match. Great for fans that attended Saturday’s match, not so great for my wallet!

Compounding my misery was the fact I’d managed to forget my camera when leaving the house in the morning, so apologies for the quality of photos as they were taken with my phone camera.

It was a very windy day in Edinburgh when I set off from work to Waverley to catch my train out to West Lothian. Due to unfortunate timing, this was the second time Livingston would be facing Hamilton at home in the space of four days. Sometimes, the arguments for league reconstruction write themselves…It was little wonder that only 787 fans turned out for the fixture – less than half of Saturday’s attendance.

Livingston have a complicated history. Formed in 1943 as a works team, Ferranti Thistle – the club was admitted to the Scottish Football League in 1974 and became Meadowbank Thistle, playing at Edinburgh’s Meadowbank Stadium. Following financial difficulties in the early 90s, the club relocated to the West Lothian new town of Livingston in 1995 and changed their name once more.

Livi play at Almondvale Stadium. The ground opened in 1995 as a joint venture between Meadowbank and the Livingston Development Corporation. When I first started attending Livingston games in their inaugural season, Almondvale was just two stands, facing each other. As Livingston started to march their way up the leagues, the ground had to be expanded to meet Scottish Premier League standards with 10,122 seats. Livingston stayed in the SPL for five seasons which included a third placed finish and a League Cup win (against Hibs. I’ll make no further comment).

Livingston were then plunged into financial difficulty, which saw them placed into the 3^rd Division from the 2009-10 season. Two consecutive championships followed and this is their second season back in SFL1.

The legacy of the SPL will be that many clubs are now playing in grounds that are too big for them, and sadly for Livingston, there were a lot of empty seats on show at the game, with all supporters housed in the main stand. After paying for my double-header programme I took my seat to the left of the away dugout with great sightlines and plenty of legroom. I arrived just before the teams emerged onto the field and I was disappointed to learn that Stefan Scougall, Livingston’s great young prospect would not be featuring after injuring himself in the warm-up. He was replaced by Ross Docherty, wearing the no.12 jersey.

Hamilton took to the pitch wearing their change kit of black and blue vertical stripes. Inter Milan-esque while Livi wore their yellow shirts with black shorts.

Having won Saturday’s game 3-0 I was expecting a reaction from Livingston, and they started the game brightly. The referee was letting a lot go and he didn’t see a handball from Stevie May which led to a spectacular overhead kick from Gary Fisher which stand-in goalkeeper Darren Jamieson managed to tip onto the bar.

There were two flashpoints in the game, which ultimately decided the momentum for the game. In the 26^th minute, Accies right back Ziggy Gordon put in a reckless challenge on Livi defender Garcia Tena, which he received a yellow card for. From the subsequent free-kick, a loose ball saw Ross Docherty make a poor retaliation challenge on Gordon. Referee Steven McLean wasted no time at all in producing a red card which I felt at the time was harsh. It was more premeditated than Gordon’s tackle, but nowhere near as reckless. You can judge for yourself in the highlights from 1 minute in.

Hamilton almost took the lead from the resulting corner when keeper Jamieson once again had to leap to tip the ball over the bar.

What was dispiriting to hear afterwards was every time Gordon was on the ball there were shouts from the crowd of “nail him” or “go right through him”. Gordon, who I’ve seen already this season, is by no means a dirty player – he just got his timing wrong on his challenge on Garcia Tena. This is not a tendency that is unique to Livingston fans of course, but it got me wondering – when did football fans becoming so cruel and unforgiving? Or was it always the case?

The red card also had an impact on Livingston’s gameplan. Instead of the neat passing there was a tendency to knock the ball long to Danny Mullen up front. The tactic didn’t work too well as the Accies’ centre halves had about half a foot each on Mullen.

Livi did start the second half better than they ended the first and I was impressed with how hard the 10 men were working for each other and how adept they were at filling in for each other if one of their team mates went to press the ball.

The majority of the second half was what could be described as towsy, with not a great deal of quality but plenty of endeavour. There were a few half-chances and Hamilton probably looked the more likely to score with Stevie May always looking dangerous, but sadly neither side could break the deadlock.

Another enjoyable evening’s entertainment (less so the trudge up the hill to the train station afterwards) but it was a game that didn’t really kick-on from the sending off in the first half which was a shame. It was also a shame to see Almondvale with a great number of empty seats. It would be fantastic to see West Lothian really embrace their club and hopefully initiatives such as Football for a Fiver will see that happen.

Ground 12: New Douglas Park

Academia: the best programme name out there?

Game: Hamilton Academical 1 v 0 Partick Thistle

Date: Friday 16^th November 2012

Competition: Scottish Football League Division 1

Attendance: 2450

Admission: £16

Programme: £2.50

Time for another Friday night, and after the success of my visit to Fir Park a month earlier, I was very much looking forward to my trip to New Douglas Park, home of Hamilton Academical. New Douglas Park opened in 2001 and had artificial turf installed in 2004. However this was removed upon on the Accies promotion to the Scottish Premier League. However, since their return to the First Division they have continued to play on grass.

I got away from work pretty sharpish and made my way along the M8 to Hamilton – the ground is pretty easy to find, going past the racecourse and then I found plenty of parking near the stadium as the headquarters for North Lanarkshire Council are nearby. Congratulations must be passed to the Council for not trying to monetise the potential for taking more cash off football punters. There’s also a train station nearby (Hamilton West) which is a short walking distance from NDP. All in all, it’s a good set-up the Accies have got going on.

New Douglas Park in itself is a bit of a strange ground – on two sides of the ground are supermarkets and to get near the ground you walk under a covered car park – it’s quite surreal. There were big queues for the away section as I skipped past the away stand (named The Spice of Life stand), which also houses the Lanarkshire Valuation Joint Board and South Lanarkshire Council Leisure and Culture offices. A good use of the ground for sure.

I hadn’t had any tea so by the time I’m got through the turnstile, bought a 50/50 ticket (one day I will win *fingers crossed*), a programme and a pie and coke I was down the best part of £24. The two open stands (plus a strange looking marquee stand opposite the main stand that houses Old Firm fans when they visit) have a flight of stairs that take you up to the stand. It looks bizarre but it affords great sightlines for the fans. As I searched for a seat I came to the conclusion that there must be a lot of Accies fans due to turn up as most seats near the middle of the stand had stickers saying ‘reserved’ on them. These fans did not appear. This is a bit disappointing as I don’t for one second believe that all those season ticket holders didn’t turn up but more the fact that these seats once belonged to season ticket holders. It allows one to pose the question: if a club isn’t bothered about attention to detail like this, then what else isn’t it bothered about?

Thistle, flying high in the league brought a sizeable support to New Douglas Park and where making plenty of noise too. NDP is an open ground, meaning it’s a) bloody freezing and b) the pitch is exposed to a lot of sunlight which meant the grass looked in good condition for a game in the middle of November.

The teams for tonight’s game were led out by local Real Radio DJs who were wearing the strips of both teams. I’m not quite sure what the purpose of the promotion was, but if it brought a few people through the turnstile then it’s worth pursuing. There was no doubt that the game was hotly anticipated, the Accies twitter feed beforehand listed the people within the game who were in the main stand watching: managers Pat Fenlon, Stuart McCall, Allan Moore and SFA Performance Director Mark Wotte with scouts and coaches from Wolves, Swansea, Falkirk, Wigan, Burnley, Livingston, Huddersfield, St Johnstone, Stevenage, Kilmarnock, Bolton, Sheffield United, Hearts, Dunfermline, Airdrie and Ross County. If they all paid then Hamilton were quids in!

The atmosphere within NDP was good and further aided when an Accies fan turned up with a small drum (which usually I can’t abide, but somehow was fitting at a night game), with seconds of him making some noise the Jags fans responded with the question “Who’s the wanker with the drum?” Hardly original, but it did make me chuckle.

The first half was nothing much to write about, Partick have struggled to score away from home and so it proved tonight at NDP. Their fans were making plenty of noise and are clearly enthralled with their manager, former Scotland internationalist Jackie McNamara (also a sitcom writer). His opposite number, Billy Reid was once approached to become Swansea manager. I wonder with Accies poor start to the season if he ever regretted the invitation to join the Liberty Stadium club. In truth, the first half was poor – there were lots of aimless headers and long balls but neither side took a grip of the game and the all important precision was severely lacking. It was the worst first half I’d watched so far this season even with Hamilton taking a 1-0 lead. A corner from Ali Crawford was whipped in dangerously and Partick keeper Graeme Smith punched the ball into his net. The referee attributed the goal to Crawford, but I think that’s rather kind.

The half time entertainment was provided by the fans rather than anything official put on by the club – both sets of fans going to get something to eat converged and managed to ‘noise’ each other up – with lots of pointing, singing and shouting. The ineffective-as-ever stewards couldn’t sort the issue and the police eventually made their way along to deal with the non-incident. Not for the first time I found myself questioning why football clubs are forced to hand out heavy sums to police forces for their work within the stadium where in my experience I’ve found them to be as much use at preventing trouble as a chocolate fireguard.

The early stages of the second half was all Thistle as they pushed for an equaliser. Hamilton had one source of joy with on-loan striker Stevie May looking dangerous on the break. He was able to win a corner and Smith in the Thistle goal managed to drop the cross causing a stramash in the box.

Thistle were piling on the pressure with their left back Aaron Sinclair looking very dangerous with an array of crosses that had Accies on the backfoot, sadly for the Jags there wasn’t anyone there to meet them. Sinclair was sometime up against the Accies new cult hero Ziggy Gordon, a red-headed right back who was pretty useful himself. However, it was a bombardment on the Accies goal and I did wonder how on earth they were staying out of the net.

You could tell it might not be Partick’s night when they were reduced to 10 men sixteen minutes before the end. The ball broke from the Accies box and both Stevie May and Thistle’s Paul Paton ran towards the ball. May, thinking he was going to be second to the ball shoulder barged Paton about three yards away from the ball. The referee didn’t give a foul and Paton recklessly retaliated by lunging into the next challenge missing the ball completely. Paton couldn’t have any complaints about the sending off for the challenge but arguably shouldn’t have been in that position to make it. The decision clearly enraged Jackie McNamara whose vociferous complaints resulted in him being banished from the touchline.

Even with 10 men Thistle dominated the final stages of the match but couldn’t find a way through – giving Hamilton a vital three points. It should be said that if Thistle had played with the liveliness and energy in the first half that they did in the second they might have not found themselves a goal down.

At half-time I had tweeted that this was one of the poorest games I’d seen so far this season which was true at that point, but by full time I’d seen a turn around, the second half was great entertainment and a fantastic advert for First Division football and another indication that Friday night football might just take off in Scotland.