Ground 39: Glebe Park

Glebe Park with Brechin Cathedral in the distance

Game: Brechin City 2 v 0 Albion Rovers

Date: Tuesday 30^th April

Competition: Scottish Football League Division 2

Attendance: 402

Admission: £12

Programme: Not available

Apologies for the lack of updates on here – I’ve completed the 42, just not had the time to write up the posts!

I headed up the road quite early with my Dad knowing that we would have to negotiate at least one, if not two sets of rush hour traffic in Edinburgh and Dundee. Luckily, we arrived in the Angus town of Brechin with plenty of time. Too much time in fact, as when we arrived at Glebe Park at 7pm the ground wasn’t even open!

Eventually the turnstiles were open and it gave us an opportunity to walk round one of Scotland’s more interesting grounds. The largest stand in the ground is behind the goal, there’s a small, covered terrace behind the other goal and a small wooden main stand with around 200 seats. Opposite the main stand and running down half the side of the pitch is the famous Glebe Park hedge. The video embedded above does much more credit to Glebe Park than my words ever could.

What we also discovered is that Brechin City no longer offer programmes for punters to buy. This was a bit of a disappointment, but we overheard a conversation in the compact club shop that they weren’t economical for the club, which is a disappointment. However, it’s clear that for most SFL clubs, the matchday programme is a labour of love for a small band of dedicated contributors. Perhaps with the move to an increasingly digital world that programmes may be another victim of ‘progress.’

Taking our seats in the row behind the small directors box at the Glebe it became increasingly clear that Glebe Park was another Scottish ground with a pronounced slope and bobbly surface. I can’t be alone in thinking that an uneven surface is not conducive to even, passing football. Another appeal of the artificial surfaces that will soon dominate the lower leagues.

Unsurprisingly, the opening stages saw a lot of mishits in a game that secured a playoff berth for Brechin. Albion Rovers were already relegated, with their focus now turned to preparing for SFL 3 next season.

I was once again impressed by Albion Rovers’ right winger, David Crawford, a player who I imagine will not remain at the club next season. From what I’ve seen from him this season he should be challenging for a place in an SFL1 side.

Brechin took an early lead in the 19^th minute when Gary Fusco rocketed a shot from outside the box which was parried away but in the direction of City’s Derek Carcary who stroked the ball home from 12 yards.

Rovers keeper Graeme Shepherd kept his side in the game shortly after, saving well from a Gerald McLauchlan header. Rovers then had the ball in the net but left back Andrews had clearly pushed the ball goalwards with his hand.

Andrews then contrived to lose the ball in possession allowing Andy Jackson a clear run at goal from the half way line but he managed to push his shot wide.

At times, Albion Rovers look competitive enough to do well in SFL2 but they lacked a certain something, they seemed too ponderous in possession and lacked anticipation for breaking balls. Rovers had the ball in the net for the second time and again it was ruled out. This time it was for offside, but it was a well-worked move that gave some indication of Rovers’ potential.

Before I’d arrived at Brechin, I’d be recommended on twitter to try the soup at the pie shop. It was  a great call, a lovely chicken soup which has got to be an essential for any visitor to the Glebe. Soup at football seems like a rarity, which was followed by another strange event – the playing of a Right Said Fred (You’re My Mate) song on the tannoy. Who knew the brothers had another hit in their back catalogue?

Returning to matters on the pitch, the game was littered by a number of poor decisions from the referee. Nothing too disastrous, but a series of nitpicking decisions ensured that the game didn’t flow as well as it should. I’ve rarely been critical of refs this season, but this was an unnecessarily picky performance.

The second half matched the pattern of the first, with Rovers once more putting the ball in the net for it to be ruled out. We also had a moment of light relief when the ball ended up on the top of the hedge and a groundsman was duly dispatched to retrieve the ball with his ladder. Sadly, both attempts to line up the ladder to the ball were wide of the mark – a fact that was obvious to us on the other side of the park, but not the groundsman.

Carcary killed off the game in the 69^th minute, after a series of loose passing from both sides opened the middle of the park up for Carcary to drive a shot from 20 yards out into the bottom corner of the net, sending the home fans away to dream of play-off possibilities and Rovers’ fans with a lot to contemplate on their drive home to Coatbridge.

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.