Ground 16: Ochilview

Game: East Stirlingshire 0 v 1 Berwick Rangers

Date: Sunday 25^th November 2012

Competition: Scottish Football League Division 3

Attendance: 327

Admission: £10

Programme: £2

Arriving at Ochilview, one thing is very clear: this is not East Stirling’s ground. Yes, they may play here, but they have a groundshare arrangement with Stenhousemuir, whilst they seek a new ground. East Stirling have been here since the 2007-08 season. East Stirling had to leave their ground, Firs Park in Falkirk and hope to return once it has been redeveloped. You can relive a season behind the scenes at East Stirlingshire in Jeff Connor’s excellent Pointless, one of the finest books about football I’ve read.

It’s a very tight ground – all the fans on this day arrived through two turnstiles and had no choice but to sit in the main stand. I very much wanted to stand and so to stave off the cold but sadly this wasn’t to be. I’ll write more about the ground when I return to watch Stenhousemuir later on in the season.

What was emerging that there was a theme for this weekend: coldness. In fact at certain points of the first half I felt that I might be forced to buy a hot drink at half time just to warm up my hands!

East Stirling took control of the match early on but the game was fairly even with Berwick still capable of creating chances. This was the first time I’d seen Berwick since the opening day of the season and my impression of them was similar – they are a decent, efficient side that doesn’t quite have enough quality to dominate games. However, they took the lead through Ross Gray scoring after East Stirling failed to clear their lines. This is a familiar trend to goals scored in games I’ve watched: a lack of composure in doing basic things leads to problems/goals.

The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of East Stirlingshire which was a shame as they had looked promising. East Stirling looked happy to reach half time still at 0-1 and as the players and officials came off the pitch, it was up to the referee to pull out the half-time draw ticket. A nice touch I thought. There were a lot of elements about the matchday ‘experience’ that was refreshing – the PA system didn’t blare out music at half-time which was actually very nice (I’ve also never understood the propensity for football clubs to play the latest pop music at a high volume – have they seen who is paying it get through the gate? I’d imagine the majority of them are not aware of One Direction’s oeuvre). The man on the tannoy was also very entertaining if in a ‘scatty’ way, I couldn’t quite hear him a lot of the time, but his chat was full of information and cheeky asides about other clubs.

I couldn’t help but reflect that it must be difficult for the fans not having a permanent home to call your own. Your ground is an essential part of a club’s makeup and to not have one must hamper the club and its support.

The second half was much the same pattern as the first, with both teams scrapping it out. My enjoyment of the game was enhanced by the gentleman behind me who whenever a Berwick player committed a foul, regardless of severity, he would shout “Dirty, dirty, dirty.” Perhaps under the influence of this incessant pressure from a Shire spectator, the referee created a rod for his own back by booking players for challenges that certainly weren’t bookings. This led to the sending off of Berwick’s Steven Notman who was dismissed for two bookable offences within minutes. In another game they might not have been yellows, but it was clear what the standard the referee had set and Notman’s lack of game intelligence cost him dearly.

But not the rest of his team as East Stirlingshire struggled to take advantage of the extra man. It seemed as if they were afraid to shoot but were creating lots of good chances down the left with Ricky Miller overlapping Jamie McKernon (on loan from St Mirren). Even in the final minute, the Shire had a great chance with the ball whipped in from the left, the goalkeeper tried to claim it only to miss it completely, and yet the Shire conspired to hit the post. It really was an unbelievable miss – definitely the sort you miss when things aren’t going your way.

It was a shame that East Stirling didn’t get more from the encounter and they had a right to feel unlucky, perhaps a bit more confidence in front of goal would see them turning defeats into draws and draws into wins?

Ground 1: Shielfield Park

Shielfield Park

Game: Berwick Rangers 2 vs. 2 Queen’s Park (AET. Queen’s Park win 3-2 on penalties)

Date: 28^th July 2012, 3pm

Competition: Ramsden’s Cup 1^st 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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.