Ground 40: Borough Briggs

Borough Briggs: about to witness a miracle? (No)

Game: Elgin City 3 v 2 East Stirlingshire

Date: Saturday 4^th May

Competition: Scottish Football League Division 3

Attendance: 786

Admission: £10

Programme: £2

In the end, it just wasn’t enough. Due to their inconsistent form, Elgin needed a miracle to happen on the final day of the season, to allow them to reach the play-offs. They needed to beat basement side East Stirlingshire and hope that Rangers would defeat Berwick Rangers. That in itself wasn’t difficult to imagine, but the margin of victories had to total seven. Given Rangers recent form, it looked inevitable that they would grind out a win by one or two goals (which is frankly an embarrassment to a team of handsomely paid professionals in a very much part-time league). Therefore, Elgin had to go all-out from the moment the referee blew his whistle at 12.30pm.

For some reason, this was the game I was most excited about all season. I even dreamt about it twice in the build-up to the game. It’s become increasingly evident to me this season that I really enjoy watching Elgin play, even if they are as frustrating to watch as my other team (Hibs). What I enjoy most about it, I suppose, is the intimate surroundings of the grounds and the fact you are so close to the action.

First, however, a confession: this wasn’t my first visit to Borough Briggs this season. Earlier in the season when we attended Inverness-Celtic, we mooted the possibility of a single day double-header, taking in Elgin vs. Annan following the SPL encounter. However, traffic getting out of the Highland capital was a nightmare and so we arrived at Borough Briggs at 3.25pm, with no turnstiles open. Thankfully, someone was around from the club who let us in (for free), but at that point Elgin were already two goals to the good. I didn’t think a post about that game would be particularly fair.

Borough Briggs is also the site of my first experience of the disappointment of postponements in football. As both sets of my grandparents lived in Elgin, we were used to spending Christmas there, and we’d try to catch City in Highland League action, which invariably would be called off due in inclement December weather. Back in those days, Elgin were a good Highland League side and Borough Briggs contained a unique feature: a pill box from World War 2, which sadly was removed when Elgin became SFL members in 2000, alongside Peterhead. Sadly, I couldn’t find a picture of the pill box on the internet, but a photo of it proudly sits in the club’s catering stall.

Aside from the lack of pill box, little has changed at Borough Briggs in the past twenty or so years. There’s a small main stand (with seats provided by Newcastle United) with a covered terrace on the opposite side and uncovered small terracing behind each goal. Borough Briggs is also home to one of the biggest pitches in Scotland, although that might change if plans for an artificial playing surface goes ahead over the summer.

East Stirlingshire started brightly, hitting the post before a powerful deflected header from Jamie Duff in the 16^th minute put Elgin in the lead. Suddenly a seven goal swing looked possible. However, that feeling of hope were short-lived as East Stirlingshire equalised through Jamie Glasgow in a well-worked move that had stretched Elgin’s three man defence.

The home fans weren’t worrying too much as Elgin piled on the pressure and by the 39^th minute found themselves in the lead once more. This time, Stuart Leslie coolly finishing to give Elgin a small chance of promotion. But, just four minutes later, East Stirlingshire had equalised again with a comical goal – a free kick was floated in that evaded everyone before bouncing and hitting the bar, falling to Paul Quinn who poked the ball against Elgin goalkeeper Joe Malin and the ball slowly dribbled into the net. It was a defensive shocker, combined with an element of bad luck, which summed up a lot of Elgin this season.

It was beginning to dawn on most fans in the ground that a seven goal swing was just going to be out of reach as Rangers slowly proceeded to a 1-0 win over Berwick. It produced a somewhat subdued atmosphere for the second half where Elgin kept trying to push on but without much luck – they genuinely looked like they had run out of steam. One couldn’t help but imagine a scenario where they had held onto their leads for a little longer and also to think back to a number of games this season where Elgin threw away points from a leading position. Close, yet so far.

The second half wasn’t much to write home about and Ross Jack made three substitutions in an attempt to change the score. Just as it looked like the teams would share the points – a long floated ball was headed on for Ceiran McLean to rifle a magnificent half volley right into the roof of the net. It was a magnificent goal, worthy of winning any game, yet somehow, felt underwhelming.

But Elgin fans can console themselves with the fact that the new season is just around the corner.

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?