Ground 20: East End Park

Great views at East End Park

Game: Dunfermline Athletic 0 v 1 Falkirk

Date: Wednesday 26^th December

Competition: Scottish Football League Division 1

Attendance: 5,746

Admission: £17

Programme: £3

Another trip to the Kingdom of Fife for a Boxing Day derby. Twenty miles and the Forth separate the two teams but I’m not quite sure why their duel is so intense. Seemingly it’s a rivalry that has nothing to do with football but instead as a result of a falling out at the Dunfermline ice rink in the early 70s between young lads from Dunfermline and Falkirk. It’s certainly an odd way for a footballing rivalry to start.

What is also clear is that Dunfermline Athletic are in a financial mess. They’ve not paid their players on time and had difficulties with the tax man. Part of the problem is due to the board’s own poor management. In their budget for this season they estimated an average crowd larger than two seasons previous where they won the First Division. For a recently relegated club, intent on slashing the size of its outgoings you have to question how the board felt they’d get those folk back through the door. Last season, the club whilst in the SPL took the decision to close the North Stand of the ground as a cost-cutting measure.

Perhaps part of the problem why so few people turn up to East End Park could be the prices they charge? My Dad and I balked at the £19 it would cost for us to sit in the Main Stand and so chose to sit in the west stand, named the Norrie McCathie stand. To get into the stand we first had to queue for ten minutes in the club shop to buy tickets to hand over at the turnstile. This is an unnecessary palaver, which is a hassle for fans. At a point where you are begging fans to come back to the ground and give you money, why make it more difficult for them to hand over their cash?

Safely inside the ground with good seats at the back of the McCathie Stand, I realised I’d forgotten my camera, so apologies for the pictures which were taken with my phone camera. The aforementioned North Stand was open for today’s derby and Falkirk had brought with them a sizeable away support. From our seats I didn’t have a clear vantage of the Main Stand, but the ground was over half full and this was Dunfermline’s best home crowd of the season.

The bumper crowd were treated to a good old fashioned derby match that could accurately be described as ‘lively’. We had two players sent off and Jim Jefferies, the Dunfermline manager was also sent to the stand for apparent ‘dissent.’ Jefferies never looks a happy guy at the best of times, but was livid at half time when he confronted referee Stephen Finnie as the officials came off the pitch.

There weren’t too many clear cut chances for both sides in this game with Falkirk dominated possession but rarely troubling Paul Gallacher in the Dunfermline goal. In fairness Falkirk were fielding a side with five players 18 or younger which is some achievement in a division where the pressure is on to achieve. Dunfermline had the better chances in the match and if it hadn’t been for Darren Dods marshalling the Bairns’ defence I think Dunfermline might have nicked it. However, Falkirk managed to steal the points on the cusp of full time with a well worked move (they had really struggled all game in getting their crosses beyond the first man). Blair Alston was on hand to slot the ball home from close range in front of the Falkirk fans to send them home happy. I’d question the stoppage time afforded by the referee but in a list of complaints that Dunfermline will have with Finnie’s performance, I’d imagine that timekeeping was far down the list.

Another absorbing if ‘towsie’ affair, once again reiterating my belief that Scottish football has a lot to offer in terms of entertainment. I’d love to know why Dunfermline fans aren’t turning up in significant numbers to see their side.

Ground 2: The Falkirk Stadium

The view from the Falkirk Stadium looking towards Grangemouth

Game: Falkirk 2 vs. 0 Elgin City

Date: 4^th August 2012

Competition: Scottish Communities League Cup 1^st Round

Attendance: 1,549

Admission: £12

Programme: £2

The second Saturday of the season was also the first round of Scotland’s secondary cup competition, the League Cup. It’s a competition I’ll always have affection for as it was the 1991 League Cup final at Hampden between my team Hibernian and Dunfermline Athletic that was my first ever football match. Suffice to say, much of the following twenty one years have lived up to that glorious Hibs victory.

I’ll make no bones about the fact that Elgin may be a club I’ll see a lot this season as they are my family’s second side with both my parents moving to Elgin in their teens (separately). We’d visit Elgin several times a year and my brother and I would be checking the fixture list to see if the Black and Whites were at home. Therefore when Elgin were drawn against Falkirk in the Scottish Communities League Cup 1^st Round I knew I’d be heading to the Falkirk Stadium.

As I was attending the game with my father and his friend I had to bus out to my parent’s house to get a lift to Falkirk. My immediate reaction was that I should have worn shorts as Edinburgh had been blessed with a rarity: the sun shining over a period of hours.

The sun was still shining as we took the M9 north west in the direction of Falkirk. Falkirk’s new stadium was built in 2004 and is on the outskirts of Falkirk between the town and Grangemouth. For a first time visitor I have to say the signposting was limited – at one roundabout we were directed by a sign for away fans, however, there was no follow up signs and there was an element of intuition and guesswork that delivered us to the ground.

Arriving at the impressive looking away stand we encountered my first gripe of the season: car parking was priced at £4. I’ve been to grounds where £2 was the standard fare but £4 is absolutely ridiculous, especially when I opened the door to put my foot in a puddle – not even a tarmac-ed car park at that! I understand club’s have to maximise as much money as possible but when you build a ground out-of-town and still expect fans to come (and away fans to come from further afield), £4 on top of a £12 admission isn’t going to encourage casual fans I would argue.

The whole day had an element of pre-season friendly about it: the stand which normally houses away fans was shut (clearly not expecting hordes of fans from Elgin) but it wasn’t signposted where Elgin fans should enter the ground. Further to that, there was a thin programme produced for the game which for £2 certainly didn’t represent value for money.

The North Stand: closed to away fans

Eventually we found ourselves inside the stadium with minutes before the game was due to start. Falkirk’s stadium is made up of three stands – two behind the goal and a main stand where we were seated. From our seat we could look left and enjoy a view of the Ochil hills in the distant and in front of us was the industrial town of Grangemouth, it felt strange to sit in a main stand with a massive vista in front of you, but it’s something I enjoyed.

The players tropped onto the sound of Faithless’ Insomnia which thankfully did not turn out to be an omen for the match which was an entertaining affair. Falkirk for years have placed a lot of faith and money in their youth system developing some fantastic footballers and this tradition continues under current boss Steven Pressley, found immaculately turned out in his three-piece grey club suit and brown brogues. Elegant he looked and this was a mirror image of the football played on the park – Falkirk in their away yellow strip passed neatly, quickly and attractively, with their little triangles causing havoc for Elgin. From kick-off Falkirk were the team on top, dominating their part-time opponents but not quite delivering in the final third of the pitch. Elgin, when they did had the ball suffered from a lack of composure, lumping the ball forward instead of finding a pass to feet, which was hardly surprising as the Falkirk midfield did a tremendous job of closing down the space to ensure Elgin had few options. Elgin’s keeper John Gibson kept them in the game several times in the first half. The best chance came late in the first half when Elgin’s Cameron found himself in the box but his effort was saved following a quick attack from the black and whites.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first as Falkirk’s dominance continued as Elgin started to wilt after playing their backs against the wall for so long. Falkirk countered an Elgin counter attack (if such a thing is possible) and stretched the Elgin defence to allow 18 year old left back Stephen Kingsley to slot home. The Falkirk Stadium familiar fanfare of Tony Christie’s Is This The Way to Amarillo blasted out the PA and Falkirk were firmly in charge. Elgin shuffled their pack by making a few substitutions but it failed to spark the Third Division team to life. Both Andrew Haworth and Lyle Taylor shone for Falkirk, both immensely comfortable on the ball but lacking that killer instinct (which would be the reason for playing at this level). With two minutes to go, Taylor did what he had threaten to do all game and put the ball in the back of the net with a volley to kill off any chance of a surprise Elgin comeback and secure Falkirk a place in the next round of the League Cup where they will travel to Ibrox to play Rangers.

All in all, I enjoyed my first visit to the Bairn-abeu, where there is a real emphasis on playing attractive and entertaining football. Falkirk have a great set-up and I’m looking forward to seeing how they get on this season. Pressley deserves credit for trying to get a team to win ‘the right way’ in what is a fantastically difficult division to gain promotion from. Whilst the atmosphere at the Falkirk Stadium may have been a little flat as it was a fairly routine win for the Bairns. The real test will arrive this coming Saturday when they travel to fellow promotion contenders Partick Thistle. I’m  looking forward to watching some cracking First Division matches during 42 Grounds.