Ground 30: Firhill

Firhill for Thrills

Game: Partick Thistle 3 v 0 Dumbarton

Date: Saturday 9^th March

Competition: Scottish Football League Division 1

Attendance: 2,715

Admission: £17

Programme: £2.50

Highlights of Saturday’s game are available on the Partick Thistle website here. Also well worth a look is their video to promote attending games at Firhill. It captures what being a football fan means beautifully.

In the previous weeks I’d contemplated the fact that we were getting closer to the end of the season and as such, I would soon be able to attend games without twelve layers of clothing. Both Forfar and Kilmarnock were pretty mild, but this thought didn’t last for long. When I think of my visit to Firhill, I’ll remember how cold I was! There’s no chance that the thick coat, gloves and hats will be retried just yet. There was a clear chill in the air as 2^nd placed Partick Thistle hosted Dumbarton, currently residing in 9^th position in SFL 1.

The visit to Firhill also saw another form of transport on this 42 Grounds adventure – after getting off my train from Edinburgh, I took the Glasgow’s subway, the Clockwork Orange, to St George’s Cross and then a short walk up Maryhill Road to Firhill, home of Partick Thistle since 1909.

I’ve been to Firhill several times before, when Glasgow Warriors played rugby at the ground, but this was my first visit to see the Maryhill Magyars. This was my second time seeing Thistle this season, having seen them in action at New Douglas Park where Graeme Smith punched the ball into his net for the game’s only goal. This, however, was my first sighting of Dumbarton. The Sons had a horrid start to the season, but since the appointment of Ian Murray the club have undergone resurgence and are aiming to stay in the division, which looked unthinkable when the 31 year old was appointed in November. Thistle have also seen a managerial change – with Jackie McNamara departing to Dundee United, Alan Archibald has taking over the reins on a temporary basis. With results like today, there’s a good chance he’ll secure the job on a permanent basis.

The game started with a bang. Both sides went out with the clear intent of attacking from the kick-off. Partick looked the more threatening and early on, right back Stephen O’Donnell seemed to find himself in plenty of space a lot in the early stages. His cross was nodded back and Steven Lawless was there to fire Thistle into a 1-0 lead after nine minutes.

Despite going a goal down, Dumbarton didn’t let their heads drop and proceeded to try and attack whenever possible, their forward line being led by the evergreen Robbie Winters, who at 39 is almost a decade older than his manager. Winters is also looking slimmer than at any other point in his career, which is some achievement! Dumbarton’s play was positive and unexpected from a part-time team in their league position. It was great to see two sides trying to pass the ball as quickly and as often as possible. They were thwarted a little by an inconsistent refereeing performance, although I should point out that the Thistle fans were strongly partisan and perhaps not the best judge of each decision.

Patience is a virtue, but it must be said that many Scottish football fans do not possess this attribute. Patience build-up play is not particularly appreciated, which is a shame for sides who want to keep possession and slowly build moves. Too often this season I’ve heard cries from the sidelines to “get it forward” “just shoot” or something similar and it was the same at Firhill. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt: that Thistle are involved in a promotion race and every single goal counts.

University flats overlook the action

Firhill was certainly a family-friendly place to visit – there were lots of families, young children and youth teams in attendance, which is really heartening to see. This feeling was furthered at half-time when Chris Erskine came out to do the prize draw and then spent the next ten minutes posing for pictures and signing autographs for youngsters at the bottom of the stand. I think football clubs underestimate just how big a deal meeting players is to kids. At every level, clubs have heroes that can and should be utilised to make casual fans into hardcore supporters.

The second half saw Thistle get nervy, and a minority of the fans started to get on their back, despite the fact they were still winning! I was glad this wasn’t just a phenomenon that was unique to Hibs fans.

The South Stand, ripe for development

The game was put out of doubt in the 74^th minute when Steven Lawless grabbed his second of the day with a beautiful strike from the edge of the box that rattled off the bar. It was the piece of quality that Partick Thistle had and Dumbarton were without.

Partick then compounded Dumbarton’s misery with a third and final goal when the Jags broke down the left and Christie Elliot drove the ball across for Kris Doolan to bundle it. It was a goal that was probably reflective of the gap in quality between the teams.

As the crowd filed out of Firhill, we were greeted to news that Glasgow’s bigger sides – Celtic and Rangers had both lost to Ross County and Annan Athletic respectively. Glasgow’s new footballing force? Perhaps. I think there’s a good chance we’ll see Partick returned to Scotland’s top flight by the summer.

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.