Le Tout P'ti FC

Was hoping for a game close to Loanhead where I’m imprisoned until gone 1pm today. Pitch inspections at Whitehill Welfare v Vale of Leithen (NOW OFF), and Nitten Star v Arniston (inspection at 12pm). Edinburgh v Edinburgh is already off at Paties Road. As is Peebles v Ormiston. No word on Easthouses v Dalkeith yet.

I had 45 minutes to kill and there was bugger all to do to kill time up at the cage!

Gartcairn 0 Cumnock 0 HT. My first visit to MTC Park (Metcetera Park?) in Airdrie. If the Excelsior was the highest altitude stadium in Scotland (citation needed), this place is much higher still, as I parked my car down at the Excelsior and walked uphill with my cup of coffee. Coming to the highest stadium on a December evening on the cusp of a yellow snow warning hasn’t been my smartest ever move. It is brutally cold. So far, Cumnock are on top but there have been very few decent chances for either team. If this does end up a draw, that will be my fifth consecutive drawn game in December. An improbable run.

Don’t give up! My old Dad started going to the football around 1960 and won his first ever half time draw just this season. A crisp £15 note*, which I think he is framing. I even captured the very moment he was presented with his winnings. * Not really. It was a crumpled tenner and fiver combo.

Rutherglen Glencairn 0 Kilwinning Rangers 0. HT. I believe teams had to ask for a fixture to be allocated today, so a big “thank you” to these two clubs and the volunteers here who made this game happen. To someone who is at best “ambivalent” to Christmas, it means a lot to get out of the house for a bit of normality before the madness begins. It has been a fiercely contested game so far, both teams playing some decent football, despite the incessant gale.

Not there tonight. Game up to much?

0-2 now.

Danny McGrain also in portrait gallery. Haven’t seen this one before. It’s a bit “busy” for my tastes, but it’s good to see footballers of my youth have been immortalised in our national art collection! Makes me feel terribly old. Looking forward to seeing Joe Tortolano or Brian Irvine next time I visit here.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery: Hampden Park football ground, two men seated. Photo undated but print is from 1970s. Malcolm Hill (1938-2002).

It’s Merksworth Park for Dalry Thistle v Lesmahagow. West of Scotland Third Division. Had a grand day out. Away early to Irvine Beach for a wee stroll in the Force 10 gale, nice bit of lunch and then a game of football. Two closely matched teams. Some decent football being played. 2-1 to Dalry at HT. Finished 4-4. Dalry went 3-1 up, then 3-4 down, and finally equalised in the last couple of minutes with a “squiggler”, or like one of those shots you used to hit with a flyaway. Thoroughly entertaining game.

A seagull painted me with poo last time I was in Golspie. Whole bag of chips from the Trawler in the bin. I’m not bitter.

This is since I let Google start tracking my location about five years ago. They were doing it anyway, and I liked their wee graphic. Working on colouring in the gaps! Haven’t been on Skye in 15 years now. Next year I’ve got a wee trip to Skye and Raasay planned. Have been to Shetland only once, for a work trip and all I saw was the taxi ride from airport to Lerwick. The big gap is Barra up to Berneray. Been over only once on a day trip from Harris, and didn’t make it to Eriskay or Barra. Absolutely desperate to get to Barra. Had a trip cancelled due to lockdown. One day it will happen. Going to Dalry tomorrow. That’s new!

I didn’t meet the Germans. Think they saw a good game at least! Enjoyed the Cumnock manager shouting “hit a Carlos!” just before the Cumnock free kick was leathered in. The disallowed goal looked miles offside from my position down behind the other goal (maybe a “slight” bias towards Cumnock here, ha!). Here is a clip of it anyway, lifted from the West Premier League thread:

Biggar - sauce. Lanark - vinegar. There’s no chippies in between them. The border is Hyndford Bridge.

Pollok 1 Cumnock 2 HT. First visit to Newlandsfield under lights and I must say it is perfection. A magnificent place to watch football.

Hibs unveil new signing.

The weather was appalling locally, with a particularly nasty storm right about the perfect time for most of the local crowd setting off. That will have put plenty of people off at exactly the wrong time. I was pretty sure the game would be in doubt as I parked up. But since I’d driven over, I pressed on. Also Nitten Star v Whitburn and Dalkeith v Bo’ness Athletic - two top of the table games - might have shaved a handful off the gate at Bonnyrigg. Plus obvious factors around Christmas activities, expensive time of year, perhaps a few hangovers from Xmas parties and so on. But the rain did in fact ease off eventually, and it was relatively mild compared to the last few weeks, I’ve stood in much worse. To bookend the day of miserable weather, the drive home to Peeblesshire was a horror show in very thick fog. Crowd will be massively up for the next home game against Spartans, including myself, that is if I’m still allowed in after my other contributions here today!

Brendan, everyone has always had a right of reply, you are more than entitled to put your point of view across. So we share a dislike of excessive bad language at the football, in areas of the ground heavily populated by kids. My gripe today was that two well kent faces with red & white colours on kept their barrage of abusive behaviour up relentlessly, as they seemingly do every single week. To the point my child asked for us to move away from them. As I have observed others moving away from them in the past. But they’ll be back next time spouting their noxious drivel and keeping our ears well exercised. As you’ll gather, I could only have observed one side of your exchange with the visitors, and what I observed was you telling them to get back to their own end of the ground, which didn’t seem a particularly friendly way to treat a small number of people who’ve presumably travelled a long distance to stand in the pishing rain watching their team. I had assumed you were taking issue with them swapping ends. I couldn’t have heard what prompted it. But whatever their shouts were, they were inaudible from a short distance away. Equally I couldn’t have heard what was later shouted at the goalkeeper and, based on your comments, you have very rightly called it out and I am sure have the full support of everyone who was there to do so. I don’t think our points of view are so very far opposed here, but if you want to dismiss me as “shite like this”, I’m big enough to take it on the chin, and indeed must apologise if my comments have soured things for you. Have a good evening.

Expletive expletive expletive referee! Never a free kick. Oh look it’s Higgsy about to hit it. He used to play with me at Hibs before I went to Berwick. He was crap. HAHAHA he missed. I can’t wait to noise him up tonight. He missed a free kick. What a expletive expletive expletive. [Goes silent for a blissful moment to check phone.] Silence broken by shouted at volume you would only use if you were stood beside a runway: oh my god Colchester 2 Scunthorpe 1. Chelsea are getting beat by Northampton. I can’t believe this, I can’t believe this. Oh god, now Norwich have equalised against Ilfracombe. [Meanwhile Bonnyrigg have scored. They missed it.] Check their phones to find out who scored. Then: I told you Kerr Young would score today. I told you! Then starts shouting at the steward. Is this your first game? You’re my lucky mascot! They go on like this at full volume for entire weeks of your life during the first half alone. That’s the second time I’ve been near them this season, I am cursed.

It’s a lovely wee room. You enter at the bottom of the lane on the opposite side of the road from the big room entrance. The room itself is under the railway arches. Tiny wee room but I really enjoyed the nights I’ve been in there.

That will probably prove to be a good point for Bonnyrigg today in bogging weather against a team who started today in 2nd place. Bonnyrigg started off strongly, and were deserving of the lead taken from yet another Lee Currie dead ball. But eventually Peterhead took control of the game and equalised from a cracking free kick. Bonnyrigg hit the post late on, and then Peterhead were robbed of a certain penalty at the death by a hilariously bad refereeing decision. The Peterhead striker was fouled by just the two Bonnyrigg defenders simultaneously, one of whom had started his lunge from the Justinlees. Couple of niggly things about the crowd today: There are two incredibly annoying guys who turn up at a very occasional Bonnyrigg game and massively irritate everybody within earshot. Just a constant stream of high pitched drunken ranting, shouted swearing incessantly, shouting out random score updates as their coupons inevitably go under, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. The louder of the two always makes it known he used to play for Berwick, and he always has some “mate” out on the pitch whom he shouts at in his attention seeking way. You can invariably locate them by the sight of a widening circle around them. Well, today, they ended up right beside me for the first half, which was genuinely worse than a tooth extraction. The Ultras and the visitors swapped ends at HT in the old fashioned way. Was then a bit surprised to see a Bonnyrigg official having words with the 10-15 Peterhead fans who had assembled down at the Calderwood end for the second half. I’d been stood 15 feet away from them and they hadn’t bothered a soul until then. He was telling them they shouldn’t be there, which seemed overly officious to me. (Crowd was quite low today and the end they were occupying had about five other people who, like myself, presumably had no issue whatsoever with them being there.) I did then see some heated words were exchanged between the Bonnyrigg goalie and the visiting fans at FT. Not sure what prompted it as I’d moved away at the whistle. I would have had a perfect vantage of it one minute earlier. Anyway, not a bad game under the circumstances of a sodden pitch, and makes the next home game vs Spartans look very important indeed now in terms of keeping in touch with the final play off spot.

Riverside Road, Thurso. Painted onto the wall of a Scottish Water plant. Also another “Banksy” on the back wall of the Toll Gallery in Thurso (the back wall which faces into Thurso FC’s ground). Nobody knows if it was the real Banksy or not. I thought it was fantastic regardless.

Currently in Dundee to watch Arab Strap. First venue I’ve been to with the ampersand since the good old days of Sunday night karaoke at the Coach & Horses back in 19… It certainly is different. The tone of the evening was set earlier when the dog was ordering pints at the bar. Next gig: Arab Strap in Gala. Sort of home game. So I’ll be there.

Coming to the end of a long weekend dotting about. Managed to fit Inverness, Thurso, Ullapool, Cromarty and Oban into the weekend. Hopefully still with time enough to get over to Easedale tomorrow. Roads have been empty everywhere all weekend, as was the train to Thurso. Was delighted to see an otter in Ullapool, and a ridiculous number of deer as well. Perfect time of year to get up here. It fairly empties out and I haven’t seen a single camper van.

Plan A: Forres P Brechin P. Plan B: Nairn P Huntly P. Plan C Clach P Locos P. At this point I admitted defeat, and went to the rugby instead. My local(ish) team Biggar are visiting Highland so I thought I would come and lend them some support. Twenty five minutes in and I’m already deeply bored and hatching an escape plan. Rugby is just not my game. I’ve tried to get on with it occasionally, but it’s just unlikeable for my tastes. Anyway, tremendous facility here at Canal Park, and good to see the referee has honoured the forfeit he must have signed up to by wearing that kit. Maybe he’s fundraising? Or packed his kit bag in a hurry last night during a power cut? Ps. I do realise Caley are playing Raith a few miles away. Just didn’t fancy it. Too high up the leagues for me, I’d get a nosebleed. Also I can get a pint here and don’t have to sit in a crappy plastic seat in these temperatures.