3. Watch a football match at every Scottish League ground

 Watch a football match at every Scottish League ground

This was one that was suggested to me by Andy Black and started out as every top flight ground and I had interpreted it as every league ground rather than every top flight ground so I decided to see some of Scotland's 'finest' grounds and visit all league grounds in Premiership, Championship and Leagues 1 and 2. 

Match 1 - Falkirk vs Partick Thistle -  23/09/22 at the Falkirk Stadium. Scottish Challenge Cup. Score - 2-0

Thought best to start with the local team and see where we go from here. Started with a Falkirk win, so not a bad start. A good performance for once so we'll see how the standard compares around the grounds. 

Match 2 - Hamilton Accies vs Ayr United - 11th November 2022 at New Douglas Park (or Fountain of Youth Stadium or HOPE CBD Stadium or ZLX Stadium). Scottish Championship. Score 2-3. 

A lot of goals which was something at least, possibly as many goals as the stadium has had names. The Ayr fans definitely brought the noise and the drums and there wasn't a lot of singing from the home fans at all. Even when Ayr scored their third goal I reckon them singing ' you're not singing anymore' was more ironic than actually down to the noise created by Hamilton home fans. Shout out to the Hamilton Stadium announcer his banter was very good towards both home and away fans. 

Match 3 - FC Edinburgh vs Peterhead - 24th December 2022 at Meadowbank Stadium. Scottish League One. Score 4-0.

 

Another high scoring game. Seem to have lucked out so far with the goals. FC Edinburgh played some good football and definitely a game to forget for the Peterhead goalkeeper. The crowd albeit quite small made up with some friendly banter with the referee. Sadly there was no pie here so my brother wasnt best impressed. 

Match 4 - Stenhousemuir vs Stranraer - 7th January 2023 at Ochilview. Scottish League two. Score 2-1

 

Not a timeless classic but a win for Stenhousemuir despite some really questionable refereeing, particularly for the Stranraer goal. The Goalkeeper suffered a head injury and was subbed off after the goal. Needless to say the home fans were not shy in questioning his abilities as a referee. Really good atmosphere overall. Some good play however the long ball was used more than it really should have been. 

Match 5 - Greenock Morton vs Dundee - 17th February at Cappielow. Scottish Championship Score 1-0

 

A decent enough contest and Greenock deserved the win. But the real comedy of the day was the fact that I don't think they get many neutral fans down in Cappielow. After going into the 'Main Stand' as instructed by the tickets and we ended up in the away end, this was after showing our tickets to two different stewards. Luckily there was one guy wanting to take us through the staff way so we could sit in the home end of the main stand as our tickets were for there. An enjoyable game nonetheless and good atmosphere at the game where it was apparent all the fans knew each other. 

Match 6 Cove Rangers vs Dundee - 4th March 2023 at Balmoral Stadium. Scottish Championship. Score 0-2  

 

 

With people leaving after 10 mins I didn't hope for much from this game, after seeing Dundee in the last game I didn't expect much as they seemed to huff and puff and not really get anywhere. Cove were very shot shy and seemed to want to try and walk the ball into the net. Dundee got lucky with their first goal with a crazy deflection and to be honest I didn't expect them to score. But given how shot shy Cove were I thought this may be the first 0-0 of the visits but luckily that was not to be the case. Dundee definitely were the more skilful side but that said the referee seemed to be in their favour.  

Match 7: Dundee United vs Livingston - 22nd April 2023 at Tannadice. Scottish Premiership. Score 2-0

 

The first game I went to after I turned 40 and first Scottish Premiership I went to (also the only one I'd likely be at with Carrie and my folks). The game itself was pretty average with Dundee United looking like they were the only ones who would score as Livingston offered very little. Interestingly the only ground I've been shouted at for standing up when Dundee United almost scored by a United fan. Obviously he liked the team but was too lazy to stand up and cheer for them, there are possibly more reasons for his inability to stand up but I'm not going to dwell on those. 

Match 8:  Montrose vs Alloa Athletic - 29th April 2023 at Links Park Stadium. Scottish League one. Score 0-4. 

Went to this one with Charles, who was more preoccupied with the queue for the pie stand which did not seem to go down at all and only seemed to end after the full time whistle had gone which a couple of people in the queue. Needless to say he was most put out that he got no pie. In terms of the game Montrose huffed and puffed throughout but never looked like they were going to trouble Alloa. A few half chances but Alloa looked a class above despite them being hammered by Falkirk the previous week they didnt seem to even break a sweat. The crowd were largely quiet throughout as you'd expect however in the main stayed until the final whistle. 

 

Match 9: Aberdeen vs St Mirren - 24th May 2023 at Pittodrie. Scottish Premier League. Score 3-0 

 

A rare sunny evening in Aberdeen... The atmosphere was good and Aberdeen had to win to make sure they secured European football next season. An early goal and early sending off for St Mirren seemed to settle the nerves of the team although some defensive clangers from Aberdeen meant they had a lot to thank their goalkeeper for. 

Match 10: Elgin City vs Motherwell - 15th July 2023 at Borough Briggs. Scottish League Cup. 

Score 0-2

A fairly subdued affair and the home fans were hugely quiet on this one. A lot of huffing and puffing from Motherwell and not a lot of end product. If they played like this in the premier league then I'm not expecting them to get very far and possibly get relegated. at 1-0 Elgin had a chance but was cleared off the line and that was about as exciting as it got for Elgin City that day. 

Match 11: Stirling Albion vs Edinburgh City - 5th August 2023 at Forthbank. Scottish League 1. 

Score 1-0 

 

First game of the new season 2023-24 had Stirling Albion celebrating their promotion to League 1. Probably one of the most unfriendly grounds so far with some entitled fans deciding they wanted the seats we had as 'they always it there' nothing to do with the fact the tickets have seat numbers on them, I'm sure there's an inappropriate joke about reading and writing ability here but I'll refrain.  Stirling  kicked it off with a win. Not convincing by any stretch of the imagination but in fairness Edinburgh city offered very little in this game going forward. A lot of long balls and questionable refereeing but at this level that's what seems to work. 

Match 12: Arbroath vs Queens Park - 19th August 2023 at Gayfield Park Scottish Championship. 

Score 0-1   

 

A narrow win for Queen's Park, who insisted in playing it out from the back and were lucky a lot of times. Arbroath just couldn't get the ball in the net but was not through lack of trying. Overall a reasonably entertaining game and the oldest crowd I've encountered so far, with me bringing the average age down. 

Match 13: Alloa Athletic vs Falkirk - 26th September 2023 at Recreation Park. Scottish League 1. 

Score 1-4. 

 

First time in the away end on the tour of the grounds just on the account that I am a Falkirk fan. Although ironically the Falkirk fans seemed to outnumber the Alloa fans. A pretty good performance from Falkirk overall with a few careless moments, particularly with the goal for Alloa which wouldn't look out of place on a blooper video for Sunday League. Again the standard of refereeing was terrible with no consistency and a linesman who looked scared by the Alloa locals in attendance.