Rex
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Post by Rex on Jan 15, 2019 19:56:03 GMT
Rovers cup exit and Pompey's continuing run have given me the chance to finish the 92! I am off to Brighton v West Brom on that weekend, so after god know how many years of trying, I will finally be able to say that I've done the lot  |
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Jan 15, 2019 22:08:57 GMT
Sorry irish I was unaware of Glastonbury CC going under I know a bit about the village cricket scene through playing a long time ago and the Taunton Saturday and Sunday leagues in football through playing. I saw Glastonbury play Taunton several times and they had a great centre forward called Taylor who scored loads of goals but since the 70s it’s been a gradual decline which is sad. Looks like Street have overtaken them. Regarding cricket, Somerset have always let their players play club cricket and I know Taunton Deane, Taunton and Weston have called on many of the players last season. I wasn’t aware that Glastonbury had such a heritage for cricket though. My cricket esxperience was as I said village cricket mainly in west and south Somerset. But thanks for the information, very interesting. No worries - sorry didn't mean to imply it was people like you who should have more interest in it. I know from our cricket chats that you were never that involved in the club cricket scence - what I'm amazed by is how many people who I know who are heavily involved in club cricket in the area who have no real curiosity about it. It's not in anyone's interest for clubs that size to suddenly vanish - the whole game is hurt by it. But if you do hear anything please let me know - I'm genuinely confused and interested in what happened (and, yes, also a bit bloody nosey too!). It's true that Somerset have always had stronger links into club cricket than Gloucestershire (a big historic weakness of Glos) with players going in both directions. The football angle is interesting - for all its profile Glastonbury is still a pretty small place after all. Seems odd they ever had a football team that could compete with the likes of Taunton. |
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Jan 15, 2019 22:13:26 GMT
Rovers cup exit and Pompey's continuing run have given me the chance to finish the 92! I am off to Brighton v West Brom on that weekend, so after god know how many years of trying, I will finally be able to say that I've done the lot I did the Withdean. Without doubt the worst ground of any kind of I've been to on a value for money basis - it was £22 11 years ago and someone had forgotten to pack the hammer net away so a 3rd of the pitch was blocked! So does that count towards the 92 or not now they've moved? I feel like it should do, especially given the authentically terrible experience. Yet I can't help thinking that isn't the 'pure' approach (not that I'm personally bothered about the 92 particularly anyway).
Somehow I can imagine that debate sparking hours of internet gnashing of teeth, rival tribes and maybe even different forums of 'purists' and 'softies'.....
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Jan 15, 2019 22:26:40 GMT
Chewie - do you think non-league football is damaged by this massive player turnover in other ways? I wonder if it has some effect on attendances. Just from going to watch FC United so regularly the turnover of players in a season is ridiculous. I go largely for the excellent craic there and because my mates go so I don't really care that much but I think I'd find it hard to truly emotionally invest in most clubs where players never seem to be there longer than 6 months except in exceptional circumstances and there seemed no real connection between player and club. Or am I reading too much into that?
I have to say I've had a look and can't find any stats to back this up, but I certainly think the last decade attendances have shot up. This is down to a number of things, disillusion with the professional game, price, locality and the rise of groundhopping.
- Disillusion. Be this setting up a whole new club in the style of FCUM or local clubs picking up 5-10 more supporters because people have got pissed off with the way top level football has become. People are fed up with propping up clubs that don't and won't listen to their supporters. That said, they don't want to lose their Saturday football.
-Price. Similar to disillusion price is a big factor. A game of football is not like going to the cinema, prior to going to the cinema you can read reviews and get an understanding of the quality of the film. This simply isn't the case with football. You could spend £10,000 on World Cup Final tickets and it be an incredibly bland game, then go watch your local non-league team for a fiver and see a bonkers 5-5 draw. You pay for the standard of player, not the standard of game. With no cap currently on away prices in the Championship, supporters are being squeezed most in the second tier.
-Locality. If a team is on your doorstep, you're more likely to pop out for a couple of hours on a Saturday to watch them, have a few pints and make an afternoon of it. It's quite a simple outlook, but clubs with a big captive audience and the right approach to their local community have seen marked rises in attendances. Reduced ticket prices can always be made up in the bar.
-Groundhopping. When I first started about a decade ago, it was a bit of an oddity. Now thousands are travelling up and down the country trying to get ticks. Advances like the Groundhopper App, Non-League Matters and even locally Bristol Soccerworld have made it easier to get the information that a decade ago was hard to come across.
I think hardcore support of non-league clubs hasn't really changed apart from a couple of exceptions (The likes of Dulwich, West Chorlton & Didsbury etc) but clubs have picked up more fair-weather supporters. For them I don't think the turnover of players really matters because it's not their club.
I think that summary chimes with what I've seen. I certainly don't go to as many as you do but I've always gone to a reasonable number of non-league games a year and my unscientific observation would be that there has been a modest increase in attendance recently and I wouldn't disagree with any of those factors.
Football is a deeply conservative game in many ways - probably because it's always had a substantial audience and pool of players so hasn't been forced to innovate like many other sports. But I do wonder if non-league administrators are missing a few tricks because I think there is a decent demand out there for 'real' affordable football. It would be interesting if anything could be done to make it even more appealing;
-Finding a way to encourage player retention would be interesting. Hard to do in the modern football world but could experiment with harder salary caps etc. -Different days for different leagues. Maybe this one is just me but, personally, if the the North West Counties League shifted its match day to a Sunday I'd probably watch a lot more local football at that level because I could go and watch Rovers or FC on the Saturday and then go and watch another game on the Sunday if I fancied it (and I would quite often I think). I get that it clashes with Sunday Premiership games etc and so might not work but I'd like to see a league at that level of the pyramid give it a crack, publicise it a bit and see if they got any kind of attendance boost. -The really radical step would be for the likes of FC, Dulwich etc step outside the system and organise their own league on their own terms. The more idealistic FC people bring this up sometimes. I think it's a non-starter because 'dreaming the impossible dream' is so baked into our game that I don't think there'd be any interest. But it's an interesting notion.
Do you have any ideas on this? And I'm not implying that the current situation is bad at all - just that I think there is potential for it to be even better with a bit of imaginative thinking that tends to be lacking. Having said that the Non League day thing the Western League with staggered kick offs is brilliant - I wish that was done round where I live. |
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Rex
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Post by Rex on Jan 16, 2019 7:02:24 GMT
Rovers cup exit and Pompey's continuing run have given me the chance to finish the 92! I am off to Brighton v West Brom on that weekend, so after god know how many years of trying, I will finally be able to say that I've done the lot I did the Withdean. Without doubt the worst ground of any kind of I've been to on a value for money basis - it was £22 11 years ago and someone had forgotten to pack the hammer net away so a 3rd of the pitch was blocked! So does that count towards the 92 or not now they've moved? I feel like it should do, especially given the authentically terrible experience. Yet I can't help thinking that isn't the 'pure' approach (not that I'm personally bothered about the 92 particularly anyway).
Somehow I can imagine that debate sparking hours of internet gnashing of teeth, rival tribes and maybe even different forums of 'purists' and 'softies'.....
I did the Withdean the one time we played there, I think we won and possibly Zamora scored for us? Generally speaking, doing the 92 is considered to be watching a match at every current league ground, so next season I will be back down to 91 when Brentford move. If you count any ground a team has played at , I did the 92 some time back (i.e. seeing every league club play a home match. |
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warehamgas
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Post by warehamgas on Jan 16, 2019 7:46:49 GMT
Sorry irish I was unaware of Glastonbury CC going under I know a bit about the village cricket scene through playing a long time ago and the Taunton Saturday and Sunday leagues in football through playing. I saw Glastonbury play Taunton several times and they had a great centre forward called Taylor who scored loads of goals but since the 70s it’s been a gradual decline which is sad. Looks like Street have overtaken them. Regarding cricket, Somerset have always let their players play club cricket and I know Taunton Deane, Taunton and Weston have called on many of the players last season. I wasn’t aware that Glastonbury had such a heritage for cricket though. My cricket esxperience was as I said village cricket mainly in west and south Somerset. But thanks for the information, very interesting. No worries - sorry didn't mean to imply it was people like you who should have more interest in it. I know from our cricket chats that you were never that involved in the club cricket scence - what I'm amazed by is how many people who I know who are heavily involved in club cricket in the area who have no real curiosity about it. It's not in anyone's interest for clubs that size to suddenly vanish - the whole game is hurt by it. But if you do hear anything please let me know - I'm genuinely confused and interested in what happened (and, yes, also a bit bloody nosey too!). It's true that Somerset have always had stronger links into club cricket than Gloucestershire (a big historic weakness of Glos) with players going in both directions. The football angle is interesting - for all its profile Glastonbury is still a pretty small place after all. Seems odd they ever had a football team that could compete with the likes of Taunton. No worries, I didn’t take it that way. I will ask in April when the season starts, a lot of the people I sit with may know being Taunton and cricket people. Yes Glastonbury is small and Taunton is much larger but until the last few years I would say that Taunton FC have underachieved. For the size of the place to only have just over 250 watching was poor, it has increased over the past few years. I guess my point would be that Taunton is very much a “cricket” town even in the winter. So smaller towns such as Glastonbury and Midsomer Norton would be able to compete at football. Not so now. But I will ask around in April. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2019 10:46:13 GMT
I did the Withdean. Without doubt the worst ground of any kind of I've been to on a value for money basis - it was £22 11 years ago and someone had forgotten to pack the hammer net away so a 3rd of the pitch was blocked! So does that count towards the 92 or not now they've moved? I feel like it should do, especially given the authentically terrible experience. Yet I can't help thinking that isn't the 'pure' approach (not that I'm personally bothered about the 92 particularly anyway).
Somehow I can imagine that debate sparking hours of internet gnashing of teeth, rival tribes and maybe even different forums of 'purists' and 'softies'.....
I did the Withdean the one time we played there, I think we won and possibly Zamora scored for us? Generally speaking, doing the 92 is considered to be watching a match at every current league ground, so next season I will be back down to 91 when Brentford move. If you count any ground a team has played at , I did the 92 some time back (i.e. seeing every league club play a home match. Spurs will take you down to 90, they're having a postcode change so it's a completely new ground! |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2019 10:52:25 GMT
I have to say I've had a look and can't find any stats to back this up, but I certainly think the last decade attendances have shot up. This is down to a number of things, disillusion with the professional game, price, locality and the rise of groundhopping.
- Disillusion. Be this setting up a whole new club in the style of FCUM or local clubs picking up 5-10 more supporters because people have got pissed off with the way top level football has become. People are fed up with propping up clubs that don't and won't listen to their supporters. That said, they don't want to lose their Saturday football.
-Price. Similar to disillusion price is a big factor. A game of football is not like going to the cinema, prior to going to the cinema you can read reviews and get an understanding of the quality of the film. This simply isn't the case with football. You could spend £10,000 on World Cup Final tickets and it be an incredibly bland game, then go watch your local non-league team for a fiver and see a bonkers 5-5 draw. You pay for the standard of player, not the standard of game. With no cap currently on away prices in the Championship, supporters are being squeezed most in the second tier.
-Locality. If a team is on your doorstep, you're more likely to pop out for a couple of hours on a Saturday to watch them, have a few pints and make an afternoon of it. It's quite a simple outlook, but clubs with a big captive audience and the right approach to their local community have seen marked rises in attendances. Reduced ticket prices can always be made up in the bar.
-Groundhopping. When I first started about a decade ago, it was a bit of an oddity. Now thousands are travelling up and down the country trying to get ticks. Advances like the Groundhopper App, Non-League Matters and even locally Bristol Soccerworld have made it easier to get the information that a decade ago was hard to come across.
I think hardcore support of non-league clubs hasn't really changed apart from a couple of exceptions (The likes of Dulwich, West Chorlton & Didsbury etc) but clubs have picked up more fair-weather supporters. For them I don't think the turnover of players really matters because it's not their club.
I think that summary chimes with what I've seen. I certainly don't go to as many as you do but I've always gone to a reasonable number of non-league games a year and my unscientific observation would be that there has been a modest increase in attendance recently and I wouldn't disagree with any of those factors.
Football is a deeply conservative game in many ways - probably because it's always had a substantial audience and pool of players so hasn't been forced to innovate like many other sports. But I do wonder if non-league administrators are missing a few tricks because I think there is a decent demand out there for 'real' affordable football. It would be interesting if anything could be done to make it even more appealing;
-Finding a way to encourage player retention would be interesting. Hard to do in the modern football world but could experiment with harder salary caps etc. -Different days for different leagues. Maybe this one is just me but, personally, if the the North West Counties League shifted its match day to a Sunday I'd probably watch a lot more local football at that level because I could go and watch Rovers or FC on the Saturday and then go and watch another game on the Sunday if I fancied it (and I would quite often I think). I get that it clashes with Sunday Premiership games etc and so might not work but I'd like to see a league at that level of the pyramid give it a crack, publicise it a bit and see if they got any kind of attendance boost. -The really radical step would be for the likes of FC, Dulwich etc step outside the system and organise their own league on their own terms. The more idealistic FC people bring this up sometimes. I think it's a non-starter because 'dreaming the impossible dream' is so baked into our game that I don't think there'd be any interest. But it's an interesting notion.
Do you have any ideas on this? And I'm not implying that the current situation is bad at all - just that I think there is potential for it to be even better with a bit of imaginative thinking that tends to be lacking. Having said that the Non League day thing the Western League with staggered kick offs is brilliant - I wish that was done round where I live. For me staggered kickoffs would be a massive improvement, most leagues should encourage one or two Friday night games for every club a season. I also think clubs should work together to try and increase attendances. For instance, on the rare occasion Yate and Chipping Sodbury are home on the same weekend why not one kickoff at Midday and one at three? People will travel for miles because it's an easy double. Not convinced by Sunday football, the players want to go out and get pissed on a Saturday night, you're more likely to lose players.
As for player retention, there's not a lot you can do. In fact the differences in wages can be so stark in NL that sometimes moves are completely inevitable. The only thing you could do is bring in transfer windows, however with no contracts that's an absurdity. Also it doesn't allow players who aren't getting paid for whatever reason to move elsewhere.
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Jan 16, 2019 13:22:22 GMT
I think that summary chimes with what I've seen. I certainly don't go to as many as you do but I've always gone to a reasonable number of non-league games a year and my unscientific observation would be that there has been a modest increase in attendance recently and I wouldn't disagree with any of those factors.
Football is a deeply conservative game in many ways - probably because it's always had a substantial audience and pool of players so hasn't been forced to innovate like many other sports. But I do wonder if non-league administrators are missing a few tricks because I think there is a decent demand out there for 'real' affordable football. It would be interesting if anything could be done to make it even more appealing;
-Finding a way to encourage player retention would be interesting. Hard to do in the modern football world but could experiment with harder salary caps etc. -Different days for different leagues. Maybe this one is just me but, personally, if the the North West Counties League shifted its match day to a Sunday I'd probably watch a lot more local football at that level because I could go and watch Rovers or FC on the Saturday and then go and watch another game on the Sunday if I fancied it (and I would quite often I think). I get that it clashes with Sunday Premiership games etc and so might not work but I'd like to see a league at that level of the pyramid give it a crack, publicise it a bit and see if they got any kind of attendance boost. -The really radical step would be for the likes of FC, Dulwich etc step outside the system and organise their own league on their own terms. The more idealistic FC people bring this up sometimes. I think it's a non-starter because 'dreaming the impossible dream' is so baked into our game that I don't think there'd be any interest. But it's an interesting notion.
Do you have any ideas on this? And I'm not implying that the current situation is bad at all - just that I think there is potential for it to be even better with a bit of imaginative thinking that tends to be lacking. Having said that the Non League day thing the Western League with staggered kick offs is brilliant - I wish that was done round where I live. For me staggered kickoffs would be a massive improvement, most leagues should encourage one or two Friday night games for every club a season. I also think clubs should work together to try and increase attendances. For instance, on the rare occasion Yate and Chipping Sodbury are home on the same weekend why not one kickoff at Midday and one at three? People will travel for miles because it's an easy double. Not convinced by Sunday football, the players want to go out and get pissed on a Saturday night, you're more likely to lose players.
As for player retention, there's not a lot you can do. In fact the differences in wages can be so stark in NL that sometimes moves are completely inevitable. The only thing you could do is bring in transfer windows, however with no contracts that's an absurdity. Also it doesn't allow players who aren't getting paid for whatever reason to move elsewhere.
Oh I get that and I can't see how it could really be changed without a radical overhaul of the whole thing from top to bottom. What strikes me is that there doesn't seem to be a steady upward tick in wages as you go through - it's more like a series of equilibriums with sharp drops or increases between them which mirrors what is increasingly happening in the high levels of the game. FC United are a good example of this. When they played in the Northern League they were a big fish offering more money than most because of the attendances they were getting and I assume were probably quite unpopular because they could swoop on pretty much anyone else's best players. Now they're in the Conference they are getting a taste of their own medicine because the professional clubs in that league can come straight in and cherry pick their best players more or less immediately and there's pretty much nothing they can do about it - and you can't hold it against the players either because obviously if they have a chance to become a professional they should take it.
Classic example was last season where we had a great Christmas double header with Salford. Beat them at our place on Boxing Day and then at their ground on New Years Day we came from 2 down to get a point in the last minute. The monday after that game Salford came in and picked up 3 of our best players - one of whom (a right back who did look like he was destined for better things to be fair) had come through the FC youth ranks and had played the grand total of 4 games - 2 of them against Salford! I get that it's just the reality of it but I think there was understandable bitterness that they couldn't even hold onto to such a raw player who'd only just come through. It kind of messes with the idea that fans like of bringing on players through the club. Many now want to scrap the FC youth sides completely because they can't see the point of pouring their own money (fan owned remember!) into a system if there's no chance of the better (or even the fairly average) youth products becoming first team regulars. |
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Rex
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Post by Rex on Jan 16, 2019 19:08:33 GMT
I did the Withdean the one time we played there, I think we won and possibly Zamora scored for us? Generally speaking, doing the 92 is considered to be watching a match at every current league ground, so next season I will be back down to 91 when Brentford move. If you count any ground a team has played at , I did the 92 some time back (i.e. seeing every league club play a home match. Spurs will take you down to 90, they're having a postcode change so it's a completely new ground! Yeah, I wasn't sure about Spurs, and part of the reason I am doing Brighton ASAP is to do it before Spurs move so I can say to myself I have definitely done the 92! And yes I have seen Spurs play a league game at Wembley |
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Rex
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Post by Rex on Jan 16, 2019 19:22:42 GMT
Re the local football thing, there are a lot of clubs that can come from nowhere but easily disappear again and several have. I used to be involved with AEK Boco, who were a parks side. The youth section got huge and on the back of that a new clubhouse was built and they got into the County League, which they won, but were knocked back on promotion after a floodlight application was turned down. However, because it was very much a community club where a lot of people knew each other and players had come up through the juniors and it had a decent clubhouse, attendances were regularly around the 150-200 mark, which is great for a club at that level. A lot of the first team left in the summer though and now they are lucky to get 30 watching. As it happens they have now had floodlights approved and they may well escape relegation on the back of other clubs folding and I think they will see an increase in spectators again as players return etc.
MY point is that it is common for almost an team of players to go to another club to follow a manager or mates etc and it really can have a serious effect on clubs,
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2019 12:30:02 GMT
So rather stupidly after the Spakenburg Derby I'll be hopping on a train and heading to Groningen vs Heracles. A cheeky little Eredivisie tick. Ok so I've done the maths and with a little help from my friend Ben, this is how this weekend is looking;
Saturday:
12:00 SV Spakenburg 2 vs DVVA csv. 2
15:00 IJsselmeervogels vs SV Spakenburg
20:45 Groningen vs Heracles
Sunday:
14:00 Zeeburgia 1 (zon) vs Legmeervogels 1 (zon)
16:45 Ajax vs Heerenveen
Right, so got up at 4am on Saturday for my 7am flight to Amsterdam. All got off well and met Ben at Amsterdam Centraal where we got two buses and a train to Spakenburg. Spakenburg is generally a sleepy little fishing town until Derby Day. We first popped to SV Spakenburg's ground for a little warm up between their reserve side and DVVA's reserves, the game was attended by about a hundred with plenty of ground hoppers. The hosts ran out 5-1 victors with a couple of lovely goals including one that came from a beautiful one touch move.
We then popped about 10 yards across the road to the other side of the Sportpark to IJsselmeervogels's ground. IJsselmeervogels's play in red, Spakenburg play in blue. We went for the away end obviously. The two grounds literally back on to each other, they're even closer than Dundee and Dundee United. The game had sold out and was the first for three and a half years. Kick off was delayed as debris from both choreo's was cleared off the pitch.
The game was a bit of a let down, IJsselmeervogels took the lead reasonably early before Spakenburg made it 1-1. In the second half IJsselmeervogels were down to ten men for 40 minutes after a player was sent off for a blatant headbutt, but they managed to hold out for a 1-1 draw. Pretty bonkers atmosphere from a pretty bonkers village. The masks are of a local urban myth that apparently when you see him you die. Proper lovely.
We then got a bus back to the trainstation and headed North to Groningen. The Boys from the North had been having a difficult season and faced Herecles, before the match Groningen's ultras set off lots of flares as a protest against KNVB's pyro bans.
Groningen ran out easy 3-0 winners with a penalty before half time and two in the second half. More importantly at only €3.50 the beer was very reasonably priced.
On Sunday being tired I decided to pie off the Sunday League game which, annoyingly ended 7-4 and just ended up heading to Ajax. With PSV dropping points before the game Ajax could go top with a win. To say the game was topsy turvy would be selling it incredibly short. Ex-Southampton player Dusan Tadic gave Ajax the lead after 13 minutes, with Heerenveen equalising after 15 and Tadic giving the hosts a 2-1 lead after 16 minutes. An Amersfoort own goal extended the lead after 28 minutes and with the last kick off the half Tadic had a penalty to make it 4-1 and complete his hattrick... It was saved. Heerenveen came out for the second half with a rocket up their arse. Lammers who scored the first goal made it 3-2, before Bergen equalised on only the 56th minute. Ajax chucked on veteran striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar searching for the winner and he seemed to get it in the 83rd minute but in the first minute of injury time Pierie made it 4-4. One of the best games I've ever seen in one of the best stadiums. Stunning way to end the weekend before getting my flight home.
Onto Scotland next weekend.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2019 12:31:12 GMT
Went to Scotland last weekend, early Saturday flight before heading down to Mount Florida for a mooch around Cathkin Park (former home of Third Lanark) and a look around the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden...
Followed this up with a rail replacement bus to Paisley and a train to Greenock where, I watched a rubbish 0-0 draw between Morton and Dunfermline. The game may have been dreadful but Cappielow is absolutely fantastic, proper ground on the banks of the Clyde...
Sunday was another rail replacement bus to Paisley to watch St Mirren - Hibs, I've got a soft spot for Hibs so went in the away end as the came back from 1-0 down to win 3-1 in what was in all honesty a pretty crap game in a boring ground.
Next divvy trip is Kyiv in a couple of weeks, stay tuned for more idiocy. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2019 12:59:03 GMT
Currently plotting possibly my most stupid trip yet;
October 10th-13th
Thursday the 10th : Slovakia - Wales, Bratislava TBC
Fri: Austria U21 - Turkey U21, TBC
Sat: Lichtenstein - Armenia, Vaduz TBC
Sun: Hungary - Azerbaijan, Budapest TBC
Waiting for a confirmation of venues and then it'll be Sleeper Trains galore!
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Rex
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Post by Rex on Feb 7, 2019 6:53:04 GMT
Went to Scotland last weekend, early Saturday flight before heading down to Mount Florida for a mooch around Cathkin Park (former home of Third Lanark) and a look around the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden...
Followed this up with a rail replacement bus to Paisley and a train to Greenock where, I watched a rubbish 0-0 draw between Morton and Dunfermline. The game may have been dreadful but Cappielow is absolutely fantastic, proper ground on the banks of the Clyde...
Sunday was another rail replacement bus to Paisley to watch St Mirren - Hibs, I've got a soft spot for Hibs so went in the away end as the came back from 1-0 down to win 3-1 in what was in all honesty a pretty crap game in a boring ground.
Next divvy trip is Kyiv in a couple of weeks, stay tuned for more idiocy. I think Cappielow mat be my favourite current ground. Lovely place, although I ended uo in a slightly bizarre situation when the bloke next to me found out I was from Bristol, DErek McInnes was City manager at the time and he is a bit of a hero up there. I had flown up the previous day to watch Celtic and was sat next to McInnes on the flight up. When I told the bloke this he took this to mean I had travelled up with him and he was soon telling his friends I was a pal of McInnes. I tried to correct him, but in the end it was just easier to say yeah I was . Cathkin Park is a lovely place, although slightly eerie, I hear that someone has started a campaign to spruce it up a bit, which is great, although I hope it doesn't lose it's slightly spooky feel |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2019 10:31:50 GMT
Went to Scotland last weekend, early Saturday flight before heading down to Mount Florida for a mooch around Cathkin Park (former home of Third Lanark) and a look around the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden...
Followed this up with a rail replacement bus to Paisley and a train to Greenock where, I watched a rubbish 0-0 draw between Morton and Dunfermline. The game may have been dreadful but Cappielow is absolutely fantastic, proper ground on the banks of the Clyde...
Sunday was another rail replacement bus to Paisley to watch St Mirren - Hibs, I've got a soft spot for Hibs so went in the away end as the came back from 1-0 down to win 3-1 in what was in all honesty a pretty crap game in a boring ground.
Next divvy trip is Kyiv in a couple of weeks, stay tuned for more idiocy. I think Cappielow mat be my favourite current ground. Lovely place, although I ended uo in a slightly bizarre situation when the bloke next to me found out I was from Bristol, DErek McInnes was City manager at the time and he is a bit of a hero up there. I had flown up the previous day to watch Celtic and was sat next to McInnes on the flight up. When I told the bloke this he took this to mean I had travelled up with him and he was soon telling his friends I was a pal of McInnes. I tried to correct him, but in the end it was just easier to say yeah I was . Cathkin Park is a lovely place, although slightly eerie, I hear that someone has started a campaign to spruce it up a bit, which is great, although I hope it doesn't lose it's slightly spooky feel Cappielow is great, one of a type of ground that is quickly disappearing. We must embrace grounds like Cappielow, Twerton Park, Penydarren Park and Dalymount while they're still here.
Cathkin is being tarted up slightly, just making sure the areas free of trees are safe and stay in a reasonably rustic but nice condition.
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irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372
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Post by irishrover on Feb 7, 2019 10:40:16 GMT
I think Cappielow mat be my favourite current ground. Lovely place, although I ended uo in a slightly bizarre situation when the bloke next to me found out I was from Bristol, DErek McInnes was City manager at the time and he is a bit of a hero up there. I had flown up the previous day to watch Celtic and was sat next to McInnes on the flight up. When I told the bloke this he took this to mean I had travelled up with him and he was soon telling his friends I was a pal of McInnes. I tried to correct him, but in the end it was just easier to say yeah I was . Cathkin Park is a lovely place, although slightly eerie, I hear that someone has started a campaign to spruce it up a bit, which is great, although I hope it doesn't lose it's slightly spooky feel Cappielow is great, one of a type of ground that is quickly disappearing. We must embrace grounds like Cappielow, Twerton Park, Penydarren Park and Dalymount while they're still here.
Cathkin is being tarted up slightly, just making sure the areas free of trees are safe and stay in a reasonably rustic but nice condition.
I would add the Bower Fold at Stalybridge to that list which is currently threatened. |
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Rex
Predictions League
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,287
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Post by Rex on Feb 8, 2019 4:16:22 GMT
Cappielow is great, one of a type of ground that is quickly disappearing. We must embrace grounds like Cappielow, Twerton Park, Penydarren Park and Dalymount while they're still here.
Cathkin is being tarted up slightly, just making sure the areas free of trees are safe and stay in a reasonably rustic but nice condition.
I would add the Bower Fold at Stalybridge to that list which is currently threatened. I keep hearing what a lovely ground this is. I must revisit it. I only went there once about 3 years ago, it was an evening match, the weather was absolutely atrocious and I couldn't really notice much about the ground! |
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warehamgas
Predictions League
Joined: May 2014
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Post by warehamgas on Feb 8, 2019 9:04:35 GMT
Went to Scotland last weekend, early Saturday flight before heading down to Mount Florida for a mooch around Cathkin Park (former home of Third Lanark) and a look around the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden...
Followed this up with a rail replacement bus to Paisley and a train to Greenock where, I watched a rubbish 0-0 draw between Morton and Dunfermline. The game may have been dreadful but Cappielow is absolutely fantastic, proper ground on the banks of the Clyde...
Sunday was another rail replacement bus to Paisley to watch St Mirren - Hibs, I've got a soft spot for Hibs so went in the away end as the came back from 1-0 down to win 3-1 in what was in all honesty a pretty crap game in a boring ground.
Next divvy trip is Kyiv in a couple of weeks, stay tuned for more idiocy. Yes I’ve seen that Cathrkin Park photo before and there was a programme about Third Lanark not so long ago. Very strange for such a relatively successful club to go out of business though I seem to remember that Clydebank who replaced them were being financed by some successful businessmen at the time. Name of Steedman if I remember correctly(alternatively I might be talking a load of ***t!) UTG! |
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2019 9:33:56 GMT
Went to Scotland last weekend, early Saturday flight before heading down to Mount Florida for a mooch around Cathkin Park (former home of Third Lanark) and a look around the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden...
Yes I’ve seen that Cathrkin Park photo before and there was a programme about Third Lanark not so long ago. Very strange for such a relatively successful club to go out of business though I seem to remember that Clydebank who replaced them were being financed by some successful businessmen at the time. Name of Steedman if I remember correctly(alternatively I might be talking a load of ***t!) UTG! Thirds were bought out by fragrant conman in Bill Hiddleston, Hiddleston wanted to sell off Cathkin for housing and essentially mothballed the whole club. Attendances went down around 90% in 6 seasons, and players and bills weren't being paid. The club were relegated out of the top flight and continued to be mothballed by Hiddleston as he tried to sell the land to the Glasgow Corporation. The only problem was there was and still is a covenant on the land. Thirds played their last match away at Dumbarton on April 25th 1967, they were thrown out of the SFL 2 months later on June 26th having been wound up on the 7th. Unfortunately Hiddleston died of a heart attack later that year and was never punished for what he did to a once great club.
Clydebank came in the the SFL in 1966 so a year prior to Thirds going under, Thirds weren't actually replaced and the Scottish 2nd tier had only 19 teams.
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