My Matchday - 177 Keepmoat Stadium

Doncaster Rovers 1v0 Newcastle United
Pre-Season friendly
26th July 2008

A rare treat of visiting an uncharted League ground with Newcastle, although it’s not a competitive game, I’m not a snob when it comes to attending friendlies, as it’s usually my best chance to get a new venue watching the Toon.
The Keepmoat Stadium was built in 2006 at a cost of around £32M, the naming rights are owned by a local housing company, with the stadium built and owned by Doncaster Council. The move after 83 years from Belle Vue was completed with Rovers first fixture on New Years Day 2007, a 3-0 win over rivals Huddersfield Town, the ground is also used by the towns Rugby League club, with the mini-stadium situated next to the main stand used by the reserves and Doncaster Belles.
The Keepmoat with it’s hilly surroundings and nearby lake, has a capacity of 15,231, it’s a single tier enclosed arena, decked out in red seats with cream interior walls. The East Stand has an additional row of executive boxes, and to the west the TV gantry, press box and players tunnel. Behind each goal the seats have the word Doncaster underlined(council logo) picked out in white and black seats, with the floodlights appear to be peeping inside the stadium, from their lofty position in each corner.
Rovers celebrated their first full season in the Keepmoat with promotion to ‘The Championship’ beating Yorkshire rivals dirty Leeds in the play-off final, it’s hard to believe that Donny were playing Conference football as recently as the year 2000.
On a boiling hot day (I even wore me shorts) I heading down to South Yorkshire, with the Patrick’s(squad # 2 & 79) After a brief stop off in Armthorpe, we headed to the Stadium parking opposite the ground, beside the industrial estate for free. After quenching our thirst at the nearby Lakeside pub, we headed to the ground, looking forward to what promised to be an entertaining game, unfortunately that wasn’t the case, with basically a piss poor performance from United.
An uneventful first half, saw plenty of possession but little action in the final third, while Rovers played some neat stuff and created a few half chances without testing Harper. After being at work earlier in the day and being on the go since 4am, I had trouble staying awake, with nothing to get excited about, watching the game with one eye shut, maybe the sweltering conditions was a factor in such a poor opening period.
There was one redeeming factor about the first half however, the Newcastle debut of no.46 at centre half, nobody knew who he was, as there was a lack of any public address announcements, so he was known only by his number. This was a cue to sing all songs dedicated to various players, but the names changed to forty-six, like “ There‘s only one forty six“ and “He’s here, he’s there, he’s every f**king where, forty six, forty six” at half time I got a text message from my pal Zippy, letting me know it was Sebastien Bassong on trial from French club Metz.
The second half improved, there was a bit more urgency but still a lack of quality, we were never going to score with a toothless front two of Shola and Smith, Ameobi never had one effort on target, he didn’t look interested and his mind seems to be on when (or if) WBA are going to sign him. As for Alan Smith, he never had one effort at goal all afternoon, he never scored a competitive goal at all last season, a complete waste of time, although his new hair style looks nice, he’s grew it longer with a nice side parting amongst his goldilocks.
Donny’s main threat came after the introduction of Stuart Elliott for the second half, he had two good efforts on goal before the decisive moment three minutes from time, a long ball forward was mucked up by Enrique allowing Elliott to take advantage before hitting a well struck shot from 20 yards, wide to the keeper’s right. The win for Rovers could prove a good boost going into the new season, I hope they do well next season in a higher division, they’re a smashing little club, where even the stewards are friendly, especially the Jesus look-alike, who took the banter from the Toon Army with a smile, with the other stewards joining in on the joke.
United were sporting their new all purple away kit, which is similar in style to the fictionist Sky One club Harchester United. The board need to back Keegan in the transfer market, it’s obvious to everyone there’s an apparent lack of quality and depth within the squad, if he doesn’t get the financial support that’s required, then I’m afraid, there’ll certainly be no ‘Dream Team’ at SJP this season.

Matchday stats
DRFC 1(Elliott 87) NUFC 0
att.9826
admission £15(North Stand)
Programme £3


Links-
Rovers match report
Keepmoat Stadium website
My Matchday visit to Belle Vue

MK James visit 5/5/07

Ground no.177-Keepmoat Stadium – Matchday Web album
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My Matchday - 175 Newcastle Football Centre in Benwell

West Allotment Celtic 2v3 Gateshead

Pre-Season friendly

12th July 2008

Not the most glamorous of settings to kick off my new football season, but then again It’s just pleasing to get back amongst the action, with the added bonus of a match played at a unique venue, which isn’t usually used for club fixtures.
The Newcastle Football Centre is based in the west end of the city, on the land next to Newcastle United’s old training ground at Benwell, the Gibside Gardens ground is the office base for the Newcastle Football Development Scheme, which includes indoor, as well as outdoor facilities, it’s also the headquarters of the FA Newcastle Girls Centre of Excellence.
Newcastle United left Benwell in the early nineties, when Kevin Keegan called in the fumigators and switched the training facilities to the University Sports Ground at Durham City and then the Graham Sports Ground at Maiden Castle. The old training ground was then sold off for housing and United finally got their own hi-tech training facilities at Darsley Park in July 2003, after being based at Chester-le-Street’s Riverside during Bobby Robson’s time as manager.
Gateshead kicked off their pre-season with a 4-0 win at South Shields in midweek, while this was West Allotment’s opening fixture, they were the better side in the opening period, dominating possession and taking the lead on 13 minutes, when an in swinging corner from Douglas, was dropped by young keeper McKenzie into his own net. Gateshead grabbed an equaliser on the half hour, after an initial Southern volley hit the post, the ball came out to Harwood who shot high into the net from a wide angle. Celtic had chances to regain the lead, but McKenzie made up for his earlier mistake making four excellent saves, especially the one handed save from Keith Douglas just prior to half time.
Gateshead with the advantage of the strong breeze in the second half, took the lead for the first time after 10 minutes with a well struck free kick from Wayne Phillips, ex-Heed winger David Colvin came on as a second half sub for West Allotment, getting an equalised with a well placed left foot shot into the far corner of the net on 68. Gateshead’s improved second half display was rewarded in the 72nd minute with the winning goal, a long ball was flicked on by Thompson into the path of Graeme Armstrong, who beat the offside trap before rounding the keeper and shooting past the covering defender on the line.
And so a good competitive work out for both clubs and personally a gentle introduction to the new season, this is before the serious football and matchday reports begin over the next 10 months. I’m hoping for another eventful season with some great new venues to visit, hopefully I’ll grab about 50 new grounds, Gateshead will again win promotion and the season will finish with Newcastle winning the FA Cup at Wembley…the stuff dreams are made of, well I can only dream..can’t I?

Matchday Stats
WAC 2(o.g.13, Colvin 68) GFC 3(Harwood 27, Phillips 54, Armstrong 72)
Unofficial HC attendance. 76
Admission and programme - None.
Link-
My visit to West Allotment Celtic

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New season, new kit!

Welcome back to the new football season, it seems just a matter of days, never mind weeks, since my last match of the 2007-08 campaign.
The 100FGC blog new season gets under way next weekend, with my first scheduled pre-season friendly, but in the customary new season mode, I’m launching the websites new look, the 100 Football Grounds Club new style kit!
The website is almost 2 years old, so it’s due a new look, the new kit keeps the traditional black and green colours, but green has become the more prominent colour. I’ve had a few comments over the black background, with people finding it difficult to read certain posts, so a new style kit was necessary, hope you like the new look, Happy New Season!!!

(previous posts and page elements may become unreadable during maintainance work)

My Back Pages - 64 San Mames

Athletic Bilbao 1v0 Newcastle United

UEFA Cup 2nd Round(2nd leg)

1st November 1994

Bilbao is the largest city in Biscay in the Basque country of Spain, football in Bilbao originates back to the late 19th century, when British migrant workers arrived to ply their trade in the city’s port, working in the shipyards and the iron mines, the workers formed their own team called Bilbao Football Club. Meanwhile Basque students made the opposite journey, completing their studies in commerce and civil engineering. While residing in the UK, they became interest in the game of association football and on their return home formed Athletic Club, playing matches against the British workers. In 1902 a combined team known as Club Vizcaya won the first ever Copa del Rey, beating Barcelona in the final, this lead to the eventual merger of both clubs, thus becoming Athletic Club de Bilbao, keeping the English version of their name.
The club are known as “The lions of San Mames’ in reference to their home; Estadio San Mames, Spain’s oldest stadium built in 1913. The ground is known as La Catedral (The Cathedral) as it was built near the San Mames church. Saint Mammes was a Christian thrown to the lions by the Romans, however the lions refused to eat Mammes and he was later made a saint.
The stadium generates a great atmosphere, the club’s nicknamed is appropriate, it’s like entering the lions den with the roar of the Bilbao support. The stadium was redeveloped for the 1982 World Cup with 700m pesetas spend on upgrading the ground and taking the capacity the almost 47,000 for the English invasion on Bilbao. The four separate stands are compact, sitting close to the pitch, the two tiers of seats are red with white seating in the front sections, with the corners sections filled in with extra seating, making the ground enclosed. The major stadium feature is the large arch, adorning across the main grandstand, this was added during the 1950’s when the first major work on the stadium took place throughout the decade and into the early sixties.

I travelled to Bilbao with long lost mate and work colleague ‘Boo‘, so named because of his similarity in size and stature to Yogi Bear’s cartoon companion. These were the days before cheap flights into Europe, long before Ryanair and EasyJet, so the cheapest option of transport available was a coach journey from Newcastle to the Basque country via the Dover to Calais ferry, courtesy of a Euro Football Travel company based in Manchester.
We departed early Monday morning, greeted onto the coach by our steward, a canny lad from Stoke-on-Trent who’s name I cannot recollect, I think it was maybe Dave, however for the purpose of this article I’ll call him Colin. As we boarded, Colin presented everyone with a commemorative t-shirt and announced that our match tickets would cost £30, a bit steep even nowadays, therefore meaning we lost out on valuable beer tokens to pay for our tickets. Our travelling time was spent mostly drinking, sleeping and watching videos, the usual stuff; football, Only Fools & Horses and the odd dodgy copy of the latest newly released films, there was a good atmosphere on the bus, the rest of the crew on board were a good bunch of lads, which past the time away and made the long trip more enjoyable.
We arrived at Dover early evening, using our ferry crossing to stock up on suppliers and travelled overnight through France, arriving in Bilbao next morning at around 10.30am, staying at the Hotel Conde Duque, situated on the bank of the Nervion River, I know the hotel name because I still have the towel that I swiped off the housemaids trolley. After booking in and locating our room, me and Boo went down to reception, where Colin informed us that the lad was here with our match tickets, pointing us in the direction of a shifty looking character standing in the hotel lobby, we purchased our tickets and then headed off into town.

The Author trys the local beverage and the party gets into full swing.

We eventually arriving at a long narrow street, where you can see the stadium prominent at the top, we took a look around the perimeter of the stadium before heading back into the street for a drink, planning to have couple of swift ones before heading off somewhere else, we didn’t venture very far, as 6 hours later we were still there. It was a public holiday in Bilbao that day, so it became a mass street party, with a fantastic friendly atmosphere between both sets of fans, including a good drink and a sing-song, my favourite being the Bilbao fans version of ‘Keegan Wonderland’ which they took a particular liking to, it was comical hearing there own version chanted out in Pidgin English.
We arrived in the ground just prior to kick off, the great atmosphere carried on inside the stadium, I remember thinking that if we were to lose this tie, I wouldn’t really mind, to get knocked out of the UEFA Cup to such great hosts wouldn’t be so bad. There was no seats left in our part of the ground (I knew that ticket seller was dodgy) so we had no choice but to stand in between two sections of seats, I felt uncomfortable as we were blocking the view of the spectators behind, which were mostly Bilbao fans, eventually stadium security came and moved us to the opposite side of the ground, still no seat, but not restricting anyone’s view.
The match wasn’t a classic, United were 3-2 ahead from the first leg and at one stage were three goals up before taking their foot off the gas, allowing Athletic back into the tie. The Toon were without the injured Andy Cole for the 2nd leg, giving Steve Watson an unlikely role as a makeshift striker, apart from a good chance from Robert Lee we didn’t look like scoring, but on the other hand neither did they. The game seemed to be heading towards the required goalless draw, until a shot from Jose Ciganda on 67 minutes deflected off Howey and under Pavel’s body to draw the tie level, giving Bilbao the advantage, courtesy of those two away goals. Bilbao had a golden chance to killed the tie off, missing what could have been a crucial penalty, however United lacked firepower and never looked like saving themselves, just as the Toon Army were enjoying being back in Europe, it was all over, United were out, but the tie should have been all over at St. James Park two weeks earlier.
During the 2nd half we were moved again, we finally got a seat in the upper corner section, meaning I watched the game from three separate corners of the ground, on the final whistle some Bilbao supporters invaded the pitch, celebrating which looked at one stage an unlikely victory. We came out of the stadium, walking down a long staircase where at the bottom the Bilbao fans stood waiting for us, they clapped and cheered us as we walked down the stairs, it was reminiscent of when The Beatles first got off the plane when they arrived in the USA, I was mobbed by their fans, they all wanted to embrace me and shake my hand, making me feel like some sort of celebrity, this carried as I walked back down the same street where we had all partied earlier in the day.

We finally arrived back at our hotel after losing our bearings, eventually seeking the aid of a taxi to find the hotel, after such a long day a bed was most welcome, especially after the previous night’s kip on the bus. The next morning was spent reflecting on the previous 24 hours and what a great day it was, the fact that we were out of Europe was overlooked, we had a good team now, and future trips on the continent now looked a more probable regular event.
I arrived back home early Thursday afternoon and went straight to bed, totally ‘cattle trucked ‘after four days away just to see 90 minutes of football, but there’s more to a Euro excursion than just attending the match. Everything about this trip was great, the long but entertaining journey, the atmosphere pre match, the drink, the crack, the stadium, in fact the only thing that went wrong was the result, but overall the one thing that sticks out the most was the reception from our Basque hosts after the match, it’s something I’ll never forget and will live long in the memory of those fortunate enough to be there

Matchday Facts
AthB 1(Ciganda 67) NUFC 0
Att.47,000
Admission £30 (ticket price; 3000 pesetas)
Programme; none (but someone had a copy of the official team sheet, which was photocopied on the ferry home for 50p)
Travel (inc. hotel/b&b) £120

2007-08 Season Compendious

An eventful but overall enjoyable 2007-08 season, so it’s that time of the year to reflect on my own personal football journey over the past 10 months.
I managed to attend just over 80 games this season, but a more important stat was bagging 35 new grounds, which isn’t bad considering I’m not what you would call a professional ground hopper. What I mean by this term is; I’m not your stereotypical ground hopper ( I don’t own an anorak for starters) who would probably snigger at such a small total over a full season. I do support 2 football clubs, which are generally my football priority, so I don’t have every Saturday free to go somewhere new every week. I also have my fantastic wife and family to consider, as I actually do have a life apart from football (well, just about) so all things considered I think I’ve done well this season the push my total closer to the 200 mark.
The obvious highlight was Gateshead’s promotion to the Conference North after finishing 3rd over the regular season and winning the play-offs. The Tynesiders played a brand of entertaining football, played in the right manner and were by far the best team in the league, it’s baffling how we weren’t league champions anyway. A big thanks and well done to manager Ian Bogie and his assistant Jeff Wrightson on such a fantastic job in their first full season in charge, the club have a bright future ahead and the Heed Army are looking ahead to next season already, in the Conference North with Bogie and Jeff.

The soap opera which is Newcastle United continues, with no sign of the show being axed, much to the delight of the southern based press. Sam Alladyce’s appointment was greeted with optimism amongst the majority of the Toon Army, a new manager with different ideas and a new approach, little did we know that this new approach would have such a negative effect. Looking back at my first game of the pre-season at Hartlepool, reading the post again there seemed so much to look forward to, but the dreadful Alladyce brand of football resulted in the natives getting restless, which usually ends with the same sorry conclusion. Personally I would have gave Big Sam a full season, then judge his performance and review the situation over the summer, as I’m not too keen on managerial changes and upheaval in the middle of the season. As much as I love Keegan, I was a bit embarrassed about the over the top euphoria which greeted his second managerial coming, but after a poor start he did eventually turn things round, so we’ll have to see what .progress is made in the transfer window and see how next season develops. Of course a soap opera has to have a series finale cliff hanger, cue our star midfielder ending up in the nick for 6 months, you can see how that story and the rest of the show develops when the series restarts in August.

King Kev celebrates becoming Facebook friends with Shaun

Smith

The 100 Football Grounds Club squad went over the 100 mark recently, which I’m delighted with, my only real disappointment this season was the ‘Groundhoppers Union Meeting’couldn’t go ahead as originally planned, as their was plenty of interest, maybe we could have another try next season, so watch this space. I did however meet up with a few of the squad, namely the Matlock Pieman, Graham Crofts,Jamie from Fitba Daft, el Queso Grande,The Groundhog and the annual pre-match Toon v Spurs pint with Simple Pieman.
My main aim this season grounds wise, was to finish off the Northern League. I went into the season with 14 of the 42 still to visit, I managed to rattle through 11 of them by the turn of the new year, however I just managed to squeeze in those last 3 before the season ended, next season there'll be two new ANL grounds; Ashington’s Woodhorn Lane and the long trip over to Cumbria for league newcomers Whitehaven.
The highlights were my favoured trips north of the border, the Scottish Cup Final was such a great occasion with Queen of the South making their first final appearance and I also enjoyed my trip to St. Mirren’s Love Street. Following Gateshead away is always a great day out and a good laugh, I wish I could have gone to a few more games on the road with the ‘Heed Army’ but I’ll be trying my best next season, as there’s some cracking away venues in the Conf..sorry!..Blue Square North to look forward to.
Finally I’d like to thank everyone who logs on to the site, cheers for the nice comments and the good feedback I’ve received. This season the blog won an award, and also made the final list of nominees for the Football Fanzine Awards, so I’m naturally thrilled to get the recognition for the wee bit of graft I put in. This website seems to have now turned into my raison d’etre, so I’ll be looking forward to next season, discovering pastures new, armed with my camera, notebook and pen, but definitely, categorically and without a shadow of a doubt, no bliddy anorak! ;-)

My Matchday - 174 Hampden Park

Queen of the South 2v3 Rangers
2008 Scottish Cup Final
24th May 2008
att.48821
My final game of the season and the final of the Scottish Cup, the worlds oldest national trophy, first played for back in 1873, this years final brought together old hands Glasgow Rangers against a club making their first ever appearance in their 89 year history; Queen of the South, whose supporters had an extra number amongst their ranks, I lend the Doonhamers my support for my first ever visit the Scotland’s national stadium.
Hampden Park lies in Mount Florida, in the south side of Glasgow, build in 1903 it’s actually the third Hampden Park, both previous grounds were close by, the first was used by Queen’s Park back in 1873 on the site of the present day Hampden Bowling Club, while the second ground was renamed New Cathkin Park and taking over by Third Lanark, found just a goal kick away in Cathcart Road.
Hampden is owned by Queens Park, Scotland’s oldest club (formed in 1867) but it’s more commonly known as home to the Tartan Army and neutral middle ground for battles between the old firm, it also houses the offices of the Scottish FA, Scottish Football League , SPL. and now includes the Scottish Football Museum, opened in May 2001.
When constructed the original capacity was 65,000, meaning the three largest stadiums in the world belonged to Glasgow, the stadium’s capacity peaked in 1937, reaching 150,000, with an attendance just short of a full house against England in that April, and a week later the cup final between Celtic and Aberdeen also made the record books, 147,365 the highest for a club match in Europe.
The arrival of Rio’s 150k capacity Maracanã Stadium in 1950 took Hampden’s title as the worlds largest stadium, but the ground continued to break records, the largest attendance for a friendly played in Britain saw 104,494 for Rangers v Eintracht Frankfurt in October 1961, as well as the biggest attendance in a UEFA competition; the European Cup semi-final between Celtic and Leeds United drew 136,505 in April 1970.
The capacity dropped to 81,000 in 1977 after the introduction of the Safety of Sports Grounds Act, major changes and refurbishment took place through the 1980’s, to the North Stand and East Terrace, until the release of the Taylor Report in 1988, meant redeveloping the stadium to all seated. The stadium’s redevelopment programme took place throughout the 1990s, although there were a few financial problems, the total cost came to £70million, with £22million funded through sponsorship. The ground’s capacity is now 52,500, the reconstruction of the North and East Stands started in 1993, which was followed by the new West and South Stands between 1996 and 1999, the South Stand differs from the other three ends, as there’s an extra tier which overhangs, split into three shelf like sections, there’s also the presentation podium with the team dugout situated within the front of the stand, behind each goal there’s electric scoreboards suspended underneath each roof.


Although the ground is unrecognisable from the once vast bowl of terracing that gave the world the ’Hampden Roar’ the stadium still has the atmosphere and aura of its illustrious past and retains it’s original sunken bowl oval shape. The stadium certainly has that ‘wow’ factor about it, when I entered the ground it took my breath away; it looked fantastic, especially on such a big occasion like today, a near capacity crowd, the pitch looked immaculate, the pre-match atmosphere electric and even the cheerleaders looked terrific…phoarr!!!
My match ticket was in the South Stand, a great seat with a spot on view, special thanks to 100FGC squad no.73 Graham Crofts for making the ticket arrangements, I sat with him and his family and enjoyed the atmosphere amongst the Dumfries community hoping to see a performance that would do their wee town proud. Prior to kick-off there was a minutes applause in tribute to the late Tommy Burns, which was greatly participated by everyone with goals and images of Tommy’s career observed on the big screens.
The game kicked off with Queens hoping to take advantage of Rangers tired legs after their hectic end of season schedule, while the Queens players without a game for four weeks, have been off on their hollipops. An even first half on chances created, with Rangers having the majority of the possession, but found themselves two goals up at the break without really doing that much, their first effort at goal didn’t arrive until 25 minutes when a Beasley shot from the edge of the box could only find the side netting, however the breakthrough came on 33 minutes, a free kick on the edge of the box was touched to Boyd who fired his shot high into the net from 22 yards, then just before half time Rangers doubled their lead, a back post header fell to Beasley who finished well from 12 yards out.
At half time Graham turned to me and said “we’ll do well to get it back to 2-2 now” well they did and it only took eight minutes, first a messy looking goal from Tosh, scrambling the ball home after good play from O’Connor and then minutes later sheer bedlam from the Queens faithful, as skipper Jim Thomson leapt like a salmon to head home a Harris free kick, what a start to the second half, minutes earlier I was hoping that they would at least score a goal to give the Queens fans something to cheer, but here they were level, and as the late great Brian Moore once said “it’s up for grabs now”
After a week of setbacks for Rangers they began to look nervous, as the Dumfries lads began to believe they could be on the verge of making history, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be, again it was Kris Boyd who came to the Gers rescue, heading home in a packed penalty area from a corner kick on 72 minutes to regain the lead. The goal proved the decisive one, it seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Queens players, so after much effort and endeavour it was Rangers who managed to securely see the game out, winning the Scottish Cup for the 32nd time and their first for five years.

My Matchday was planned precisely, trains and bus times all planned with precision, as I left home that morning the last thing the breadknife said was “you know what happens with best laid plans, they don‘t go to plan” as always, of course, she was right.
My day began with the 8.45 to Aberdeen, the train I was taking to Edinburgh arrived over half a hour late, so this naturally had a knock on effect, meaning I missed to 1045 train from the capital to Glasgow, but I did make the 11.15 ok. I then arrived in Glasgow where I took the 31 bus to Mount Florida, again catching the next bus at 12.15, so I finally reached my destination at 12.30, giving me plenty of time before the big kick off.
After a brief look around the stadium, my next port of call was Cathkin Park, the former home of Third Lanark, where I had a look around and took some pictures to put on to the website. I then met up with 100FGC squad no.81 Jamie McQueen, finding him standing at the top of the stairs at the main entrance, doing a bit of celebrity spotting. After meeting up with a couple of this fellow Queens fans we headed off in pursuit of a pre-match drink, but predictably everywhere was full, so in desperation of booze we ended up going to the off-licence for some cans, drinking them behind the offy, taking us back to our teenage years. We were just polishing off our cans when two polis appeared on push bikes, they must have been in a good mood as they ordered us to confiscate the drink, and move on our way letting the four of us off with the £40 on the spot fine for drinking outdoors in public.
My train home was at 6pm to meet the 7pm train from Edinburgh back to Newcastle, these were the only trains I could get home, if I missed the 6’o clock train then I was knackered, meaning either a night in Scotland or having to hitch it home. I boarded the bus to get back to the train station at 5.10pm, but after 20 minutes we only progressed about 20 yards due to the large number of fans walking on the road and stopping the traffic. I looked at my watch it was 5:33, I only had one option and that was to alight the bus and run like the clappers all the way to Queen Street, when I asked the bus driver to let me off and I told him what I planned, he looked at me in disbelief. It’s a good job I’m a seasoned jogger because I did the 2 mile run in 20 minutes arriving at the train station with 5 minutes to spare, by then I was drenched in sweat, red faced and receiving funny looks from everyone, apologies to the lad I sat next to on the train because I must have stunk, I’ve learned to never get a bus in Glasgow again, after a similar incident with Glasgow traffic when I went to St. Mirren.
To rub salt into the wounds the train home from Edinburgh arrived 20 minutes late, it was a nightmare performance from National Express, at least First Scot Rail are reliable, but I suppose on reflection it's all a part of my makes up my matchday adventures and all part of the amusement.
And so my 81st and last game of the season, what a great one to end with, a fantastic stadium, a thrilling game and a great day out, now I need to recharge my batteries and have a football free summer and return for the 2008/09 season, raring to go with more of my ground hopping adventures.

Links-http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,19764,11065_2988856,00.html

My Pictures from Cathkin Park here.

Ground no.174-Hampden Park - Matchday web album(20 pictures)

Cathkin Park

While visiting Hampden Park, I took the opportunity to pay homage to the old Hampden Park, Cathkin Park; the former home of long lost Scottish club Third Lanark.
Originally the home of Queens Park, it staged it’s first game back in 1884, and went on to host Scottish Cup Finals as well as internationals. When the club moved to the site of the present Hampden, it was then renamed New Cathkin Park and taking over by Third Lanark.
The last game played on the old ground was in 1967, just before Third Lanark were wound up in the courts, the site was developed into an open access park by the Glasgow parks department. The park still preserves sections of the original terraces, crash barriers, as well as parts of the perimeter wall.
The park still has a nostalgic feel about it, even though the days of first class football are long gone, it’s a former historical venue well worth visiting if your ever in the vicinity.

Related article at Pitch Invasion;http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/05/28/the-ghost-stadium/