VENUE #41 STIRLING ALBION Forthbank Stadium

SCOTTISH LEAGUE TWO

Stirling Albion... 1
East Stirling... 3

Saturday 24th August 2013

@ The Forthbank Stadium
             Stirling



     Back in Scotland again already, just a week after visiting Stamford Bridge with a crowd of 41,000 plus I'm in Stirling to see the Binos take on the Shire in a local derby which will bring around 700 people in to watch it.
     The Forthbank Stadium is located in the Springkerse area of Stirling set in the backdrop of Stirling castle and the Wallace monument which is a tower situated on the summit of Abbey Craig and commemorates the Scottish legend of the 13th century Sir William Wallace.  It's also very close to the banks of the river Forth, hence the name.
   
   

View from the car park

 Last weekend Stirling Albion won comfortably here at the Forthbank 2-0 against Peterhead putting them third in the table and manager Greig McDonald makes just one forced change to the line up, skipper Jamie Bishop suspended for this game after being sent off last Saturday for fighting with Andrew Rodgers of Peterhead, he is replaced by Jamie Clark for this match.  East Stirling also played at home last week beating Elgin City 3-0 and are currently top of the table.  John Coughlin makes two changes to his team, Jordan McKechnie takes the place of Ross O'Donoghue and Paul Quinn replacing the ex Celtic youngster Jamie Glasgow.
     Seeing that the Shire have never won here and the fact that they lost 9-1 on their last visit in March I was expecting them to get a right pounding today but it seemed as though the table may have turned in their favour as they started the game the much brighter and hungrier of the two teams and took the lead after just five minutes when Max Wright forced a corner out of David Crawford the Albion keeper and took it himself floating the ball into the Binos six yard box for Michael Bolochoweckyj, (I hope I haven't dropped one of those in the spelling), to head home from close range.

Bino the Bear looks dejected and the game hasn't started yet.

     Soon after Wright was clean through on the Albion goal but his shot struck the post and rolled along the goal line before being retrieved by a relieved Crawford
     But in the 23rd minute it was 2-0, an attempted header back to the keeper by Ross Forsyth was intercepted by Wright and played across the centre of the Albion penalty area for Paul Quinn to fire home from about ten yards.
     The Binos looked poor and didn't offer much in the first half and continued their lacklustre ways in the second finding them selves three down after 53 minutes when a free kick just inside the Albion half taken by Iain Thompson was headed back from the by line by Paul Quinn into the path of the industrious Wright who's shot, once again, hit the post but this time the rebound was tucked away by Jordan McKechnie who was the quickest to read and judge the situation which leaves the question, where were the Albion defenders?
   

When the footballs bad just look at that scenery.

3-0 and the game was as good as won and so East Stirling took it easy a little letting Albion, for the first time in the match, go and do some goal hunting for them selves and their first clear cut chance came in the 78th minute when a ball played down the right for David Weatherton to chase and play across the Shire six yard box for Jordan White to tap in an easy consolation goal.

     The Forthbank Stadium is only 20 years old and Stirling moved here after playing the first 48 years of their existence at a ground called Annfield, (Nothing to do with a club from Liverpool).  Capacity of the ground is 3,800 of which 2,500 are seated.
     The ground has a most beautiful picturesque setting with the countryside and the Scottish hills in the background.  From outside, the Stadium has a strange metal structure around it that looks like scaffolding.  There is a little office building near the main turnstiles which houses the club shop that looks a bit of an afterthought stuck in a back room of the place, there are no directions to the shop, I would never have found it without asking the lady receptionist at the desk as you enter the main doors of the building.

Is that scaffolding?  Or is it framework holding up the stand

     Opposite this building are some five-a-side pitches where the players train/warm up and they can be used by members of the public, for a fee I should imagine.
     Inside the ground there are two stands running alongside each touchline, the West and the East stand.  The West is the slightly bigger of the two length ways, it is fully covered and used by home support.  The East stand is very similar to the West, it is also fully covered and is intended for away support use.
     The two ends behind the goals are the North and the South end and both are open terraces with some lovely views of the surrounding area as I mentioned earlier, something to look at and admire when the football is poor as it was today but that doesn't excuse the bad language that was repeatedly directed at the players from members of the home support especially as there was a lot of young children in the area.

                                                         Match Details

     

VENUE #40 CHELSEA Stamford Bridge

BARCLAYS  PREMIER

Chelsea... 2

Hull City... 0

Sunday 18th August 2013

@ Stamford Bridge Stadium

        South West London

     What a start to the new season!   Doing the reverse to the last one I'm starting with the Premiership and ending with the Conference and what a match to start off with, visiting Stamford Bridge on a Sunday afternoon to watch the Sky sports televised game between Chelsea and Hull City.  My Daughter Samantha is accompanying me as she is a bit of a Chelsea fan and I asked if she would like to come with me as her birthday present.

   

Daughter Samantha proudly showing off the colours

The media are in their element here as for not only is it the first match of a new season but Jose Mourinho is back to take charge of Chelsea after an absence of six years.  The majority of Chelsea fans are loving it also for they weren't happy to see him go in 2007 for they consider him the best ever Chelsea manager, "The special one", and since his return was announced have been looking forward to this moment when he is once more back at the helm.

     

     Chelsea have been busy in the transfer market during closed season and brought in Andre Schurrle from Bayer Leverkusen for just over £19 million.  They also bought Marko Van Ginkel  from Vitesse Arnhem paying a little over £8 million for the Dutch central midfield player.  Michael Essien returns for a second spell at Stamford Bridge for an undisclosed fee and goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer comes from just down the road Fulham on a freebe.  Romelu Lakaku returns after his loan spell at West Bromwich Albion last season and all five of them start on the subs bench for today's match.

     Hull City have been a little more cautious with their spending bringing in George Boyd, Maynor Figueroa and Steve Harper the Newcastle goalkeeper on a free transfer and spending £1.8 million for Allan McGregor from Besiktas.  Yannick Sagbo joined the Tigers for an undisclosed fee and so did Tom Huddleston and Jake Livermore but the ex-Tottenham duo can only make the subs bench for the start of today's game.

Players take to the field

     Chelsea got off to a great start as expected and were almost gifted the lead when Hull keeper Allan McGregor made a terrible start to his debut appearance by colliding with Fernando Torres and the referee Jonathan Moss  pointed to the penalty spot.  Up stepped Frank Lampard to take it but the Chelsea number eight's chance of scoring the first goal of the 2013/14 campaign was thwarted by the Hull City keeper as he redeemed himself for his early error.

     Chelsea did take the lead after twelve minutes though as Kevin De Bruyne slid a ball through the Hull defence to Oscar who poked the ball past McGregor for the opener.

     Lampard atoned himself for the spot kick miss in the 25th minute when he blazed a twenty yard free kick into the roof of the net to double the Chelsea lead.

     The Blues looked as though they were going to record another cricket score as they had chance after chance but McGregor stood strong and kept them out with some fine saves from Lampard again and Ivanovic.

     Chelsea took their foot off the gas in the second half looking content with what they had, chances were few and far between with Hull who looked dead and buried in the first half looking the most likely to score but score they didn't as the match ended 2-0 to Chelsea and a winning start for the re appointed manager.

   

West stand and the adjoining Shed End

 When I was plotting my rout to Stamford Bridge I found that repairs to the line on the tube between West Brompton and Fulham Broadway meant that we had to elite at West Brompton and walk through the cemetery.  I was expecting some graffiti on the cemetery wall  like there was at Springfield Park, Wigan some 30 odd years ago when visiting supporters were asked to collect their coffins on the way in.

     Very nice, big ground as expected, 41,837 all seated Stadium.  Modifications made in the 1990's filled in the corners so the ground is now totally enclosed.  The two stands that run along the touch line are the West and East stands and both are three tiered with the West being the newer of the two and so, of course, we were watching the game from the East stand in the upper tier with the Gods. The seats were OK not a lot of leg room but still quite comfortable.

     The stands behind the goals are the Matthew Harding stand and the Shed End.  The East stand end of the Shed's lower tier is reserved for away supporters.

                                                                    Match Details