VENUE #53 FALKIRK The Falkirk Stadium

SCOTTISH CHAMPIONSHIP

Falkirk... 1
Queen of the South... 1

Saturday 13th September
              2014

@ The Falkirk Stadium
            Falkirk

     I've been greatly looking forward to this game, not just because it's my first trip to Scotland in the new season but I've recently acquired a Galaxy Tab 3 and have been wanting to try it out on a long train journey just to see what I can do with the contraption.  Yes, as my Son would say, "The technophobe has just joined the 21st century", and is willing to try out new gadgets to maybe make short time of all the computer work that builds up when I return home from one of these trips, if I could get it all done on the train home it would leave time for other things.
     First thing to do is upgrade my ticket to first class for it is only £15 each way on Virgin trains at the weekend and the wi-fi is free.  I did manage to play tracks on Spotify after a hour, couldn't stream any live football though or watch X-Factor on the way home for the wi-fi on Virgin trains is pretty poor at the moment but they are trying to improve things for the future.  As for making short work of all the computer stuff which you don't need the internet for but you do need Microsoft office which isn't installed on my Tab and so I'll have to upgrade and maybe I could do so in the future.
   
   

View from in front of the open end

 Another warm day as it has been all week, fairly cloudy but the sun has been able to break through here in Fife to make it a pleasant afternoon and here's hoping that the football can add to it.  Peter Houston the Falkirk boss made three changes to the team that lost 1-0 to Stranraer at Stair Park in the Petrofac Training cup last weekend, new signings Owain Tudur-Jones and David Smith come into the main eleven forcing Blair Alston and Alex Cooper onto the bench and Botti Bia Bi replaces Ryan Blair.
     With the departure of manager Jim McIntyre this week Queen of the South name James Fowler as caretaker player coach for this game and he makes two changes to the side that lost 4-2 at Ibrox two weeks ago bringing himself and Ian McShane into the team at the expense of Kevin Dzierzawski and Lewis Kidd.
     Not much happened in the first half apart from a chance that came about because of a poor decision by the linesman who was running the line by where I was watching the game, the ball was played over the top of the Falkirk defence to Iain Russell who was five yards offside but his shot was blocked by Jamie MacDonald the Falkirk keeper and came to Ian McShane who collided with Falkirk's Joe Shaughnessy to which the referee gave a controversial free kick but the striker took it himself and blazed the ball over the bar.  The crowd got on the linesman's back over the incident to which he seemed to put his flag up for everything in response, well, up until half time anyway when I think the ref must have gave him a talking to for he got his composure back in the second half.

Getting ready to kick off

     It was 0-0 at the break and it looked as though it was going to stay that way until the Bairns got into the game a bit more half way through the second spell but seemed to hit a brick wall with some physical challenges from the Doonhamers defence.
     A bad clearance from MacDonald, who had a poor game considering he won the August player of the Month award, fell to the feet of Derek Lyle who's 30 yard shot went just wide of the post.  The keeper atoned himself with a good save from a rasping drive from Daniel Carmichael in the 69th minute then seconds later Queens were one up when Carmichael squared the ball across the Falkirk six yard box for Gavin Reilly to smash the ball into the top right hand corner of the net.
     Falkirk equalised in the 83rd minute, Queens defender Mark Durnan handled the ball 25 yards from goal and a powerful Craig Sibbald free kick struck Chris Higgins and spun high and wide of Zander Clark the Queens keeper and into the net.

   

Falkirk mascot Fergus Fox

 Falkirk Stadium is a lovely ground even though it's only got three sides, three big stands and a fence stretching along one touchline opposite the main stand.  Opened in July 2004 after their old ground Brockville was demolished and replaced with a Morrisons superstore, (Sounds familiar).  It has a 9,200 all seated capacity comprising of the three stands as mentioned .  The Main stand is two tiered and fully covered it's got lots of leg room in between seats and is one of the best places I've watched a game from yet and the toilets look brand new, clean and immaculate.
     The two end stands are the North and the South stands, both are identical, single tiered and fully covered with the South stand for away support use.
     The club shop is outside the ground and in front of the main (West) stand and it's also where you get your match tickets from but they don't sell match programmes, you have to get them from little one man stalls dotted about in front of the main stand.

                                                         Match Details

       

VENUE #52 KIDDERMINSTER HARRIERS Aggborough Stadium

VANARAMA

CONFERENCE

Kidderminster... 2

Gateshead... 1

Saturday 6th September

             2014

@ Aggborough Stadium

        Kidderminster

    

      When Planning this journey to Kidderminster I was surprised to find out that it could mean having to change trains twice.  A distance of 25 miles and the prospect of having to catch three trains there and back was a little harrowing to me and so I started to look at various other routes that I could take.  The initial route as laid down by national rail enquiries meant that I should start my journey from Walsall to change at Birmingham New Street for Droitwich Spa and change again for Kidderminster.  After fiddling about with the National Rail website I found that I could catch the 12:01 from Walsall to Wolverhampton and elite at Smethwick Galton Bridge where I could catch a train directly to Kidderminster and cut out one train from my journey.  This was a better prospect although it wasn't much quicker than the three train route it meant that it was one less worry about having to hope that your train was on time so as to meet your connection scenario, although the train was three minutes late pulling out of Birmingham New street which meant I'd only got 3 mins when I got to Galton Bridge, which was an unfamiliar station to me, to hunt around for the platform to catch the Kidderminster train off.

   

The East stand

Having arrived at my destination safely and on schedule I decided to find a place where I could eat and take advantage of the toilets as there was none at Kidderminster station and so I Googled public toilets in Kidderminster on my phone and came up with Morrisons which wasn't too far away from the station or the ground.  The loo's were great but the queue for food at their cafe was horrendous and slow moving and so I decided to move on to the ground and hopefully get something to eat there.

     Moving on to today's game, Harrier's manager Gary Whild makes one change from the team that beat Dover 1-0 at the Crabble Athletic ground last Saturday, Cheyenne Dunkley comes in for Aman Verma who moves to the bench.  Gary Mills names an unchanged Gateshead side to the one that beat Chester City 2-1 at the International Stadium also last Saturday.

     It was non league day today and so Kidderminster dropped the price of entry to their terraces at both ends of the ground from £14 to £10 and so I decided to take advantage of this offer and stand with the home supporters behind the goal in the North end, I soon moved closer to the corner flag to the right side of the goal as a young lad kept whacking me in the face with a big red flag.

     Nothing much to report about in the first half as both teams seemed to lack the ability to create goal chances and made a lot of wasted passes around the pitch to the opposition.  I don't think either goalkeeper had to make a save which was unfortunate as I had my camera at the ready hoping to catch some goalmouth action.

A corner for Kidderminster attacking the North stand

     I decided to put my camera away for the second half as this game smacked of a 0-0 draw which would be my first in three seasons of travelling around the grounds but then after 20 seconds of the restart Kidderminster score, Craig Reid found himself free in the Gateshead penalty area and turned to plant the ball in the net giving keeper Adam Bartlett no chance.  Three minutes later and it was 2-0, a cross from the right to the far post saw the impressive Nathan Blissett rise higher than the rest to strike a powerful header home from close range.  Jon Shaw pulled one back in the 64th minute for Gateshead but it turned out to be a mere consolation

   

The Harriers Arms

Aggborough Stadium is situated in an unfortunate named road, "Hoo Road", makes you feel as though you're going to visit the Grinch who stole Christmas.  It has a 6,238 capacity of which around half are seated and though it was built in the 1890's looks quite clean and tidy, MODERN, probably due to all the work that was done in the late 1990's and in the early stages of the new Millennium.  Two stands run along the touchline the East stand and the Reynolds stand, both are single tiered and covered, part of the East stand is for away support use.  At either end of the ground behind the goals are two small terraces which are also covered, the North which is used to house the home support and the South which is for the use of the away followers.

     There is a supporters club where away fans are welcome to drink and also behind the Reynolds stand there is a pub called the Harriers Arms of which the Gateshead fans were making use of from what I could hear when passing.

     The club shop is right by the main entrance not far from the Harriers Arms and was being manned by the managing director of the club, well that's what he told me when I went in to by my usual souvenirs from my journey's, a home scarf and a match programme.

                                                         Match Details