BALMOOR STADIUM
NEAREST TRAIN STATION
The nearest railway station is in Aberdeen, which is some 32 miles away! Therefore this ground has the record of being furthest from a station than any other Professional League team in Britain.
Bus services 60/61/63 and the X60 all run to Peterhead Interchange from Aberdeen Union Square around every 30 minutes on Saturdays. I caught the number 60 bus and it cost me £13.50 return. Journey times vary from around 1 hour 5 minutes to 1 hour 26 minutes depending on time of day and which number bus you catch as some stop more frequently than others along the route, the number 60 bus takes 1 and a half hours. It is then a walk of just under a mile from Peterhead bus station to the ground and is fairly straight forward: On leaving the Bus station head along Windmill Street, in the direction going away from the Harbour. Turn left onto King Street and then right onto the A982 (Queen Street). Continue along this road which becomes Balmoor Terrace and you will reach the stadium on the left hand side.
BALMOOR STADIUM Balmoor Stadium has two virtually identical stands that run down each side of the ground. Both these all seated stands are roughly of the same height and are covered. The seating areas are raised above pitch level, which means that supporters need to climb a small set of stairs at the front of the stand to access them. The West Stand has windshields at either side of it. Both ends of the ground are open and don't have any formal terracing.
Peterhead, joined the Scottish Football League at the beginning of the 2000/2001 season. One of the reasons why they were invited to join the league, was certainly their move to the Balmoor Stadium, which was opened in 1997. Previously the Club played at Recreation Park, which was sold for re-development to a supermarket chain.
The Balmoor Stadium is a friendly place where away fans are always made welcome. There is normally no segregation, so opposing fans are always able to mix with each other.
GROUND LAYOUT
A WEST STAND ( Main stand)
B EAST STAND
C NORTH TERRACE
D SOUTH TERRACE
Today's Visitors EDINBURGH CITY are the newest members of the Scottish football league they earned promotion to league two by beating East Stirling in the play- offs by 1-0 back in 2015. They've spent the first two seasons of their football league status tussling with Cowdenbeath against ending up in the play offs again this time as a possible relegation candidate rather than promotion. The City started this campaign better but still find themselves just above the Blue Brazil in 9th place 8 points clear of the struggling Fife outfit who will have to battle once more against the winners of the top two teams from the Highland and Lowland leagues.
Edinburgh City have played once before at Balmoor Stadium and that was during this season on 2nd December last year a game which Peterhead won 3-0, all the goals came in the second half, the first only two minutes into restart Chris McKee getting sent off for a foul on Rory McAllister in the penalty area the Peterhead number nine taking the spot kick himself and converting. McAllister then completed a brace in the 72nd minute scoring from six yards assisted by Russell McLean. One minute later the game was put to bed when Jack Leitch gave Jordon Brown an opportunity in the centre of the City box and Brown took his chance slotting the ball into the bottom right corner of the net.
Today's Visitors EDINBURGH CITY are the newest members of the Scottish football league they earned promotion to league two by beating East Stirling in the play- offs by 1-0 back in 2015. They've spent the first two seasons of their football league status tussling with Cowdenbeath against ending up in the play offs again this time as a possible relegation candidate rather than promotion. The City started this campaign better but still find themselves just above the Blue Brazil in 9th place 8 points clear of the struggling Fife outfit who will have to battle once more against the winners of the top two teams from the Highland and Lowland leagues.
Edinburgh City have played once before at Balmoor Stadium and that was during this season on 2nd December last year a game which Peterhead won 3-0, all the goals came in the second half, the first only two minutes into restart Chris McKee getting sent off for a foul on Rory McAllister in the penalty area the Peterhead number nine taking the spot kick himself and converting. McAllister then completed a brace in the 72nd minute scoring from six yards assisted by Russell McLean. One minute later the game was put to bed when Jack Leitch gave Jordon Brown an opportunity in the centre of the City box and Brown took his chance slotting the ball into the bottom right corner of the net.
PETERHEAD ... 2 EDINBURGH CITY ... 1
Not one of the best games of football that you're ever likely to see there was a lot at stake for Peterhead who could have won the league 2 title by winning this game and Montrose losing.
Peterhead came out the traps on fire as you would expect and it didn't take long for them to take the lead, John Dunn conceded a corner the ball was whipped into the centre of the Edinburgh box there was a Mass of bodies attacking the ball but it was adjudged that Pat Scullion had put through his own net in the 4th minute.
There wasn't a lot that happened after that in the first half apart from Mason Robertson hitting the Edinburgh crossbar in the 13th minute after a free kick won by Rory McAllister was scrambled away to the left side of the box where he was positioned.
Things seemed to be warming up a little at the end of this game as Peterhead again showed some urgency but it wasn't until the very last minute that there efforts paid dividend, Scott Brown this time renewing belief amongst the home faithful scoring Peterhead's 2nd and eventual winner.
The goal didn't ease the pain of the home fans as the news drifted through form Montrose that the game had finished in a draw and therefore Montrose were the league 2 champions and it was the play-offs lottery for the Toon.
As far as I could see there wasn't much between these two teams even though Peterhead were second in the table and Edinburgh were one place above the relegation play-off spot and if the Blue Toon do get promoted in the play-offs then they will have to improve or they will be visiting league 2 again in the near future.
And so another season comes to a close for me also, not the best game to end a season on but it was a bad experience for me this season anyway with all the match cancellations through the weather (snow) and re-arranged games in Scotland cause of cup matches and internationals. I'm hoping to come back to it next season with even more games and hopefully with a renewed passion for what I'm doing after three months rest. Thanks for reading my blogs folks without you it wouldn't be worth while and with that I'll sign off and see you in season 2018/19.
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