✔571 Ainslie Park

Ronnie Swan Trophy - Day 1

Spartans 1-0 Hearts XI (noon ko)

Edinburgh City 1-1 Hibernian XI (3pm ko)

Saturday 8th July 2017

Unless you’re one of my dozen loyal readers, you’ll be surprised to learn I’ve never seen

a match at Ainslie Park. The ground opened in 2009, and ever since I’ve kept it as a “Plan B” in the event of a postponement, because of its all weather surface.

For the next three seasons Edinburgh City will be ground sharing with Spartans while Meadowbank Stadium is redeveloped, so the ground becomes one of  “The Scottish 42” I thought it was about time I finally paid a visit, especially as both resident and tenant are both playing at home on the same day.

Ainslie Park forms part of a wider development of the Spartans Community Football Academy. The 3,000 capacity stadium has a 3G pitch and a covered main stand with 504 red flip seats. The ground entrance is in the corner where a new turnstile block has recently been erected. The accommodation block has changing rooms, committee facilities and a cafe bar upstairs with a balcony view, as well as a snack bar downstairs.

There is hard standing on three sides with grass banking behind the far side goal. The Leisure Centre is next door with a full size grass pitch and 3G five-a-side pitches within the complex.

I visited City Park in the penultimate game at the ground in May 2009, which you can read about here.  Since the short move to Ainslie Park, Spartans won the East of Scotland title twice in 2009-10 and 20010-11, before becoming founder members of the Lowland League. The club had the honour of being the first champions of the new league in 2013-14.

My only visit to Meadowbank was for a Scottish Cup tie in September 2008, which you can read about here. Edinburgh City were another of the 12 founding members of the Lowland League, winning the title in 2014-15 and 2015-16. Those honours meant they qualified for the Scottish League play-off against the Highland Football League winners. In 2015 they lost out in the semi-finals to Brora Rangers, before beating Cove Rangers then East Stirlingshire in the two legged final to gain promotion to the Scottish League.

During the time of my visit to Meadowbank the future of the stadium looked ominous.  

Edinburgh Council voted to sell the land occupied by Meadowbank in March 2008 and build a smaller sports facility on east of the site, however due to a decline in property prices the proposal was put on hold. The City of Edinburgh Council started a new consultation process about its future in 2013, revealing a new planned redevelopment design, which was made public in November 2016. The demolition and reconstruction work is due to get underway sometime this year.

The Ronnie Swan Tournament is an annual pre-season event played in honour of the Spartan’s legend, who sadly passed away in 2014. Ronnie joined the club in 1951 and played throughout the 1950s and ‘60s. Over six decades he held every position possible at the club, becoming club president in 1987, a role “Mr Spartans” held with distinction for more than 30 years.

The competition first took place in 2009 to coincide with the opening of the new ground and the previous winners are Dunfermline, Hearts, Manchester United and Spartans.

Day one of this years event saw a win for Spartans over Hearts, courtesy of a penalty from Blair Atkinson just before half time, after the referee spotting a handball from the Hearts trialist.

The second game saw a good performance from Edinburgh City, taking the lead on 25 minutes with a cracking low hard drive from Craig Beattie. The Citizens had two efforts smack the crossbar and should of had the match wrapped up, until a late surge from Hibs saw Ben Stirling steer in a left wing cross with the last kick of the game.

The match then went to a penalty shoot out to decide who took the bonus point(which meant I missed the bus) and it was the Hibees who won 4-3 to pinch another point to go with the one they stole late on.

Matchday Stats

SFC 1(Atkinson 43pen) HoMFC 0

ECFC 1(Beattie 25) HFC 1 (Stirling 90+1) 3-4 pens

Att.tbc

Admission £12

Programme £2

Coffee £1.25

Macaroni pie £2

Irn Bru 80p

Day 2 results

Spartans 3-1 Hibs XI

Edinburgh City 1-5 Hearts XI
Spartans win the trophy

 #HeedHopper

Trains from Toon to Edinburgh - 0738 there and the 1900 back.

I met up with James Little and Jamie McQueen and together we watched the first of today’s games, before both of them went their separate ways. James headed off across town to Easthouses Lily, while Jamie watched Whitehill’s friendly at Heriot-Watt University. I avoided the temptation to do a double and enjoyed the second game sunbathing on the grass bank behind the goal.

Afterwards I caught the bus back into town and met James at the Bow Bar for a couple of pints, before heading home. An enjoyable start to the new campaign and hopefully the first of many good trips this season.

My Matchday - 205 Easter Road

Hibernian 1v0 Heart of Midlothian
Scottish Premier League
14th March 2009

Hibernian FC became Scotland’s first major club of Irish birth in August 1875, formed by the local Irish population based at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Cowgate. The club name originates from Hibernia, the Latin name for Ireland, their creation led to the outset of other Irish clubs, most notably another team in green and white based in Glasgow.
Hibs originally ground shared after their formation, playing at the Meadows, a park towards the south end of the city, until moving to Leith and the first Easter Road; Hibernian Park on Bothwell Street in 1880. The club had to disband in 1891 after losing their ground to developers as well as most of their squad to Celtic, until reforming two years later just a goal-kick away from their former home.
The new Easter Road opened in February 1893, later after the club won their first championship in 1903 they almost moved to a new ground in Piershill, until finally settling at Easter Road, signing a 25 year lease in 1922, this gave way for the first major building work, which including erecting a main stand and banking elevated on the other three sides.
The East Terrace was expanded after a record gate of 65,840 for the Edinburgh derby with Hearts in 1950 and four years later Hibs became one of the first clubs to erect corner floodlight pylons in contrast to the more popular roof-mounted style lights, which stood until being replaced in 1995.
Easter Road remained largely unchanged through the following decades, apart from a steel and concrete roof build on to the North Terrace in 1960 and later bench seats added in 1982, however Hibs became the first club in Scotland to install undersoil heating in 1980.
In 1985 the capacity was reduce to under 24,000 with the reduction of the East Terrace with a basic cover added, then by the end of the decade over a £1m was spent on essential improvements including six executive boxes added to the Main Stand.
Following the Taylor Report, the deadline for all-seater stadiums in the SPL was set for August 1994, this forced the club to install temporary seating on the South Terrace, bringing the capacity down to just 13,500, however by the end of the year plans were drawn up to increase the capacity with brand new stands behind each goal.

The North Stand and South Stands are similar in stature, steep with two sections of green seats with the top tiers curving inwards at a 45 degree angle in one corner. The North Stand is know as The Famous Five Stand and has a capacity of 3,864, with the South Stand which is designated for away supporters, slightly larger at 3,962. The stands exterior has large green tubular steel ties and cross braces, this with it’s white walls shows off the clubs colours.
The West Stand was build in 2001,it has a capacity of 6,500 and replaced the old Main Stand, this has two tiers of green seats with a section of dark grey seats located centrally at the top tier. The stand has a large perspex strip at the back and similar to the stands behind the goals, the sides are perspex walls, allowing plenty of natural light into the stadium.
The East Stand is now all seated with a capacity of 4,223, made up of 20 rows of bucket seats on concrete blocks, the stand has a green roof with the TV gantry perched on the top, there are plans afoot for future redevelopment of the east side of the stadium, which will complete the rebuilt Easter Road.

The game got off to a lively start with Hearts having the better of the early exchanges, however it was Hibs who had the first serious effort on goal, Riordan cut inside from the left flank before unleashing a right foot shot from over 30 yards out, smacking back off the corner of the crossbar.
Hibs took the lead in the 17th minute, a fine cross field pass from Rosa, found O’Brien with lots of space on the right wing, his cross was met by Fletcher, with what I would describe as a “shampoo effort” coming off head and shoulder, before looping over Balogh into the net.
As we approached half time Hibs had a golden chance to double their lead, a fine through ball found Fletcher with only the goalkeeper to beat, both players raced towards the loose ball with the striker winning the race only to be cynically fouled by the keeper, which resulted in a red card for Balogh. The extra man advantage lasted only a matter of minutes, a reckless tackle on Nade by Bamba in stoppage time meant we went into the break with 10-a-side.
The second half was finally balanced and the result could have gone either way. Hibs had chances to double their lead with efforts from Hogg and a gold gilded chance for Fletcher, who was clean through with only the goalkeeper to beat, however he didn’t produce a Torres type finish, instead it was an Ameobi like effort, as sub McDonald produced a fine save to keep Hearts in the game.
Hearts went all out for an equaliser in the closing stages, Nade almost did the trick but saw his header come back off the crossbar, apart from that effort the Hibs defence held firm, with Szamotulski not troubled and Rob Jones commanding at the back.
The final whistle was greeted with celebration and relieve, as the green and white side of Edinburgh celebrated victory and reclaimed local bragging rights, the hostilities are due to get back under way at Tynecastle at the end of the season, but first Hibs have to hang on to their top six position before the end of season split

I arrived in Edinburgh at 1130, arranging to watch the game with 100FGC squad#81 Jamie McQueen. The game was a 12.30k.o. so we headed straight to the stadium, taking a look around the perimeter of the ground and savouring the pre-match atmosphere.
The match was a typical derby, full of incident and passion and I enjoyed the occasion. We had seats in the East Stand, seats that weren’t used for your backside but for your feet, as everyone stood up on their seat to sing throughout the game. I found myself amongst a cauldron of hate, as you would imagine Hibs aren’t too fussed on Hearts, and just like any other derby match, the Hibees fans made their feelings known towards their bitter rivals. Amongst all the animosity, the only bit of love I witnessed in the East Stand was in the interior roof, where two pigeons were celebrating the mating season taking part in a bit of the old ‘in-out-in-out!’ before flying off across the field and out of the stadium.
After all these years I’m pleased to have finally visited ‘The Leith San Siro’ it seems that whenever I’m in the Scottish capital, Hibs are always playing away from home. Last season I made an attempt to finally complete my ‘tick’ only to find that their SPL clash with Gretna postponed on arrival at the ground, which meant having to spend the afternoon in many of the city’s pubs. (every cloud and that!)
After that disappointment I vowed not to return to Easter Road unless I could do an Edinburgh double, pairing Hibs with an East of Scotland League match. There was three viable options to choose from, Tynecastle FC and Leith Athletic were both at home, but I decided on one of the Kings Cup 2nd Round ties, so after the Edinburgh Derby, Jamie and I legged it to his car and drove over to the west end of town to Saughton Enclosure, the home of Lothian Thistle.

Matchday Stats
Hibs 1(Fletcher 14) Hearts 0
Att. 15091
Admission £27.50
Programme £2.50

Ground no.205 Easter Road - Matchday Web album(15 pictures)

.

My Matchday - 157 Love Street

St. Mirren 2v1 Hibernian Scottish Premier League 5th January 2008 att.4212 When I heard the news of St. Mirren’s future departure from their Love Street home, it became my personal ‘Mission to Paisley’ to visit an historic ground before the bulldozers and the superpower of Tesco moved in for the kill, therefore a mission which wasn’t impossible. However the bad weather this week left me flapping that my planned trip north would be a wasted one, but thankfully they’re made of stronger stuff north of the border and a bit snow won’t get in the way of some SPL fitba. Paisley is the second largest town in Scotland after East Kilbride, located in the West Central lowlands, eight mile south-west of Glasgow in Renfrewshire, the club take their name from Saint Mirin, an Irish monk and missionary who in the 6th century established the first Church on the Banks of the River Cart and after his death the shrine of Saint Mirin became a centre of pilgrimage. St. Mirren Park affectionately known as Love Street, opened in 1894, their fourth home after initially playing on a field at Shortroods, Thistle Park at Greenhills and then Westmarch, where they were based when they became founder members of the Scottish League in 1890.The Saints wanted to return to their original home at Shortroods, but had to settle on the cheaper option which was just across the road in Love Street, bought for £3,900. Love Street wasn’t so lovely in the early days, in fact it was a right tip, based next to a slaughterhouse with the club raising extra finances by using the land as a public refuse dump. The first major work on the ground began in 1911 with the first terracing and the construction of a main stand, which was finally completed and opened some ten years later, in 1957 a cover was built over the enclosure and 1959 saw the installation of floodlights making their debut for a Scottish Cup tie v Peebles which the Buddies won 10-0 on their way to winning the trophy that season. The grounds record gate was back in August 1949, 47,438 for a League Cup tie against Celtic, while nowadays Love Street has an all seated capacity of 10,800. I travelled to Paisley by train, catching the 955 from Newcastle Central to Glasgow Central, and then a replacement bus to my destination, I met up with fellow ground blogger and 100FGC member Jamie McQueen (squad no.81) from Fitba Daft, and after a couple of pre-match sherbets made our way to the ground. When arriving at the stadium, we did a quick lap of the exterior of the stadium and it’s noticeable that the neighbouring residents dwellings are built as close to the stadium as possible(see web album)so those tenants won’t have far to go for their shopping in the future. The ground is a mixture of new and old, we opted to go in the 4200 capacity North Stand, which was a good choice, the Buddies supporters make plenty of noise throughout, the stand is covered seating stretching the length of the pitch with the TV gantry suspended under the cowshed roof. The away supporters have the Laidlaw Scott Stand, this is a steep 3015 capacity all seated with access gained high at the back of the stand due to five-a-side pitches and health club facilities underneath. The opposite goal has the Reid Kerr College Family Stand, this has a smaller capacity of 2000 with a cantilever roof and like the rest of the ground the seats are black white and red. The Main Stand which runs parallel to the middle third of the pitch has a capacity of 1,774, this has the classic look of two tiers with a smaller lower tier of five rows of seats, while upstairs is much larger, it’s flagged by terracing which is no longer in use at one side and a car park to the other, it’s exterior has the stylish and best combination of black and white stripes on the wall. The match was an entertaining encounter with the Saints two up by half time, thanks mainly to a bit of dodgy keeping from Hibs’ man between the sticks Ma-Kalambay letting a cross (it definitely wasn’t an intended shot)by Ian Maxwell sail into the net in the 4th minute followed by another error allowing Gary Mason to make it two on 43, with the poor goalie leaving the field at half time to a cheeky standing ovation from the home support. Hibs showed a bit more urgency in the second half but the Saints were never in danger of letting it slip, even a late well taken goal from Antoine-Curier didn’t make for a nervous ending as the home side were better than the 2-1 score line suggests and the valuable points are much needed in their fight against relegation. St. Mirren plan to move to a new purpose built stadium some time early next season in nearby Greenhill Road in Ferguslie Park, the current site has been sold to supermarket chain Tesco and the capital gained will finance the construction of the new stadium as well as paying off the clubs current debts, this all makes good business sense but again a famous and much celebrated ground disappears to be replaced by another bog standard version, which may be pleasing on the eye but …it won’t be love.(street) Ground no.157 Love Street - Matchday web album (18 pictures) LINKS- Match report Fitba Daft report Previous 100FGC ticks; Tims 92