✔673 Beechwood Park

Stonyburn Junior 2-3 Harthill Royal

East Region Consolation League Cup

Saturday 11th May 2019

 Stoneyburn is a West Lothian village about 1.5 mile in length in the Central Belt of Scotland. The village is situated south of Bathgate and further along the A71 west of Livingston. (population: approx 3,800)

The original Stoneyburn Junior FC formed in 1928 and reached the Scottish Junior Cup semi-finals in 1950, losing 4–2 after a second replay to eventual winners Blantyre Victoria. The club hit on hard times later in that decade and folded in 1958. The current setup returned to the Scottish Junior level in 1983 after playing a number of years at Juvenile and Amateur levels.

East of Scotland League champions(West Division) 1934-35 1938-39

East of Scotland cup winners 1939,1947,1950

St Michaels Cup winners 1939,1950

Beechwood Park

Strathyre Drive,

Stoneyburn,

EH47 8AZ

Scottish Junior grounds visited 44

Scottish grounds visited 105

The ground was built during the 1950s using spoil material from the nearby Foulshiels Colliery, which gave the club its nickname - “The Fulshie”. At the spectators entrance is the changing rooms, clubhouse cabin, club office and the canteen. There's a covered enclosure with large steps of terracing in front at one side of the dugouts. The rest of the ground has grass banking, with the perimeter fence setback behind one of the goals.

Stoneyburn Junior v Harthill Royal

East Region Consolation League Cup matchday 4

2.30pm ko

Att.74hc

Weather: sunny

The Consolation Cup is a round robin tournament with three teams playing each other home and away. Stonehaven needed to follow up the 5-0 win at Harthill in midweek to pip West Calder and progress to the knockout round. They looked well on their way when Kieran Sweeney knocked in a left wing cross with barely 40 seconds gone, before going two up twenty minutes later, when the ball dropped to Adam Kennedy in the box to fire in with his right foot.

It was all square by half time with a neat glancing header from the #11 followed by another header, this time Graeme Weir found the net after nodding home from a corner kick in the last action of the first half.

It was a tale of two penalties in the second half. Kieran Sweeney had the chance to bag his second and regain his team the lead, but his effort went well wide of the post. With fifteen minutes remaining a spot-kick was rewarded at the other end and this time Johnstone confidently fired in, to complete the comeback and knock the hosts out of the cup.

Matchday Facts

SJFC 2 (Sweeney 1 Kennedy 20)

HRFC 3 (#11 25 G.Weir 45+1 Johnstone 75pen)

Entertainment 9/10

Admission £5

Programme:£1 (great value, full of good articles and statistics)

Coffee £1

Harthill goalscorers to be confirmed. 

#HeedHopper

0743 LNER East Coast train arriving in Edinburgh at 0920

Return on the 1900, back in the Toon at 2040

This was my traditional last Saturday matchday of the season for a Scottish Juniors fixture and a bevvy meeting with James Little and Mark Wilkins. On this corresponding weekend last season we visited Harthill Royal, who were the away team today. They played Crossgate Primrose on that afternoon, which coincidentally was the destination the season before last, so I’ve stumbled into a chain, denoting I’ll be watching Stoneyburn playing away on the 9th May 2020.

I met Mark in Waverley station, then we toddled off for breakfast before heading to the west end of the city to tick off the Roseburn Bar, Haymarket, Thomson Bar(revisit for me) and Monty’s, where James picked us up at 1.30pm for the drive to Stoneyburn.

After the match we continued filling in the GBG gaps in Edinburgh, with a pint in the Stockbridge Tap, The Cumberland Bar and finally the Beehive Inn before I dashed off to catch the train home. Another great day in the Scottish capital, although I’m running out of new pubs to visit, so hopefully there'll be some new GBG listed pubs when I return next season. 

✔614 Gibbshill Park

Harthill Royal 2-3 Crossgates Primrose

East Region South Division

Saturday 12th May 2018

 Harthill Royal Football Club are based in the Greenrigg area of Harthill. The small rural village is on the border of West Lothian, just a small walk from Harthill in the neighbouring county of North Lanarkshire.

The villages lie on the River Almond just west of Whitburn and close to the M8 motorway which links Edinburgh and Glasgow. The area grew up as a result of the coal mining industries, with miners working at the Greenrigg and Polkemmet Collieries.

Amateur side Harthill Royal Bar joined the East Region Junior ranks in 1992 and at the same time dropped the Bar from their surname.

East Region Division One winners: 1992–93, 1994–95, 1999–00

Lothians District Division Two winners: 2002–03

Dechmont League Cup: 1999–00, 2004–05

Brown Cup: 2003

Gibbshill Park

East Main Street,

Harthill,

ML7 5QQ

Scottish Junior grounds visited 40

Scottish grounds visited 98

The ground was previously called Beechbank Park when it was the home of defunct club Polkemmet Juniors, who last played here in 1988. There is a covered  enclosure at one side with the team dugouts opposite. The rest of the ground is open standing with the changing rooms and clubhouse behind the goal at the entrance end. 

Harthill Royal(9th) v Crossgates Primrose(6th)

McBookie.com South matchday 23v24

2.30pm ko

Att.94hc (including "The Scouse Mafia" who I met a few seasons back at Tranent)

A hat-trick from Crossgates number nine Scott Hind set them on the way to well deserved victory over the Royal. With just over ten minutes gone the hosts were down to ten men when the ‘keeper tripped the onrushing striker on the edge of the box, denying him a clear shot at goal. From the resulting free kick the ball was clipped into the area where Hind headed home the opener.

Soon after the interval Hind slid in his second before a fantastic piece of skill and rasping finish made it 3-0 with just under an hour gone. It seemed a case of how many Primrose would score, but the plucky ten men battled their way back into the game. John Taylor scooped in a right wing cross on 65 minutes, then a free kick in the Harthill half next to the dugouts was chipped forward by Tom McAllister and it somehow eluded everyone before finding the back of the net.

Scott Hind had the chance to finally put the game to bed and grab his fourth goal from the penalty spot, but surprisingly he fired his effort wide of the post, but they still held on to take the three points in a very entertaining fixture.

#HeedHopper

0738 Cross Country train arriving in Edinburgh at 0910

Return on the 2000 Virgin East Coast, hyem at 2140

The traditional last Saturday matchday of the season to Scotland, was just as enjoyable as the previous dozen trips on this corresponding weekend of the year. On arrival I met up with Mark Wilkins, who had caught the overnight National Express from London. After a hearty breakfast we seeked out a couple of GBG pubs, having a pint at Kay’s Bar and The Oxford Bar, before meeting up with James Little, who was driving us across to Harthill. We broke up the journey a wee bit by calling at Juniper Green both on the way there and back to tick off the two pubs in the village.

When we arrived back in Edinburgh the season finale day on the lash continued with bevvies in the The Earl of Marchmont, Dagda Bar, Southside and the Jolly Judge. Overall a cracking day and for the second week running it was lovely having the sun kiss my face. 

Matchday Stats and Spondoolicks

HRFC 2(Taylor 65 McAllister 83)

CPFC 3(Hind 15,49,58)

Entertainment 8/10

Top Bloke - Scott Hind(Crossgates Primrose)

Admission £5

Programme:none

Scotch pie £1.50

Coffee 50p

My visit to Crossgates Primrose on this corresponding day last season.

My Matchday - 428 Foresters Park

Tranent Juniors 4v2 Harthill Royal

McBookie.com East Region Juniors - South Division

Saturday 29th November 2014

Whereabouts and Whatsabouts

Tranent  is a town in East Lothian, about 11 miles east of Edinburgh, found on the south side of the A1 with a population of around 11,000. The town name derives from the ancient celtic language of Brittonic, made up of Tre and Nant, meaning “town of the stream”. 
One of the oldest towns in Haddingtonshire was once a chief mining district, with the first pits opened back in the 12th century, but nowadays Tranent is more a commuter town serving East 
Lothian and the Scottish capital.
The Massacre of Tranent took place in 1797, when local people were killed by soldiers after protesting against conscription into the British Militia. One of the 12 victims Jackie Crookston is depicted on the memorial that commemorates those who lost their lives, found in the town’s Civic Square.

Plantpot History

Tranent Juniors F.C. formed in 1911 and are another Scottish Juniors club I’ve visited who are previous winners of the prestigious Scottish Junior Cup.(This could a new challenge to try and visit them all) The club reached the final for the first time in 1933, losing out to York Athletic after a replay, however two years later they went one better by hammering Petershill 6-1 in front of 22,000 at Ibrox Park. This scoreline remains the biggest winning margin in a final and was matched by Bonnyrigg Rose in 1966. Tranent are nicknamed The Belters and current play in the South Division of the McBookie.com Scottish Junior East Region 

 Ground no.428 Foresters Park 
(Total Scottish Grounds visited 53 Scottish Juniors 10)

Foresters Park is found just off the main street which runs through Tranent, through a back lane on Haddington Road. The ground has a standing enclosure on one side covering the middle third of the pitch, which has seven large terrace steps with supporting pillars at the front embedded into the perimeter fence. The team dugouts are opposite with the changing rooms which were opened in 2007 at the back next to the main car park, where there's also another admission gate in the corner. The rest of the 2,300 capacity ground is made up of grass banking but unfortunately there’s no clubhouse or refreshment facilities. At the other side of the changing rooms are some 5-a-side pitches and a full size 3G pitch where the Tranent U-21s were in action at the same time as the senior side.

The Match
Both Tranent Juniors and Harthill Royal went into this South Division fixture in a dreadful run of form, so I was expecting an open game with plenty of goals. We didn’t have long to wait for the opener when after six minutes a left wing cross was met with a lovely diving header from Cameron Reynolds. The Tranent centre-forward could have had a hat-trick after wasting two good chances but he was on hand to fire home for six yards and double his tally on the half hour.
Harthill didn’t create much but with their first meaningful attack they halved the deficit on 36 minutes when Alex Cummings struck home from the edge of the box, only for the hosts to restore the two goal cushion minutes later, when a 20 yard free kick from Darren Ramsay hit the defensive wall before he smashed home the rebound.
Tranent made it 4-1 in the 50th minute when some neat build up play was rounded off by the Ramsay for his second of the afternoon. The visiting goalkeeper pulled off a string of fine saves to keep the score down and his team mates made the score look a bit more respectable when Alex Wade pulled a goal back in the final minute. So a good game and it turned out to be a good choice as the other matches on our short list didn’t produce as many goals.

Matchday Stats & Spondoolicks
TJFC 4(Reynolds 6,29 Ramsay 39,50)HRFC(Cummings 36 Wade 90)
Att.44(HC)
Admission £4
Programme and refreshments:none
Top Bloke - Darren Ramsay(Tranent)

My Matchday
What a splendid Matchday, well it was until I got back home and discovered I had lost my camera. I arrive in Edinburgh Waverley at 12.10 where I was quickly joined by 100FgC AF#33 Mark Wilkins who had travelled up from London Kings Cross. My ground total is currently in the four hundred and twenties but this total is bobbins in comparison to Mark as he’s now in the two thousands and eighties! 
We heading to the bus stop on Waterloo Place to catch the 104 bus service to Tranent which was cheaply priced at only £3.50 return. The bus journey took around half an hour so on arrival we headed straight to the ground, being the first to enter Foresters Park for the 1.45 kick off. Gradually the crowd grew with a larger presence from south of the border with a Geordie and a Londoner being joined by a car full of 'hoppers from Liverpool.
After watching an entertaining game we had plenty of time for a couple of pints in the town followed by further bevvys in Edinburgh before Mark caught the 1730 and I jumped on the 1830 back to Toon. So a cracking day overall in a friendly place, watching an entertaining game in good company.

At the top of this post I stated that Tranent was another club I've visited, who had won the Holy Grail of Scottish Junior football. This lead me to do a bit of research which shows that since the Scottish Junior Cup started in 1886-87 there's been 66 teams who have lifted the top prize. Out of those winners 14 clubs no longer exist and I've been to 8 of the remaining teams so that makes it 44 former cup winners to visit. This wouldn't be a problem if I'd retired from work and shacked up with Edinburgh based Squad#155 James Little for a couple of years, so I really need to narrow the odds down a bit. In my lifetime (which hits half a century next year) there’s been 28 Junior Cup winners, with only one club no longer around and five I've already ticked, which leaves a doable total of 22. This is a challenge I'm willing to except , I don't know how long it will take but I'm looking forward to it already and made it official by added the relevant information onto my T’Do List.


Bevvy Almanac
A couple of pints of Belhaven Best in two very good pubs in Tranent;
The New Plough Inn (High St)
Keepers Arms(Bridge St)
Edinburgh
The Guildford (W Register St.)
Fallen Brewing Just The Ticket(4%)****+
Great Heck ‘Nelson Simcoe’ (4.5%)***+
The Standing Order (George St)
Old Worthy ‘Scottish Pale Ale’ (5%)***

Foetoes 
(some cracking pictures of Foresters Park and the Tranent v Harthill Royal match which was on the camera which now belongs to some lucky bugger in Scotland)
Special thanks to Mark Wilkins for the blog pictures.