My Matchday - 474 Borough Briggs

Elgin City 3v2 Stirling Albion

Petrofac Training Cup 1st Round

Saturday 25th July 2015

 I decided that for my 50th birthday to go somewhere different and as I'm not the sort of person who gives into cliché or type, there was no trip to New York or a holiday in the sun.
As my birthday fell on a Saturday there had to be football involved, so I decided to head as far north as possible, with a night in Inverness and to visit the northernmost senior league ground in the UK*.

Whereabouts and Whatsabouts
Elgin is a former cathedral city and Royal Burgh, the administrative and commercial centre for Moray. The town sits south of the River Lossie on the higher ground above the floodplain and was first documented in the Cartulary of Moray in 1190 AD. It was created a Royal Burgh in the 12th century by King David I of Scotland and by that time had a castle in the west on top of the present day Lady Hill. Nowadays the former castle site on the hilltop is an 80 feet monument erected in 1839 in honour of the 5th Duke of Gordon, the first commander of the Gordon Highlanders regiment.
The modern town straddles the river, splitting the suburbs of Bishopmill to the north and New Elgin to the south. Rare Permo-Triassic rocks are commonly found around Elgin, which comprises of aeolian sandstone formed when the area was subjected to desert conditions. 

 Plantpot History
In the late 19th century there had been two different clubs that used the Elgin City name. The first of which was founded in October 1879, but lasted for only a short time before a new club was formed in October 1884 and continued until early 1887. The present club was formed on the 10th August 1893 by the union of Elgin clubs, Rovers (Formed 1887) and Vale of Lossie (Founded 1888). The present club's first major honour came in the 1898/99 season when they became the first club outside Inverness to win the North of Scotland Cup beating Clachnacuddin 2-1. The Black and Whites have gone on to win this trophy a total of 18 times including a club record victory in the competition, when they hammered Brora Rangers 18–1 in February 1960.
Elgin City became members of the Scottish Football League in 2000, when the league was expanded with two new clubs, as Peterhead joined them from the Highland League. The club were league champions for the first time in 1931-32 and they won a total of 15 titles as well as lifting the League Cup on five occasions.

 Ground no.474 Borough Briggs
(Scottish Grounds 66 Scottish League Grounds 32/42

Elgin City moved from Cooper Park to Borough Briggs in 1921.The Main Stand looks in great nick for its age, the white exterior walls have the club and ground name proudly displayed at the entrance. The stand sits on the halfway line with a capacity of 478, although I stood on the terraces I may have already park my backside on one of its seats, as it is filled with seats giving to the club from Newcastle United when the club were elected to the Scottish League and the Toon were revamping the Milburn Stand. Next to the stand is a small open terrace at one side, with the snack bar which also sells club merchandise on the other side in front of the turnstile entrance. The team dugouts and four sets of thin floodlight pylons are also on this side. Opposite is a pitch length covered enclosure, which has four sets of floodlights which go through the roof and onto the terrace.Behind each goal is new terracing with grass banking behind, so on a lovely summer’s afternoon it was nice to lie on the lawn and watch the game.
The ground currently capacity is 4,520, with a record attendance of 12,608 against Arbroath on the 17th February 1968 in the Scottish Cup.

 The Match
The Black and Whites twice came from behind to book their place in the second round of the Scottish Challenge Cup.Craig Beattie fired Stirling into the lead on 19 minutes when he capitalised on a misplaced backpass, then just before the break the hosts were back in it, after a foul in the box saw Craig Gunn stroke home the resulting spot kick.
Stirling looked to have taking charge of the tie, when Sandy Cunningham was on hand to fire in the rebound in the 55th minute after the initial shot hit the post, but City quickly responded making it all square five minutes later when Jamie Duff  fired in a right wing cross from six yards.
Elgin dominated the closing stages and were awarded for their efforts when Brian Cameron volleyed in a superb winner to save the match going into extra time and allow us to catch the earlier train back to Inverness.

Matchday Stats
ECFC 3(Gunn 42 Duff 60 Cameron 83) SAFC 2(Beattie 19 Cunningham 54)
Att.612
Top Bloke - Marc McKenzie (Elgin City)

Spondoolicks
Admission £10
Programme £2
Pin badge £2.50
Fridge magnet £2
Coffee 60p

 My Matchday
After my two nights in Glasgow, I headed across to Edinburgh on Friday for a birthday eve night out. I met up with the breadknife who was arriving on the 1555 train from Newcastle, and we headed to the James Little guest house for our overnight stay. There was mince 'n' tatties on the menu, which was good blotting paper for our pub crawl around the south side of Edinburgh. We were joined by James' pal John and later Jamie McQueen, who had been to the match at Whitehill Welfare.
After a heavy drink and a late night, me and the breadknife were up sharp at 7am for the Megabus trip to Inverness, where we arrived just after midday. On our arrival there was just enough time to drop off our luggage at the hotel, buy our tickets and catch the 1247 Aberdeen train to Elgin. 
Before the match there was the obvious stop off at Wetherspoons, where I enjoyed a tasty Highland Burger and my first birthday drinks of the day. Just prior to kick off I had a quick flick through the matchday programme to find that Elgin City were good enough to wish me a happy birthday, which was a very nice touch ... but how did they know?

Another canny bevvy was enjoyed for my birthday night in Inverness where we found some cracking little pubs and also a few lively ones. The town centre was jumping and I've never seen so many lasses wearing mini-skirts. So much so that I saw more pairs of legs in one night than I've seen watching football so far this season.
So that was my 50th birthday... a wee tour of Scotland, 3 matches and 4 days on the lash. I can now boast that I spent my half a century birthday at the most northerly league ground in Britain*, and not many people, if at all anyone outside Elgin can make that claim.

(* English 92 and Scottish 42)

Foetoes (Matchday album of 32 pictures from Borough Briggs)

My Matchday - 387 Forthbank Stadium

Stirling Albion 2v2 Montrose

Scottish League Two

Saturday 22nd March 2014

 Forthbank Stadium was another ground needed in my pursuit of the Scottish 42 as I begin to run out of destinations which can be achieved in a day. Stirling is the easiest one of the thirteen left on my list, just a straightforward train hop at Edinburgh.

Stirling is the largest city in Central Scotland, known as the "Gateway to the Highlands" due to its geographical position at the Highland Boundary Fault described as the brooch which clasps the Highlands and the Lowlands together. The former Scottish capital was created as a Royal burgh by King David I in 1130, remaining so until 1975, when the county of Stirlingshire was formed. The town was granted city status in 2002 as part of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

Stirling is found off the River Forth, so it became a target for Viking invaders. Legend has it that a wolf known as “The beast of Stirling” howled out a warning of a Viking attack, alerting the townsfolk to save the town. It is also claimed that the last wolf in Scotland was killed in Stirling.
At the top of Castle Hill surrounded by three sides of cliffs is the historic and architectural wonder of Stirling Castle, one of the largest castles in the country. Within the grounds is The Great Hall, Renaissance Palace and most of the principal buildings which date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, mainly during the Wars of Scottish Independence, the last assault came when Bonnie Prince Charlie unsuccessfully tried to take the castle in 1746.Scottish royalty have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary Queen of Scots in the castle in 1542 and King James VI in 1567 in the medieval Church of the Holy Rude.

King's Park FC formed in 1875 and later played in the Scottish Football League with the reintroduction of the Second Division in 1921–22 season. Prior to World War II the club had stopped playing competitively but continued playing friendly matches. The fortunes of the club was severely hit in 1941 when a Luftwaffe Heinkel III dropped a single Hermann bomb on their Forthbank ground, one of only two bombs to hit the town during the conflict. Due to a lack of a ground because of the damage, the club didn’t play again and were officially wound up in 1953 when the War Office finally settled their damage claim.

Stirling Albion was founded after the war by local coal magnate Thomas Fergusson, who purchased the Annfield estate to build a new stadium. The football term “yo-yo club” is believed to have originated from Albion, as a club not good enough for the top flight but too strong for the Second Division, having been promoted and relegated eight times between 1952 and '65. The club's unwanted nickname of The Yo-Yos became a Scottish saying that something or somebody was "going up and down like Stirling Albion"  Thankfully the club now have a more solicitous nickname - “The Binos" which is just basically an anagram of Albion but without the Al.

The Binos have won ten league titles between the second to fourth tiers of the Scottish League and hold the record for the biggest victory in the Scottish Cup during the 20th century, beating Selkirk 20-0 in 1984. 
In 2002 Albion became the first senior club in the UK to be 100% owned by a fans trust. A group of die-hard fans set up a trust to provide financial support to the club when needed, after concerns over the club's rising debt. The group launched the 'Buy Stirling Albion’ campaign in May 2009 with the Trust leading fundraising efforts and raised enough funds to purchase the club in June 2010.

The club moved from Annfield to a new purpose built stadium constructed by Stirling Council in 1993. Forthbank is found on the outskirts of the town and is named after the old home of Kings Park; the first football ground in Stirling.
The 3,808 capacity stadium has two seated stands at the sides and open terraces behind the goals. The main stand is on the west side having a single tier block of red seats with SAFC picked out in white with the club offices, hospitality suites at the back and team dugouts in front. The East Stand is of similar style but smaller in length which brings the overall seating capacity to 2,508. The east side also has a Police Control Room, TV gantry and press box. The terraces are identical with room for 300 at each end with the North Terrace allocated to away supporters, although neither are used unless there's a big game with a decent crowd expected. The ground is completed with four very tall and skinny floodlights, but the best feature is the picturesque backdrop to the north, which includes the Wallace Monument at the summit of Abbey Craig.

 Albion were up against Montrose in League 2, with both sides dishing up the worst opening 45 minutes of play I've seen this season. The match had nowts each written all over it, but to our surprise the second half was quite entertaining. The Binos took the lead five minutes after the restart when Craig Comrie fired home from six yards, but the visitors drew level when a 20 yard free kick from Paul Watson perfectly found the bottom left corner of the net.
Stirling looked to have clinched maximum points when David McClune smacked the ball home off the post on 83 minutes, but a clumsy foul by O'Byrne in the box allowed Gary Wood to fire home the spot kick in the final minute for a share of the points.

On my arrival in Edinburgh I called at a couple of my regular haunts. Starting off with a walk across South Bridge for breakfast at Babylon Cafe then down to the bottom of the Royal Mile for some vinyl digging at Unknown Pleasures. I then met up with Squad#155 James Little at Waverley for our 50 minute journey on the 1203 Dunblane service to Stirling. 
We arrived just before 1pm which allowed plenty of time for drinks at No.2 Baker Street, Portcullis and the auldest pub in Stirling - the Settle Inn. The ground is a good 20-25 minute walk from the station, but we managed to hotfoot it back after the match (with seconds to spare) to catch the 1707 to Edinburgh. Once back in the capital we had time for another bevvy, so James took me to previously uncharted boozer; The Bow Inn which has a large choice of ale and worldwide bottled beers. So that's another of the Scottish 42 successfully ticked off and an enjoyable day out, which was accurately summarized by James when he remarked that "The beer was better than the football!"

Matchday Stats
SAFC 2(Comrie 51 McClune 83) MFC 2(Watson 79 Wood 90pen)
Att.529
Admission £10
Programme £3

Ground no.387 Forthbank Stadium - Matchday Web album (22 pictures)