Queen of the South v East Fife
Alba Challenge Cup Quarter-Finals
Saturday 4th September (3pm Kick-off)
Today we're off to Dumfries for one of the quarter final matches in this season's Alba Challenge Cup. I've been summoned to report at 11.45am for the drive south. It's a yellow card for me however as it's nearer noon by the time I arrive and my dad's already in the car waiting for me.
We set off and my dad's decided to take us via Moffat for the journey to Dumfries. It's a beautiful day and a great road, one you'd like to drive down in a nice sports car, a road with lots of corners and bits that make your stomach go all funny.
We make good time going down the road and find our way to Dumfries by 2pm. For the first time this season, we're not going to park at the ground. Today we're going to meet up with my Brother-in-Law, Alan, and his mate Gary who lives with his wife and daughter in town. Driving through the town I see a public house called the Spread Eagle Inn - don't fancy a drink in there! Gary later tells me it's the only 'Celtic' bar in town, apparently there are four 'Rangers' bars. I didn't get to hear if any of them have a similar catchy name though.
We find the house and park behind my sister's car at the back and face a dilemma. We've got a pack lunch and don't feel it's right to take it in to Gary's home, so my dad reverses a little and we tuck into the food. My sister then calls and asks if we're close? I show my dad who's calling and look to him for advice. He carries on eating, I hold in a giggle and say 'yeah, we're close and we'll be about ten minutes'. Isla goes on to give me detailed instructions as we both keep eating, my dad's laughing by this point. I tell her 'we'll see her soon'. Five minutes later Alan walks out in front of the car just as I'm putting the bag in the back of the car. I think we got away with it.
The four of us then make the short walk to the ground, it's a lovely day and I'm excited to be going to watch the game. After eleven games I've come to realise I look forward to watching teams from the lower divisions more than their SPL counterparts. I think it's the atmosphere you get at these smaller grounds, the banter is more amusing and it's the chance to witness football without all the money, media and expectations.
Once at the ground I get Gary to take us round to the front of the stadium for a quick photo. Alan spots the home teams mascot 'Dougie the Doonhamer' walking by and the opportunity is just too great. I ask Alan & Gary to be in this week's photo and to ask Dougie to join in too, you can see the resulting photo above. Cheers to all three.
Gary asks my dad and I if we want to join him and Alan for a pre-match pint before the game in the club bar. I tell him it's not part of the ritual and we leave them to it. We enter the turnstile and pay, on the way the ticket attendant tells my dad he doesn't look like a senior citizen, my dad thanks her for the compliment. It's a great wee stadium, not only does it boast to having the highest floodlights in Scotland - which I'm sure is nonsense - but it does have the largest terracing in Scotland. I quite like the terracing, but have found that the view from behind the goal doesn't let you enjoy the game as much so we walk round to the stand on the far side.
I take a quick look at the time and see it's pie o'clock. I wander down to the stand and purchase two scotch pies, one for me and one for him. To me it looks not to bad, nae burnt bits and it's not all soggy; a couple of bites in however and it's a different story. As my dad quickly points out 'the pie is way too dry, it's not so good. I'd give this no more than six'. I don't even finish mine.
Alan and Gary join us about ten minutes before kick off. Gary, being the local lad, is full of information about the home side. The best thing he tells us is that the club have a raffle pre-season to decide on who the team sponsor will be for the coming year. As many as 250 local businesses pay £400 each to enter and the first place wins you the honour of getting your business on the strip, everyone else wins a season ticket. That's about £100,000 in the kitty for the Club. I think this is a brilliant business model, one that more smaller teams should get involved in.
It's a first v second division tie today and early on it's a pretty even contest. The home team have the first effort, a weak shot after ten minutes. Two good saves then deny East Fife the lead. Again, it's the small band of away fans that are first to sing, a common feature of the lower divisions, maybe it's because there's so few of them travel to away games.
East Fife's Scott Durie, son of Gordon, is the first in to the referee's book after a wild sliding challenge on a Queens player. East Fife are having too much possession for the four older gents sat in front of us and there's a lot of tutting and raised voices. All is forgiven after 32 minutes when a Weatherston cross fell to Paul Burns who struck it away from eight yards. Both teams had limited chances to alter the score before half time.
Normally we'd head off for a further pie at this point, but after eating such a poor effort pre-match we decide against a second (my apologies to Callum who was looking for photographic evidence of the pie). About two minutes to go, I nip down to buy a drink and as I'm waiting in the queue I hear the whistle for the second half to begin. As I make my way back to my seat, I ask an old gentleman to allow me to pass, just at that moment, the home team score a second. I feel bad as I've obscured this man's vision ands Alan makes me feel worse by pointing this out to all around. Thankfully I'm forgiven. I have to ask my dad if it was a good goal. He tells me it was great shot scored by Burns, that's two for him.
East Fife were still in the game and the keeper saved well from a Linn free kick and Young headed just wide from a later corner. East Fife substitute Ovenstone made an impact after only being on five minutes when he headed into his own net and the game was pretty much over as a contest. Queens made the fact that they are a full-time club show against their part-time opponents and passed the ball around well, McLaren and Holmes especially.
On 78 minutes Burns made sure he went home with the match ball by bundling the ball over the line after Holmes had lobbed the keeper. East Fife continued to try and play football and their player manager Stevie Crawford came on to try and stem the tide.
One of the biggest cheers of the game came when the home keeper smacked the ball out of the park. There was a lone pigeon sat on the top of the grandstand and for a second or two it looked as though it was going to get a smack in the mouth. It obviously had a better view of it than us, as he just watched it sail past.
The final bit of excitement went to Queens though as a Robert Harris free kick from the corner of the box was placed brilliantly in the top corner. It was a peach and pretty close to the best goal we've seen yet. The final whistle followed almost immediately to spare East Fife from further despair. In the end the score flattered the home team but they were the better side in the second half.
On a final note, walking back to the house I heard one East Fife fan chanting 'this place is a shithole', I almost fell over laughing as I reminded him he comes from Methill.
No football now for me until the 18th September, my dad is off however to follow his beloved Kilmarnock next weekend - good luck mate.
The Statistics
Ticket: £13 (£8)
Programme: £2.50
Attendance: 1,781
Pie: £1.50
Pie Marks: 6 out of 10
Man of the Match: Dad - Paul Burns, Alan & Gary - Robert Harris, & Me - Willie McLaren
Final Score: Queen of the South 5 - East Fife 0
Mileage: 161 miles
Fact of the Day: Queens have the largest terracing in Scotland.
Next game: Sheilfield Park (September 18th)
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