Annan Athletic v East Stirlingshire
Saturday 7th August (3pm Kick-off)
Fear not followers, the time and distance calculations were out again today. Left Edinburgh at 11.30 this morning and arrived in Annan at 1.45pm. Only 1hr and 15 minutes before kick off, still at least we got a parking space. First game of the new 3rd division season you see, crowd will be heaving.
We sat in the car, eating our tasty pack lunch - cheers Emma - rather than sit in the club's social club and watch the Rangers v Newcastle friendly on the box until it was time to watch the game. We wandered round the stadium, took some pictures and ended up stuck in the away end. A kindly steward let us out and told us about the pitch; it's slope is worse than the old Easter Road pitch. It's so bad that the pitch has to be moved next season to take it out of play. God knows how they're going to do that. Move it 5 metres in the required direction and you'll be standing on the main road into Annan to watch the game.
After the last two games debacle with the lack of half time pie's my dad was taking no chance and headed straight to the pie stand before the game had even kicked off. Thing was, however, the pies hadn't arrived at the ground yet - 15 minutes before kick off and nae pies, you should've seen the look on my dad's face.
All was well, however, when 5 minutes later a white transit van drove straight into the ground and delivered Scotch pie's for the waiting throng. £2.40 and two pies later and we'd agreed on a six out of ten marking for the pie, marked down for their hard crusts. My dad reminds me of the judge on Masterchef - not the bald one that likes his puddings, the other one - with his breakdown of the delicacy on offer.
Annan Athletic ran out to the theme tune from The A-Team but East Stirlingshire started the brighter of the two teams, much to the dismay of the (largely senior citizen) crowd around us.
However, after 16 minutes the home team scored. Then they scored a second after 17 minutes. And then a third after 19. Unbelievable, 3 goals in 4 minutes, the first two within 45 seconds. They were good goals too, especially the first one - a Mick Jack curler from the edge of the box.
The 25 or so away fans looked shell-shocked but it didn't take them long to start singing and smacking the advertising hoardings behind the goals, in fact they didn't stop singing all game. The home fans didn't sing one song all game. Seems to be a bit of a trend down in these lower divisions, hopefully that'll improve.
East Stirlingshire pulled one back from a corner, when a header came back off the post, hit the diving keeper on the back and went in. They then had most of the ball for the rest of the half but didn't make anything of it.
Half time entertainment was provided by an advert on the loud speaker for the Ginger Boot. The rest of Europe has the Golden Boot but the top scorer in the SFL also has the chance to add the Ginger Boot to their collection. If you haven't already guessed; it's sponsored by Irn-Bru.
The second half started and the away team had a lot of possession but, as in the first, they just didn't have a way through Annan. They worked hard and even chucked on three subs at the same time to try and freshen it up. Annan went the closest, however, when Gilfillan tried the David Beckham lob from 45 yards, the keeper did well to back track
Nothing much else happened and it finished 3 - 1 for Annan.
To sum up it was a great first half and a dull second. The away fans enjoyed their trip, singing their hearts out, some of them even baring their torsos to the unexpected Scottish afternoon sun (not for the fainthearted). It'd be good to go back in a year or so to see if they've fixed the slope.
As the teams walked off, the tannoy played 'That's all folks', they must have an album of these tunes here at Galabank - and that's all from me until next week!
The Statistics
Ticket Price: £9 (£5 concession)
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 539
Pie: £1.20
Pie Marks: 6/10
Man of the Match: Dad - John Neil (East Stirlingshire) Me - Aaron Muirhead (Annan Athletic)
Final Score: Annan Athletic 3 v East Stirlingshire 1
Mileage: 182 miles
Fact of the Day: Until 1977 Annan Athletic played in the English minor league - The Carlise & District League
Next game: East Fife - Bay View Stadium (Tuesday 10th August)
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