Ross County v Falkirk
14th August (3pm Kick-off)
So here we are for the longest drive of the campaign yet; hence the fact I've been summoned to my dad's house for an 9.30am start for the journey to Dingwall. I know you're all thinking the same thing - that's a bit early isn't it? Regular readers will know this is par for the course.
The drive north was lovely and I felt a warm glow in my stomach as Inverness came into view. I was born here you see, fair enough it was a wee while ago now but it was good to see the city looking so good. The drive out to Dingwall takes you past the Inverness Caledonian Thistle ground and it was crazy to see about fifty people standing just on the side of the road just trying to catch a glimpse of the Inverness CT v Celtic game.
We arrived in Dingwall about an hour before the game, but this time we put the extra time to good use and had a wander round town. A friend of mine - Blair - had recommended we find a butchers shop called 'Campbells' as their Haggis Pie is 'exceptional'. Alas we wandered up and down the High Street but couldn't see it. Shame, although we did have the pie at the ground to look forward to to soften the blow.
My dad continued his new tradition of having his pie before the football and was rewarded with what he described as the best pie yet, even better than the 7 out of 10 awarded to Stranraer. He told me he was going to return at half time for the Haggis Pie, I'll stick to the good old fashioned Scotch Pie.
As the teams were warming up my Dad enquired as to who the referee was, a quick check of the programme revealed it was Iain Brines. 'I thought so' said my dad 'he's a bloody useless pillock, we had him at Kilmarnock a few times last season' (my dad's a season ticket holder at Kilmarnock you see, in fact he's going to every Killie home game this season too- I have to draw the line somewhere) 'we'll be in from another dire performance today'.
And it so happens he was right. It was a poor game if I'm honest and I guess it had to come eventually. Neither side had any real control of the game for any sustained periods and it was littered with dirty challenges that went unpunished. Carl Finnegan of Falkirk was the main culprit and he could have been booked for many of the niggling challenges he made and eventually the Falkirk boss substituted him before he was sent off.
Ross County seemed happy to try and play the ball over the top of the Falkirk defence but time and time again the giant defenders were in full command. To be fair, Falkirk did try and pass it about a bit more but they didn't provide any real threat, this was until the referee awarded a ridiculously soft free kick and Ryan Flynn (back at the club after a brief spell at Liverpool) found space in the box and slotted home after 36 minutes.
At half time my dad kept his promise and dived down for the Haggis Pie 'looked better than it tasted'. We decided to move from our seats in the 'away fans' section of the stand as we were all alone. The away fans were stood behind the goals and the home fans occupied the rest of the stand. We moved up the back to an area with lots of empty seats and soon discovered that the reason it was so quiet is because you can't actually see one of the goals, so we moved again, 3 seat changes in one game, and found ourselves sat in the brilliant sunshine.
It was, however, a very poor second half of football, made all the worse by an old man stood not far from us who seemed to have tourettes as all he shouted was 'Come on County' over and over and over...
The game finished with Falkirk victorious. Falkirk are considered by many to be the favourites to win the SFL League 1 title this season but I think they'll have to improve a fair bit to fulfil that.
Here's hoping the second game of this weekend's double header at Fir Park tomorrow turns out to be better than this dross.
The Statistics
Ticket Price: £14 (£10)
Programme: £2
Attendance: 2387
Pie: £1.70
Pie Marks: 7/10 - Best yet according to my father.
Man of the Match: Dad - Kenny Deuchar (Falkirk) Me - Scott Boyd (Ross County)
Final Score: Ross County 0 - Falkirk 1
Mileage: 326 miles
Fact of the Day: Smallest town in Scotland to have a professional league side. Population of Dingwall is around 5000.
Next Game: Motherwell - Fir Park (August 15th)
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