Monday 25 July 2022

Sunshine On Malawi

Blantyre Victoria  4  Pollok  1

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It seemed like a really good idea at the time.

With journeys North of the border for work purposes back on again after a period of abstinence, the task of trying to find fixtures that linked in with the trips was back on the agenda. To complicate matters a bit though, thanks to a serious error of judgement from the gaffer, meetings are now scheduled for a Tuesday, which means the travel and football day has reverted to the Monday. Previously it was a day later, in which case the Central Belt of Scotland was your oyster, now though, not quite so easy…..


In a funny kind of way though, it’s easier to find games on a Monday in pre-season, when they are typically scheduled for all random days throughout the week, so with 18th July having been on the radar for a number of weeks now, the list of options had grown to a modest number.

By the previous weekend, I’d got a choice of games at Yoker Athletic, Petershill, Johnstone Burgh and Blantyre Victoria. The kick off times ranged from 6.20pm to 8pm, but, the first spanner in the works came in the shape of a Scottish Bank Holiday Monday, and with it, a reduced train timetable that basically finished earlier than usual. Yoker was do-able but a bus would be required back, Johnstone was tight, Petershill was the easiest and Plan A, whereas Blantyre was also do-able.


The next spanner of course was the weather, the Red Warnings for extreme heat over the two days we were due to be in Scotland caused travel chaos. I wasn’t 100% sure we would even make it to Glasgow, let alone get to a game!

This is going to sound a bit like a travel log now, but anyway, it went something like this. The 9.45 from Derby to Edinburgh was fine, except it ceased at York, so we had to then wait for what was about an hour for a delayed connection which was a Kings Cross to Aberdeen train. Once on board, all was lovely, until it broke down just outside Thirsk with a brake issue. That got resolved, we got as far as the outskirts of Durham only for the same to happen again, this time with an even longer delay. Then of course a 60 mph speed restriction was placed on the Berwick to Edinburgh line, getting to Petershill was looking doubtful.

Once in Edinburgh, the change to the slow train to Glasgow (the fast ones had all been cancelled) was quite quick and finally, at around 5.15pm we arrived at our destination, two hours after planned. Petershill was not happening, we still had to get from Queen Street to Central where the hotel was, check in, and then get back out again.

Blantyre was now the obvious option, 25 minutes on the train from the lower level of Central Station, and then a ten minute walk once in Blantyre to the ground. I worked out I would make it with five minutes to spare before the 7pm kick off.


I didn’t realise that the following night West Ham United were playing Rangers at Ibrox in a friendly, so as I was wandering around the locality, it was noticeable that the Hammers fans had already started to arrive in town. The heat wasn’t too bad on the Monday evening, the forecast for Scotland suggested it would be a fair few degrees cooler than in parts of England, but even so, I took the risk and decided to leave my coat in the hotel!

The town sits on the Northern outskirts of Hamilton, and by train you travel East past Celtic Park, out through Rutherglen and Cambuslang, before arriving in Blantyre. Not to be confused with Blantrye in Malawi (which apparently is the commercial hub of the Country), the South Lanarkshire town is home to around 17,000 people, with its most famous son being the explorer David Livingstone, who went on to have a new town named after him between Glasgow and Edinburgh, but they spelt it wrong (Livingston), so people don’t often make the connection.

I made that last bit up by the way.

So, you come out of the station, walk down a road, cross a park and come out opposite Asda. You then carry on to your left and then take another left just past the leisure centre and right in front of you is the large turnstile block that welcomes you to Castle Park.

Blantyre Victoria are a famous old name in Scottish Junior Football, having won the prestigious Junior Cup back in 1982. Nowadays they compete in the West of Scotland League First Division, which is the second tier of that particular competition. To put it into perspective, they are two promotions from the Lowland League, which to be fair, is probably one promotion too many as far as many of the traditional Western Junior clubs are concerned.


I did read recently that one or two sides might fancy having a crack at the Scottish Football League, but the thought of having to play in and indeed win the Lowland League is not an appealing prospect. Three SPL reserve sides, a couple of student teams, some recently made up teams and one called Open Goal Broomhill is not quite the same as a ding dong Ayrshire Derby between the likes of Kilbirnie, Beith, Auchinleck and Cumnock.

The principal of the pyramid might be a good idea, but putting it into practice in Scotland is another story.

So, Castle Park is a cracker. The impressive turnstile arrangement greets you and once through, at the South East corner of the ground, to your left are two areas of covered standing typical of Junior football grounds, one of them complete with cinder and railway sleeper terracing. Carrying on round in a clockwise direction you’ve got an out of bounds area behind the goal that is a gently banked grassed area, while moving round to the North side of the ground you meet a bit more terracing and some relatively new seats that are uncovered, set in front of the dressing room area.

The large (unopened) clubhouse sat adjacent to the dressing rooms and then continuing the journey round to the East end of the ground, at either ends of more terracing are two small seated stands of an Atcost variety. Next to one of the stands is the tea bar, and on a night where pies and Bovril were not really required, it was soft drinks and ice cream that were on offer!


The game was an excellent one. Pollok, from a league above, took the lead in the 22nd minute through Gary McCann, but within ten minutes of going behind Scott Jarvie made it 1-1 from distance. Pearse McGarvey took it to 2-1 just after the hour mark, and then as the game moved into the final twenty minutes Kieran Irwin made it 3-1.

Sam Mackenzie scored a fourth for Blantyre with a great finish, to round off a superb evening for the hosts, and a very impressive performance that bodes well for the upcoming league campaign.

The 9pm train was made with a few minutes to spare and soon it was back into Glasgow and a nice air conditioned hotel room. However, the story hadn’t quite finished.

As our meeting progressed the following day, it became apparent that any hope of getting a train back to England was rapidly diminishing. Upon arrival at Glasgow Central we were basically told we had no chance, and with one of our lads due to fly to Spain the following day, another overnight stay was not something he could gamble on. Personally, I would have been more than happy to stay, I mean, Rangers v West Ham was bubbling up nicely in the local pubs, Aberdeen were at Stirling Albion which would have been an easy run, while Airdrie United were also at home just across the way. Having tried in vain to get a hire car I was all set for a bit more football action, but then a car suddenly became available in Hamilton.

The gaffer drove us down the M74 to the depot, we picked up the car, and then the epic journey back started. Calling at Newcastle for the first drop, Darlington for the next drop, before I finally arrived in Belper at 10.45pm.

Like I said, it seemed a really good idea at the time.....


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