St Patrick’s Former Pupils 3 Castlemilk Old Boys Club 0
Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association – Premiership
Admission / Programme – No / No
I’ve known for several weeks now that a trip North of the border was looming, and if I was going to be getting to a game, it would have to be on the final Tuesday of May.
Historically, pre pyramid days, that would have been a doddle, but nowadays they’ve got all these rules about when leagues need to be completed by and all that, it’s totally ruined it. I mean, some leagues used to run to the end of June, having taken three months off for winter!
Anyway, I kept an eye on things and it wasn’t looking great, unless I fancied a trip to Aberdeen and the Highlands, but I wasn’t doing that, so I’d largely given up on it.
But then, the weekend before and I have a little browse at my favourite Scottish fixtures site www.scottishfootballfixtures.com and what do I see?
A game it the Scottish Premier AFA, a title decider if you will, being played at Dumbarton Common.
I’ll be honest, I was flummoxed. I’d never heard of the competition, the two sides, while I’d never heard of them either, did sound like proper amateur sides (former pupils and all that), and as for the venue, I was correct in thinking Dumbarton Common was in Dumbarton, but where in Dumbarton, help??
So, a little bit of research was needed. The competition, well, much like the AFA in London, it is very much a regional set up across the central belt of Scotland (centred around Glasgow) and does indeed cater for the truly amateur clubs (those that don’t pay the players). It was top versus second, and as long as the hosts, St Patrick’s FP, didn’t lose by two or more goals, they would be four in a row champions.
So, the venue, well it turned out to be a hugely convenient one, because Dumbarton Common is a large expanse of grass that sits almost directly outside the North exit to Dumbarton Central train station. The kick off was 6.30pm, and as long as all went to plan, this was a goer!
The journey North started at 8.30am in Belper, and to be honest, I did wonder if the game would actually be played because the weather in Scotland had been shocking. A severe weather warning with danger to life on the Monday, followed by very heavy rain right up until kick off time in the vicinity of Glasgow, did make me think we might get a postponement.
That said, St Patrick’s are very active on Facebook and they posted a couple of times throughout the day about the game, so having landed in Glasgow at just before 3.30pm, and had a bit of food in the Spoons over the road (Mrs H very kindly sent myself and my colleague Rob a couple of beers via the App), I made my way up to Queen Street for the 25 minute journey to Dumbarton.
I’ve been to Dumbarton once before, it was in the days when the blog was having a break, and it was to the Dumbarton Stadium down by the Rock, it was back when Rangers B used the ground in the Lowland League, and I saw them lose to champions elect Bonnyrigg Rose. I didn’t have to go into the centre of Dumbarton, just jumping off at Dumbarton East and then a quick stroll down to the ground.
Anyway, the journey takes you West out of Glasgow, via Clydebank, before running along the edges of the River Clyde and into Dumbarton itself. I arrived into Dumbarton Central just before 6pm and saw out of the window as we were pulling up that players were warming up on the pitch, so it did look like we had a game.
I brief sojourn into the middle of Dumbarton wasn’t overly fruitful, it was indeed closed for the day, bar the Spoons of course, so, a full assessment for the Scottish Tourist Board wasn’t possible, but the Rock and the Castle were looking splendid from the distance!
Dumbarton Common is exactly that, a vast expanse of grass, set next to a Leisure Centre, with a long straight road running up through the middle of it, with the pitch on the right hand side, adjacent to the car park for the said sports centre building.
I arrived at the venue just before kick off and my first thoughts were that a good sized crowd was building for the game, my second thoughts were that on another day the game may well not have been played because areas of the pitch had been worked on extensively to remove the surface water. But even after all that, it was a bit dodgy in places, and it was fair to say that the linesman was going to get wet feet!
Speaking of officials, they were taking this seriously, three of them, all miked up, and with the Scottish Premier AFA ‘hierarchy’ in situ for the big game, it was clearly a match that they wanted to get played, it had too much riding on it for it to go by the wayside.
I would estimate a crowd of around 200 rocked up, and any inkling that the visitors might do the unthinkable was snuffed out just before half time when the St Patrick’s goalkeeper Brian Gallacher saved a penalty, only for the hosts to go straight up the other end and score via Ryan McColl.
Ciaran McElroy netted a second for St Patrick’s to kill the game and see the green ribbons added to the trophy, before another penalty, this time for the hosts in added time, was netted Panenka style by man of the match Joe May.
So that was it, St Patrick’s won the league, and my season was finally over, but the story doesn’t end there, not one bit….
Post meeting the following day, my journey home came to an abrupt halt at Carlisle due to a derailed freight train, and that meant an extra night’s stay in the Citadel City. With no resolution to the problem the following morning, I had to make my way across the Settle line to Leeds, which was very picturesque, but time consuming, and then upon arrival, finding that no trains were running to Sheffield due to an unexploded WW2 bomb being found near Meadowhall!
Long story short, a bit of messing about in Wakefield and eventually we got going again, I finally got off the train in Belper at 5.45pm, almost 24 hours after I initially set off on the homeward bound journey. I wasn’t a happy bunny…….
So, that does bring the season to an end, 146 games, lots of fun, lots of memories and lots of miles. Highlights absolutely include the trip to the Isle of Man with Steve, the weekends in Northern Ireland, the Hop Weekend in Devon (with Steve again), trips to Pride Park and the City Ground (with Mrs H), and of course lots of fun in the South-East with Thorpey doing the Isthmian games. I could go on, but I won’t.
However, if I have to pick one game that stands out, it would be one I watched with Dave, it was Dudley Kingswinford 5 Stourbridge Standard 5 in the West Midlands Regional League, an absolute belter of a match, and one that raised a very rare smile from Mr Garrow!
Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my blog this season, and especially those who have gone to the effort of giving me positive feedback (you know who you are). Those who know me, also know I’m in two minds as to whether to continue blogging into 2024-25, but right now the decision isn't completely made.
Oh, one last thing though, be nice to people, it goes a long way, I promise you….
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