St Mirren Park (Scotland U21 v Sweden U21)

Last Wednesday I made the short journey to St Mirren Park where the Scottish under-21 team were hosting a friendly (or 'challenge match' as they are called these days) against their Swedish counterparts. On the same night the Scottish first team were ripped apart in Stockholm 3-0 the U21 team fared slightly better and managed a creditable draw against the Scandinavians.

The atmosphere in St Mirren Park left something to be desired especially in the first half. I know it can be quiet on Greenhill Road but I had never heard it as quiet as this! Helsingborg's Denni Avdić scored for Sweden on sixteen minutes. The Scandinavians looked the better side but they were not able to add to their tally before the half time whistle. After the interval (and a fifteen-minute for a steak pie that was sold out) Scotland created more chances and the reshuffled side looked a lot more dangerous. In injury time Dons player Chris Maguire, who had an excellent game, had an impressive run forward and provided Hibee David Wotherspoon with the only Scotland goal of the night.

For pictures of St Mirren Games at St Mirren Park see this post and this one.

It was pay-at-the-gate tonight.


The main facade of St Mirren Park.


A healthy crowd in the West Stand.


The national anthems before the match. The South Stand was not open tonight...


...and neither was the North Stand.


Celebrations after Avdić's goal for Sweden.


Sweden U21 manager Jörgen Lennartsson.

Wednesday 11th August 2010
Under-21 International Challenge Match
Scotland 1 Sweden 1
Scotland: Wotherspoon 90+1.
Sweden: Avdic 16.
Att: 2,726

You have read this article Friendly / Scotland U21 / Sweden U21 with the title Friendly. You can bookmark this page URL https://couplesfootballstadium.blogspot.com/2010/08/st-mirren-park-scotland-u21-v-sweden_13.html. Thanks!

St Mirren Park (Scotland U21 v Sweden U21)

Last Wednesday I made the short journey to St Mirren Park where the Scottish under-21 team were hosting a friendly (or 'challenge match' as they are called these days) against their Swedish counterparts. On the same night the Scottish first team were ripped apart in Stockholm 3-0 the U21 team fared slightly better and managed a creditable draw against the Scandinavians.

The atmosphere in St Mirren Park left something to be desired especially in the first half. I know it can be quiet on Greenhill Road but I had never heard it as quiet as this! Helsingborg's Denni Avdić scored for Sweden on sixteen minutes. The Scandinavians looked the better side but they were not able to add to their tally before the half time whistle. After the interval (and a fifteen-minute for a steak pie that was sold out) Scotland created more chances and the reshuffled side looked a lot more dangerous. In injury time Dons player Chris Maguire, who had an excellent game, had an impressive run forward and provided Hibee David Wotherspoon with the only Scotland goal of the night.

For pictures of St Mirren Games at St Mirren Park see this post and this one.

It was pay-at-the-gate tonight.


The main facade of St Mirren Park.


A healthy crowd in the West Stand.


The national anthems before the match. The South Stand was not open tonight...


...and neither was the North Stand.


Celebrations after Avdić's goal for Sweden.


Sweden U21 manager Jörgen Lennartsson.

Wednesday 11th August 2010
Under-21 International Challenge Match
Scotland 1 Sweden 1
Scotland: Wotherspoon 90+1.
Sweden: Avdic 16.
Att: 2,726

You have read this article Friendly / Scotland U21 / Sweden U21 with the title Friendly. You can bookmark this page URL https://couplesfootballstadium.blogspot.com/2010/08/st-mirren-park-scotland-u21-v-sweden.html. Thanks!

Cappielow Park (Greenock Morton v St Mirren)

After last Saturday's trip to Peterhead I stayed a bit closer to home last Tuesday. I took the train to Greenock, for the second time that day as I work in Greenock, for the annual Renfrewshire Cup 'final' between Morton and St Mirren. At least the Ton went through an actual semi-final to reach it, thrashing amateurs Moorcroft 13-0. According to Morton chairman Rae Douglas in tonight's matchday programme the amateur team played 'well and competed well.' At least that's something I suppose.

Morton and St Mirren have enjoyed a longstanding rivalry for decades and it has remained strong despite both teams not having played in the same league for over a decade. This traditional pre-season 'friendly' is always fiercely contested and never meaningless to use a pre-season cliché. Saints were poor against last year's First Division strugglers but then again I do not think anyone has been expecting an easy 2010/11 season for the Buddies. The loan deal Celtic's Paul McGowan had signed shortly before the game at least was a bit of good news. The ex-Morton player came on as a replacement for Steven Robb eight minutes before time added a bit of spice to the occasion.

There were no goals during 90 minutes of regular time which is worrying for St Mirren as they still seem unable to find the net easily, even against opposition from the second tier. It also meant I would not be able to make my 9:31pm train back to Paisley. Expecting extra time I went to the snack van for a coffee, no pies in the away end unfortunately, just something resembling a hamburger. Then it turned out there was no extra time and the teams had already started taking penalties. When John Potter scored the deciding 4-3 for St Mirren I had lost count. As there was no extra time I could still make the 9:56pm train from Cartsdyke to Paisley. Both sets of fans were separated at the station to prevent a repeat of the ugly scenes seen in recent years.

For more pictures of Cappielow see this post.

Long queues at the turnstiles.


The Grandstand before kick-off.


The Cowshed before the start of the game.


Saints fans in the Wee Dublin End.


Quite amusing, thirteen-year-olds taunting other thirteen-year-olds: 'Fatty, gie's a wave!"

Will there be a fifth consecutive Renfrewshire Cup at the end of this rainbow?

Cappie the Cat's bizarre antics...I really had no idea what he was up to. Well-nourished cheerleaders in the background.

Saints won the penalty shoot-out.

The Cowshed after the game.

The Grandstand after the final whistle.

Fans were separated by the police at Cartsdyke station. Not much happened. Some Morton fan threw an egg...better than a brick I suppose, see this report from two years ago.

Tuesday 27th July 2010
Renfrewshire Cup Final
Greenock Morton 0 St Mirren 0 (after 90 minutes, St Mirren win 4-3 on penalties)
Penalties:
Morton: Holmes missed, Monty scored, Kelby missed, Tidser scored, Smyth scored
St Mirren: Higdon scored, Van Zanten missed, Brady scored, McGowan scored, Potter scored
Att: 3,422

You have read this article Friendly / Greenock Morton / St. Mirren with the title Friendly. You can bookmark this page URL https://couplesfootballstadium.blogspot.com/2010/07/cappielow-park-greenock-morton-v-st_28.html. Thanks!

Cappielow Park (Greenock Morton v St Mirren)

After last Saturday's trip to Peterhead I stayed a bit closer to home last Tuesday. I took the train to Greenock, for the second time that day as I work in Greenock, for the annual Renfrewshire Cup 'final' between Morton and St Mirren. At least the Ton went through an actual semi-final to reach it, thrashing amateurs Moorcroft 13-0. According to Morton chairman Rae Douglas in tonight's matchday programme the amateur team played 'well and competed well.' At least that's something I suppose.

Morton and St Mirren have enjoyed a longstanding rivalry for decades and it has remained strong despite both teams not having played in the same league for over a decade. This traditional pre-season 'friendly' is always fiercely contested and never meaningless to use a pre-season cliché. Saints were poor against last year's First Division strugglers but then again I do not think anyone has been expecting an easy 2010/11 season for the Buddies. The loan deal Celtic's Paul McGowan had signed shortly before the game at least was a bit of good news. The ex-Morton player came on as a replacement for Steven Robb eight minutes before time added a bit of spice to the occasion.

There were no goals during 90 minutes of regular time which is worrying for St Mirren as they still seem unable to find the net easily, even against opposition from the second tier. It also meant I would not be able to make my 9:31pm train back to Paisley. Expecting extra time I went to the snack van for a coffee, no pies in the away end unfortunately, just something resembling a hamburger. Then it turned out there was no extra time and the teams had already started taking penalties. When John Potter scored the deciding 4-3 for St Mirren I had lost count. As there was no extra time I could still make the 9:56pm train from Cartsdyke to Paisley. Both sets of fans were separated at the station to prevent a repeat of the ugly scenes seen in recent years.

For more pictures of Cappielow see this post.

Long queues at the turnstiles.


The Grandstand before kick-off.


The Cowshed before the start of the game.


Saints fans in the Wee Dublin End.


Quite amusing, thirteen-year-olds taunting other thirteen-year-olds: 'Fatty, gie's a wave!"

Will there be a fifth consecutive Renfrewshire Cup at the end of this rainbow?

Cappie the Cat's bizarre antics...I really had no idea what he was up to. Well-nourished cheerleaders in the background.

Saints won the penalty shoot-out.

The Cowshed after the game.

The Grandstand after the final whistle.

Fans were separated by the police at Cartsdyke station. Not much happened. Some Morton fan threw an egg...better than a brick I suppose, see this report from two years ago.

Tuesday 27th July 2010
Renfrewshire Cup Final
Greenock Morton 0 St Mirren 0 (after 90 minutes, St Mirren win 4-3 on penalties)
Penalties:
Morton: Holmes missed, Monty scored, Kelby missed, Tidser scored, Smyth scored
St Mirren: Higdon scored, Van Zanten missed, Brady scored, McGowan scored, Potter scored
Att: 3,422

You have read this article Friendly / Greenock Morton / St. Mirren with the title Friendly. You can bookmark this page URL https://couplesfootballstadium.blogspot.com/2010/07/cappielow-park-greenock-morton-v-st.html. Thanks!

Celtic Park (Celtic v AZ)

Last Wednesday night I watched Celtic take on Dutch league champions AZ in an almost empty Celtic Park. The friendly had originally been planned for Wednesday 21st April but the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland meant the club from Alkmaar were unable to travel to Scotland. Despite the fact that season ticket holders could see this game for "free" only about 2,000 fans bothered to show up. Celtic had organised the friendly because they had played no Scottish Cup home games this season and basically owed their supporters one game. As a follower of Dutch Eredivisie football this fixture immediately appealed to me but this sentiment was apparently not shared by most of the Celtic fans.

I went to the game with two guys from my work, one of them an AZ fan, so I got tickets as close to the away section as I could. About 14 AZ supporters had followed their club to Scotland. From what I understood more fans had planned to travel to Glasgow on the 21st but the postponement had made things difficult for many of them. We took a train from Glasgow Central to Dalmarnock train station from which it is only a ten-minute walk to Celtic Park. I immediately noticed that it was very quiet near the ground. I even forgot to buy a programme because I did not see any vendors. It later turned out that programmes were sold but I was unable to obtain one after the game so I am trying to source one on eBay now!

The game was a typical friendly with not much of an atmosphere coming from the sparsely filled stands. The biggest cheer came when it was announced that Celtic had beaten Rangers to win the Youth Cup Final at Hampden (another reason cited for the small crowd tonight). The highlight of the game for me was when one of the Dutch fans took of his AZ shirt and put on a Celtic shirt which was applauded by the Hoops fans on the Lisbon Lions Stand.

On the pitch, Georgios Samaras gave Celtic the lead, but Graziano Pelle equalised before half-time and Jonathas scored from the penalty spot in the second half to give Dick Advocaat's men an undeserved lead. Celtic created many chances but were very wasteful and never managed to equalise.

For more pictures of Celtic Park see this post (v St Mirren),this one (v FC Utrecht) and this one (v Rangers).

Approaching Celtic Park.


The Lisbon Lions Stand.


Samaras puts Celtic 1-0 ahead.

Jonathas scores the winning goal from the spot.

The North Stand.

The small contingent of AZ fans.

The South Stand after the game.

Wednesday 28th April 2010
Friendly
Celtic 1 AZ 2
Celtic: Samaras 36.
AZ: Pelle 40. Jonathas (pen) 75.
Att: 2,000 (est.)

You have read this article AZ / Celtic / Celtic Park / Friendly with the title Friendly. You can bookmark this page URL https://couplesfootballstadium.blogspot.com/2010/05/celtic-park-celtic-v-az_01.html. Thanks!

Celtic Park (Celtic v AZ)

Last Wednesday night I watched Celtic take on Dutch league champions AZ in an almost empty Celtic Park. The friendly had originally been planned for Wednesday 21st April but the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland meant the club from Alkmaar were unable to travel to Scotland. Despite the fact that season ticket holders could see this game for "free" only about 2,000 fans bothered to show up. Celtic had organised the friendly because they had played no Scottish Cup home games this season and basically owed their supporters one game. As a follower of Dutch Eredivisie football this fixture immediately appealed to me but this sentiment was apparently not shared by most of the Celtic fans.

I went to the game with two guys from my work, one of them an AZ fan, so I got tickets as close to the away section as I could. About 14 AZ supporters had followed their club to Scotland. From what I understood more fans had planned to travel to Glasgow on the 21st but the postponement had made things difficult for many of them. We took a train from Glasgow Central to Dalmarnock train station from which it is only a ten-minute walk to Celtic Park. I immediately noticed that it was very quiet near the ground. I even forgot to buy a programme because I did not see any vendors. It later turned out that programmes were sold but I was unable to obtain one after the game so I am trying to source one on eBay now!

The game was a typical friendly with not much of an atmosphere coming from the sparsely filled stands. The biggest cheer came when it was announced that Celtic had beaten Rangers to win the Youth Cup Final at Hampden (another reason cited for the small crowd tonight). The highlight of the game for me was when one of the Dutch fans took of his AZ shirt and put on a Celtic shirt which was applauded by the Hoops fans on the Lisbon Lions Stand.

On the pitch, Georgios Samaras gave Celtic the lead, but Graziano Pelle equalised before half-time and Jonathas scored from the penalty spot in the second half to give Dick Advocaat's men an undeserved lead. Celtic created many chances but were very wasteful and never managed to equalise.

For more pictures of Celtic Park see this post (v St Mirren),this one (v FC Utrecht) and this one (v Rangers).

Approaching Celtic Park.


The Lisbon Lions Stand.


Samaras puts Celtic 1-0 ahead.

Jonathas scores the winning goal from the spot.

The North Stand.

The small contingent of AZ fans.

The South Stand after the game.

Wednesday 28th April 2010
Friendly
Celtic 1 AZ 2
Celtic: Samaras 36.
AZ: Pelle 40. Jonathas (pen) 75.
Att: 2,000 (est.)

You have read this article AZ / Celtic / Celtic Park / Friendly with the title Friendly. You can bookmark this page URL https://couplesfootballstadium.blogspot.com/2010/05/celtic-park-celtic-v-az.html. Thanks!