Raymond on The glamour and excitement of preliminary qualifying round of the Scottish Cup
You may (or may not) have noticed that this season’s Scottish Cup has already started. There’s something great about the Cup, particularly if -like me- you’re not a fan of the Old Firm. In fact, the phrase ‘not a fan’ does not do justice to my Old Firm antipathy. I’m more like the opposite of a fan; an ‘unfan’, if you will.
For ‘unfans’ of the Old Firm, the best thing about the Cup is that, unlike the League Championship, in which no club from outside Glasgow has triumphed since 1985, it gives us a decent chance of witnessing some other team lifting the trophy.
(Read more in comments)
Once the competition starts, we live in reasonable hope that one of the so-called ‘provincial’ sides will overcome the odds to triumph in the final. In recent years, I’ve attended finals won by Inverness Caledonian Thistle, St.Johnstone and Hearts.
When the draw for the first round was made a few weeks ago, there were several romantic-sounding names in the hat, like St. Cuthbert Wanderers, Burntisland Shipyards and Bonnyrigg Rose. Perhaps the least romantic name -but the most interesting story- belonged to Edusport Academy. Edusport is the first independent football academy to be allowed to enter the old competition. The company was set up by the former professional footballer Chris Ewing in 2011, with the idea of modelling an academy on the American scholarship system in order to provide young people with a sports-based life experience. Based in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Edusport is a business and therefore designed to make a profit. This, along with the fact that it has recruited most of its students from Europe, appears to have annoyed some conservative elements within the football community.
In the first preliminary round, they were drawn against Colville Park, who had qualified by winning the Scottish Amateur Cup, which is the Wagner’s Ring Cycle of lower level football, with hundreds of entrants each year and seemingly dozens of rounds. On Saturday, I went along with my youngest son to see the replay, the teams having drawn 2-2 the week before. The venue was New Tinto Park (home of Benburb Juniors), chosen because Colville Park’s ground did not meet SFA requirements. I have no idea what those requirements are, but –given the basic amenities available at New Tinto- I can only imagine what isn’t available at Colville’s home ground. It was a fiver to get in and I estimated the crowd at somewhere between 60 and 70. It was odd to think that a low-key occasion like this would, in nine months or so, lead to a major final played in front of 52,000 fans at the National Stadium, with live coverage on television. If I was writing for the Daily Record, this is where I would use the phrase: “the magic of the Scottish Cup”.
It felt mildly surreal to watch a team comprised mostly of young French, Swiss and Belgian players playing in a meaty Scottish Cup tie against a group of guys who looked, well … more or less what you’d expect an amateur football team from Lanarkshire to look like. In the early exchanges, it looked like there was going to be a clash of styles. Edusport set out to play in what some pundits insist on calling ‘the right way’ i.e. by passing the ball, a lot, to people wearing the same colour of shirts as them. Colville Park were by no means up-and-at-em-hoof-the-feckin-ball-up-the-park merchants (stop me if this gets too technical); once they got into their stride, they played some decent football, although it would be fair to say that their goalie would not quite satisfy the ‘sweeper-keeper’ requirements of Mr Guardiola at Manchester City.
Once they took the lead, Colville looked likely to add to their tally. Edusport suffered an injustice when one of their players was sent off for an innocuous bit of shirt-pulling. The referee (‘card happy’, according to one sage behind me) may have been technically correct, but –in the context of the game- his decision looked fussy and pedantic, particularly as the ‘victim’ of the shirt-pulling appeared to be giving as much as he got. In the first half, one or two of the Edusport lads demonstrated a neat line in handsome Southern European indignation whenever a pass didn’t land where they wanted or when they were rudely tackled by opponents, but the half-time team talk brought about a change in attitude. Perhaps it was the sense of grievance at having lost a player, but, with one man down, their performance actually improved.
The Scottish Cup is said to be the oldest surviving national trophy in world football and here we were witnessing something new, with this team of lads, most of whom were foreign, adapting to the muscular demands of the Scottish game. When I was my son’s age, it would have seemed absurd or outlandish to have had a team of players from France, Belgium and Switzerland playing in the Scottish Cup; stuff like that could only ever happen in comic books. My boy lives in a different Scotland to the one that I grew up in and he is all the richer for it, but –for all this newness, this ability to be comfortable with what would once have seemed exotic- if he wants to watch Scottish football as much as I have done over the years, there are some things he’ll just have to get used to.
Saturday’s tie was taking place at the same time as Rangers -barely half a mile up the road- were entertaining Motherwell in a league game. Tinto Park is close enough to Ibrox Stadium to be able to hear the roar of the crowd. Having been informed that Rangers were a goal down at half-time, I surprised my son (I won’t say impressed, because use of that word would imply something altogether less tragic than what occurred) when, hearing a roar from the direction of Ibrox around twenty past four, I turned to him and said: “Equaliser … Harry Forrester”. My boy checked his phone and found that Forrester had indeed got an equalising goal. Around half an hour later, as Edusport pressed in vain for a late equaliser and Colville Park started to dream about further Cup adventures, another huge roar came from the direction of Ibrox. I turned to my son once more and said: “Last-minute winner … Kenny Miller”.
He checked his phone and, sure enough, old Yoda had once again named the correct scorer.
My boy may have thought otherwise, but guessing who had scored for Rangers wasn’t all that difficult. What I know –and what he will learn- is that decades of observation lead you to understand that certain things (particularly in Scottish football) happen again and again and again. My speculations were merely educated guesses based on observable evidence.
Colville Park held out for a 1-0 win and, although they’ll now face a tricky tie against the mighty Girvan on September 3rd, they will continue to dream about a long run in the Scottish Cup. I’m sure there are going to be some great stories along the way to Hampden, but, having had an unusually glorious run of four provincial winners in five years, we unfans may now have to prepare ourselves for a return to the old order. Hearing that roar from along the road at Ibrox, I wondered if there was anyone at our game who would bet against Celtic and Rangers meeting in the final next May.
Wonderful stuff, ‘Mondo. I’m equally dismissive of the Old Firm. I give credit to DougieJ who I always thought a true gentleman of Rangers persuasion despite some of that sectarian palaver from less thoughtful types. Celtic don’t emerge unscathed: I loathe the arriviste Green Brigade and their noxious political posturing.
Genuinely moving to hear my moniker there @Neilo. Have been ‘away’ a guid lang while. Perhaps not coincidentally, I’ve had an adult refreshment tonight after a brief hiatus. After watching West Ham’s deja vu act against Astra Giurgiu, I return home, log on to the AW and find my name mentioned in connection with the Teddy Berrz!
Anyway, thanks to Neilo for the kind thoughts and to Raymond for the OP. To be honest, I never knew Benburb were from Govan – I assumed they were from somewhere in the frankly terrifying Junior heartlands of Ayrshire or Lanarkshire…
I did try to post a photo from the game, but was unable to do so. If you’d like to see what the hustle and, indeed, the bustle of a Scottish Cup Preliminary Round Qualifying tie looks like, there’s a photo on my blog page:
http://raymondweir.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/the-scottish-cup-plus-ca-change.html
Excellent. Really enjoyed that, Raymond.
Nice piece. I’ve been away from Scotland for some years but every time I visit, which I will again in a couple of weeks, I’m struck by how it’s changed, whilst not really changed at all.
(Even though the sacred Tinto Park is now “New” Tinto.)
Nice story.
Reminds me of watching Alloa Athletic back in the 80s when a crowd of 100 was a packed house, and the benefit of just walking around the ground to get your best viewpoint, as it was mainly standing.
Sounds brilliant.
There are few more enjoyable weekends in the English season than the Extra Preliminary Round of the F.A. Cup, this year on August 6th!
For me, it’s a pre-Christmas competition, losing its appeal at the precise time that the reserve teams of Man. City, Man. Utd,, Arsenal etc. enter.
Lovely writing – brought back memories of the couple of years I spent trying to bag all the league grounds in Scotland (I failed by 4 or 5 although this was well before the inclusion of the likes of Cove Rangers etc). My quest ended one January in Brechin when even the half-time mince pie failed to stop hypothermia setting in. The referee abandoned the game with ten minutes to go as an Artic snowstorm flung itself at Glebe Park but as the visibility by that time was less than zero many of us 279 hardy souls had no idea the players had fled the scene. I spent twenty minutes in my car with the heaters on full blast waiting for my fingers to de-thaw then sat behind a snow-plough all the way back to Aberdeen.
Brechin? You were lucky. You try watching Wick Academy v Brora Rangers two days before Christmas as I did once. Ernest Shackleton would have stayed inside watching the repeat of the 1983 Two Ronnies Xmas Special rather than venture out in those conditions.
Actually the coldest game I’ve ever been to was Dukla Prague versus some forgotten local rivals. It was after the winter break (April maybe?) but the air temperature was something like minus 20C. I had on seventeen thermal layers and two balaclavas but even this boy from Aberdeen was defeated. I left at half-time with the score at nil nil. Of course the final score was 5-4, of course it was.
Oof!
*doffs chapeau*
I hope after all that Dukla Prague were in their away kit.
I really did buy a Dukla Prague away kit (well actually more of a bandana thing you tied round your ears to keep the frostbite at bay)
Great stuff Raymond. Being a Hibs supporter I particularly enjoyed last season’s Scottish Cup. However, I’ll be off to see my local team Spartans on Oct 22nd when they play a second round tie.
In days gone past at Starke’s Park, we always had the ritual “change of ends” for the supporters at half time. We go over there and the opposition fans would come over here and we would intersect where the railway stand is now. Friendly banter ensued in the passing except for some reason that I could never fathom when we played Brechin City… fisticuffs always ensued.
Ah, Starkes Park. Went there in the early sixties to watch in disbelief as lowly Raith beat the mighty Dons in the Cup. At half time we were bewildered as it became obvious we were expected to change ends. “Oh, oh, bound to be trouble here”. Not a bit of it just witty banter like “fuck off” and “jammy bastards”. That was a quiet bus journey home, mind
Lovely piece. Three of my best pals at Uni played in the Glasgow Uni team that held the mighty East Stirling (or Stirling Albion, I can’t recall) to an away 1-1 draw in the Cup. My mate Tom scored the equaliser and was immortalised in the Sunday Mail headline as ‘The Student Prince’.
The replay was Wednesday afternoon at the Uni ground, so we rocked up and squeezed into the stands. Sitting directly in front of us were Jock Wallace and Willie Waddell, the then manager and General Manager of Rangers. Jock thoroughly endeared himself to us by getting incredibly excited whenever the Uni team threatened to score, or even when we got near the penalty area. He was out of his seat several times, roaring the team on. A ferocious figure of a man. We all loved him for that.
We lost, of course.
I knew a bloke involved in the SRC at Strathclyde University who telephoned then Gers boss Jock Wallace to ascertain whether he’d be prepared to take part in a student debate on sectarianism.
The exchange went thus:
Caller: ‘Mr Wallace, I wonder if you’d be interested in taking part in a debate…’
Jock (interrupting, somewhat incredulously) ‘Debate? Fuck off.
‘
He knew his limits.
Nice read Raymond. Now putting my pedantic head on, the Scottish Cup is the 2nd longest running national trophy. It started in 1873, 2 years after the FA Cup.
Thanks for the kind comments, folks. And thanks to Count Jim for presenting me with the not-to-be-resisted opportunity to don my own (very big) pedantic hat.
The FA Cup is the oldest competition, but the SFA Cup is the oldest trophy. The original FA Cup was stolen sometime in the 1890s and there was also a re-design of the trophy just before the first world war.
I have not been invited to a social event of any kind since 1991.
Didn’t realise that you were referring to the physical trophy, Raymond. Sounds like it’s ready for an update. Get the designs out to the appropriate focus groups ASAP.
I shudder to think what you’ll end up with if the Chief Exec of the SFA, Stuart Regan, makes the final decision. A complete incompetent, he moved there from the same post at Yorkshire CCC, where we were more than glad to see the back of him. He left with the imprint of a very large boot on his backside.