Damage in the Box!: QUEEN'S PARK (Hampden Park)

So my season of groundhopping ends where it began back in August, in 'bonnie' Scotland, thanks in no part to the 'great' British weather. Queen's Park's game at Stirling Albion was postponed last Saturday which meant they had to hastily re-arrange it for Monday, which had the knock-on effect of putting both legs of the play off semi-final back 24 hours from Wednesday and Saturday to Thursday and Sunday. What a stroke of luck, for me anyhow!

'The Spiders' play their home games at Hampden Park, Scotland's national stadium, which has a capacity of 52,000. Today attendance was 854! It is one of those iconic grounds that has to be visited and what better way to appreciate the ground in all its glory than when its empty. I have to admit though, the acoustics were brilliant and there sounded a lot more than 854 inside the stadium and it did leave me to wonder what the atmosphere would be like with 52,000 Scots baying for blood!

Queen's Park were playing Stenhousemuir for the right to play in Division Two next season. Queen's Park finished the regular season second from bottom of Div 2 whilst Stenhousemuir finished 4th in Div 3. The bottom line today was simple for the home side...lose today and they were relegated. The game was evenly poised from the first leg, with Stenhousemuir having a slender 2-1 advantage. It was all to play for.

If only! I bore witness to 90 goalless minutes of pure unadulterated shite! Considering the predicament Queen's Park found themselves they offered nothing until the last 20 minutes or so, when it suddenly dawned on them they were going down, by then it was too little to late. Neither 'keeper had a save to make until the second half and neither side looked like breaking the deadlock. Obviously there was no pressure on 'Stenny'and they were happy to see out the game to go through to play Cowdenbeath in the final, 2-1 on aggregate. The Spiders went down with barely a whimper.

The only crumb of comfort I got from this game is that is bookended my 'hopping season nicely. I started off last August with a crap 0-0 at Queen of the South and I finished it off today with this!

So that concludes my groundhopping adventures for season 2008/09 (I intend to finish off my season next Sunday watching Everton at Craven Cottage). I hope you have all enjoyed reading my diary and hopefully you will be back in August when we can start all over again.

Oh, finally, if anyone has a spare FA Cup Final ticket then could you please give a desperate Evertonian a shout!! Until next season.......