Damage in the Box!: CLYDE (Broadwood Stadium)

It was back up to Scotland today for a visit to another ground in my ongoing quest to complete the Scottish league. I always do my best to try and get to a ground when 'super' Annan are the visitors, so today I found myself at the Broadwood Stadium, the home of Clyde FC. This ground is known by some fans as the Ice Station, as it is always bloody cold due to its high altitude location, and today it certainly didn't let me down, despite the ground being bathed in late September sunshine.

The Broadwood Stadium is on the outskirts of the 'new' town of Cumbernauld (13 miles from Glasgow) and has been home to 'The Bully Wee' since 1995 when they moved here, following a nomadic existance after the demise of Shawfield, their old ground in East Glasgow, in 1986. It is pretty much as you'd expect a 'new' ground to look with no real distinguishing features, apart from only having three sides! However the ground is perfectly adequate (capacity around 8,000) for the size of crowd Clyde get, averaging around 633 last season. Today's gate was 1,043 largely due, I suspect, to some great offers on season tickets (£99 for adults £9 for kids) rather than the football on show!

The Broadwood was reached via train and bus, which naturally gave the opportunity to sample a couple of beers in Glasgow city centre. I stayed close to Queen Street and therefore went in the Counting House, which had a delightful selection of ales including Cairgorm 'Black Gold' and Caledonian 'Mellow Yellow'. This set me up nicely for the afternoon, which was just as well as the game was up to the usual standard i've come to expect north of the border.

A largely uninspiring game was settled in favour of The Galabankies with a goal in each half. Bryan Gilfillan fired the ball into the net in the 6th minute from 20 yards, a shot which I thought the Clyde 'keeper could've done better with, maybe he thought it was going wide or he just seen it late, only he can answer that. Annan dominated the possession in the first half, but rarely did they look like adding to their total.

The second half was a more even, but the game was won in the 72nd minute when substitute Bryan Felvus bagged his first goal for Annan with a neat finish. At the end of the game The Bully Wee fans made their feelings perfectly clear as their team were roundly booed off the field.

The win lifted Annan to the dizzy heights of third in the table and i'm already looking forward to my next journey to see them when they travel to table toppers Berwick in two weeks time. Bring it on!