Damage in the Box!

SHAMROCK ROVERS (Tallaght Stadium)

Saturday 20th June 2009

League of Ireland

Shamrock Rovers 1-0 Galway United

Attendance: 2,900

The annual pilgrimage to Ireland this year took us back to Dublin and the district of Tallaght, where Shamrock Rovers were playing in their recently opened new stadium.

The hoops had led a nomadic existence since Glenmalure Park was sold off to a property developer in 1987, playing at Shelbourne, Bohemians, Royal Dublin Society, National Athletics Stadium and back to Shelbourne before finally getting the Tallaght Stadium built.

The ground, at this present time, consists of just the one large main stand and the capacity is around 6,000. The ground will be "officially" opened with a game against Real Madrid in a few weeks time.

As for the game tonight, well, frankly, it was dreadful. A Dessie Baker header after 52 minutes settled the game in the homesters favour. The did miss a penalty prior to that when Greg Cameron's effort was pushed onto the post by Galway's Barry Ryan.

Greg Cameron misses from the penalty spot

FULHAM (Craven Cottage)

Sunday 24th May 2009
FA Premier League
Fulham 0-2 Everton
Attendance: 25,497

The final league game of the campaign took the us to one of my favourite top flight grounds, Craven Cottage. The ground has everything going for it from the old stands, to the cottage in the corner, to its location on the banks of the River Thames.

If it wasn't for these factors then, from a results perspective, it would be an awful ground as Everton's record at the Cottage is appalling, having failed to win there since The Cottagers returned to the top flight. Indeed, since these fixtures were resumed in 2001 every meeting has resulted in a home win.

Today that sequence was finally broken as a Leon Osman brace secured the points for the blues. His first goal came on 43 minutes when he rounded Mark Schwarzer to slot home and his second was a superb curling shot from the edge of the box on 88 minutes.

This ensured a top five finish for Everton and sets us up nicely for the cup final at Wembley next weekend.

The Eight Bells pub. The massed ranks of Evertonians drink in the sunshine.

Outside the ground

Fulham's most famous son, Johnny Haynes.

There is always some **** blocking your view of the game!

A "Craven" Cottage pie. See what they done there?

Timmy and Ossie discuss tactics. Probably.

The River Thames

Steven Pienaar and some pillock.

Sign here please, peanuts!

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.......

Sunday 17th May 2009

Scottish Football League Division 2

Play off Semi-Final 2nd leg

Queen's Park 0-0 Stenhousemuir

Attendance: 854

THIRD LANARK (Cathkin Park)

Seeing as I was in Glasgow on a Sunday Morning, in readiness for a visit to Hampden Park, I thought I would pay a visit to the previous Hampden Park, which was sold by Queen's Park in 1903 to (the now defunct) Third Lanark, who changed the name to Cathkin Park.

Third Lanark were dissolved in 1967 and parts of the ground demolished but, as you can see from the photo's, the old footprint of the ground remains, as do parts of the old terraces.

It was quite eerie walking around the old ground, but great to imagine what it would've have been like when packed to the rafters.

"Hi! Hi! Hi!"