Rugby Park

Monday, 2 November 2015

Kilmarnock 0-1 Motherwell

Programme - £3.00

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 8/10

Ease of getting there : 8/10

Atmosphere : 4/10

Programme : 5/10

View of Action : 9/10

Quality of the game : 4/10

The "football" feeling : 5/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 1/10

Legroom : 4/10

Surrounding area : 8/10

Overall : 56/100

Chadwick Stand

East Stand

Frank Beattie Stand

Moffat Stand

East Stand

Moffat Stand

Frank Beattie Stand

Chadwick Stand

Frank Beattie Stand

Chadwick Stand

Moffat Stand

Frank Beattie Stand

Chadwick Stand

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Kilmarnock 0-1 Motherwell

Following our enjoyable trip over the border just 3 months ago, the opportunity arose with the Hibernian v Rangers match being rescheduled for a Sunday afternoon kick off for Sky TV. With our interest drawn to this fixture, we chose Kilmarnock v Motherwell as our Saturday fixture. With Hibernian being the main match we were going to see, we sourced getting tickets in advance.

Hibernian were not prepared to sell tickets to people without booking history so I (Ross) therefore contacted the club explaining what we were planning to do. The club contacted me back and were more than happy to sell us tickets for the match. This shortly followed with purchasing tickets from Kilmarnock for their match against Motherwell.

Friday 30th October 2015

Following a day’s work, Adrian picked myself up from work at 4:30pm and we headed west towards Stoke on Trent. Before we reached the M6, we stopped off for a McDonalds at Meir Park before making our way northbound. Immediately, we were in slow moving traffic crawling up the M6 until we reached Manchester and Liverpool. Once we passed the two cities, the journey got easier as we continued our journey. By 9:30pm, we reached our overnight stop which was a Premier Inn just off the M6 in Carlisle and not long after in bed ready for our busy next day.

Saturday 31st October 2015

An early start saw us on the road for 8:30am and not long after reaching our first stop of the day in Gretna. Upon our arrival, the groundsman turned up and invited us inside to get photos of Raysdale Park. Raydale Park has a capacity of 2,200 with Gretna playing most of their home games at Raydale during their existence in English non-league football and then during their period in the Scottish Football League. Gretna played most of their games in the 2007-08 season at Fir Park, Motherwell because Raydale did not meet SPL requirements. This meant a 150-mile round trip for fans from the Gretna area. Gretna also played a UEFA Cup match (a 1-5 defeat to Derry City) at Fir Park because Raydale was inadequate for that competition. Gretna had planned to leave Raydale Park and move to an eco-stadium in Gretna Green. These plans never came to fruition as the club suffered severe financial problems during the 2007-08 season.

We continued our journey to nearby Annan visiting Annan Athletic’s Galabank. When we arrived, coaches of the youth side were preparing training on the first teams pitch (being a 3G pitch can be used for not just the first team). Galabank has a capacity of just over 2,500. In July 2008 Annan Athletic were accepted into the Scottish Football League for the first time, to replace defunct club Gretna. Consequently, Galabank began hosting Annan's games in the Scottish Football League Third Division in the 2008–09 season. A party from the SFL inspected Galabank before Annan were accepted into the league. They deemed it to be of the required standard, with the provision that Annan install floodlights, which the club did before the start of their first season in the lowest tier of the Scottish Football League. The grass pitch was removed and a new 3G artificial surface was installed for the 2012–13 season.

We proceeded towards Dumfries visiting Queen of the South’s Palmerston Park. As we walked around the ground, we noticed painting related to the football club decorated the exterior wall. As we continued walking around, we noticed a gate was open and in fact the first team were having a training session on the pitch before their match away at Alloa Athletic (again utilising their 3G pitch). Queen of the South’s Palmerston Park is a throwback to football of the 70’s and 80’s with unchanged terracing behind each goal. Palmerston Park has a capacity of 8,690 of which 3,377 are seats. During March 2013, Queen of the South were given approval to install a new 5G artificial pitch at Palmerston Park for the start of the 2013-14 season. After the club's final home game of the 2012–13 season, the club sold the turf for £10 per square yard as well as auctioning seven special lots. These were the four corner plots, the two penalty spots and Ryan McCann's 84 yard spot.

As we walked back to the car, we noticed the supporters bus was about to leave from what looks like an old supermarket complex which has now been converted into a Queen of the South indoor football arena and supporters café raising extra funds for the football club (not to mention ample car parking surround the ground).

We then made the lengthy journey to the west coast town of Ayr visiting Ayr United’s Somerset Park. Somerset Park, similar to Queen of the South, is another footballing throwback to the 70s and 80s with the ground having very little changes made over the decades. We managed to get in using the entrance for the suites which are situated at the top of a bank of terracing. This allowed us to walk around the ground getting various photos of the ground from inside. Somerset Park has a capacity of 12,128. The current Main Stand built in 1920 and designed by Glaswegian architect, Archibald Leitch

We left Ayr and travelled to nearby Kilmarnock for our afternoon match. As we arrived in the town, we decided to park on Dundonald Road and walked the short distance to Rugby Park to get photos outside Rugby Park and collected our tickets for the match. With time on our side, we walked to a nearby Tesco (situated on the land of a former yarn spinners factory which Adrian has previously visited) for a coffee and a Belgian bun.

As we walked back to Rugby Park, we noticed the cloud cover had gone, the sun was out and it was in fact rather warm considering it was autumn!

Rugby Park underwent a major redevelopment in 1994–95, becoming an all-seater stadium with a capacity of 17,921. By the early nineties pressures within the game, especially following the Taylor Report, meant that Rugby Park would have to become all-seater stadium. A move to a new stadium was discussed, but rejected in favour of redevelopment. The last game at the ground before reconstruction was played on 7^th May 1994, when Kilmarnock beat Rangers 1–0. Building work commenced the next day. During 1994–95 season the stadium capacity was significantly reduced as three new stands were constructed; the Moffat Stand, the Chadwick Stand and the East Stand. Their completion brought the capacity of the stadium to 18,128. An artificial surface was installed in the summer of 2014.

One of the worst games we have witnessed, the only reason it doesn't make it the worst is that we saw a goal! With 3 minutes left, one of the many Englishman in the Motherwell squad fired into the roof of the net. Substitute Louis Moult the hero after the home side failed to clear following a throw in.

Indeed the former Stoke City academy player may have had a second in stoppage time, being denied by an excellent save from Jamie MacDonald.

Kilmarnock will feel they should have got something from the game, they had the better of possession, with Motherwell’s potentially dangerous on the counter attack. However both sides lacked the spark in the final third and combined with a poor refereeing performance made it hard on the eye!

Killie winger Rory MacKenzie came closest in the first period with a shot straight at the keeper and a header just over, while in the second half Kallum Higginbotham brought an excellent save out of young Conor Ripley, diving to his right. But several half chances were missed by both sides, it seemed destined to end in stalemate until an Englishman lifted the gloom.

This is Motherwell’s first win in Mark McGhee’s second stint in charge of the Lanarkshire club, an important three points for him, so while he will no doubt reflect happily over the afternoons events, the best the crowd of just under 4,000 can do is pretend it never happened!

After the match, we ran back to the car and made our way towards Glasgow before continuing our journey to our overnight stop in Falkirk. Even though it was dark, we decided to go and look at Clyde’s Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld. Upon our arrival we noticed the floodlights were on and we later found out that Kilmarnock Ladies U15’s were playing Hamilton Academicals Ladies U15’s in a cup match. What were the chances of that! With a perfect opportunity, we snuck in and got photos of the ground from inside. Broadwood Stadium has a capacity of 7,936. Clyde moving into Broadwood in February 1994 to a full house at that time, of 6,000 fans. Clyde lost the game 2–0 against Hamilton Academical. At the time of opening, only two stands, the Main Stand and the West Stand, had been completed, giving the stadium a capacity of 6,000. The third, South Stand was completed in 1997 to bring the overall capacity to just over 8,000. Plans to complete the stadium, and bring the overall capacity to 10,000 were shelved after Clyde failed to win promotion to the Scottish Premier League in 2004. The missing forth stand has now been replaced by a community sports centre, and opened in 2013. For the 2012–13 season, Clyde will play their football on a new 3rd generation synthetic pitch.

Still amazed that the ground was open and lit up for us to take photos, we continued our journey to Falkirk stopping in a Premier Inn at Larbert. Once we arrived, we dumped our belonging in the room and we went to the pub next door for our evening meal and a drink. We then went back to our room to watch Football League Tonight on Channel 5 before going to bed.

PART 2 - Hibernian v Rangers >>