Peterheaded Shockers

Peterhead 4 Aberdeen B 2; my birthday treat to myself...

Of all the solo trips I’ve made to Scottish grounds, including getting hopelessly lost in freezing temperatures on the outskirts of Perth when looking for St Johnstone, or being so delayed I almost missed an 8pm kick off in Dingwall for Ross County v Livingstone, or even the complete failure of ScotRail’s signalling system in Fife that left me stranded overnight in Dundee on the way back from Aberdeen, the only time I’ve genuinely questioned my sanity and the purpose behind my project to visit all 42 Scottish League grounds, was the morning of my trip to Peterhead. Without spoiling any surprises, it’s one hell of a trek.

Tuesday 12^th August was the day after my birthday. I’d celebrated turning 61 by playing a solo gig (which went very well) and beers with friends (which went down rather too well). Still feeling rough, I cursed the news on my phone that LNER had managed yet another foul up with their scheduling, to the extent that the late running 09.54 to Edinburgh wouldn’t arrive in time for me to catch the 11.30 to Aberdeen. Therefore, I was obliged to take a train to Dundee and connect with the Glasgow to Aberdeen train, arriving not at 13.50 as supposed, but at 15.20. Ah well, another Delay Repay claim to look forward to.

If the Granite City had been my final destination, then all would have been fine, but it wasn’t. I was heading north to Peterhead, which happens to be the football ground furthest from a train station in Scotland. It’s a 32-mile journey by bus. Even better, the 15.30 X60 didn’t turn up, for no apparent reason, so I found myself on the 16.00 heading northwards. In Scotland, all over 60s have a free bus pass. Unfortunately the privilege doesn’t extend to visitors from south of the border, so I shelled out £11.50 for a single fare. Presumably it’s so expensive in order to rinse tourists and pay for Peter Morrell’s abortive scheme to put a motorhome on every driveway. Once we got out of Aberdeen, heading through Ellon and Cruden Bay, the landscape was rugged but impressive, as temperatures dropped to about 16 degrees and a blustery wind came in off the North Sea.

The bus dropped me off at the Invernettie Roundabout around 17.30, which was about two hours later than I’d hoped. It was easy enough to find my hotel, The Harbour Spring, just on the outskirts of Peterhead, athwart the A90. I checked in, dropped the bag and consulted Google. There were no buses at all after 6pm and the ground was a 50 minute walk. No choice. I had to hoof it. Peterhead, despite being the largest fishing port in Europe, isn’t a big place. The population is around 20,000 and the rough harbour area was nowhere near where I was heading, so I’d not be doing any poverty tourism at least. Skirting the sea, I took a left down Links Terrace (links fahren, as they say in Kinnegad), crisscrossed a couple of streets of impressive stone built houses in the traditional Scottish style and found myself within sight of the ground. Passing the local rugby club, where pre-season training was in full flight and the athletics club, who both utilise the adjoining Lord Catto recreation area, I came upon Balmoor. It’s a reasonably new ground, opened in 1997 when they sold their old Recreation Ground to Morrisons, and the facilities were one of the reasons why they were elected to the SPFL, along with Elgin City, in 2000.

Like several Scottish grounds, it has a stand on either side and not much behind the goals. Availing myself of the generous policy of Scottish clubs that grants concessionary admission to the Over 60s, I paid £7 for a seat in the Main Stand. It was in the lee of the wind from the sea, but the sun was setting behind it, so I didn’t run the risk of being blinded, as would have been the case on the far side. The opponents were Aberdeen B, which is how the Under 21 sides are styled for the purpose of the Scottish Challenge Cup, now branded the KDM Evolution Trophy for sponsorship purposes. Like a parody of the new Champions League format, the competition begins with a group phase involving 10 League One clubs, 10 League Two clubs and 10 Premiership B-Teams. Points gained by clubs across six group matchdays, which seem to have been drawn completely randomly, other than ensuring clubs play 3 home and 3 away fixtures, will feed into a single league table, with the top 22 clubs qualifying for the seeded knock-out round of 32. At that point, early next year, the 10 Championship clubs enter the competition at that point as the seeded sides, along with teams finishing in the top six of the league phase, with the remainder of the competition following a traditional knock-out format. Got that?

It sounds Mickey McMouse, but it isn’t. Honestly. Don’t dare say the competition doesn’t matter to Queens Park, who celebrated their 5-0 hammering of Livingstone in last season’s final loud and lustily, or former Percy Main custodian Shaun Backhouse, who I recall thoroughly enjoyed seeing his ancestral team Raith Rovers win the trophy back in 2014, when they beat Rangers at Easter Road. I bet they were dancing in the streets of Raith that night.

Anyway, entrance negotiated, decent mince pie and a large Pepsi Max consumed (the walk made me thirsty), I took my seat in the Main Stand. Second top row. On an aisle. Level with 18-yard line at the end Peterhead were attacking. Consulting the team sheet, I recognised one name: former Celtic and Dons player, 66-time capped for the north of Ireland striker, Niall McGinn. He’s 37 now but was the best player on the park by a country mile. Aberdeen’s number 4 was Lewis Carroll. Sadly, this was not to be a fairytale outcome for the player who probably isn’t nicknamed the Reverend Charles Dodgson by his team mates.

In front of a sparse crowd (announced as 584 in a 3,150 capacity arena), the Blue Toon came out to “Fanfare for the Common Man” and ran Aberdeen ragged from the start. The first goal came when a McGinn corner was headed into his own net by Mercer, as keeper Vitols, who was abysmal with crosses all night, stood motionless. He did redeem himself slightly, by palming away a McGinn penalty, awarded for an obvious trip, on 28 minutes. Peterhead doubled their lead on 33 minutes when Colloty turned in the box and fired decisively home. Aberdeen offered nothing and went in at the break deservedly behind, though they woke up in the second half.

On 49 minutes, substitute Searle curled home a beauty from the edge of the box. It was all square on 62 minutes when Stephen tapped home from close range. There were some disgruntled noises in the home end but, as I’ve found to be the case in the far north, little bad language or none that I could discern. They’ve got a strange accent up there, which seems to share vowel sounds with Tyneside, surprisingly. There’s no graffiti to be seen in Peterhead either, which did disappoint me. The knot of Dons fans were to be severely disappointed when old boy McGinn scored what proved to be the winner, racing free down the left and cutting in. Worse was to follow when loose defensive play offered Shanks, on as a replacement, a simple chance that he buried. After that, Aberdeen appeared to give up, Peterhead brought on that old warhorse Trialist and the game ended with The Blue Toon stroking the ball around in midfield.

Afterwards, I walked home by the same route, seeing virtually nobody on the streets. I was back at the hotel for 10.30 and, having done 18,000 steps, decided on an early night. Up again next morning, I breakfasted on a double helping of McDonald’s porridge and began the long journey home, which got me to Central exactly on time. As my train sped south, probably as we were nearing Berwick, I felt genuinely sad that I’ve completed all my far flung trips and, bearing in mind my age, probably won’t have cause to pass this way again. I’ve seen some lovely grounds (some boring ones as well), eaten a range of pies from the gourmet to the ghastly and seen a bit of football as well. Now, there’s only Stranraer to go, as well as a revisit to Queens Park now they’re at Lesser Hampden. Let’s get the cricket season done and then I can start planning the final moments of what has been an incredible odyssey.