Le Tout P'ti FC

Amazing! This guy has travelled from Braintree to see a game of football and can’t name one of the two teams playing correctly. Don’t just visit the grounds, count ‘em. Anyway I’m leaving sunny Birnam now and look forward to seeing Crossgates Primrose shortly.

St Peters have just chucked it?

No inspection currently planned for Jeanfield Swifts. Also worth keeping in mind Scone Thistle v Coupar Angus should Kinnoull succumb to the rain. I’m sure the weather in the Midlands will be much better than the East!

Looking forward to this Saturday/Sunday (I’m skipping Friday night). Kicking off Saturday with a stravaigin around the general area of Dunkeld and its silvery Tay. Having prayed for the energy to sustain me through four games of fitba at the cathedral, I will set my course for Luncarty. Three new grounds for me from the five games, and a first visit to Whitburn in something like 20-years. Only Jeanfield will be something approaching familiar. Will be looking forward to being thoroughly head-counted by nearly everyone else there, and I will especially enjoy being counted by the people who bring the wee clicker things and walk round the pitch clicking away to their hearts content. (I remember the days when getting a click on a Saturday meant something different entirely.) See you at Kiosk Kev’s, if you’re going.

Edinburgh 2 Edinburgh 2 in the Edinburgh derby at Paties Road, Edinburgh. All to play for in the second half as Edinburgh will be attacking the Edinburgh end of the ground. Lively game so far, Edinburgh are much on top but haven’t taken their chances, allowing Edinburgh to equalise close to HT.

St Peter’s have pulled out of their trip to Campbeltown tomorrow. The second team to stand Campbeltown up? Poor show.

Newtongrange Star 1 Fauldhouse United 0. King Cup third round. Not the prettiest game. Star making a wheen of changes to their starting XI, and neither team really getting going. I even felt sorry for the Star Ultras (all three of them) who dragged themselves out with their drum, but didn’t have the critical mass of numbers to have a wee sing with their pals. They quickly gave up and the drum was left forlorn on the terrace for most of the game.

Dalkeith Thistle 1 Edinburgh South 2. Was hoping to get to Innerleithen to see the Vale of Leithen game tonight but got held up at the place where bills get paid from. Diverted at last minute to familiar turf to see a pretty decent game. Edinburgh had about a million chances but failed to put Dalkeith away at 2-0, then Dalkeith finished very strongly but fell short. Good crowd (for Dalkeith!) in too considering Bonnyrigg and Whitehill are both at home tonight.

Talbot v Cumnock. Went via Carlisle, should have stayed in Carlisle. Talbot are winning again. Sam North is here somewhere and will fill you in later on You Tube.

The accounts to June 2023 have just been published. Some highlights: Turnover up to £5.8m, PY £1.4m. What’s going on there? (Turnover of say Killie is £6.4m.) Loss of £758k. PY £1.084m. So £1.8m loss reported over a 30-month period. Naming rights for Lesser Hampden have been sold until 2048. Unqualified audit report provided. Fixed Assets up to £12.5m following another £8.5m capital expenditure (spend to complete Lesser Hampden being most of that). Overall total spent on buildings now up to £13.2m, which clearly doesn’t buy you that much these days! Cash burn for year was £635k. Down to £577k left in bank. Still due to collect another £1.25m from SFA for sale of Hampden. Deferred income up to £9.3m, was £1.5m. A “capital accrual” has been created for £7.9m which you would presume was money due to a mystery benefactor to build the stadium for the club, perhaps to be gifted back to the club? “Very generous support of one of our stakeholders” referenced in going concern note. No material uncertainties. Staff costs up from £1.5m to £4.1m. Directors received £21k. Key management personnel received £211k. Average salary per employee up from £21k to £46k. Lease commitment of £129k disclosed which looks like a £25k pa lease of something through to 2028. Very interesting reading! Would like to know more about this massive Turnover jump and also the mysterious Capital Accrual. Also would like to know why Lesser Hampden wasn’t impaired since it sits empty most weeks and the business is trading at a loss with cash outflows. Classic impairment indicators to me. Would also like to know why there were no related party transactions reported. Anyway, that’s from a five minute skim through these, best get back to work! https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC005382/filing-history

Outstanding! Best way to recover from a long flight is to get straight outside. Have a great trip! Very envious, I’ve always wanted to visit Japan.

Peebles Rovers 0 Burntisland Shipyard 2. Long walk to the dressing room taken by two players and one manager following a deluge of red cards. Letters to the Peeblesshire News will ensue from the locals about the Shippy Ultras and their tuneful drummer.

Rammy over. I agree! Central Park is a horror show. I’ve never shared the love that place gets from some. Like watching a game through a sieve.

Let’s have a random matches rammy! Cliftonhill is a wonderful football stadium. I wouldn’t change a single thing about it, other than getting the big terrace reopened. I’ve always enjoyed my visits there and particularly enjoyed my last visit, where we discovered the St Andrews Bar beforehand. I’d go so far as to say I’d easily put it in my top ten grounds in Scotland.

Royal Albert 3 Saltcoats Victoria 2. Those who are longer in the tusk than me might remember Stonehouse Violet playing here at Tileworks Park. Or Stonehouse being lined up to become Scotland’s next New Town. The pitch here could best be described as “heavy”. One wee area has a particular issue, the same issue that Holland has when the dykes burst, but they’ve chucked a few tonne of builders sand down and it’s Game On. Enjoying this game. It’s the footballing version of Brutalism, where the ball is never far from being leathered back to where it just came from. But I wouldn’t have it any other way today. Decent crowd in, including a good few Vics fans. EDIT - cracking second half. Vics were transformed, but ultimately the Elephant Men of Stonehouse prevailed.

I was going to call Ness FC “remote” in honour of Sweeney, just so he could come on here and reply “remote from where?”. We’re leaving tomorrow (Calmac permitting). I’ll leave behind a pint of milk and a loaf of bread on the Seaforth for you! Weather has been intolerable this week. Huisinis today was insufferable. Back to random matches for me this weekend. It might very well be Royal Albert v Saltcoats Victoria, just to keep that holiday buzz going.

On our travels around the beaches of the top end of Lewis, we happened upon another ground at Ness FC. So we popped in, of course we did! Seen this one loads of times, it has been on here often enough, but nice to finally get there myself. (Next step: get to one of these Lewis grounds for a game, but not so easy!)

No games this weekend. I’m overseas (Lewis), and on the sabbath there is sod all else to do here other than come and swoon at this utterly magnificent wee stadium. What's the point? Point FC! Two stands with 150 shiny seats yet to be buffeted by the Minch gales. Hard standing being laid around three sides. Pop a set of floodlights up, post a licence to them from SFA towers, and stick them into the 2024/25 Scottish Cup please.

Bottom photo taken from the summit of Tinto?

I think the stadia options in Edinburgh have indeed almost been exhausted here. But I can think of one other option: ORIAM INDOOR Pros: capacity 500 seated. Looks like a spaceship. Excellent access to the queues on the City Bypass. You can glimpse games of Handball in the hall next door whilst idling before kick off. Cons: colder than Broadwood. Extreme risk of bumping into a rugby player or student, or worse still, a rugby playing student. No food on sale (but very close to a significant number of Currie houses).

At Nithside Park, Kirkconnel, for the eagerly anticipated Kello Rovers v Irvine Vics league game. This park is magnificent. Perfect non league ground. I would come back here every single week, if only for the elephant foot sized sausage rolls. Irvine Vics have taken an early two goal lead, their second goal was a belter. Snuck into the Crawick Multiverse before the game, but don’t tell anyone because it’s closed for the season. Especially don’t tell the Duke of Buccleuch that I didn’t pay my fiver to walk over his daft/glorious coal bing sculpture park.

To answer my own question, in case anybody has the remotest amount of interest: the Mackintosh Church is a free for all! Sit where you like. Black Isle beers on tap. Been to worse!

Dalkeith Thistle, Whitehill Welfare, Nitten Star and Arniston?

At New Moor Road to see Linton Hotspur v Storm Isha. Frantic start to the game, Isha went off like a rocket, but is running out of puff now. Loads of storm damage here, pretty blowy last Sunday night in these parts. Fence behind goal torn out of the ground, floodlight on training pitch blown over and a couple of sheds and trees down in the field next door. Wild! Isha have now subbed on the full Fulshie XI who have promptly taken a 1-0 HT lead. Game is “ok”, Hotspur are more competitive than last time I saw them. EDIT - finished 4-0 to Stoneyburn. On the upside I got home at 4:05pm and I now don’t quite know what to do with all of this time I have on my hands now! Usually I’d count 7pm as a win of a Saturday!

Not surprised Linton Hotspur suffered some damage. This tree came down at the entrance to the ground, bringing down some phone lines with it. Lampost down in my street, just along the road. A lampost!