Cup choice feels like a final insult
L O O N Y
ONE match was all it took for me to be hooked on junior football – and I mean as a fan before joining the ranks as a player.
It was October 2006, it was Lochburn Park in Maryhill, it was the Sectional League Cup Final and it was Pollok v Clydebank.
Two of the biggest supported clubs in the Glasgow junior scene went toe-to-toe under the floodlights at one of the best atmospheregenerating grounds at our grade.
Well over a thousand packed in to see Lok win 3-1 and it was electric, due in most part to the perfect choice of venue.
Lochburn is junior football’s version of the ancient Greek amphitheatres.
OK, it’s not quite as architecturally eye-catching, it’s nowhere near as colossal and there’s certainly no high-brow drama on show there.
But its raised terracing on all four sides which sits high above the park makes for a cauldron-like atmosphere. Especially under the lights.
Perfect then for a cup final. Fast forward 11 years and the same two clubs are set to contest the final again for the first time since that firecracker of a match that lit the junior fuse inside me.
Only this time the SJFA have plumped for a venue that couldn’t be further from the great atmosphere of Lochburn Park.
The clash will go ahead on Friday, October 6, at Benburb’s New Tinto Park in Govan.
A nice, shiny new facility which serves the purposes of First Division league matches just fine.
But for a cup final which should attract a four-figure crowd?
There’s debate that it can even accommodate that number.
And then there’s the issue of the plastic park.
Yes, there’s no need to go over the old grass v 3G argument again. But for a cup final?
It seems a bizarre choice. The Friday night staging of the match is great especially on international weekend.
But there must have been a more suitable venue. Maryhill are at home the next day and if Lochburn wasn’t available there are plenty of alternatives.
The first final of the season has got the teams to produce a cracking match.
And it will get the crowd. I’m just not sure it has the right setting.
Anyway, plenty of league action to whet the appetite this afternoon. Pollok travel to Rob Roy while Bankies host Arthurlie in two potential barnstormers.
Match of the day in the west has to be high-flying Beith v Auchinleck.
In the east, leaders Penicuik head to Carnoustie, Linlithgow welcome Broughty – who have just appointed Jim Finlayson as their new manager – and Bonnyrigg are away to Jeanfield.