IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY...
You’re in for a big surprise when you see the field of dreams lovingly tended by the magicians of Milngavie On The Road HUGH MacDONALD UNCOVERS THE PRETTIEST PLACE TO PLAY FOOTBALL IN SCOTLAND
DOWN in the woods, something stirred. Nestled in a corner of Mugdock Park, a football pitch was coming back to life. Staney Brig, the extraordinary home of Milngavie Wanderers, was hosting its first match of the year. The Caledonian League fixture proceeded on a surface that was as green as a bilious Kermit and as firm as a tax demand.
‘The weather in Scotland makes it difficult to have matches here during the winter,’ admits chairman Craig Livingstone. ‘But today is the day.’
Two hours before kick-off, he makes the final preparations as a posse of walkers snake across the nearby Clyde Coastal Path. Beyond a bye-line runs the route of the West Highland Way.
The journey for the Wanderers also requires effort. Formed in 1965, the club faces the daily and routine challenge of being an amateur club in a professional world. The task of recruiting players has become more difficult as semi-pro clubs form under-age sides and the prospect of paying £10 a week for the chance of playing on a Saturday forces lads to make a commitment backed by their hard-earned cash.
Yet the Wanderers walk on. Members of the committee and coaches squeeze into an office just off the home dressing room and explain why they give their time and effort to the amateur cause.
Most of this revolves around love of the game. But this passion has many strands. It covers a specific affection for the Wanderers, a wider fascination with football, and a desire to help players enjoy playing the game as all of the speakers in the room once did.
Livingstone, who works for a printing company, says by way of an aside: ‘I’m off to the Czech Republic tomorrow on business.’ It’s one that demonstrates his focus on the club. He has scheduled the trip so he does not miss a match day and will be back in time for training on Thursday. ‘I don’t get involved in the coaching but I like to be here on training nights to deal with organisation and administration.’
He and his colleagues have a map for the Wanderers. It is concerned firstly with keeping the club going.
‘We are becoming stronger,’ says Andrew Beveridge, treasurer. ‘I like us to have a wee financial cushion and we have a good committee and are strong on fundraising.’
The building in which we sit was erected in 2013 to replace a portable cabin that was ‘falling apart’. It stands about 100 metres from the park. A walk through the woods leads one to a place of beauty. Sitting, ring-fenced by mesh, is a spectacular sight: Staney Brig, the prettiest spot to play football outside of a game of fives at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
‘I played here in the 90s,’ says Livingstone. ‘I come from Drumchapel and, when I came here to play, I just looked at it as a form of escapism really. Just walking out there on to that beautiful grass.’
The pitch was given to the club in the 1960s. It once comprised of black ash and weeds. It is now a sea of unblemished green.
IT is 10am on a Saturday morning, four hours before kick-off, and the Fleming brothers are going about their business. They stand just beyond the park, removing branches from the drainage ditches. Robert Fleming has left home at 7am and taken two buses from Cumbernauld to pitch up at his childhood home and meet brother David.
Their association with the club stretches back to the last century but was renewed a decade ago. David, recovering from a broken leg, was out walking with his brother and they strolled past the pitch. They were asked if they wanted to help out with its upkeep.
The rest is horticulture. ‘It takes a bit of work,’ admits David.
‘You have to keep it smooth and you have to keep feeding that grass. The drainage was a problem, but this season we have addressed that by putting in drains. That’s why I am standing in a ditch. We have to keep them clear.’ The brothers’ reward is not monetary. ‘We will have a couple of pints after the game,’ says David. ‘But we get satisfaction from just looking at the pitch. Look, it’s the middle of nowhere and here is a fitba’ pitch. It’s great to see the lads walk out on it. Even better if they win.’
His grandson, Ross Traynor, strolls over for a natter before kick-off. He scores a goal in an accomplished display but victory is denied by a late Dalziel equaliser after a series of chances are missed by the home team.
‘That’s fitba’,’ says granda as he walks back to the clubhouse after the game.
His duties are lightened by not having to remove the goalposts. This Saturday in February marked the debut of a new set acquired from Spartans. ‘They gave us them for a fraction of the price,’ says Livingstone. ‘So we put them up last night. We just finished before darkness fell. They are now permanently in place.’
His accomplice Agostini. They also installed the new drainage system. ‘It would have been a job costing five-figures but the
community rallied round and donated equipment and we did the job in four days.’
The car salesman ended up being a digger driver for a day in the service of the Wanderers.
‘There is no greater feeling than looking around here, seeing the boys playing, and knowing that you have invested in it personally,’ he says.
THE coaches sit under the framed reminders of past glories. The high point for the Wanderers was the West of Scotland Cup victory in 1993 at Hampden. But every man in the room has his own football past, his special football memory.
It falls to Pele to kick off the reminiscences. David McCleary earned his nickname in his past life as an accomplished player. It does not take him long to recall the 2018-19 season, a triumph that matches his namesake’s endeavours in Mexico in 1970. At least in the measure of joy.
He takes out his phone and shows a video of his son, also David, then Wanderers captain and now club manager, celebrating winning promotion to the premier league. ‘That’s what it is all about,’ says McCleary senior, who managed the team then.
‘I have played football since I could walk, and I love the game,’ he says. ‘It’s great to share that with my son. That was a brilliant day but the reason we do it every Saturday, every training session is simply because we love the game.’
Fellow coach Jim McMahon nods in agreement. ‘I had to stop playing because of a bad injury, so this is the next best thing.’
He has travelled to Mugdock by way of Maryhill Harp but has found a welcoming home. ‘There is a difficulty in amateur football about keeping players but we have a team that also plays on a Saturday morning so we hope that can supply us with players.’
That side is coached by Graham Delvin. ‘I once was an amateur player but drifted away from the game,’ he says.
‘I had a major health scare 13 years ago and I recovered from it. I told myself then that I was going to get fit again, look after myself. I took my badges and got into coaching.’
His path has led to the Wanderers. ‘It gives me a lot of satisfaction,’ he says. ‘We work on it seriously as coaches. We turn up to training with a plan. We are organised.
‘Yes, we love to see the boys running out on to that patch and, yes, I like winning. But the most important thing for me is to see a player improve.
‘I run my own business and it’s the same thing with my apprentices. You love to see them blossom into engineers.’
He adds: ‘The boys here can progress. They may not play for Barca but they can enjoy playing football and get better at it.’
The lads walk off, muddied but disappointed, after a late goal denies them the unalloyed joy of victory.
Staney Brig sits, dramatic and imperious, behind them. The smir of rain provides a shroud of spectral wonder to the scene. It also falls on the back of Livingstone and his committee.
They are busy removing the nets, gathering the corner flags, training tops and balls, and then locking the gates on this field of dreams.
They have built it. One hopes glory will come. But, no matter what, the Wanderers are on a sure path.