For May 15th I'm going back just 2 years to 2019 and a trip to Stark's Park to see Raith Rovers take on Queen of the South.
Every trip that I make North of the Border to visit a Scottish football ground is a voyage back to my childhood. Saturday afternoons and ITV's teleprinter on World of Sport conjured up magical, mystical names of football clubs from another world. All in the service of punters and their pools coupons of course but the familiar names are so evocative of that era to me. Scottish clubs have names like familiar friends and so the chance, in adulthood, to take a trip to look up an (as yet unvisited) old friend is too good to pass up. That's how I came to be in Fife on that night.
"They'll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight" is an infamous piece of commentary attributed to Sam Leitch following a famous Rovers victory. Except they weren't. Because Raith (boring nickname alert: "Rovers") play in the town of Kirkcaldy (pronounced Kerr-coddy). Similarly, after this game, there was nobody dancing in the streets of Queen of the South either because the Doonhamers (super-fabulous nickname eh?) are from the town of Dumfries (pronounced (Dumb-freece). Doonhamers? The name "Queen of the South" is both the official name of the town's football club and the nickname given to Dumfries itself. People from Dumfries are colloquially known as Doonhamers because, when away from Dumfries, they often referred to their hometown as "down home" or "Doonhame".
Queen of the South are often mistakenly cited as being the only British senior football club to be mentioned in the Bible. Luke 11:31 says "The Queen of the South shall rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them". However references to Arsenal, Bury and Reading are also to be found in the bible so tell that to the next smart arse who's got a fascinating fact about Queen of the South.
The Play-Offs are a relatively recent phenomenon in Scotland having only been in place since 2005 unlike their English counterparts which began in 1987. One key difference of the Scottish version is that the club finishing in 9th place (out of 10) in the Championship must Play-Off against the clubs finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in League One. This was how 9th placed Championship side Queen of the South came to be facing League One 3rd placed side Raith Rovers in the Scottish Championship Play-Off Final. Keeping up? Good!
Stark's Park or "San Starko" as it is jovially nicknamed by the locals (who clearly love a good nickname) is a wonderful old stadium. The main stand was designed by the famous old football stadium engineer Archibald Leitch and is "cranked" or almost L-shaped, a feature not uncommon in Scotland but I can't think of anything similar in England. I loved it immediately.
Queen of the South had comprehensively put paid to the Play-Off hopes of Montrose in the Semi-Final whilst Raith had scraped past Forfar Athletic. In this, the first leg of the Final played in front of 2,471 attendees, the Doonhamers took a commanding lead and were three goals to the good before a late goal gave Raith something to take into the second leg at least. Scorer of the Doonhamers first goal that night was Lyndon Dykes, now a QPR player who is likely to feature in the Scotland squad at Euro 2020 this summer. Back to the 2019 Play-Offs and a goalless second leg confirmed Queen of the South as having retained their Championship membership for another season. They still weren't dancing in the streets of Queen of the South however.
CRB Match No. 2311
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