Today I'm going back just 3 years to 13th July 2018 and the Scottish League Cup game between Kilmarnock and St Mirren or Killie and The Buddies as the nicknames would have it.
These early season games in Scotland are becoming something of a tradition for me. For some reason (probably something to do with the weather), the Scots tend to start their season a few weeks earlier than is the case in England and, with me being a Groundhopper, I like to get a couple of new grounds in before the English season gets going. It's an ambition of mine to visit all 42 clubs comprising the SPFL or Scottish Professional Football League. So far I've managed to visit 19 although I'm about to lose two of these. Hampden Park because Queen's Park have vacated it and will play their home games at Lesser Hampden in future (it's just outside their old home) and Glebe Park because Brechin City were relegated out of the SPFL at the end of last season. Travelling to games in Scotland is quite a hike so, when I do go up there, I like to go to two or three games to make the trip worthwhile and the Scottish League Cup presents a good opportunity to attend a couple of games.
Kilmarnock's Rugby Park was a stadium that I'd wanted to visit ever since hearing the Proclaimers sing "The Joyful Kilmarnock Blues" with has the lyrics "I'd never been to Ayrshire, I hitched down one Saturday. Sixty miles to Kilmarnock, To see Hibernian play. The day was bright and sunny, But the game I won't relay. And there was no Kilmarnock bunnet, to make me want to stay". A Kilmarnock bunnet? Well it's celebrated in song and it's a song about a bonnet made in Kilmarnock! Suffice is to say that I didn't see anyone wearing a bonnet that day either and, had I done so, I doubt that it would have made me want to stay. But you never know I suppose.
This particular League Cup tie was part of the sponsored Betfred competition. This season the sponsorship has moved on to Premier Sports with the competition now known as the Premier Sports Cup but I think I'll just call it the Scottish League Cup to save confusion. The first round is drawn in Groups so that every club plays at least two home and two away games. Interestingly, in the case of a draw, an extra point is awarded for the winners of a penalty shootout so it's possible to receive 3, 2, 1 or zero points from each game. This particular game was one with a shootout at the end following a goalless draw with St Mirren taking the honours 3-2 on penalties in front of a crowd of 4,026. So one point to Kilmarnock and two to St Mirren!
Kilmarnock at the time were being managed by Steve Clarke who was destined to go on to become Scotland's manager the following summer mainly because he did such a good job at Kilmarnock. Kilmarnock was Clarke's childhood club and he took them to third place in the Scottish Premiership before departing. St Mirren, on the other hand were being managed by an Englishman in former Bolton Wanderers, Celtic and Everton player Alan Stubbs. Stubbs had previously been Hibernian's manager and had won the Scottish FA Cup with Hibs for the first time in 114 years. His tenure at St Mirren was nowhere near as long however, He lasted just three months (or 9 games) with The Buddies and was gone by September so my game was something of a collector's item I reckon! The video attached to my blog is worth watching if only to enjoy the sheer number of seagulls involved along with the admonition in the bottom right hand corner to "Watch Football". Great idea!
CRB Match No. 2233
Comments
Post a Comment