Dunipace v Bonnyrigg Rose

East of Scotland League

Conference B

Friday 29th March 2019

Kick Off 20.00. On Time !

Dunipace 0 Bonnyrigg Rose 4, attendance 380

7’ 0-1

61’ 0-2

85’ 0-3

88’ 0-4

@ Westfield Park

Town House Street

Denny

FK6 5DX

£6 Admission

Programme available, but I won’t buy one at any event organised by Groundhop UK.

I made a very late decision on Thursday evening to travel north for this years Scottish Groundhop, having been offered a rare lift, despite the fact that I had already visited three of the six grounds that were hosting the event. Before this weekend I had only revisited two grounds in Scotland, namely Raydale Park in Gretna and Victoria Park, Dingwall, the home of Ross County, but I would add to these over the next two days.

I had been to Westfield Park before, back in May 2005, when I saw Dunipace Juniors host Yorker Athletic in a Scottish Junior F.A. West Region Central League Division 1 match, but the ground has completely changed since then. Gone are any hint of character and in its place is a really bland, but functional ground, complete with the now so common artificial pitch. Only the old changing rooms have survived, albeit spruced up.

Dunipace have now dropped the ‘Juniors’ from their name, having moved across to the East of Scotland League this season, which is classed as ‘Senior’ football north of the border. As is the norm on a Groundhop UK event, there are the usual price hikes involved, but this was taken to the extreme here, with the catering side going well overboard in charging a ridiculous fiver for a basic pie and bovril. In fact, it appeared that everything was doubled in price, when listening to the comments of the more regular attendees.

As for the match, Bonnyrigg won it without having to break sweat, and they looked like they could score whenever they felt like it, but settled with just the four goals, the third of which was a ‘Panenka’ from the penalty spot. The win means they top Conference B and head for the play offs against the winners of the other two divisions, to give an overall champion.

Above : The ‘Panenka’ penalty makes it 0-3.