Lowland League

Friday 18th March 2022

Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.46

Caledonian Braves 1 Edinburgh University 1, attendance 219

73’ 0-1

90’+ 2, 1-1

@ Alliance Park

Strathclyde Country Park

Hamilton Road

Bothwell

ML1 3RB

£6 Admission

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

Considering the Lowland League is level 5 in Scotland, feeding the Scottish Football League, this is a dreadful ground, but as far as 3G cages go, at least it has a couple of kit stands, but it is not good when one end is not accessible to spectators. This was the first of six matches on the ’Scottish Groundhop’ this weekend. There were only two grounds out of the six that I hadn’t already visited, which were here and the Sunday game at Oakley United, so at least I wouldn’t have to suffer the fanfare that surrounds these events for the entire weekend. To be honest, if I hadn’t been offered a lift up here, I wouldn’t have bothered coming.

There had been rumours that the organisers were going to make this game all ticket, as the ground apparently has a 500 capacity limit. As it turned out, the crowd was a pathetic 219, which, although probably ten times the normal home attendance, was very poor for an official ’hop at this level and shows just how ridiculous it was that there was even talk of it needing to be all ticket. It never ceases to amaze me that clubs and leagues at this level are incapable of organising a ground hop themselves, without giving away a chunk of their profits to a third party. Pandering to a coach load of ’hoppers, incapable of doing anything for themselves, does seem odd. There may even be a few amongst them who could actually manage to get there without having their hand held, so although the numbers would be down slightly, the clubs/leagues would get to keep all of the money for themselves, so end up actually making more from their ’big day’. Looking from the outside in, it seems a no brainer. At the end of the day, if the games are there, people will turn up.

The whole thing had a very underwhelming feel to it. The fanfare had rolled into town, but with few locals there, it was very low key. It didn’t help that the game had nothing on it I suppose, as 9th hosted 16th (out of 18) in the league table, with neither side in the promotion or relegation battles. The game wasn’t great. Not for the lack of chances, but some dreadful finishing, from both sides, meant it looked like we would be lucky to get a goal at all, especially when Braves hit the post in the first half, from a chance that looked impossible to miss.. Edinburgh University broke the deadlock with seventeen minutes left, a deflected free kick finding the top corner, before Braves headed in from a corner to make it 1-1 in stoppage time.