Hearts Attack

Dunfermline Athletic U20 V St Johnstone U20 

Tweedmouth Rangers  v Leith Athletic 

The first 'schoolday' day off of my holiday, with a plan centred around an afternoon of Hull 23s and then the Nottinghamshire Senior Coup final in the evening.  That was until 0430 in the morning, when the alarm started going off at the Sue Ryder shop opposite my flat.  Given the choice between not sleeping or doing something, I had a look to see what else might be offer, and Dunfermline v St Johnstone in the development league was an afternoon kick off, so it was down the station for the first train of the day.

The sun rising over the promised land, or as it's known in these parts, 'Burnley'.

I was off at Preston.

Where it was a quick switch onto a Glasgow bound TransPennine service.

The sun was also lighting up the Lune gorge.

There were various options of connections to Fife, I chose to jump off at Lockerbie.

The first 'Whisky train' of the day.

Lockerbie is only really known for having blown up jumbo jets landing on it, but it is quite a centre for the region.  It has a pleasent town centre, inhabited by metal sheep.

And blokes with blow torches doing strange things to them.

It was back to the station and onto the following Edinburgh service.

Which was taken through to Haymarket.

Some unit swapping now as a 170 on a Dundee service rolled in, so I jumped on.

Passing the first of the hideously overpriced schemes where private companies have screwed over the government with exorbitant contracts that they have then walked away from.  This is the Edinburgh Tram, which finally runs, but only a fraction of its intended route, but at ten times the cost.

Next it was over the Forth Bridge, with the new roadbridge progressing in the background, the second of the PFI disasters visible within ten minutes.

This service was heading off towards Kirkaldy, so I was off at Inverkeithing.

And onto the following Cowdenbeath service.

Which was taken through to Dunfermline Town.

I'd done Dunfermline in November so I forewent the opportunity for further exploration, instead heading to the bus station.

For an onward bus move to Kelty, where the game was being played.

The route passes through the midland valley and the former Fife coalfield.  This has now all returned to nature, giving an almost Highland feel to the scenery.

Which was taken in by both the other people on board.

I was off the bus in the centre of Kelty.  Notice the two blokes on the far side, warming up for their afternoon school crossing/road sweeping duties, with a pint at a Goth bar.

Kelty was a mining village, but these had all shut down by the 1980s.  These days, the main employer seemed to be convenience stores, with there seemingly being one for every two households.  Its prime pproponent is it being dirt cheap and next to the Edinburgh - Perth motorway, thus making it attractive to commuters.  But this was my destination.

Kelty Hearts were formed in 1975, after previous junior clubs in the village and passed by.  They rose through the Kirkcaldy league, before turning Junior in the early 1980s and playing in the Fife section.  In recent years they have played in the East Superleague, the highest level of Junior football, which they won two seasons ago and are currently top of the league.

Dunfermline Athletic U20 2 V St Johnstone U20 1, Scottish Professional Development League

Dunfermline I have covered previously.

Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? 
St Johnstone are a team from Perth, 
They say in heaven, love comes first 

Fiction Factory were a band from Perth.

The New Central Park ground was originally an open field.  However, in order to play Junior football, it was fenced off using floorboards from the miners houses which were being demolished.  

Junior football is also very good at providing cover, but no seats.  There were substantial covers...

...at either end of the near touchline.

With the original cover on the far touchline, now raised in the air since the pitch was levelled.

The original pitch had long since suffered from drainage issues, so was replaced with 3G over the summer.

One of my favourite things at non-league grounds is finding out what enchanted lands lie beyond the ubiquitous open access gate.

In this instance, scrubland and a misty hillside.  

Although the adjacent gate seemed to be akin to that of a maximum security prison.

Sometimes I think that the Scottish Junior scene is less a display of football, but more a competition of club branded metalwork.

Kelty were truly at the top of their game.

CNC engraving is the new seating.

A new non-league activity is to check out obscure rules relating to 3g pitches.  Unique to Kelty is the outlawing the use of chewing gum and prams.

I am increasingly convinced that the best paid person in football isn't Rooney, Blatter, or any of the mercenaries playing in China, but is instead the owner of the plastic cone manufacturers.  These days, every club has thousands of the things.

There was then a strange version of the conveyor belt part of the Generation Game, as a procession of people walked past dragging unusual items.  

A bike.

A chair.

My roadsweeping and lollipop man friends from earlier had finished their drinks and were now in the adjacent school yard watching the game.

So to the game.  

Despite it being a bone dry artificial pitch, it was good to see the home keeper had an @keepers_towel on display.

The worse level of football in the world is the Scottish Championship, therefore I wasn't expecting too much, however, it was actually a good game.

There was a fair sprinkling of spectators.

The new covers have very substantial supports, hindering the view, so these weren't really being used.

St Johnstone were on top and it was they who took the lead.

However, Dunfermline then equalised.

Half time and an opportunity to visit not only the social club...

...but also the 'sports lounge'.



It being an 'away' game for both sides, it was the opportunity to take in the opulence of their youth team transport options.  St Johnstone going for a 2011, 17 seat Renault Master.

Dunfermline going for the same manufacturer, but a more modest 9 seat Traffic, begging the question of how the other three players got there.

The start of the second half was signified by the woman continuing to drag her chair around with her.

The far side of the ground gave good views towards the Fife coast.

And saw Dunfermline grab a winner.

A decent game ended 2-1.  I'm not sure what process Scottish championship clubs go through to extract all footballing ability from these players before they play in the first teams.

My next move was a long slog back south to try and make some part of the evening game in Nottingham.  This started with a bus to the least exotic sounding destination in the history of public transport.

So instead I got one to the second least exotic sounding destination.

Dissapointingly, the only other two people on the bus had got the TDFS (Top Deck Front Seat) status.

Passing the remains of the former colliery.

Which was now occupied by a couple of ghostbusters.  As I say, lunacy is all around, and you don't have to go far to find it.

For some reason, this bus terminated somewhere near Cowdenbeath, rather than in the centre itself, 

So it was a wander into town.

After stocking up on sugar free Irn Bru, it was over to the station.

Heading back into the capital, and the Firth of Forth looking as gloomy as the dowstream view had been earlier.

I was going to change at Inverkeithing for the Aberdeen-Kings Cross HST, but it was running like a dog, so I carried on into the darkness of the bays at Waverley.

And made a -1 connection across 14 platforms, onto the earlier London starter.

This being the East Coast main line, I was soon looking at flat fields of rape seed.

Although there was some relief with the cliff top stretch around Burnmouth.

With no no chance of getting to Nottingham, I scoured the fixture list and for once, fortune favoured me as there was a late change in the East of Scotland Premier.  Getting the earlier train was doubly fortuitous as it stopped at Berwick, which was the location for my game.

And to add to the sense that this was meant to be, there was a cheap hotel adjacent to the famous Royal Border Bridge railway viaduct.

My game was across the water in England, so it was a pleasant stroll down to the riverbank.

Then across the old bridge.

To here (this photo was taken after the game).

But not here.

Instead, my game was being played at the second pitch, 'Old' Shieldfield Park.

Tweedmouth Rangers 2 v Leith Athletic 2, East of Scotland League

Tweedmouth Rangers were founded in 2010, playing in the North Northumberland League.  They moved up to the East of Scotland league this season.

The original Leith Athletic were formed in 1887 as the Edinburgh dockers team.  They joined the Scottish League in 1891, where they jumped around the divisions, before a steady decline saw them eventually kicked out of the league and going out of business in the 1950s.  The current club were formed as a youth side in the 1990s, but when Edinburgh Athletic got into difficulty in 2008, Leith took them over, including their place in the East of Scotland set up,  

The ground is actually accessed through the main Shieldfield Park.

And a quick opportunity to get a picture of the speedway/football ground.

Before heading off to the Old ground.

Old Shieldfield Park is owned by the Berwick Rangers supporters trust.  It was previously little more than a training pitch, with the occasional game being played by local sides.  Tweedmouth took over the lease as their previous Billendean Road ground, just on the other side of the railway, could not be enclosed.  They have since done a lot of work adding a pitch surround, and also improving the surface.

The only structures are these dugouts.

This is the only spectator seating.

A very ornate bench for two!

Overlooking the ground is the Simpson's maltings, who produce malts for many brewer's including Timothy Taylor's.

Because the pitch is so far from the dressing rooms, the players stayed out for the duration of the warm up and game, with the match shirts neatly hung out on the railings.

So an alfresco team talk.

And the game began.

The ball went high...

And again, but this time a delicate lob by the home forward, saw it 1-0 in the first few minutes.

But almost immediately, Leith equalised.

And then, with the following attack, took the lead.

Then, before we'd got ten minutes on the clock, another innocuous break saw another delicate chip, and it was 2-2. 

The home side had the second @keepers_towel of the day on display.

A rare midweek game at the ground meant there were a sprinkling of groundhoppers.  This bloke with his anorak, leather flat cap, and embroidered SNP bomb bag, spent most of the game looking for somewhere to have a piss.

The ground borders the East Coast main line, although partially hidden by trees.  So a few action shots through the medium of trains.  Cross Country's 1S49 1125 Plymouth to Dundee passes with another three hours of its journey to go.

A steel train from BSC Dalzell in Glasgow to Tees Yard in Middlesbrough, passes a Leith attack.

Ten minutes later and more steel product, this time the 1505 from Mossend Euroterminal to Tees Dock Export Berth.

A rare moment of quiet in the game, sees Virgin East Coast's 1E29 1935 Edinburgh to London Kings Cross disappear south bound.

Heading past a very sweary Leith fan is another Voyager, this time on 1S51 1225 Plymouth to Glasgow Central

And with three hours of its journey gone, the 1700 London Kings Cross to Edinburgh gets to see a goalmouth scramble.

With the sun fading, half time came.

The kids took over the goals, with the subs forced to warm up on the halfway line.

The second half started just as frantically as the first half did.  A rather innocuous challenge by a Tweedmouth player saw a free kick given, and him booked.

Which he took exception to and was promptly sent off.

As he was exiting play, his team mates took up the cause on his behalf.

Which saw one of them sent off as well.

Cue forty minutes of bombardment of the Tweedmouth goal.

Leith missed chance...

...after chance..

...after chance.

And Tweedmouth held out for it to end 2-2.

The players grouped on the side line to have group discussions about how shit they thought the ref was.

So, with the ground being dissembled, it was time to head off.  Notice that the ref is still waiting at the far end of the pitch, waiting for the players/crowd to all leave before braving a walk to the changing room.

A wander back through town and noticing Tweedmouth signal box through the houses.  It is actually adjacent to the ground, but obscured by foliage.

It was back across the Tweed, this time on the new bridge, which gives a good view of the railway viaduct...

...which has had some funky disco lights added.

Which predictably, didn't work when the trains went over.

So I headed down to the riverside, where much better shots could be obtained.

However, there was suddenly a blur in front of me and an almighty splashing.  Hoping that I was about to get a front row view of the demise of a cyclist or a dog, or a dog owner, or in a perfect world, a cycling dog owner, I went for  a closer look.  What was actually making the noise was a baby deer which had run out of the adjacent woods, and in the pitch black, had carried on, straight off the pathway, and into the river below.

It was now swimming with the flow, which meant it was heading out into the North Sea, which isn't particularly fawn friendly.  So I spent the next twenty minutes throwing rocks at it, encouraging it to swim upstream.

This might sound exciting, but it is exceedingly boring.  So with the appearance of the 1830 Seaham Harbour to Oxwellmains cement works, I decided to take pictures of that instead.  The trains appearance coincided with an abrupt end to the splashing.  

  
I'd guessed that the deer had either drowned or was letting itself be taken out to a salty ending, but after a few minutes, a bit more crashing around revealed it had made it to a level part of the riverbank and off it headed to probably get run over or shot.

And I headed back to my hotel, where the evening was rounded off by being able to watch Better Call Saul on the balcony, to the backdrop of the viaduct, disco lights and late running Voyagers.

So 360 miles of rail travel, to get sporting events nine and ten of the week, and to be able to display greater fawn life saving skills than Bambi's mother ever did.