Edinburgh City 2 Nairn County 0
If there was a pivotal moment in this scrappy Scottish Cup tie it was when Brian MacLeod missed a penalty for Nairn and the ten man opposition finally found their home ground feet and went on to score another gaol and contain the County.
If the team had a bad day then perhaps the fans still enjoyed the occasion of a big day out. Edinburgh City have their home in the Meadowbank Stadium and you can’t help feeling that the Ghost of Meadowbank Thistle FC lingers around like like some hidden silent help – the soccer club equivalent of a Randall and Hopkirk situation? Even the steward wears a fluorescent jacket with the letters MTFC no 12 on the back. One of the fans wore a T-shirt with the legend ‘Franchise Football, Never Forgive, Never Forget!’ A reference to the chancers that stole their club , took it out of town and called it Livingston FC. It was good to see these ordinary football fans, the very backbone of soccer just like many of the Nairn faithful, being able to continue their dream of running a football club with real roots in the community. And their dream went a little further yesterday as they proceeded in the Scottish Cup and Nairn packed theirs back into the kit boxes for the 150 mile journey home.
It’s a great stadium but a shame that the fans are so far away from the action, with a running track and a sprint track and another strip of grass between them and the action, sort of a park’s distance away from the park. It lead to a kind of detached feeling that gave extra impetus to the terrace banter, the Nairn fans were having a better time of it than the players and they went home with the bottle of whiskey that was offered as a prize in the half-time raffle.
Back to the nuts and bolts of bread and butter Highland League now, hoping that the 2-0 doing was just an aberration and Fridge’s boys will recover their regular poise and resume their hard-working routine.
If the team had a bad day then perhaps the fans still enjoyed the occasion of a big day out. Edinburgh City have their home in the Meadowbank Stadium and you can’t help feeling that the Ghost of Meadowbank Thistle FC lingers around like like some hidden silent help – the soccer club equivalent of a Randall and Hopkirk situation? Even the steward wears a fluorescent jacket with the letters MTFC no 12 on the back. One of the fans wore a T-shirt with the legend ‘Franchise Football, Never Forgive, Never Forget!’ A reference to the chancers that stole their club , took it out of town and called it Livingston FC. It was good to see these ordinary football fans, the very backbone of soccer just like many of the Nairn faithful, being able to continue their dream of running a football club with real roots in the community. And their dream went a little further yesterday as they proceeded in the Scottish Cup and Nairn packed theirs back into the kit boxes for the 150 mile journey home.
It’s a great stadium but a shame that the fans are so far away from the action, with a running track and a sprint track and another strip of grass between them and the action, sort of a park’s distance away from the park. It lead to a kind of detached feeling that gave extra impetus to the terrace banter, the Nairn fans were having a better time of it than the players and they went home with the bottle of whiskey that was offered as a prize in the half-time raffle.
Back to the nuts and bolts of bread and butter Highland League now, hoping that the 2-0 doing was just an aberration and Fridge’s boys will recover their regular poise and resume their hard-working routine.
1 comment:
Shame.
I was hoping for a cup run and maybe ICT at home at some point. Especially since the County were successful on their last visit to Meadowbank in about 1985 (a game I was at) and then went on to draw Dundee at Station Park when they were unlucky to lose after Dundee scored about 7 goals completely against the run of play.
Ah well, back to the league - there's always next year.
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