Westview Park, East Region Super League North, 25/1/20
Kirriemuir Thistle Junior Football Club
Founded – 1921
Nickname – Thistle
Honours – None
Current Division – East Region Super League North
Random Fact – Ex Aberdeen and Scotland Cap Kevin McNaughton is on the books and is also a coach at the Angus club
A belated first fitba footing for 2020 due to my job south of the equator for a month at a time. Kirrie Thistle were selected on my list of must visits for the season. With Wee Man having a swimming lesson in the morning we needed somewhere close. This was an ideal chance to score them off due to them being just seventy four miles away.
Wee Man despite lacking in years on the planet has two favourite bands one being the mighty UFO and the other being the even mightier AC/DC. Given the link between the town and the band, AC/DC were blasted the full hour and a ten minute journey much to the delight of both of us. With the statue of the man the legend Ronald Belford “Bon” Scott being erected in Kirriemuir in 2016 there was only one place to start the day. A thumb up picture of junior and Bon for the mantlepiece. Following this the Peter Pan statue was visited and from there wee wander around the town was undertaken as we didnt have a huge amount of time to do much due to the swimming earlier. During this Wee Man repeatedly enquired if Captain Hook or Tick Tock had statues in Kirrie. I like the place, a peaceful town with very little in terms of life kicking about. But more importantly a fantastic sweetie shop Star Rock (est 1833) where numerous “quarters” were purchased inclusive of some awesome ginger humbugs. Have a stop by if you are in the area. Well worth it.
Once at Westview Park I was quickly aware that I had under dressed the both of us. Yes the weather said 7-10 degrees but the windchill wasnt factored in and it wasnt long untill I heard “daddy I’m really freezing”. This comment lead to a first at the fitba. I watched the game from the warmth of the car. This included leaving Westview to nip across the road to get the motor. The Wee Man had spoken and was a wee bit upset. So who was I to freeze the dude. We parked up behind the goal and took it in from there.
The game was a bit stale for the first half an hour where both teams managed to nulify eachother ensuring the game was no spectacle. But a missed chance from the home side where a decent effort after some good passing play fizzed over the sparked the game into life. This effort was quickly followed up by what should have been the home side in the lead. A corner was swung in but half cleared by the United defence leading the home centre half swinging with a rush of blood and uncontrollably sent the ball packing over the bar. A case of wrong person in the right place. A good chance spurned. With the half into its dying embers Kirrie on another day may have lost a man. On this day the studs first challenge on the half way line went unpunished leading to retribution being taken a split second later at the edge of Lochees box. This also being an awfully poor challenge but deemed only a yellow. From the free kick, Thistle struck the far post and from the resulting rebound the shot seemed to hit a Kirrie back and cleared leading to a Lochee break and within ten seconds of hitting the post, Kirrie had conceded a pen via an unfortunate but stonewall handball. The home defender stuck a foot out to block an effort and it ricocheted up and off his hand. This preventing the ball potentially landing at one or two Lochee players who were sniffinfg aboouts feet. 0-1 from the pen and the HT whistle went immediatley
Second half was a story of poor finishing. First up were Lochee, after some intricate passing, a great move resulting in a finish that should have been nestled past the keeper on his left. The Kirrie number one had his angles all wrong and left the goal wide open. But the Dundee forward somehow pulled it wide. Soon after this the Kirrie keeper was in action and pulled off a cracking save from an eighteen yard drive. His fingertips were stung as he tipped past the post. From the corner Kirrie cleared but not well and the United winger pinged a ball back into the area. This really should really have been the keepers but unfortunatley not as he was caught flat footed. This leaving the Lochee striker to be struck on the head with the ball and 0-2. The ball found him, he didnt find it. But they all count. Kirrie should have halved the deficit almost immediatley when a free header was executed with minimal venom making the keepers job simpler than it ever should have been. Then an astonishing miss from the home team. Wee man and me will struggle to see a worse sitter between now and May. A superb ball into the box evaded everyone barring the unmarked onrushing Thistle man who dived in with an open got at his beck and call, he was a yard inside the post but incredibly put it wide. From our angle, directly behind enforced the fact it was a total howler. But that wasnt the end of the sitters as Lochee still had one in them. Their right winger cut into the box and unleashed a thunderbolt which the Thistle keeper saved well but his at his near post, but bis parry went straight to the visiting striker who headed wide with three quarters of the goal staring at him. Not as bad as the Kirrie diving header as it was more of a reactive header but still a bad one. On another day this could have been 3-3 or 3-4. But at a baltic Westview Park it ended 0-2 with the points heading down the A90. 2020 and the new decade is go.
Me 175,Wee Man 45
FITBAWBAG 