Airdrieonians V Montrose – Cinch Scottish League One (31/07/2021)
I was hoping I would be spending my 35th birthday watching Hearts V Celtic at Tynecastle but following two failed ballot draws I went ground-hopping and headed to Excelsior Stadium to watch Airdrie V Montrose. Got some good birthday swag though with 4 football shirts with two Dortmund, one Croatia and the new Hearts home shirt.
Got the train into Glasgow Queen Street, then changed trains to Airdrie. The train got as far as Shettleston and we ordered off the train and the service was cancelled due to signalling issues. Then the wait began….a 40 minute wait and then a train showed up and luckily was heading towards Airdrie, but we got about 5 minutes out and the train stopped in the middle of nowhere, with every random stop I got the worry that I was going to spend the afternoon on a piss scented Scot Rail train.
Off the train an hour and 10 minutes later than planned and made the just over a mile walk from Airdrie train station to Excelsior Stadium. Passed a Tesco so made a quick pitstop for a sausage roll as the pie shop at the ground wasn’t to be open. Didn’t really help that I’m unfit and the walk was all uphill, made it to the ground with 20 minutes to spare. Not really a stadium made with getting from public transport in mind.
No match day programmes on sale today, as the programme stand was being used as a sanitation station but I did manage to grab a team-sheet from a steward who thought I was a member of the media.
The Excelsior Stadium or The a Penny Cars Stadium as it’s also known, is a pretty modern looking stadium and would look at home in the Championship. The four all seater stands with the seats in the red, white and black of Airdrie, like many lower league sides in Scotland there is an artificial pitch. Managed to get a seat behind the dugouts and with no pillars in the ground had a great view for the game.
The game started brightly and with 10 minutes played the visitors took the lead with a goal from Masson who nipped in and scored from close range. Montrose had the better of the first half as Airdrie struggled to create anything at all and looked second best all across the pitch.
Montrose doubled their lead with 5 minutes of the second half gone, as the Airdrie defence seemed to let Milne walk into the box easily beat the keeper and put the ball in the bottom left corner. With the score at 2-0 there was loud boo’s from the home fans as they clearly weren’t enjoying what they were seeing.
A clumsy penalty was given with 15 minutes left to play and things went from bad to worse for the Diamonds as the penalty was put away with ease by Webster. There were a few brighter spells as Airdrie brought on Easton who looked like he could create something and got stuck in but they couldn’t find a breakthrough and the game finished 3-0 to The Gable Endies.
Had to make a mad dash to make my train back home as going out for a birthday meal with my wife, so as soon as the full time whistle went I power walked to the train station and managed to beat google maps by 6 minutes (it’s the small victories).
Another ground ticked off this list to put me on 70 football grounds visited now, enjoyed my trip to the Excelsior Stadium but not so much the train journey to get there. Happy to have spent my 35th birthday doing what I love watching football and ground hopping.
So onto my ratings…
Ticket Price – £18
Programme – N/A
Programme Rating – N/A (team sheet only)
Refreshments – N/A
Stadium Facilities – 7/10
Getting to stadium – 5/10
Stadium rating – 7/10
Thanks for reading my thoughts on Airdrieonians against Montrose.
Daz Carding
Football Days With A Salopian Jambo 