Raith Rovers V Queen Of The South – SPFL Trust Trophy Final (03/04/2022)
Due to Sunday travel I had to leave a lot earlier than planned as I got the 1329 train from Polmont to Airdrie and arrived at Airdrie at at 1430 for the 1615 kick off, so went for a wander into the town centre to get some food before walking to the stadium. The options were pretty limited food wise so no feed for me, the amount of seagulls I saw swooping on my walk I’m glad I didn’t get any food as those buggers probably would have stolen it!
An easy 20 minute walk from the train station to Excelsior Stadium or Penny Cars Stadium as it’s also known, much of which was a straight road which is always handy. This being my second visit of the season I remembered most of the walk so didn’t really rely on google for much help. What did help was that beautiful sight for a football fan/groundhopper… floodlights appearing in the distance, guiding me in the right direction.
I adopted Queen Of The South for the afternoon due to them having a fan base in my hometown of Shrewsbury and with that connection it was a no brainer, as I even treated myself to a Queens scarf seeing I’d be sitting amongst the Doonhamers. My FC United To Prevent Suicide shirt got its first outing, not only is it a cracking shirt but also for a great cause. Find them on Twitter at @_FCUnited
Got to the stadium with about an hour to go till kick off, so went for a wander around and picked up a programme. On my walk around I saw something I had never seen outside a game before, someone throwing fire around on a stick, a geezer juggling and another whirling hoola hoops about (not the crisps)! Bumped into a pair of mascots, the SPFL Trust and Queen Of The South mascots.
Got myself some prematch scran after the disappointment of Airdrie town centre, got a pie but strangely they only had one variation of pie on sale and it was my least favourite pie… scotch pies. To be fair though it wasn’t a bad pie, was one of the better seasoned scotch pies I’ve had before, also got some crisps and a carton of apple juice as the same lack of variety was available in the beverage department.
Excelsior Stadium is a modern stadium with all four sides seated with the main stand being bigger than the other three stands. In my opinion the stadium wouldn’t look out of place in a higher division. It has the common thing in lower divisions in Scotland, an astro turf pitch which I’m not the biggest fan of but it saves a lot of games being called off and brings more revenue into the clubs. I was seated towards the back of the main stand just to the left of the half way line and had a good view so I could take in the full pitch which he always a bonus. Both stands running along the touch lines seemed near to full which created a cracking atmosphere just before kick off.
With quarter of an hour played it was 1-0 to Raith Rovers from a great cross from Tumilty after he did well with a ball that looked to be going out and put his cross deep into the box and Matej Poplatnik met the ball with a bullet header that beat Rae in the Queens goal.
With it looking like it was going to be Raith leading at the break, a scramble in the Raith six yard box which saw the ball hit the post and bar, Ally Roy smashed the ball high into the net with the last kick of the half.
It was a pretty open end to end first half, but Queen Of The South were unlucky to go in drawing as they hit the post twice and then the bar twice as they battered former Jambo Jamie MacDonald in the Rovers goal. Raith seemed to be playing the better football in the middle of the pitch but to be fair the game hadn’t really swayed in one teams favour at the break.
In the 70th minute Rovers took the lead once again and it was another bullet header from Poplatnik after an Aidan Connolly cross, which sent the Raith supporters wild.
Raith went further ahead with just over 10 minutes to play as the Queens defence had a lapse of concentration as Mackie fed the ball to Ethan Ross who’s shot from the centre of the box ended up in the bottom left corner.
Up to the last 20 minute of the game it was looking like extra time but Raith went up a gear and took the game to Queens, who couldn’t handle them and it was Raith Rovers who’s name went on to the trophy. I didn’t get to see the trophy presentation which was a shame as I had to leave to make the train home.
So onto my ratings…
Ticket Price – £10
Programme Price – £5
Programme Rating – 8/10
Refreshments – 4/10
Stadium Facilities – 6/10
Getting To Stadium – 7/10
Stadium Rating – 7/10
Thanks for reading my thoughts on Raith Rovers against Queen Of The South.
Daz Carding
Football Days With A Salopian Jambo 