24th March 2001
Peterhead 0-1 Dumbarton
I had earlier, in 1998, visited this ground when Peterhead were still a non-league club, and Balmoor Stadium sported only one stand (link below). That was part of a leisurely drive around Banff and Buchan collecting non-league ground footage for my Caledonia Dreaming video series.
But I had to scoot up the road PDQ for this particular match, as it was kicking-off at 1pm to avoid a clash with the Scotland v Belgium World Cup qualifier taking place at Hampden later that afternoon.
This was Peterhead’s first season in Scottish League football, and March found them having made a decent fist of things sitting in mid-table with 40 points from 26 matches. They had just enjoyed four league wins on the bounce and must have fancied their chances of making it five against visitors Dumbarton.
But the home lot never really got going in this match, top scorer Craig Yeats being deprived of any form of service by the stuffy Dumbarton defence. The only goal of the game came from the visitors’ Joe ROBERTSON after 31 minutes, whilst Paddy Flannery scorned an opportunity to add a second when he missed a penalty 5 minutes from the break.
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| Peterhead v Dumbarton (March 2001) |
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A view from the same spot in 2018 shows the earth terracing to have been removed and replaced
by hard standing and, more strikingly, that the houses just over the wall have been demolished to make way for a
car park and an all-weather pitch. |
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| Balmoor Stadium Main Stand 2001 |
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| ...and in 2018 (in focus this time!) |
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| Panorama of Balmoor Stadium, Peterhead 2001 |
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Those saplings poking into the 2001 pic have now grown into an impenetrable jungle in the intervening 17 years.
No free views from the roadside now. |
Driving further north after the match (I was on my way to Wick!) I had to endure listening to yet another “It’s a Disaster for Scotland!” radio transmission from Hampden. Scotland, 2-0 up and cruising after half-an-hour – the second goal from a penalty award, which had also led to the Belgians being reduced to 10 men – somehow contrived to drop two points by time-up. And thus was another World Cup lost.
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Peterhead 0-2 Stirling Albion
21st July 2018
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| Floor mosaic at the entrance. |
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| Balmoor Stadium - Peterhead FC |
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| Stirling Albion players doing the one-minute's-applause thing in commemoration of former Peterhead manager Neale Cooper. |
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| Panorama of Balmoor Stadium, Peterhead FC |
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| East Stand, Balmoor. |
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| Some sponsors' names are just too cool. |
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| Jordan Allan (Stirling Albion) |
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| Ross McGeachie & Jamie Stevenson (ex-Real Majorca!) |
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| Balmoor Stadium Main Stand. |
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| Albion manger Dave Mackay |
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| Kyle Banner (No 5) and club captain Ross McGeachie |
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| Peterhead FC management team with manager Jim McInally on right. |
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| The Balmoor Stadium Jungle. |
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| Peterhead v Stirling Albion - July 2018 |
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| Peterhead v Stirling Albion - July 2018 |
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| Peterhead v Stirling Albion - July 2018 |
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| Peterhead v Stirling Albion - July 2018 |
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| Panorama of Balmoor Stadium - Peterhead FC |
Nice photos especially the older 2001 ones. For pedantic purposes and in terms of accuracy, your first photo from 2001 entitled ‘Peterhead v Dumbarton (March 2001)’ is taken from the North West side of the ground looking North East.
ReplyDeleteYour second photo says ‘A view from the same spot in 2018 shows the earth terracing to have been removed and replaced by hard standing and, more strikingly, that the houses just over the wall have been demolished to make way for a car park and an all-weather pitch. This second photo is taken from the South East looking South West.
The houses that you say are demolished are in fact located on Balmoor Terrace behind the North East corner of the ground and are still be there as depicted in your later photo ‘Some sponsors' names are just too cool.’
Ken Morton, Peterhead FC
Thanks Ken (pedantic is good). Looking at the pix now, I wonder how I could have been so stupid to think those auld hooses were demolished. Whit a eedjit, i am.
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