12th October 2013
Preston Athletic 1
Queens Park 2
It is a long, long time since I first attended a football match
at Pennypit in the East Lothian village
of Prestonpans – almost 30
years in fact. Back then there were
pretty much just two open pitches in the ground: one for football, and the
other for egg-chasers Preston Lodge.
The facilities for both clubs were significantly upgraded in
the early 1990s with, for I am sure some totally sound logistical reason, the
rugby pitch becoming the football pitch and vice versa. Stands housing a few hundred or so spectators
were erected at both grounds, although very little else in the way of shelter
for spectators.
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The stand at Pennypit, Preston Athletic FC |
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The stand at Pennypit, Preston Athletic FC |
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The stand at Pennypit, Preston Athletic FC |
Nevertheless these facilities were deemed quality enough to
allow Preston Athletic access to the Scottish FA Cup – their most recent
venture being this Second Round Replay with a Queens Park
side enduring a fairly torrid season to date.
For this afternoon found the famous old Glasgow
club propping up Scotland’s
bottom league division, having garnered but a single point from seven league
matches; and having had to rely on a late equaliser at Hampden to take this tie
to a replay.
Not that one would have thought so on the first 45 minutes
showing here, as the visitors totally dominated their non-league hosts, turning
around 2-0 to the good: both courtesy of winger Blair SPITTAL. But the nature of the contest changed five minutes
after the break when Preston’s Ricky RAMSAY
pulled one back with a well-placed header.
The goal prompted a very minor pitch invasion by a number of
the school kids who had been congregating behind one of the goal, and led to
the referee taking the decision to lead the players off the pitch until the
scamps were rounded up and ejected by the local constabulary. As the oiks trooped out of Pennypit it looked
like nothing so much as a school outing.
After play finally recommenced Athletic enjoyed their best possession
of the game, but created little of substance beyond inducing a couple of
frantic scrambles in front of Spiders’ keeper Blair Lochhead. Inexorably though the visitors’ superior
fitness began to tell, and much of the final quarter of an hour saw QP beating
on the Preston goal – Michael Keenan ( I
think it was) headed against the crossbar, and twice John Gilbertson pulled of
fine stops to prevent Queens closing out the tie.
I should perhaps liked to have seen Preston score a second, if
only to see how the visitors’ fragile (I assume) confidence held out, but the
stark truth was that Ramsay's header was in fact the only time Athletic had hit
the target all match.
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First-half Queens Park corner-kick. |
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First of a number of fireworks, flares and smoke cannisters set off. |
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Sean Burns |
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Preston Athletic v Queens Park - October 2013 |
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Preston Athletic v Queens Park - October 2013 |
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Preston Athletic v Queens Park - October 2013 |
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Preston Athletic v Queens Park - October 2013 |
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Preston Athletic v Queens Park - October 2013 |
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Preston Athletic v Queens Park - October 2013 |
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The second-half about to kick-off. |
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Blair (Two-Goals) Spittal |
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Saw this seat in the otherwise packed stand and made a bee-line for it. I soon discovered why it was vacant. |
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More monkey-business |
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Ricky RAMSAY rises to head in Preston's goal........ |
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......to bring the score to 2-1........ |
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.............cue pitch "invasion"....... |
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....which sort of fizzles out. |
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However, the constabulary are not impressed and strides onto the pitch........ |
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.......requesting the ref to remove the players until order is restored. |
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"Right. Oot ye's go. The lot o' ye." |
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Preston Athletic v Queens Park - October 2013 |
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Preston Athletic v Queens Park - October 2013 |
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Michael Keenan |
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Keenan's diving header comes back of the bar................. |
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.....then Gilbertson stretches to deny Lee Davison |
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Panorama of Pennypit Park, Preston Athletic. |
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