Caledonia Dreaming or Ian38018 Sporting Travels: Gayfield Park

4^th September 1999

Arbroath 2-2 Alloa Athletic

I appreciate I am probably drifting into the realm of “Too Much Information” here, when I share with you the fact I had endured a severe dose of the runs on the morning of my drive to Arbroath.  To the extent that I considered staying at home that afternoon, and not straying too far from the Little Boys’ Room.  But nothing ventured…….., as they say, so up the M90 it was.

Arriving at Gayfield Park, I decided it would be wise to make my first port of call the Gents, just to be on the safe side, you understand.  However, I was more than a little dismayed to find the public toilets within the ground only seemed to cater for folks who required to stand-up, if you see what I mean.

Now I am sure there are sitty-down ones in the club buildings somewhere, but apparently, in the eyes of Arbroath FC, it was only players and officials who ever required to shit at Gayfield.  The Great Unwashed, it seemed, just had to hold it in.

No s(h)itting allowed here, apparently.

Same view in 2015 - sporting segregation barrier.
(Toilets now boast cubicles, I am pleased to relate).

Gayfield Park itself sits right on the coast, totally exposed to any gale which may happen to be blowing in off the North Sea. The ground is one of the few in the country which can expect to have at least one game postponed, or even abandoned, due to excessive wind during each season. There was a stiff breeze blowing on this particular day for the visit of Alloa Athletic, but nothing too excessive.

Wasps !

Same view in 2015

The visitors had brought with them a couple of dozen or so Wasps who, resplendent in their striking black and amber hooped replica strips had a great old time to themselves behind whichever goal Alloa happened to be attacking that half. Gayfield, of course being one of the few remaining grounds where fans are able to swop ends at half-time.

Consequently the Wasps would come to be thankful for being as far as possible from their own goal, where their own ‘keeper Mark Cairns was culpable for both Arbroath equalisers.

Alloa had gone ahead after 20 fairly uneventful minutes, when Martin CAMERON reached to divert a cross from Ian Little into the net. But in the 35^th minute, Cairns made a hash of dealing with a weak effort from Arbroath’s Paul Brownlie, merely succeeding in setting up Colin McGLASHAN with a simple header.

Undaunted, Alloa just rolled up their sleeves and promptly regained the lead, James BOYLE heading in a hoofed Gary Clark clearance. The visitors’ looked likely to hold on this lead until time, but hadn’t quite reckoned on CAIRNS’ next howler, as he somehow contrived to slice a cross into this own net late on.

For a brief period during the second half, I wandered around to the main stand where I stood within listening distance of Arbroath’s celebrity fan, Sye Webster. He had recently acquired a degree of fame/notoriety as a consequence of a couple of irreverent, if slightly condescending, articles written by sportswriter Graeme Spiers.

His non-stop potty-mouth invective and half-witted ranting was moderately entertaining for around 90 seconds, after which I edged towards the exit, keen to get away sharp at the final whistle.

My tummy had just begun to gurgle ominously.

Panorama of Gayfield Park, Arbroath.

Same view in 2015, showing the "new" stand looking remarkably similar to the 1999 version.

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Arbroath 1-4 Dunfermline

25th July 2015

Petrofac Training Cup – First Round

As I wandered up to the Gayfield Park turnstiles this afternoon, it slowly dawned on me that I faced a bit of a quandary. For I discovered that, at some point since my previous visit in 1999, Arbroath FC had decided upon (or had had imposed upon them) a policy of supporter segregation. Perhaps this was in response to the infamous rammy which had taken place when Cowdenbeath and Arbroath fans had attempted to swop ends one half-time a few years back.

Anyway, clearly if I wished to attempt to recreate my pics from 1999, then I had no option but to go and take my place on the home terracing – with the enemy, as it were. It did feel a touch odd doing so but, given I spend most of my time watching matches these days as a neutral with my Ground hopper hat on, I could live with it.

This one shows how close Gayfield sits to the North Sea,

Gayfield Park, Arbroath

Gayfield Park from the north

A surprisingly straightforward victory for The Pars it turned out, against an Arbroath side which had done well to reach the Division 2 play-offs last season.

New Dunfermline manager Allan Johnston must have been particularly pleased with how well his new centre-back pairing of Callum Fordyce and Ben Richards-Everton performed; between them denying Arbroath’s giant of a forward Lewis Coult any meaningful touches on the ball. And in Michael Paton he appears to have found a chap who not only can play a bit, but can probably look after himself if required.

The other two “newbies” - Joe Cardle and Sean Murdoch - were both actually back at the club for second spells. Cardle enjoyed a fun afternoon, tormenting home right-back Craig Wilson mercilessly. Mr. Murdoch I shall perhaps reserve judgement upon until I see him rather more strenuously tested - my last memory of him before today being the howler Son and I witnessed him concede in a Europa League qualifying tie some eight years back.

David Gold & Lewis Coult (Arbroath FC)

Ricky Little

Faissal El Bakhtaoui

Arbroath v Dunfermline - July 2015

Michael Paton

Happy to be corrected, but i think this is Kieran Stewart
with the slightly unorthodox leaping technique.

This was as close as I came to capturing a goal -
an own-goal it would have been, as Arbroath defender Ricky Little
bulleted one towards his own goalkeeper.