K-Park Training Academy

 

East Kilbride 5-0 Forfar Athletic

30th August 2025

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!  Twice!!  For, after a decent quarter of an hour so, during which they looked marginally the better side, Forfar pretty much gifted their hosts the opening goal when goalkeeper Marc McCallum and captain Stewart Morrison dithered over who should deal with a long ball and allowed home forward Cami ELLIOTT to nick the ball and roll it into an empty net.

Embarrassment all round, although I felt Morrison was more to blame, as he should have sensed the danger and just blootered the ball out of play.

And then, blow me down, did the pair not go and do exactly the same thing again, in the 37th minute, to present ELLIOTT with another tap-in.  2-0 became 3-0 moments before the break when ELLIOT completed his hat-trick; his weak left foot effort somehow trickling past McCallum.  I am going to give the 'keeper the benefit of the doubt here, and suggest the ball took a deflection on it's way in.

ELLIOTT, last season's top scorer, went one better twenty minutes from time, when he bashed in an 20-yarder into the top corner.  All the more impressive, given it was the goal-scorer himself who had begun the move, winning the ball on the edge of his own penalty box.

The scoring for the afternoon was completed by East Kilbride's right winger Nathan FLANNIGAN, who bundled in a corner-kick late on.  I was pleased for the player, as (along with Elliott, obviously) the former Forfar man had been the other home player to really catch the eye.  Always looking to make himself available, he tormented Loons' full-back Chris Scott mercilessly throughout.  Mind you, Scott had barely helped his own cause, by picking up a booking five minutes in.

Parking at the K-Park

East Kilbride v Forfar Athletic (August 2025)

 

East Kilbride v Forfar Athletic (August 2025)

I missed the actual incident, but the result was Forfar's Craig Slater
suffering a nasty-looking head injury, and having to be substituted.

This big win took East Kilbride to the top of Scottish League Two on goal difference from Spartans.  And even this early in the campaign, it already looks like this pair will be the ones to watch this season.

I intend no disrespect upon East Kilbride FC, and I know the weather was dreadful, but I have to say I have rarely watched a football match in more dispiriting surroundings.  K-Park is one of these soulless "Cage Grounds" we see so frequently these days.  Supporters are only allowed on two sides of the venue: there is a slim stand along one side of the pitch, and an enclosure behind one of the goals.  With neither structure offering much in the way of shelter from the rain, unless you are right at the back.

The ground is perfectly acceptable for League Two level, and probably League One as well.  But should East Kilbride harbour any ambitions of moving further up the ladder, it is difficult to see how they could stay at this location.  There were plans, I believe, for the construction of a new 4,000 seater stadium in the Langlands area of the town.  But the club have just recently stated that their 'preferred option' is to increase the capacity at K-Park.

I shall watch with interest.  I quite fancy another Scottish League ground to visit.

 

Forfar's Marc McCallum

Kilby's David Ferguson (No 2) and Nathan Flannigan

I don't know if this guy in the Hi-Viz was a steward, but he stood obscuring
our view for the whole of the first half.

 

K-Park Training Centre.

Adjacent to the football ground may be found East Kilbride Rugby Club's Torrance House ground, where the local side were in the process of receiving a bashing by Strathendrick.