Dudgeon Park, Brora Rangers
Dudgeon Park is home to Brora Rangers. My only visit there was when I was up on holiday at a caravan site near Embo. My dad and I decided to go to this game since it was the closest game to go to and we hadn't been to Dudgeon Park before. We were in a rush from Inverness as we had to drop our luggage off at the caravan and make our way to the game as soon as possible. We had about 10 minutes to get to Brora from Embo and we were moving fast. The game was Brora Rangers v Buckie Thistle in the Highland League competition. This was each teams 2nd game of the League season. Buckie had 3 points and Brora the 1. Buckie were big favourites for this game as they were the League champions but anything can happen in football!
When we got there, the game had already started. The first thing I noticed about the ground was how far the pitch was from the turnstiles, must have been about 20m. It was a warm summers day and the sun was shining. Buckie had brought up their usual big crowd with them and they were in full voice. However, their team was failing to live up to their standards and Brora were having the fair share of play. But they were to be disappointed as an average cross from main man Zander Sutherland fooled the Brora defence and Craig Macmillan was on hand to steer the ball high into the net from close range. But Brora pressed and were soon rewarded when Scott McKain calmly slotted home a curling effort past the helpless Darren Strong. The first half finished 1-1 and I tried one of the Brora pies, which weren't too bad. A couple of friendly supporters too!
Second half was one to forget for Buckie. They were just not having their day and the ever impressive Scott McKain slotted past Darren Strong for the 2nd time on the day, this a really good strike high into the top right corner. The Buckie fans were not happy but their team weren't showing any urgency to find that crucial equaliser. Instead the defenders were having the problems with a mix up between Chris Angus and Darren Strong almost leading to a 3rd Brora goal. A header back to the keeper turned out to be too high and had Strong scrambling back to his goal to punch the ball away. A good result for Brora and a decent game to watch. Their enclosure is a good size and the pitch is fairly flat too. Brora played some good football and the season looks bright for them. I enjoyed my day out here and look forward to coming back in the years to come.
