Grant Street Park, Clachnacuddin
Grant Street Park, Clachnacuddin, was a memorable day out and one of the best. Aberdeen were playing Celtic at Pittodrie Stadium and it was an early kick off on a Saturday morning. We were going up to Inverness via train with the other Cove supporters and were going to go to a pub to watch the Dons game first. We got into the pub and it was 1-0 Celtic. They had led through Diomansy Kamara. But our day had just begun and Michael Paton volleyed home a left foot effort from the edge of the box to level things up, great goal. Although Celtic regained their lead through Marc Antoine Fortune, Aberdeen hit back immediately from Darren Mackie's back post effort. 2-2 at half time and things were to get even more intense. Celtic took a 4-2 lead through a Robbie Keane header and a beautiful curling effort from Aiden McGeady. Things were looking down and out for the Dons but a handball from the Celtic defender gave Steven Maclean the chance to pull one back, which he converted into the top corner of the goal. Despite a touch from Artur Boruc, the shot was too strong and gave Aberdeen some hope. Then the moment of joy. A scramble in the Celtic box fell to Darren Mackie and his shot which was heading wide was deflected into the net by Steven Maclean to send the Aberdeen fans wild and us Cove fans, who the majority are Dons fans too. A 4-4 finish to a fantastic game, with more goals to come!
Clachnacuddin's ground was a strange one. A huge enclosure behind the far goal was locked due to trouble between fans involving Clachnacuddin and Stenhousemuir in a Scottish Cup game. Also there was a small seated stand for anyone who wishes to stay dry. But we decided to stand behind the dugouts. Since then, Clachnacuddin have demolished the enclosure and built a new one which is still in progress but looking just the part. A curling effort from the edge of the box from Andrew MacAskill gave Clach a deserved lead. But Cove fought back through a cool Jamie Buchan effort from inside the area. Gordon Morrison restored Clach's lead with a well executed overhead kick. Just as things were looking like a 2-1 lead for Clach going into half time, Danny Milne controlled Martin Johnston's through ball and his shot was too powerful for the on rushing Harrison who got a touch on the ball, but it sailed into the bottom corner and levelled things up for the first half.
The second half was to spark late drama. Clach were then reduced to 10 men when Mark Kennedy saw red for a second bookable offence and just seven minutes later, Cove made their larger number count when Eric Watson rose to head the ball into the top left hand corner to give what Cove thought, 3 points. But in the dying seconds of the game, a foul on Roddy Black was ignored and the ball fell to substitute Kyle Maclean and he gave ten men Clach a share of the spoils.
Although this was the first time I've been here, it was a great day out. The ground isn't great and the bad thing was the floodlights were switched off as soon as the game had finished, leaving us walk out in darkness, which was a struggle. But I will remember this day for a long time and have always enjoyed games against Clachnacuddin. I am always guaranteed goals and plenty of them too.
