North Lodge Park, Formartine United
Today was to make history for me and for Formartine united. It was their first ever home game of the Highland Football League since their step up from the North Region Juniors. I expected big things of Formartine since they had signed a £100000 deal with Abu Dhabi-based Kaddas Oilfield Services and Trading Company. They had bought some big names from the Scottish Football League including former Peterhead striker Stuart McKay. Their ground, North Lodge Park was about half a miles walk from the nearest pub, which was where we were at.
As we were walking, we could see the men in the parachutes gliding down from a helicopter with the match ball. Also there were red flairs to mark the special day. A big crowd was expected and I had later read there were around 750 that had attended. Formartine couldn't have had a tougher opening game to start off with. The current League champions, my beloved Cove Rangers were in town for the red and whites and this was to be no easy game for anyone. The game had just begun as I got into the ground, which was looking well done with 2 similar stands and 2 similar small enclosures. Money well spent. The only bad thing was the time I had to wait to get my food from the burger van. Only 1 customer was to be served at a time and the next had to wait until the first's food had been cooked, from frozen!
To make things worse, I had only just got a glimpse of Paul Tosh opening the scoring for Cove with a flick at the back post. I was still awaiting my food. I was still in the queue when Cove were awarded a penalty and Kevin Webster slotted home. When I finally did get my food we went into one of the small enclosures with all the other Cove fans. No more goals were in this game and the closest Formartine came to getting a goal was a shot from the edge of the box from Stuart McKay which hit the bar, unlucky.
My visit to North Lodge Park hadn't been the best. But it is one of my favourite grounds for a few reasons. It had a good flat pitch, 2 well looked after stands and enclosures and also a large area around the pitch for standing, so you're never in danger of not being able to see.
