Scottish Football Journey

Seafield Park, Strathspey Thistle

Strathspey Thistle v Cove Rangers marked my first visit to Seafield Park and it was quite a journey from Portlethen. We decided to take a different route to get there. Instead of going on the A96 to Keith and then the A95 to Grantown on Spey, we travelled through to Alford, Mossat, Strathdon and Tomintoul as it was through to be a quicker route. It was however, a really windy road which is not to my satisfaction. It was interesting to go up route for part of the journey which involved a road which travelled really high up and let us see some beautiful views of the Scottish landscape.  What made the views even better was the weather was perfect, blue skies with not a cloud in sight.

By the time we arrived at Seafield Park, the game had already started but no goals had been scored, thankfully. It was quite a big area entering the ground and the players changing rooms were about 30 metres from the pitch itself. I got myself a pie from the shop and an ice cream at half time, which was rare at Highland League grounds to see ice cream being sold. It was a beautiful day in Grantown so there was no need to go into their newly build stand, which was almost empty due to everyone wanting to stand in the sun. The stand was similar to Rothes’ and it must have held around 150 spectators. There was no enclosure but that wasn’t to be a worry for today. You can also see the game from outside the turnstiles as there is just a see through fence surround the ground. But I think they will be redeveloping when funds become available.

In all fairness Strathspey were having the better of possession as they were pressing Cove deep into Cove’s half, they just couldn’t get a shot on goal. Cove were playing more of their fringe players to allow them some playing action, Phil Reid, Greg Sim and Blair Yule being three of those players on the pitch today. It was Phil who opened the scoring too against the run of play. Forward Danny Milne delivered the ball into the box between two Strathspey defenders and Phil managed to get in between the two and header the ball home. This didn’t seem to spark any more fire into Cove as the game just continued with poor clearances from both teams and little amount of pressure on the goals. Mateusz Bobrowski was sent through on goal twice for Strathspey but his shots went over the bar and the other into the arms of Greg Sim, who was rarely troubled throughout the game. A pretty poor first half was ended by the referee.

The second half was in favour of Cove as they came out with a better attitude. They managed to get a quick second goal as Danny Milne danced around 3 defenders before knocking the ball past Willie Ridgers and into the bottom corner of the net. This time Cove did manage to push on with confidence and were playing much better passing football. Kevin Stewart almost scored a third but his long ranger was well off target. Eric Watson was then given a warning by the referee after a very poor tackle on Bobrowski and he was lucky not to be given a yellow. Strathspey couldn’t get a break on goal and it was Milne who scored his second of the day and Cove’s third. Really good play saw Martin Johnston neatly flick the ball behind him for Jamie Beagrie to move on to before slipping the ball for Milne to slot the ball home. Strathspey did however almost get a consolation but Bobrowski’s header just went wide of the post. Substitute Connor Skully came on to score the goal of the game. He was played through and showed great composure to lift the ball over Ridgers from the edge of the box to finish off the scoring. 4-0 was the final score and a good day for the Toonsers.