Sunday, March 09, 2008

Football Stadia Tour 6: Palmerstone Park

It just struck me that since I abandones blogging my trips around the Scottish first Division Stadium since the untimely death of Phil O'Donnell at the end of last year that I have since completed the cycle that I started out at with Dens Park. In fact Livingston are returning there this Tuesday.

So over the next few days I'll be playing catch up starting with the stadium we visited on that fateful day.


Location

Way down in Dumfries you will find the only football team that is mentioned in the Bible Queen of the South (see Luke 11:31). Fortunately for bookies everywhere the bible doesn't give the names of their opponents or the final score.

Palmerstone Park has been home to the Doonhamers since 1919 when three local teams(Dumfries F.C., Maxwelltown Volunteers F.C. and Arrol-Johnston's works team) merged to form the new club. It is conveniently located just off the by-pass between Tescos and the town's Ice Bowl.

The Ground

The capacity of 6412 included 3509 seats. The majority of which are in the main stand adjacent to the Ice Bowl, where the Livingston fans were accomadated in the southern half, with home fans on the other side.

Across the pitch behind the dugouts is a more tradional stand with a seated section in the middle for the directors and hospitality surrounded by terraces.

To the North and South of the pitch are traditional terraces. The northern Portland Drive Terrace is the home section and houses Queens own drummer. The southern Terregles Street End was traditionally for visiting support but has fallen out of use and now only host the Queen's supporters clubs flags.

The Atmosphere

With a drummer not our own in the stadium us Livi fans really enjoyed ourselves. Doing our own chants to his beat. Also as whenever you share a stand with the rival supporters the close proximity leads to the usual banter across the divide.

Sadly the atmosphere in the stands didn't seem to lift the game on 29th December and it looked like everyone on the park was suffering a post Christmas hangover.

The Programme

Cost £2. Is largely in black and white but the colour pages were disappointingly given over to huge chunks of text or adverts without using this for action pictures. The manager, chairman and team captain all have a column. There were 3 pages of different stats, the division, players plus the game by game break down.

Pie and Bovril

The serveries at Palmerstone are looked forward to by travelling support for a different food group the spud, fried into a gorgeous chip.

Cost

Admission £14
Programme £2
Steak Pie and Bovril £2.60
Total £TBC

League Table of Cost
Morton £17.90
Queen of the South £18.60
Clyde £20.60
Dunfermline £21.50
Dundee £21.60
St. Johnstone £21.90

Match Report

Sorry to say this game was largely a snooze fest. Neither team looked up for it. and for most of the game it looked to have 0-0 written all over it. Sad thing was how often the Queen's players went over with the slightest touch, and more worryingly how often the ref blem up for it. Although he did miss what might have been been a handball decision against Livingston midfielder Lee Makel. Also Livi's left back Craig James was in my opinion lucky to only recieve a yellow card for a two footed challenge from behind.

In the end the only separation between the two teams came when yet another Queen's palyer went down. This time it was ex-Livi hero Steve Tosh to a challenge from Dave MacKay which looked dubious again. The resulting penalty was the only score in the match.

Final Score Queen of the South 1 Livingston 0 (QotS: O'Neill 83 (pen))

Effect on the relative teams' positions. Livingston slipped down one place as a result of this defeat as Dunfermline moved above them.

Next up it is a trip to Forthbank where you can see the Wallace Monument for the 19 January game against Stirling Albion.

Previous Stadia Dens Park, East End Park, Broadwood, McDiarmid Park

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