Match: Lochmaben v St Cuthbert Wanderers
Date: 13/01/2024
Venue: Whitehills Park, Lochmaben
Competition: South of Scotland League (Tier 6)
Entry Fee: £3
Travel: £17.85
Miles completed today: 146
Total miles remaining: 29488
Where do I begin with this one? In typical January fashion, my plan A fell through. I’m conscious of how much I still have to compete up the east/north east but the weather didn’t look too kind and at this point I must give Forfar West End and Lochmaben a bit of credit.
I messaged Forfar asking what the chances are who told me well in advance it’d likely be off so I fired Lochmaben the same message at around 10pm and they got back to me almost straight away. Very good communication from both.
So it’s the South of Scotland we go. I’ve only been down this way a handful of times and I’m always amazed at just how scenic these places are. Lochmaben is absolutely no different, let’s touch on the town first.
The centre piece is most definitely a statue of Robert the Bruce. There’s a (dubious) claim that he was actually born in Lochmaben, but it is certain that his family built a castle and that he himself fought a battle against the English nearby.
There are two loch’s, but I only had time to take a wander to one of them and picked Kirk Loch. Pictures paint a thousand words, so here’s one I snapped. Stunning right?
Preview
This is a match between two sides who have found it tough this season. Lochmaben have won 2 games, St Cuthbert Wanderers just the one. Surely both see this as a winnable game? McBookie don’t price up the South of Scotland League, but I’d have the home side down as favourites.
The Ground
Lochmaben isn’t a big place, but Whitehills Park is tucked away behind the village with the entrance at the back end of a housing estate. As you walk down the gravel path the ground opens up and before you stands rolling hills and blue skies – every bit as scenic as I’d come to expect from trips to Dumfries and Galloway.
There’s a great vantage point on the far side but most spectators stay by the pavilion.
A quick work on prices, £3 to get in and £1.50 pies. This is great value for money and I can’t have imagined just what my 3 quids worth would get me.
I’ve said this a million times, every ground has a quirk. The Whitehill Park pavilion has some orange slates on its roof to spell out ‘Lochmaben FC’. Not for the first time today, it makes for a great picture.
The Game
Well, I certainly got value for money, but not in the way I was expecting.
I feel like Lochmaben have better players, but they didn’t hold on the the ball well enough at all during the match. Long hopeful balls up to small strikers didn’t wield a whole lot of success, but I still thought they’d win the game! St Cuthbert Wanderers front 3 all had a decent game and the first time there was any space in the game, they had their noses in front. Their right winger #11 controlled then volleyed past Cruikshank who got a strong hand on the ball but couldn’t keep it out.
Just a minute later, we were level again. A great finish from Dylan Crawford arrowed into the corner from the edge of the box – goalie didn’t move!
As I rubbed my hands at the prospect of a goal fest, chances failed to materialise and we went in 1 each at the break.
There was plenty of needle in the game, players on both sides with subtle kicks and pushes and plenty of verbals.
I feel sorry for the referee. He got a lot wrong, but he had so much to deal with. I don’t think Pierluigi Collina would’ve managed to keep a lid on this one.
I must stress, no team was more guilty than the other, but the two sides booted each other up and down the park.
Wanderers keeper went up for an arial challenge and won the ball. There was a wee collision with the challenging player but the keepers reacted and raised his hands. Chest or face I’m not so sure but he was off and we had another rarity – an indirect free kick in the box and an outfielder in goals.
Lochmaben really started to push at this point but the award of a last minute penalty against them put the result in real jeopardy. Wanderers number 5, who had been arguing with the Lochmaben coaches the whole game (entertaining) stepped up. Could he be the villain? No, the pen was saved by Cruickshank and it looked like that would be that.
A push off the ball saw Lochmaben’s 5 sent off and a full on rammy broke out which the poor ref had to decipher. He sent a further 2 players off – one from each side and booked another 2 (at least). All this had come after one of Lochmaben’s coaches had been sent off for giving the ref grief earlier meaning the red card count was up at 5.
Just as it looked like the incident was sorted another fight broke out up the pavilion where committee members, fans and then all of the players ran to try and break up.
The poor ref then made the best decision he’d made all day – restarted the game and blew for full time straight away.
Full time: Lochmaben 1-1 St Cuthbert Wanderers
MOTM
Neither of the 3 keeper’s were tested much but I’ll go for Cruikshank in the Lochmaben goal on the basis he saved a last minute penalty and was one of the only players on the park not to end up in the book.
Summary
Wow. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a game as feisty, and I certainly haven’t blogged about one. A point was probably the fair result as neither were really successful in front of goal. I’d read about Robert the Bruce’s battle with the English here but nobody had prepared me for the bloodbath at Whitehills Park.
What I will say, is that I loved it! A picturesque town and ground added to the occasion and standing on the hill watching the last few minutes as the sun was going down is an image etched in my mind – hopefully for a long time.
Guys, it’s THREE QUID to get into most South of Scotland games, if that’s not motivation enough to visit I don’t know what is.
A hugely successful trip, I’ll leave you with some more pics of the beautiful Whitehills Park
GroundhopScot 