Within the last year I’ve visited Scotland on two separate occasions and have been able to explore a couple of different places and sites on weekend trips away. Previously I had only been north of the border once, to visit my 100th football ground at St. Johnstone FC in Perth, along with being able to spend a day around the capital city of Edinburgh after an overnight stop.
The first of the two aforementioned trips took place late last October, when we booked to stay a night in Dundee as we’d been wanting to visit Robert Scott’s (of the Antarctic) ship the ‘RRS Discovery’ and saw that we could also combine it watching a football match at Dens Park, home of Dundee FC. On the long journey up from the midlands, we chose to stop off at Stirling en-route for more historical visits along with a meal. We stopped off just south of the city at the ‘Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre’ with its impressive monument to Robert the Bruce and insights into the historic battle, before parking in the centre, having some time for early Christmas shopping and walking up the hill towards Stirling castle. This again was an enjoyable sight and after walking back down the hill and having some food we headed in for Dundee.
Saturday morning came and we left early to spend plenty of time walking around the city and seeing ‘discovery point’. The RRS Discovery is one of only two surviving expedition ships from what’s known as the “heroic age of Antarctic discovery”, the other being Norwegian Roald Amundsen’s famed ‘Fram’ (meaning forward) which I also visited in Oslo last year, meaning that it completed a nice set and we got to learn their stories from both points of view.
Next it was on to the football for the Dee’s game against Hamilton Academical. I’d never watched a Scottish domestic league game before (with my game at St. Johnstone being in the Europa League), so I didn’t know what to expect in terms of the standard, quality of style of football, both teams were also struggling for points so needed a good result. Dens Park is a mix of old and new, behind each goal are near identical modern all seated stands, but along each side are older and the more popular stands. The oddly looking stand running along the pitch where Sandeman street and Tannadice street meet was designed by Archibald Leitch, it’s quite simply a wonderful design but does have a somewhat narrow concourse and tight seating, though the slight ‘V’ shape arrangement of the stand gave us a good view for the game and overall a feel of what grounds were like before I was born.
After paying on the gate and deciding where to sit, I quickly had a look at my programme and team-sheet whilst waiting for the match to begin. The game itself started slowly with very few chances for either side, the passing seemed to be quite direct and in general both teams looked to play defensively. There was also some questionable decision making, as Dundee looked to pass out through their goalkeeper, but often ended up under pressure because of it. Hamilton struck first in the 39th minute when a deep cross from the left hand side of the pitch found Iannis Skondras free at the far post to head home. The Accies doubled their lead in the second half after an accurate free-kick combined with fantastic movement by David Templeton gave the winger time and space to half-volley the ball into the far corner on 64 minutes. Dundee clawed their way back into the game on 67 minutes though, after A-Jay Leitch-Smith converted a penalty following a handball, before they were given another lifeline with Massimo Donati being sent off for a second bookable offence. As the Dee pushed forward for an equaliser it left their defence exposed though and the three points were assured for the away side after substitute Antonio Rojano tapped in at the near post in the 86th minute. This led to the mass exit of most of the 4,863 present, with the home fans making their thoughts clear as they left the ground.
On the while another very enjoyable trip with another two cities and a football ground tocked off my list. I liked the range of places we were able to visit in this trip and I aim to explore more parts of Scotland.
My article about the second mentioned trip will be coming soon…
Chris
🙂
The Travelling Therapist 