Peterhead 0 Queens 5 |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Nov 27 2007 at 12:44 PM |
When the draw for the Third round of the Scottish Cup was made and it gave us a long trip up to Peterhead I resigned myself to spending that particular Saturday afternoon at home. But a few days later when Jim had a thread up on the QOS Mad message board taking names for the long journey North I decided along with workmate Jimmydoubt to go for it. I had never visited Balmoor before and although on paper this had the look of a very difficult game I was confident that we would do enough to get a replay at least. So the big day arrived and after what was not the best nights sleep I have ever had the alarm clock went off at 5.15 am. I had heard the wind and rain battering the bedroom window and I thought to myself that maybe this was not such a great idea after all ! I filled my flask with coffee and left the house for the 20 minute walk down to Palmerston, stopping at the shop for the papers on the way. It was dark and wet as we boarded the two buses but we were soon on our way. A quick stop at the Moffat pickup point for Mary then we were onto the M74. We were making good time and when daylight broke the sky had cleared and the weather looked much more promising. We were soon past Glasgow and we called in at Dunblane to pick up LesM. It was then onto Perth for a quick stop at the service station and then the Scottish quiz was handed out by Frank the quizmaster. A few easy questions but a lot of tricky ones as well. The young team at the back of the bus were pretty quiet…were they using the internet on their mobiles to get the answers ? Anyway I managed to get a respectable 12/20 correct but with 13 the winners were Mr and Mrs middleagedirtbag . It was just turned 11.30am when we arrived at the compact little Balmoor stadium on the outskirts of the town and we were soon off the bus and into the excellent social club beneath the main stand. The second bus arrived a few minutes later and we all settled down for a well deserved refreshment. My mate Q from Inverurie arrived in after his dad had dropped him off. I was pleased that I had convinced him to come along to a QOS match. He knew quite a bit about the Peterhead side and started to tell me the players that could be a danger to us and who to watch out for. We then had an excellent steak pie lunch and Jamie MacDonalds parents popped in for a quick chat and gave me a copy of the teamsheet. It made good reading and my first thoughts were that we had just about our strongest lineup plus, and it was a big plus he had Andy Aitken back and a few others playing in their best/preferred positions. My optimism grew as I gave Gogs a call to let him know the starting eleven. He had been working this morning and along with Parkgateqos and Sturie67 had gone to Castle Douglas to take in the match of the two Rovers’..Threave and Raith. (more about this later!!). We left the warmth of the social club and payed our £10 to get in. Jimmydowt was lucky enough to win a pair of tickets in the Peterhead raffle prior to the game so it made it a cheap day for him after the £5 for the bus. We moved round to take a seat in the other stand. You get a good view of the pitch from here and I was surprised to find it was not quite as cold as I had expected. The match started with Peterhead pressing forward in the first 20 minutes but not really threatening Jamie MacDonalds goal before Sean O’Connor should have put us ahead when he had a shot blocked then missed a sitter when the ball came back to him. We did take the lead in 27 minutes when Bobby Mann tried to head the ball back to his keeper but it was well well short and Stephen Dobbie ran on to pick the ball up and shoot past the keeper. Peterhead failed to rally and it only looked like a matter of time before Queens would increase their lead and they did so almost on the stroke of halftime when a fine move saw Scally and then Gilmour involved before Bob Harris slipped the ball across for O’Connor to knock it home from close range. 2-0 at the interval and it was a bonus to be told we would be allowed out of the stadium and back into the social club for a half-time refreshment. The darkness had come down as we returned to our seats for the second half and it was Queens who were now on the ascendance and pushing for the third goal which would kill the game as a contest. It soon came when big Sean got his second after 57 minutes when he was played through by the impressive Paul Burns . The Polish keeper blocked his first effort but he knocked the rebound into the net. Game over but Peterhead then had a chance of a consolation when awarded a pen with just over 10 minutes remaining after Jim Thomson had upended Sharpe just inside the box. Kozminski took it but his effort came back off the bar and was cleared. O’Connor had the ball in the net again but it was ruled out for offside and we then left the stand to walk round behind the goals to the exit just as Queens made it 4-0 Dobbie fairly hammered the ball home after neat work from sponsors man of the match Stevie Tosh. Q and I decided to have a quick couple of Whiskys for the road and in the process missed a neat finish from Paul Burns to see Queens go nap and record their largest away victory for some time. I had a panic for a few seconds on leaving the social club as I thought the bus had gone but just when I thought I was about to spend the night in the Highlands it came round the corner and we were on our way home. We dropped Q in Aberdeen and I was pleased to hear later on that he was back home . Maybe I should get him to come to a few more games if we are going to get results like that ! The journey home was a happy one and we had a fine stop at Auchterarder where we had a few drinks with some St.Mirren fans returning from their defeat at Inverness. Wee Roy (or not so wee Roy) was being worshipped by the Buddies as they sang “theres only one Maradona”, it was class. We were soon on the bus and before I knew it we were back in Dumfries. It had been a great day out and had flown in. Many thanks to the travel club for taking us on a 480 mile round trip for a £5. If you are not a member I would urge you to join as it’s the best value around. Also a big thanks to the people of Peterhead for the friendly welcome and it would be nice to see them get up into the first division so we could repay them the hospitality. The social club at Balmoor is a great wee place and I hope to return again but only in the cup or first division. I was up early on Sunday and feeling remarkably fresh. I had a read through the mad message board and could not stop laughing after reading Parkgateqos’ post about the wind-up him and Gogs played on Sturie67. I hope you don’t mind lads but I have copied it and you can all read it here…….
I couldn't make Peterhead yesterday so I decided to take in the Threave v Raith game at Castle Douglas with Gogs and Sturie67. After a few dodgy texts from Sturie67 on late Friday night I came to the conclusion he must have been out on the town, so when he arrived at Meadow Park at 2.57pm Gogs and myself had decided to wind him up about the team selection at Peterhead telling him that Andy Aitken was playing up front with Dobbie as big Sean hadn't made the line up. Sturie wasn't too sure that we were telling the truth and at this stage we didn't know that the best wind up would come later!!
Gogs was being kept informed of events at Peterhead by Musky(although I heard today that Musky had an extended visit to the Balmoor Social club at half time!!) and as Raith Rovers began to run away with things midway through the 2nd half Gogs and myself decided to wind up Sturie67 big time (as he had appeared not to be his usual alert self). We all knew that Queens were 3-0 up, so I started the "ball rolling" with a glance at my phone and informed Sturie67 that Peterhead had pulled a goal back to make it 1-3. It was then that I signalled to Gogs to carry on the "good work" with texts on his phone. So after a few minutes Gogs pipes up that Queens had lost a 2nd goal and to make matters worse had Andy Aitken sent off as well. Sturie67 was getting very agitated by this stage while we were struggling to keep a straight face!! Just at that time, in came an actual text from Musky that Peterhead had just missed a penalty and this added nicely to the "wind up".
Another few minutes went by and another "manufactured" text from the fishing capital had JT putting through his own net to make the score now 3-3. Poor old Sturie67 was now testing the Meadow Park terracing for cracks as well as a few choice words!!
Around 4.42 Gogs manufactured his final "nail in the coffin" text to "inform" us that Bavage had completed the comeback to make it 4-3 to the home side and at that point Sturie67 let fly with a few expletives!
Gogs and myself had to appear just as angry to stop ourselves from bursting out laughing. Just as the full time whistle was about to go a man in front of us asked Sturie67 how Queens were getting on and he proceeded to "fill" him in on the "disasterous" events in Peterhead and we were now struggling to contain the "wind up". So then went the final whistle at Meadow Park and other fans must have wondered why Sturie67 was in so much of a rage. As we were walking out of the ground Gogs and myself couldn't contain ourselves any longer and owned up to one of the best wind ups that I've been fortunate to be part of!!
As we were having a good laugh about it going down the street Alan "Rocky" Roxburgh informed us that Queens had won 4-0.
We left Sturie67 with a smile on his face and by the time we got back to the car Queens had made it 5-0.
A GREAT DAY ALLROUND AND A "WIND UP" OF THE HIGHEST ORDER
Musky
Back
