Stenhousemuir vs Berwick Rangers

You may remember that a few months ago I saw my first ever football match. We’d decided, on moving to Falkirk, that we’d like to support a small local team and had settled on Stenhousemuir. Sadly, the first match we attended was a deciding one, and on losing it (to Brechin City) Stenhousemuir were relegated.

We would be pretty awful fans, however, if a small matter like relegation made us give up on our team. So, as bewildering as I find the sport, we decided to make our way back to their grounds at Ochilview Park to see them play Berwick Rangers.

Last time we’d taken front row seats, right at the level of the pitch. That was fun, but it did make it hard to see what was happening when the players were further away from us. This time, we took almost back row seats, at an elevated position, which allowed us to see much more of what was going on. Oh, and before the match started, I got the pie I’d promised to get last time, when I was told that a hot dog was, technically, The Wrong Food for such an event. I hope you’re all happy.

 

This time my mistake was getting a steak and gravy pie, which is almost impossible to eat. I am learning.

 

Anyway, we were glad to have our better viewing position because only a few minutes in, Stenhousemuir scored! Hurrah! I did some clapping and shouting and felt a bit bad for the other team. I think maybe 5 people had come out to support them, where there was actually quite a good turn out for Stenhousemuir. Incidentally, Berwick Rangers are the only English team to play in a Scottish league. Apparently. So I guess that goes some way to explaining their fans’ tendency to stay home.

Anyway, not long after this first (and extremely triumphant goal), there was another! I struggled to see what was happening, but it turned out it was an own goal by Berwick. Oooops.

I do still have a hard time figuring out what the players are trying to do. Quite a lot of the games I’m not really sure what’s going on and there mostly seems to be a lot of running up and down. I think this match made more sense to me than the previous one, but I’m not sure I totally remember. Oh, and P seemed to be able to give a minute-by-minute account of the entire game, whereas my version is “they ran around a lot, there was a good tackle by that guy and they scored.” Perhaps I’ll get better at this with time.

The second half kind of dragged. I thought maybe the players were getting tired because, after a few attempts to score by Berwick, not much seemed to happen. After a while, Stenhousemuir also had a few goes, and eventually managed a third and final goal, but by this point, things seemed to have slowed down a lot. Still, everyone seemed very happy (as was I) and I enjoyed this match much better than the last one. P is making noises about seeing how much a season ticket is, and I’m not quite sure about that yet, but we’ll definitely be out to see our team again before long.