5th August 2017 Edinburgh City v Montrose 1-3

This week has been ruined somewhat by a statement issued by Hearts chairperson, Ann Budge. The completion date for the new stand was meant to be in time for the Aberdeen match is early September. However this date will not now be met as the club did not process the order for the new seats in time ! The completion date has now been moved to November as as a consequence home fixtures against Aberdeen, St Johnstone and Rangers will now be played at Murrayfield, the home of Scottish Rugby. Patrick Thistle have kindly agreed to ‘flip’ their proposed visit to Tynecastle as as a result Hearts will now travel to Firhill on 24th September. When is a new stand not a stand? When it has no seats! Hearts have previously played Champions and Europa League matches at Murrayfield but with a capacity of 67,000 the smaller football crowds not not generate that great an atmosphere. However Hearts did play a friendly against Barcelona in 2007 and attracted a crowd of nearly 58,000. I still think that the three league games would be lucky to attract 20,000 each despite the novelty of playing a Murrayfield. Even for Rangers we will struggle to attract a larger crowd as I don’t think the SRU or the Edinburgh Police would want a large contingent of Rangers fans at Murrayfield.

I had not intended going to this game having originally thought of going through to Parkhead for Hearts first SPFL match of the season. When I got round to checking the Hearts website for tickets there were only restricted view seats available. The idea of sitting in a seat without a clear view of the pitch in a corner of the stadium in close proximity to Celtic fans made me think again. Parkhead is a terrible ground for away fans as the police and stewards seem to think that away fans are provoking the Celtic fans by just being there. Policing is terrible and no action is taken about objects being thrown at away fans by the home support. I decided to watch the Hearts game on TV but gave up when Celtic went 4-0 up midway through the second half. At the point from a Hearts viewpoint the best thing about the game was that Jon Daly had substituted Kyle Lafferty before he got himself sent off after having been booked in the fist half. I set of for Ainslie Park and missed Isma’s consolation goal although I saw it later on Sportscene. 

I was a bit apprehensive about attending this fixture as I had gone to the same game when season at Meadowbank, while City were going through their dreadful start to the season. The game was awful and a late goal had given Montrose a 1-0 victory. I cheered up on arrival at Ainslie Park where I got in for £6 after showing my Hearts season ticket. The programme had increased in price from £2 to £2.50. However there were a number of colour photo’s and several interesting articles which cover a number of footballing issues. I felt sorry for former City player Stuart Donaldson who was the only one of the twenty-two players who had left City since the end of the previous season not to have his photo in the programme. The programme editor claimed he could not find a useable photograph.

City started well and pressed forward looking to take an early lead. New signing Gavin Malin from Arbroath was especially prominent in the early exchanges.The game turned on its head with two Montrose goals within three minutes around the half hour mark. For the first veteran striker Chris Templeman shot from outside the penalty box. The shot looked like a keepers ball all the way but the bounce of the ball deceived City keeper Calum Antell and the ball ended up in the net. The second came from a run down the right wing. The ball was cut back to Templeman who squared it to Connor McLaren who had an empty net to aim at.

The first half was spoiled somewhat by shouts by Montrose fans at former Hearts Player Craig Thomson who now plays for City. Thomson was convicted of inappropriate conduct towards two underage girls over the internet in June 2011. He was found guilty and placed on the sex offenders register for five years. Given the five year period has now expired it was disappointing that Montrose fans were shouting references to the conviction. In a ‘crowd’ of 341 every word could be clearly heard and it was surprising the stewards did not take any action. Especially considering the stewards were looking to enforce segregation with Montrose fans in one area of the stand and City fans in another. I think I confused them when I said I was neutral.

Early in the second half Montrose went 3-0 up after a well struck free kick from 25 yards out from Iain Campbell. The game was now beyond City and centre back Shaun Harrison was sent off after 80 minutes for a second yellow card. He was tackled high by a Montrose forward and fell to the ground. He then jumped up and pushed the forward before falling back down awaiting treatment. I was sitting with John in the stand and we discussed what the punishment would be as he received attention from the physio. When he got up the referee showed a second yellow card and then a red ending his involvement in the match. City pulled a late goal back from Hibs loanee Lewis Allan after a good run from substitute Moses Olanrewaju. Montrose were worthy winners and I think City will struggle this season unless they can strengthen their defence by signing strong centre-half.

After walking to the ground I decided to be lazy and caught a bus home.

Teams

City: Antell, Hall, Verlaque, Harrison, Mackie, Malin, Thomson, Walker, Laird, Grimes, Allan.

Subs: Smith, Olanrewaju, Day

Montrose: Fleming, Allan, Dillon, I.Campbell, Steeves, Thomson, Fortheringham, Callaghan, McLaren, Templeman, Johnston.

Subs: R.Campbell, Hunt