Delayed but not forgotten............... a little late (due to the weather)

Celtic fans at Stark's Park.

 

 Last night (Tuesday 2nd April) saw Rovers play host to Partick Thistle. This match was originally meant to be played after the cup weekend, but due to the weather the game was moved. 

The rescheduled match was played end to end and saw both teams end goaless.

This dish up of Paella and Bovril comes from match day programme due to be read after the cup match. 

Enjoy

Paella and Bovril

On a Sunday in Barcelona, around 1, it’s normally the time for you to travel to your granny’s to have your lunch or still to be in your bed, not the normal time to be traveling to the football.  However last Sunday I broke the trend and traveled on the metro to watch a game. After a trying search, I finally found an Irish bar that would accommodate a Rover abroad and have the match on the big screens (not even the local Scottish bar was showing it!) Now it is not every day that you prefer Kirkcaldy to Barcelona but the Sunday past was one of those days. I might not have been at Stark’s parks but I was going to enjoy the match.  I sported some blue hair, a wee flag painted on my face and my Raith top n scarf with pride. I was possibly the most excited person in Barcelona at that point.

With going to an Irish bar you would hope for some other football fans to be there, maybe even some Celtic fans.  Not a sausage, the bar was empty, to be fair the centre of Barcelona was pretty dead and the bar had the wrong time advertised for kick off, but still you would expect at least 1 other fan to be propping up the bar. You’re not telling me that there were no Celtic fans in town, there are always Celtic fans in town. But then maybe it is because the Scottish game is no fun for those outside Scotland. 

On the Wednesday before the Sunday’s cup-tie, FC Barcelona traveled to Madrid for “el clasico” in the first round of the copa del rey.  Every bar that had a TV had this game on. It didn’t matter that this was “just a domestic cup game” or did it.  This derby match normally draws big crowds. On closer inspection the bars were pretty empty and there was not the normal “dancing in the streets” after the game.  What has happened to the glory of the cup? Is it only the Champions league that matters?

Over the years it seems that the FA cup, Scottish cup and league cups have lost their sparkle. Sure we still have the amazing upsets, like Bradford FC’s recent run in the cup down south. But is it the same as a few years back.  I remember the cup weekends being the highlight of the footballing calendar and fans buzzing about who would becoming to town.  If it is a “wee” team maybe there will goals galore, if it is someone from the upper league maybe you could be the “giant killers”, excitement of cup glory.  So what has changed? Too many games, too many players, not enough fans or just that the domestic cup has lost its sparkle.

Watching the Raith v Celtic game was a pleasure. Not just because I am a Rovers fan, but because of how the match itself presented came across.  Both ends of the stadium filled with merry fans, singing at the top of their voices, the game being allowed to flow by the officials and the quality on the pitch being of a decent standard.  For it’s live TV debut Stark’s park scrubbed up well and, in my opinion, a very good advert for Scottish football.

As the teams came out of the tunnel and the cameras panned around the stadium it was, for me, the perfect advert for a “traditional” day out at a Scottish cup-tie. Seeing the fans on their feet clapping the team onto the pitch, the pipers adding the crescendo made me very homesick indeed. On days like that I would swap the beaches of Barcelona for a seat in the south stand!