Lomond Vale 2-3 Glasgow Island
Glasgow Colleges Football Association League Cup 2nd Round
Argyle Park 4G
Saturday 24th March 2018
Ahead of a day out at the Challenge Cup Final, I decided to pop five minutes along the road from my house to watch my local Saturday morning team in action. The Glasgow Colleges Football Association has been playing Saturday morning football for over fifty years with 29 teams in three divisions. The name appears to be purely historical at this point, with none of the current teams seemingly affiliated to colleges. The association has seen some relative success in recent years with teams regularly reaching the latter stages of the Scottish and West of Scotland Amateur Cups.
The Venue
Argyle Park used to have three full size grass pitches as well as one three quarter sized one that was affectionately known as Snooker Park. In 2014-15, West Dunbartonshire Council turned Snooker Park into a 7-a-side pitch, and constructed a brand new 4G park where the closest grass pitch to the pavilion sat.
The 4G is the now standard caged off pitch, with markings for 11-a-side and 3 7-a-side pitches. The cage has the added benefit of outshots for the 7s goals, and there’s a permanent spectator rail with multiple gates down the pavilion side. It’s a quality facility, and something that Alexandria had been severely lacking until its installation.
The Teams
Lomond Vale were formed in 2008 with the intention of giving local players the option of playing competitive Saturday morning football. The club made headlines in 2012 when they were the only Scottish representatives at the Keele Cup for international amateur teams in Staffordshire, where they played against teams from Belgium, Colombia and England. Vale play in the third tier Division Two of the GCFA setup, and are top having not lost in the league this season.
Glasgow Islands were formed in 1997 with the amalgamation of Park Wanderers and Snaffle Strollers. The club was originally comprised of players from the Western isles who had found their way to Glasgow for work or studies. While the team is now supplemented by several locals, the core of the team is still formed of the island ex-pats. Islands, based at the Firhill complex, are now an established Premier Division team, two tiers above their hosts for the day.
The Game
The game itself was a competitive one, and it didn’t look like the two teams playing were separated by two divisions. Despite dominating possession, Vale found themselves a goal down after ten minutes due to some slack defending. The home side continued to have the bulk of the ball, but were failing to create much in the way of clear cut chances. Islands doubled their lead late in the first half, again against the run of play and took their two goal cushion into the break.
The second half began as the first had ended, with Vale dominating, but Islands looking more dangerous when they broke forward. I had to leave after about an hour to get started on my journey to Perth, and unfortunately missed three more goals. Islands went 3-0 up before being pegged back to 3-2, but Vale couldn’t find the third goal to take the game to extra time. The hour I saw was an enjoyable way to spend some time on a Saturday morning.
The Pies
As always on a public facility, no catering.
Admission: Free
Programme: None
Pie: None
Bovril: None
Attendance: 14 (headcount)
Pies on the Terraces 