MATCH 1927 - Saturday 29 July 2023

SEASON 2023/24

FRIENDLY

Venue:  BRUNTON PARK

CARLISLE UNITED  0  DUNDEE UNITED  2

Scorers: Moult, Middleton

Attendance: 2,853

My second Dundee United match in two weeks and a huge improvement on the Spartans match.  United played all the football and were in complete control for 70 minutes when they made six substitutions, but it had no effect on the game as Carlisle were very poor and never looked like getting back into the match. 

A sparse crowd in Brunton Park today but a decent away support of 738.  My ticket was in the away end which cost £18 and maybe the reason for the poor turnout.

The happy away support

Match Report: LINK

Personal note:

• 3rd Scottish club I've seen in England - Celtic (multi times) and Rangers (v Man Utd 2004) the other two.
• 129th Dundee United match (H-37, A-80, N-12)
• 22nd visit to Brunton Park

FOOTBALL FOCUS - ROY AITKEN - Friday 28 July 2023

 Question & Answer Session with a true Legend - Roy (Feed the Bear) Aitken

Venue: Barras Art and Design (BAaD)

The early part of my football match days were spent watching some great Scottish footballers, one of my all time favourites was ROY AITKEN.

Therefore it was a bit special for me to be part of the audience listening to great stories from a  terrific era in Scottish Football

Roy came across as very honest and loyal to not only his Celtic team-mates but also to his old foes from rival clubs. and even referees.

Jock Stein gave him his debut for Celtic as a 16 year old schoolboy and also made him captain for a number of games when he was still a teenager.  Then he was a huge part of Billy McNeill's Celtic teams.  He was also selected by Alex Ferguson for Scotland. Three of the most iconic men of Scottish Football.

Although I never seen the start of Roy's career it was a pleasure to watch him for almost 10 years with Celtic.  During this time I seen him win 3 league titles, 3 Scottish Cups and 1 League Cup.  His teammates included Danny McGrain, Tommy Burns, Murdo McLeod, Davie Provan, Pat Bonner, Paul McStay, Charlie Nicholas, Frank McAvennie, Mick McCarthy and Mark McGhee.

I witnessed Roy playing for Scotland many times including: 

• captaining the nation to a 1-0 win over England at Hampden in 1985.  I was in the small schoolboy enclosure, ticket price: £2:00 got on the day of the game from the Ticket Office 
• at the 1990 World Cup Finals in Italy in which I attended all three of Scotland's group matches

Away from football I also seen him win the Balloch Highland Game 90-metre sprint in 1983 or 84.

I was delighted when he was finally invited back into the club in an ambassador role in 2017.  There isn't anyone more fitting for the role as he has never said a bad word about the club.

Roy's Celtic career in figures - I seen 24 of his Celtic goals.

MATCH 1926 - Tuesday 25 July 2023

SEASON 2023/24

SCOTTISH LEAGUE CUP - Group Stage

Venue:  LESSER HAMPDEN

    QUEENS PARK  5  ELGIN CITY  0

Scorers:  Paton(4), Fox

Attendance: 676

Another Elgin City match to tick off another lower league ground.  This was my first visit to Lesser Hampden, a little ground next to Scotland's National Stadium which has been redeveopled into a modest all seated ground.

The ground consists of one neat stand and a directors stand which resembles a royal box with nothing behind either goal at present.  The main stand although small has very good sightlines for the spectators making it a present experience.

As for the match, championship Queens Park proved to be too good for Elgin and comfortably scored five with centre forward, Ruari Paton scoring four of the goals.

Personal note:

• New ground - taking my total to 119 (53 in Scotland)
• 4th time seeing Queens Park and 11th time attending an Elgin match
• The 406th different senior fixture attended.

MATCH 1925 - Saturday 15 July 2023

SEASON 2023/24

SCOTTISH LEAGUE CUP Group Stage

Venue:  AINSLIE PARK

THE SPARTANS  1  DUNDEE UNITED  0

Scorer: Henderson

Attendance: 1,701

Start of new season and Dundee United started it the way the finished the old one - in the doldrums.

In contrast The Spartans are on the up. Starting their first season as a Scottish League club and they recorded a fine win over their opponents from two divisions above them in the league set up.

Spartans started well and scored an early goal. For the rest of the game, they were fairly comfortable apart from when they conceded a penalty in the second half however Tony Watt's poor strike was easily saved by Carswell who was named man of the match for his efforts.

Personal note:

• My 130th Scottish League Cup tie.  My first was one on 08-08-81 Celtic 1 St Mirren 3
• Second visit to Ainslie Park but the first time seeing The Spartans
• This was the 8th ground I've seen United play in, against their 8th different opponent