TOUGH JAGS VANQUISH VALE

South Lanarkshire was nowhere near my mind on Friday evening, but with life intervening, and my original plan to leave early and reach Golspie Sutherland for kick-off now an impossibility, I had to come up with a quick alternative. My mind and attention then turned to Larkhall Thistle's Gasworks Park, which has been home to the Jags since the 1880's, and has to be a contender for one of the oldest grounds in the entire country. Formed in 1878, Larkhall Thistle are among the oldest teams in the land, and their success in the early 1900's made them a force to be reckoned with back in the day. Two Scottish Junior Cups in 1908 and 1914 etching the team into the history books.

Gasworks Park is truly a throwback, with large areas of old brickwork and a few sections of timber terracing. A large covered terrace running most of the way up one side of the park gives room for plenty spectators and there is a small terrace running the length of the opposite side where the dugouts are situated. You can easily imagine how impressive the large terrace would look when hosting a large crowd. Incidentally, Gasworks Park is the only "junior" ground on record to have hosted Junior Cup finals, both in 1888 and 1889. The modern looking gates that impose themselves upon you when you enter the ground are equally impressive. I'm always happy to see teams at this level producing match programmes, and I gladly picked up my wee memento as I made my way into the ground.

So, to the match. Larky were hosting Glasgow based Vale Of Clyde, who currently lie bottom of the West Of Scotland Conference C, while the home side sat in 10th, and looking to kick on up the table. The match kicked off with the sun trying it's best to break through the overcast skies. Immediately, it looked as if Vale were going to put their poor form behind them, and in the 6th minute an effort from near point blank range forced a seemingly impossible one-handed save from the Thistle keeper. Unfortunately for Vale, this was to be their best effort of the entire match. The Jags managed to impose themselves in the middle of the park, and some tough yet accurate tackling allowed them to quickly regain possession whenever it was lost. Vale's tackling wasn't so clean, and they conceded a few dangerous looking free kicks which were fired just wide. The longer the game progressed, you sensed a goal was close and eventually on 37 Larkhall took the lead. A long range diagonal ball from the right midfield found the winger on the left hand side of the box who looked to be slightly offside. A cool and composed ball was rolled through to Scott McKean who took advantage of an easy finish from around 8 yards. The Vale Of Clyde defenders protested the decision not to call for offside, but the referee wasn't for budging.

HT 1-0

The second half started with more Larkhall domination, this time forcing a seemingly endless stream of corners. Every delivery was brilliantly sent to within 6 yards of the Vale goal, but the defence cleared valiantly nearly every time. A few of the corners seemed to hit the crossbar straight from the delivery. The home side should really have been home and hosed by the closing stages, but there was still time for a few nervy moments as Vale managed to break away on a few occasions, but their attacks never really amounted to a clear cut opportunity. Larkhall deservedly doubled their lead with virtually the last kick of the ball, a brilliantly pinpointed through ball found substitute Yusuf Bamba who took his touches well, and blasted past the keeper into the roof of the net from a fairly tight angle on the right hand side. The goal was deserved, but the relief was evident within the players, coaches and fans alike.

FT 2-0

In the end a comfortable victory for Larkhall, who really should have been out of sight earlier in the second half. They still sit 10th in the league, but have gained ground on St. Anthonys who fell to defeat at the weekend. Vale Of Clyde remain rooted to the bottom, but are by no means isolated, and a few wins would really change their fortunes for the better. A brilliantly old and authentic ground to visit, an increasingly rare throwback to a bygone era of Scottish grounds.

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Larkhall Thistle 2-0 Vale Of Clyde

McKean (37), Bamba (90+2)

Saturday 11/09/2021, 14:00

West Of Scotland League Conference C

Gasworks Park, Larkhall

Admission: £6

Crowd: 109 (headcount)

New Team #79

MOTM: Larkhall No.8, missed his name, but put in some shift in the midfield, tough tackling and winning the ball back in a lot of key areas.