Young Boris' wish finally came true at the weekend when he was taken to a professional football match. He often plays on Saturday mornings on the training pitches under the shadow of the main stand at St Johnstone's McDiarmid Park, and has expressed frequent longings to get inside the big ground and see the real thing.
It may have been freezing cold, it may have been raining, and it may have only been St. Johnstone beating Stirling Albion 2-1 in the Scottish first division, and it wasn't exactly the beautiful game - but between 3 and 5 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, there wasn't a happier boy in Scotland. "This is a day I will never forget" he beamed!
We were both numpties however. I was a numpty because it is so long since I have been to a game that I wasn't aware of all the regulations about what you could/couldn't bring in to the ground. So part of our snacks/drinks had to be hidden behind the counter in the souvenir shop. Then Boris was a numpty because he couldn't get the hang of the tip-up seat. What seemed to defeat him repeatedly was the fact that if he stood up to cheer, the seat would tip-up and not be there for him to plunge his weight back down on to. He kept many people amused with his unintentional slapstick routine for much of the game.
Wet, shivering and £20 worse off, I retreated to the warmth of the car feeling that Dad-duties had been satisfyingly completed. All the way home, Boris read me the fixture list for the rest of the season from his programme. Maybe see you there!
Looking forward to going to a game with you. Especially if you bring the "mini-Motty" with you!
ReplyDeleteI remember when I were a lad, going to Somerset Park with my dad to watch Ayr United play such magnificent teams as Dunfermline, Hearts and in our less successful period - Brechin City, Queen of the South etc, etc. One season I think we were at every home match (a challenge for you?). I can never remember being cold, although I'm sure my dad will.
ReplyDeleteOf course in those days we didn't have any seats to worry about, and the cost was considerably less - given that I was lifted over the turnstile without paying. (I should say that this was entirely common practice!)
I'm sure that Boris will remember it for a long time.
Well obviously I can't approve of Boris celebrating the beating of Stirling Albion, being my home team. I don't think my Dad took my brother to football matches, he just waited until brother was old enough to take himself. This was probably a major decision in brother supporting the local side. He supported Celtic for about 2 minutes and then realised that he wouldn't be allowed to take himself to Celtic matches on his own until he was about 21 and in the mean time nobody else was going to take him, whereas going into Stirling to watch the Albion was seen as a harmless if eccentric activity.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes take our gals to the Scottish Womens Internationals at St Johnstone - because I'm very tight-fisted and they are SO cheap!! Oh, er, come on Scotland too of course...
ReplyDelete