McDiarmid Park (St Johnstone v St Mirren)

Today it was off to Perth for the 'Battle of the Saints'. St Johnstone were taking on St Mirren in McDiarmid Park, the only one of the current SPL grounds I had not visited yet. Perth is an hour on the train from Glasgow Queen Street. The stadium is quite far from the train station and city centre, it took me about 40-45 minutes to walk to the ground.

McDiarmid Park, which opened in 1989, was one of the first of the modern all-seater stadiums in Britain. It has four stands with a total capacity of 10,673. Today both ends were closed and the St Mirren fans were given the northern end of the Main (West) Stand. The attendance of 2,993 must have been one of the lowest of the seaon for the Perth Saints but it had probably more to do with the adverse winter weather and some belated Christmas shopping than the importance of this game. The Buddies lost 1-0 and are now only two points above bottom team Falkirk who won 2-1 at Rugby Park today. They could have moved to seventh place but instead St Johnstone leapfrogged them in the league table.

It was a cold day in Perth but I could not really complain as twelve of today's 20 SPL and SFL games were postponed due to either a frozen pitch or heavy snowfall. When I left the house at 10am only the game at Forfar showed up as 'postponed' on Ceefax whilst many English games were already postponed. It later turned out that, apart from Queen's Park's home game at Hampden, all games in the Second and Third Divsion were off. Surely a 'frozen pitch' would have been noticed by 10 o'clock?

Chris Millar's 19th minute shot was the only goal however there were several chances on both sides. After Michael Higdon was sent off after picking up a second booking midway through the second half however, it never looked liked the Buddies were going to take even a single point back to Paisley.

Approaching McDiarmid Park.


The fan shop under the Ormond Stand.


The Main (West) Stand.


The North Stand remained closed today.


The Ormond Stand was not open either.

The Main (West) Stand.

The East Stand.

Saturday 19th December 2009
Scottish Premier League
St Johnstone 1 St Mirren 0
Goal: Millar 19.
Att: 2,993

McDiarmid Park (St Johnstone v St Mirren)

Today it was off to Perth for the 'Battle of the Saints'. St Johnstone were taking on St Mirren in McDiarmid Park, the only one of the current SPL grounds I had not visited yet. Perth is an hour on the train from Glasgow Queen Street. The stadium is quite far from the train station and city centre, it took me about 40-45 minutes to walk to the ground.

McDiarmid Park, which opened in 1989, was one of the first of the modern all-seater stadiums in Britain. It has four stands with a total capacity of 10,673. Today both ends were closed and the St Mirren fans were given the northern end of the Main (West) Stand. The attendance of 2,993 must have been one of the lowest of the seaon for the Perth Saints but it had probably more to do with the adverse winter weather and some belated Christmas shopping than the importance of this game. The Buddies lost 1-0 and are now only two points above bottom team Falkirk who won 2-1 at Rugby Park today. They could have moved to seventh place but instead St Johnstone leapfrogged them in the league table.

It was a cold day in Perth but I could not really complain as twelve of today's 20 SPL and SFL games were postponed due to either a frozen pitch or heavy snowfall. When I left the house at 10am only the game at Forfar showed up as 'postponed' on Ceefax whilst many English games were already postponed. It later turned out that, apart from Queen's Park's home game at Hampden, all games in the Second and Third Divsion were off. Surely a 'frozen pitch' would have been noticed by 10 o'clock?

Chris Millar's 19th minute shot was the only goal however there were several chances on both sides. After Michael Higdon was sent off after picking up a second booking midway through the second half however, it never looked liked the Buddies were going to take even a single point back to Paisley.

Approaching McDiarmid Park.


The fan shop under the Ormond Stand.


The Main (West) Stand.


The North Stand remained closed today.


The Ormond Stand was not open either.

The Main (West) Stand.

The East Stand.

Saturday 19th December 2009
Scottish Premier League
St Johnstone 1 St Mirren 0
Goal: Millar 19.
Att: 2,993

Excelsior Stadium (Airdrie United)

For pictures of an Airdrie United home game see this post.

On Saturday 9th May Martijn and I headed for Airdrie where Airdrie United were going to take on newly-crowned First Division champions St Johnstone. Airdrie could secure First Division football for at least one more season if they beat St Johnstone and if Ross County lost at Morton. We took the train from Glasgow Central and got off at Airdrie station after a 30-minute journey. Drumgelloch station is actually closer to the ground but the plan was to watch today's Old Firm derby in one of the pubs in the town centre before heading off to the Excelsior Stadium.


The weather was a bit disappointing, that is to say torrential rain and it did not look like the sun was going to come out any time time soon. First stop was the local JD Wetherspoon's pub, The Robert Hamilton. At around 12:30 we left to look for a suitable pub to watch the Rangers v Celtic game, which Rangers eventually won 1-0. We ended up in The Banker's Draft which looked quite modern from the outside but was actually more of an old men's pub. The atmosphere was good though and the free pies, I think I had three, went down well.


We then headed for the ground to see our live game. It still had not stopped raining and when we arrived at the ground, absolutely soaking after a 15-minute walk, we found out the game was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch. The game was now to be played on Monday 11th May but was now meaningless because Airdrie knew they would have to fight for survival in the play-offs since Ross County had beaten Morton 2-0 at Cappielow.

Nevertheless I was not going to pass up on the chance to take a few pictures. And the handful of policemen on duty even allowed me to enter the ground to take some photos.

The turnstiles remained closed today.

The South Stand.

The Jack Dalziel Stand.

The East Stand

Myself standing in front of the North Stand.


These guys allowed me to take some pictures inside the stadium. Thanks again!

Excelsior Stadium (Airdrie United)

For pictures of an Airdrie United home game see this post.

On Saturday 9th May Martijn and I headed for Airdrie where Airdrie United were going to take on newly-crowned First Division champions St Johnstone. Airdrie could secure First Division football for at least one more season if they beat St Johnstone and if Ross County lost at Morton. We took the train from Glasgow Central and got off at Airdrie station after a 30-minute journey. Drumgelloch station is actually closer to the ground but the plan was to watch today's Old Firm derby in one of the pubs in the town centre before heading off to the Excelsior Stadium.


The weather was a bit disappointing, that is to say torrential rain and it did not look like the sun was going to come out any time time soon. First stop was the local JD Wetherspoon's pub, The Robert Hamilton. At around 12:30 we left to look for a suitable pub to watch the Rangers v Celtic game, which Rangers eventually won 1-0. We ended up in The Banker's Draft which looked quite modern from the outside but was actually more of an old men's pub. The atmosphere was good though and the free pies, I think I had three, went down well.


We then headed for the ground to see our live game. It still had not stopped raining and when we arrived at the ground, absolutely soaking after a 15-minute walk, we found out the game was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch. The game was now to be played on Monday 11th May but was now meaningless because Airdrie knew they would have to fight for survival in the play-offs since Ross County had beaten Morton 2-0 at Cappielow.

Nevertheless I was not going to pass up on the chance to take a few pictures. And the handful of policemen on duty even allowed me to enter the ground to take some photos.

The turnstiles remained closed today.

The South Stand.

The Jack Dalziel Stand.

The East Stand

Myself standing in front of the North Stand.


These guys allowed me to take some pictures inside the stadium. Thanks again!