And so it came to pass. We went to Glasgow to watch The Spartans play Pollok in the first round of the Scottish Cup. A cracking tie was played out to a 1-1 draw in front of 1,200 fans. What a great atmosphere.
I travelled through on the team bus, which was most convenient. Arriving at the Pollok FC social club, it was immediately apparent that they are a big club. About an hour and a half until kickoff and I reckon there must have been well over a hundred fans in the bar alone, all with the full range of replica shirts and scarves. Bizarrely, we were filmed getting off the bus on arrival.
The match was a cracker. Small Junior grounds like Newlandsfield are intimidating when filled with 1,200 partisan fans. End to end stuff and a draw was probably a fair result.
In the second half, because of the rain, myself and a couple of fellow Spartans fans ended up in the Pollok end, sheltering under the large covered enclosure. And that’s where the title of this post comes in. It seems that Glaswegian fans (those of a certain mentality anyway) seem to think that Edinburgh is populated exclusively by homosexual men, prostitutes and heroin addicts.
Myself and a mate stood there, whilst an almost entire end of the ground sang “Your all poofs, hoors and junkies” to us personally, to the theme of “you only sing when you are winning”. I can’t imagine how confusing it must be to be all of those things at once as the song suggests.
Comedy moment of the day though must be being called a “druggie bastard” by a guy smoking a joint. Not a hint of irony in his voice either. Meanwhile his mate urinated against the back wall of the enclosure, balancing himself against the cold stone wall with his forehead, presumably because he needed his other hand for his bottle of blue WKD.
Non-league football – ye cannae beat it.
on Sep 29th, 2008 at 3:44 am
Wow, I live in Edinburgh and am now worried about which category I fit in. I took a couple of aspirin this morning – do you think this qualifies me as a junkie? Cos I don’t really fancy either of the other two to be honest.
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 7:25 am
Ha, Scottish Football, you’ve got to love it. of the 3, i wouldnt mind being a hoor or a junkie, at least theyd be fun. Anyways it makes us edinburgers seem much more fun than those weegies!