Falkirk Stadium, August 22nd 2009
Falkirk 1 Hibernian 3
Today was to be the day of firsts: our first double header, our first trip to a Premier League ground, our first guest replacement for the AWOL Sean (didn't happen), maybe even our first steak pie. However week 3 of this epic journey we have undertaken gave us another somewhat unwelcome first, a traffic jam.
We had been warned a few days before by Mr Winton that the M80 would give us some problems en route to the Falkirk stadium. Naturally we ignored his warnings and ended up some 20 or so minutes late for the lunchtime kick off with Hibs. The farce sadly didn't end there as it took us some time to locate the ticket office before the real bombshell hit us on entering the ground: this stand didn't sell pies or bovrils (in fact as Jamie was finding this out he managed to miss the 1st goal).
The game itself (well what we saw of it) was a scrappy one which was disappointing. A couple of years back, Hibs under the tutelage of Tony Mowbray and Falkirk with John Hughes in charge would've served up a game of decent passing football but times have changed. Hughes, now at Hibs, is slowly rebuilding the Edinburgh side and to be fair there was some evidence of it today with new signing Stokes and Riordan impressing.
The buoyant Falkirk support quietened as Hibs regained the control of the game and Riordan's excellent goal to make it 3-1 five minutes from time was our cue to make a sharp exit and a mad dash to our 3pm game - next stop Dunfermline.
Journey - 0/10
Pie - 0/10
Bovril - 0/10
Ground - 7/10
Game - 5/10
- Pie and Bovril Review
- Well what can we say? No pies & no bovril - big fat zero.
Fortunately though - our spies are everywhere. Richard Winton took time out from the usual prawn sandwiches and foie gras in the press box to file this (albeit smug) review:
Having taken a back road (M8 then up through West Lothian) I made it to the ground within 45 minutes and in plenty of time to collect my steak pie and Bovril. I say Bovril but it was mysteriously described on the menu(?) as "Beef drink". Still, it was a tasty enough way to wash down said pastry-enclosed snack. Plenty of meat, if a little on the dry side, the only complaint is that the heft of the filling was too much for the slightly soggy base to bear, resulting in a challenging chew.
Pie 7/10
Bovril 7/10