Annan played Well !! ... next stop on the road is Penrith

As I wait with baited breath for the Penrith v Sunderland RCA FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round tie to be played on August the 6^th I decided that I would test my approach to reporting on the FA Cup games that I will attend by popping down to Annan Athletic to see their Scottish League Cup tie against Motherwell.

Annan Athletic 1 Motherwell 3 (Sat July 23rd 2016)

Annan on Saturday  was very enjoyable. Annan are a very welcoming football club who play good football and try hard to make the matchday experience pleasant for all spectators. As regular readers know I took on this extra non-Hearts game as preparation for my Road to Wembley from Scotland that is due to start in less than a fortnight. The plan was to try out my ‘score out of 100’ methodology. So here goes.

Pre Match Communications: It seems unfair to judge Annan on this category as this match was not part of the main project and hence I did not actively seek to make contact with Annan Athletic before the match. However, Annan Athletic kindly retweeted my tweeted intention to attend this match and a couple of Motherwell fans ‘liked’ the same tweet. So lets go for 5/10

Pre match pint: After I parked the car near the ground at 2.00 pm I asked a man washing his car outside his house where the nearest pub was. He noted about a mile away in town. My heart sank. I asked him if there was a pub in the ground ‘ah yes, the Social Club’. That will do nicely. The Social Club is not quite in the ground being just the other side of the turnstiles. Presumably this is to comply with Scottish football’s drinking regulations. If so, then nice work Annan Athletic – works for me. The club was filled with about 2/3 Motherwell supporters and 1/3 home fans. No silly segregation here and the away fans were made most welcome. No hand pulled real ales on sale but the Guinness was more than acceptable 7/10.

Match Programme: A bit on the skimpy side for £2. The programme is a 12 A5 pages glossy with 4 and half pages devoted to advertising. The publication did include some great reading though. The team manager, Jim Chapman, wrote the longest ‘managers notes’ column that I have seen in some time describing in some detail how he intends to develop the club in the coming season. 

The Chairman’s column was also fascinating with the top man giving some very candid views on how other clubs seem to have poached a couple of their key players over the close season. If Dumbarton have indeed tried to side step normal contractual practices to sign Josh Todd on ‘amateur terms’ then they should be ashamed of themselves. I hope the SPFL resolve this issue in Annan’s favor. It was very disappointing to read about one hard-up lower league club trying to diddle a fellow hard-up lower league club. Another feature at Annan is that after the teams are declared at 2.00 pm the team lines are photo-copied and are made available (in the pub) as a single A4 sheet for 10p. I have not seen this done elsewhere and I reckon this is a great idea. A great example of how Annan try hard to make the matchday experience a pleasant one. 6/10

Ground: The ground is great and I was really impressed. Annan is a very small town with a population of 8500 so I was not expecting a facility as well appointed as Galabank. The ground is essentially a three sided ground for spectators. They have a cracking main stand that looks fairly new that runs almost the length of one side of the pitch. Behind the ‘home goal’ they have covered terracing and behind the away goal they have an uncovered terrace. The fourth side (opposite the main stand) only accommodates the dug outs and a fence that borders with the road outside the ground. Still, I guess it protects the managers from the usual verbal pelters that are slung their way on a Saturday afternoon. 

The 'fourth side' at Galabank

Despite the small size of the ground, Galabank also has a small wheelchair enclosure for wheelchair users and their carers. A few Motherwell supporters made good use of this on Saturday. The Annan ground also features one the best PA systems that I have heard in any football ground in recent times. Clear and loud enough to be heard all over the concourse, and possibly all over Annan. The speakers also had an unusually high quality bass response. Listening to the pre match music was almost like being at an out door pop concert. The choice of the music on Saturday was also noteworthy. The man on the mike had selected the long forgotten 1971 minor hit ‘Rosetta’ by Alan Price and Georgie Fame. I assume that the reason he had this on his play-list on Saturday for the visit of ‘The Well’ was that the chorus contains the lines:

Rosetta are you better, are you well, well, well

Rosetta are you better, are you well, well, well

Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well

I looked across to the away end as this was playing and noted that the Well fans were reading their programmes, eating their pies and chatting with their mates. Totally 'under Well-emed' by the efforts of the Annan Athletic Stadium announcer. Good try though. 

Annan defending in the first half

More defensive work for the home team in the first half

The PA Announcer’s playlist also included David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ played to herald the introduction of the teams in both the first half and second half.  The whole stadium metaphorically smelled of fresh paint. There was a real sense that the staff and volunteers at Annan Athletic look after and take pride in their home ground. 9/10

Atmosphere: The atmosphere was fairly relaxed and pleasant. I feel sure that later in the season I will come across high octane football played in stadiums that are rocking. The atmosphere at Galabank on Saturday could not be described as rocking. The local team seem to attract a fair number of elderly fans (or maybe it was just where I was sitting) and their presence added to the soporific atmosphere in the ground. 

Annan defend another corner in the first half

Also, the League Cup Group stage is somewhere between a pre-season friendly and a full blown competitive fixture so to expect the ground to be rocking would be a bit unfair. Everyone was well behaved and at a football match in Scotland that is always a bonus. I reckon everyone went home happy too. The Motherwell fans had seen their team play some nice football and win comfortably and the home fans had seen their side put up a spirited performance against a Premier League side. 6/10

Quality of football: Pretty good fare on offer given that this is July. Motherwell played some good stuff for the first half hour and had they been leading 3-0 at that stage it would not have been unjust. As it transpired they only had a single goal to show for their domination. 

Louis Moult goes close for Motherwell

That goal being a cross shot from a very tight angle from the skilful Marvin Johnson. If he meant it then it was a stroke of sheer brilliance. Annan more or less weathered the storm and equalised against the run of play when a cross from the left was headed powerfully home by Rabin Omar. Motherwell scored a couple of good goals midway through the second half. Both scored by centre forward Louis Moult who was a threat all afternoon. 7/10

Entertainment: Some of the entertainment for me was noting the difference between the Scottish Premier League and Scottish League Two when it comes to tattoos and boots. Whereas the Motherwell team were not as prolifically inked as some of their peer teams in the Premier Division they did have a couple of players in Richard Tate and Marvin Johnson who sported the by now expected ‘sleeve of tattoos’ worn by so many well paid footballers. Watching them linking up at pace down the right wing in the first half the navy blue hieroglyphics flashed by glinting in the July sunlight. The Annan team seemed to only have one player, their captain Steve Black, who had visited the tattoo artist. His designs were of a much more modest nature. At the top of his left arm he seemed to have a sort of small flash of some kind and on the elbow of his right arm he had the traditional and ridiculous star. The football boots worn by the Motherwell team were by and large shiny and luminous and multicoloured and, in short, flashy. A couple of the Annan lads had pushed the boat out and acquired garish footwear but on the whole their boots looked a lot more workmanlike. 6/10

Match day catering: The pie was a traditional scotch pie. Served warm and only costing £1.50 it was ok. The pie stall at Galabank however deserves special mention. It was situated at the back of the covered terracing and unusually housed garden furniture so that supporters could have a wee sit down, read their programmes and enjoy their refreshments in comfort before the game started. A nice touch. 7/10

The Pie Shop at Galabank doing as steady trade before kick off

Value for money: I am not sure how much Annan will be charging for home games in the league but £12 to see them take on a Premier League team in a competitive fixture seemed to be a reasonable price. 7/10

The ‘je ne sais quoi’ factor: As stated in the introduction Annan Athletic do try hard to make the matchday experience pleasant for all spectators – and on Saturday, for me at least, they succeeded. The pub in the ground, the long informative articles in the programme, Rosetta played on the PA, the pie garden, a well organised team playing good football in a lovingly-cared for and well maintained ground. It all worked for me Tradition in football is a big thing. As a football anorak who is about to see matches in all 14 rounds of the FA Cup this coming season I love the tradition of the game. However, occasionally the game needs churn to keep it fresh. Annan Athletic are relatively new to the higher echelons of Scottish football having only been voted in to the league 8 years ago. They have brought a modern approach to customer care that many of the older clubs in Scotland could learn from. 9/10

Overall ‘Road to Wembley from Scotland’ rating 69/100. Good luck to both Annan Athletic and Motherwell for the coming season. The next match report will feature the Penrith v Sunderland RCA game in the FA Cup. Only 12 sleeps to go – cannae wait!