THREAVE 0 - 5 RAITH
After a month's absence from away trips, it was time to take to the road again for the Scottish Cup.
Despite being overwhelming favourites for the 'giant-killers' of Threave - although Stenhousemuir are hardly fitting to call giants - with the Rovers horrendous record in the Scottish cup of recent years there was a always confidence laced with a trickle of fear, like when you think you've finished peeing but a wee bit still comes out when you're zipping up.
With defeats to lower-league opposition 3 years running, any victory against anyone would do so this was a nice test for us.
By the time we got out of Kirkcaldy it was about 10.30 but the weather had stayed clear for us for the long drive down. Like most long jounreys it was a good opportunity to trial a new party album, supplied by Hutchy with some horrendous synth-pop and some classics which may or may not make good Rovers songs. The dury is out on a cover of Olyvia-Newton-John's "Physical":
"He played for Livingston, Livingston, Hissy played for Livingston, Hissy played for Livingston. So did Marvin Andrews - and Walker - so did Marvin Andrews"
Expecting to be greeted with cup fever when we arrived, we were disapointed to find the town was virtually devoid of either fans or pubs, and settled for the first pub we found which unfortunately had nae heating! So the group dispersed as we looked for hotel bars that had the Liverpool match on.
Onto the match itself, the Threave ground was a typical junior ground although with a path at only 2 sides of the ground, so standing on the terraces meant muddy feet. Quite amusing to see a "No Ball Games" sign in the ground! The pitch was narrow and muddy, and we stood at the back of the goals in the first half right on top of the Threave goalie to make sure they knew we were in town!
The social club in the ground provided half-time refereshments, no idea why junior teams can sell beer but professional ones can't, but it kept our spirits up as we looked forward to a second half to build on Rovers 1-0 half-time lead.
It was an easy 2nd half for the Rovers, and a good laugh at the back of the goals singing to Andy Todd and Todd Lumsden as they warmed up in front of us. Think Andy Todd appreciated the "we all dream of a team of Andy Todd's" song. Hissy scored and we all ran to the side of the pitch going "Shhhhhhhhh!" which Hissy acknowledged with a thumbs-up. |  |
So a 5-0 victory the perfect tonic for the last disasters or the last 3 years. Bring on the pars!
| The usual Saturday night frolics ensued in Styx with Greig Slater on the decks making sure there were plenty of party tunes to keep us amused, although Burza (or should that be 'Burster') was more intersted in spending the whole night looking like a Planet of the Apes reject and appeared to have de-evolved, dancing around with his head leading the rest of him like a bear running too fast down a hill. |  |
As usual, PC and Alan (jnr and snr) were on the hunt. And PC completeley failed to get off with any of them.
As Davy Watson would say, "It's been a gid day!"