Background

The Easter period is a busy one in football. Winter (and later) postponements leave clubs catching up with fixtures, leading to a rammy of games to play in a short amount of time. Thankfully, with lighter nights ahead, midweek fixtures can once again become a normality in the lower leagues. I do love a midweek game in the lower tiers. I’m not sure why, but I feel there is almost more to play for and more at stake in an evening game.

My first midweek report of the year takes me to the border of east and west, in the form of Harthill Royal Juniors. Formed in 1992, the club were originally established as the amateur side Harthill Royal Bar before joining the East region of the Scottish Juniors. Life wasn’t too great for Harthill, remaining in the bottom tier of the Junior pyramid for the entirety of their stay there. However, they did achieve a high finish of 3^rd place in 2008.

With the restructuring of the wider Scottish football pyramid, Harthill joined the mass exodus of clubs from the Juniors to the senior set-up. Originally, they joined the West of Scotland leagues, being placed in Division Four. However, after a season they re-joined the East of Scotland Leagues, being allowed to do so due to the village’s position within the East catchment area of West Lothian and the West catchment area of North Lanarkshire.

Life didn’t begin much easier though, with the club finishing bottom of the lowest tier in the pyramid. However, this season, things look increasingly brighter. Currently, the club sit in 3^rd place – an automatic promotion spot to the Second Division. This includes a seven point gap between them and fourth placed Pumpherston. They face a stern challenge in the form of Fauldhouse, though. The result of this local derby could have large implications on the final league table. Should be a cracker.

Facilities

Gibbshill Park lies very close to the centre of Harthill and is easily identifiable by its elevated position and humble floodlights. Upon entering the ground, there is a decently sized open concourse with picnic tables spread all around. You can imagine with the summer weather (hopefully) incoming, these will be put to good use.

The main attraction lies in the covered terracing, club name and badge proudly displayed on the top. Given the elements this evening, it did a good job of protecting supporters from the wind and rain. All four sides of the ground are accessible, including a raised embankment behind one of the goals to give an alternative view of the action. Gibbshill Park also comes with a wee five-a-side pitch next to the snack hut, open for the youngsters in attendance of the match. I like this accessibility for the younger supporters, providing a link between the community and local football club. It’ll keep them coming back.

Overall, I enjoy Gibbshill Park. It is a classic Junior ground set-up with a few added bonuses here and there. It is clean, well maintained and an obvious mainstay within the community of Harthill. I feel a score of 2.5/5 is fair.

Atmosphere

A relatively small crowd braved the elements for this evening’s encounter, with a mixture of older and younger in attendance. On that note, Harthill have a small but fairly vocal ultras group, made of youngsters supporting their local club. Loaded with a drum and pyro, I am a fan of kids making the time and effort to come and see the side closest to them. I feel in general, they can create a vibrant atmosphere to create important links between players and supporters. These kids did create an atmosphere and fair play to them. Wasn’t a great fan of the pyro being thrown onto the park and their own full rendition of the ‘Billy Boys’ though. Then again, they are just wee guys at the end of the day. They’ll learn. 2/5.

Quality of the Match

* Team lines and squads were difficult to find, hence lack of player names. I found what I could.

With the rain teeming down, the match got underway with the pitch looking vulnerable. After 15 or so minutes, the first chance of the match arrived. A strike by winger Jerry Otonti wasn’t held by the Fauldhouse ‘keeper, leading to a corner. From that corner, came a rarity. Harthill’s James McAteer swung the ball in, only for it to be missed by absolutely everyone, meaning it nestled into the far corner. A strange but welcome opening goal.

Fauldhouse responded quickly. After winning a free-kick in a wide area, the ball was lofted into the box. An away player somehow had more than enough time to take the ball down, control it and lay it off to forward Mark Duffy, who slotted home comfortably. 1-1.

Then, another rarity almost occurred. With the wind picking up and controlling most of the action in the way, the Harthill ‘keeper launched the ball from his hands. The bounced almost caught out his opposing number, who got a slight hand on it to divert it for a corner. A goalkeeper goal would have definitely had me calling for ‘Bingo’.

The Fauldhouse stopper was again on hand to deny the hosts. An excellent touch and turn by Harthill’s No. 10 saw his strike well blocked and gathered by the ‘keeper.

Half Time: Harthill Royal Juniors 1-1 Fauldhouse United

The second half kicked off to worsening conditions on and off the pitch. The grass was cutting up badly, leading to heavy touches and even heavier tackles. Throughout, tempers flared, and individual battles heightened. It made for entertaining viewing. This was demonstrated by the handbags thrown after only 5 minutes of the second half beginning.

Fauldhouse appeared to have the better of the chances in the openings of the second half. A floated cross to the back post found goal scorer Mark Duffy whose first-time side-foot volley went just wide of the Harthill goal.

Another, almost replica cross then found Fauldhouse’s No.8, who couldn’t direct his strike on target with just the goalkeeper to beat. If he had made proper contact, it would have had Harthill hearts in mouths.

They must have rued their missed opportunities 10 minutes later. An excellent turn and run by Jerry Otonti saw him beat 2 Fauldhouse defenders to reach the by-line. His superb low cross found the feet of the home side’s No. 9. The big striker needed 2 attempts with the state of the pitch but he was able to eventually knock the ball home to put the home side back in front. A great goal.

Mark Duffy almost equalised straight away. A superb cross found the head of the winger, whose powerful nod was well saved by the Harthill stopper.

Jerry Otonti was causing all sorts of bother to the Fauldhouse defence. From the right, he skipped past 2 away players before advancing into the box. With a left-footed strike, he smashed the post. So close to a well-deserved goal.

With the home side with the momentum, their No.10 then did superbly to turn his defender into the box. With just the ‘keeper to beat, the Fauldhouse No.1 did very well to parry the ball away for a corner.

I mentioned that this game had a bit of an edge to it. Silly fouls were being given away here and there, with the slipperiness of the pitch not helping matters. Harthill’s No.5 committed one of these daft fouls, and with a referee who seemed happy to dish out a card or two, was running on thin ice. He was sent off for a second booking, leaving his team to defend a lead with 10 minutes to go.

Fauldhouse upped the attack, and grabbed their equaliser with 5 left on the clock. A free-kick into the box saw a glancing header reach the back of the net. Arguably deserved given the ding-dong nature of the match.

Full Time: Harthill Royal Juniors 2-2 Fauldhouse United

Harthill will be gutted not to have taken the maximum number of points from this match. Being a goal up with a short period to go, the game should have been seen out. However, I was very impressed with a few of their players, some of which exude a huge amount of flair. Jerry Otonti was a stand-out for me. He zipped around the pitch with grace and often left his defenders in his wake. A really good talent.

Fauldhouse will be grateful to leave Gibbshill Park with a point, and perhaps on a different day with the chances they created, could have left with all 3. They also have a good squad at hand with a few standouts. Mark Duffy is obviously a great player at this level and perhaps should have had more than the single goal to his name. If not this year, I’d expect them to be challenging at the top next season.

Overall, I feel I was treated to a decent game despite the poor conditions. Both teams left everything on the pitch, giving an interesting viewing for the spectators. The battle on a vulnerable and slippy pitch gave this game an edge which won’t be rivalled in many other places. 3.5/5.

Pricing

 This level of football is always amazing value for money. £6 entry is something I absolutely love. An extra quid for a tea (no pies on sale sadly) is also superb. Overall, 4 goals, a red card and an intense battle on the pitch leaves this with an undoubted 5/5.

Final Score

Harthill Royal finish the day with a score of 13/20. I really enjoyed visiting Gibbshill Park and seeing what this cross border club had to offer. I was very impressed with the facilities and the obvious community feel of the club. They are a mainstay in Harthill, and long may it continue.

• Connor