The second game of the day was the Lowland League Cup Final, or to give it it’s full title the FC United To Prevent Suicide Lowland League Cup Final. It was held at Ainslie Park which is home of The Spartans from the Lowland League and currently shared with League Two team Edinburgh City.
It took me around half an hour to drive from Easter Road and so I got there with plenty of time to spare to kick-off. Although I just missed out on getting into the car park and had to park up on the street outside.
It was eight quid admission and another two for a programme. Ainslie Park is a relatively new ground dating from 2008 and with an artificial pitch. It has a covered stand that seats around five hundred and can accommodate another couple of thousand along the perimeter railing and up on raised embankments.
As I was early enough for my pick of the seats I started off in the covered stand. It soon filled up and the early entertainment came from an incredibly sweary young lad in a wheelchair. Eventually someone told him to pipe down and when he could no longer punctuate with effin’ and jeffin’ he struggled to speak at all.
The competition was for teams in the fifth tier Lowland League. I imagine that East Kilbride who had finished third in the table probably went into the game as favourites over mid-table opponents Bo’ness United. It’s getting easier to gauge the standard of the Lowland League now that there is an opportunity for progression to the Scottish Football League and just that week league champions Bonnyrigg Rose had replaced Cowdenbeath in League Two after their play-off win.
East Kilbride were in navy and gold, with Bo’ness United in white with blue trim. East Kilbride looked the better side early on and took the lead a few minutes from half-time when a ball slid in behind the defence was well-finished. I joined the queue for food at the break but was too slow. Anything worth eating was long gone and I had to settle for a Snickers. It wasn’t even deep-fried.
Bo’ness came out fired up and soon equalised with a shot that looped up and over the keeper. Maybe there was a deflection in there somewhere. A spell of three goals in ten minutes settled the tie in favour of East Kilbride though with a couple of curlers from the edge of the box and a header where the striker was rewarded for his bravery in getting his head to the ball milliseconds before the keeper’s fist arrived.
Bo’ness pulled one back with five minutes to go but by that time the ribbons were already on the cup. I had a three hour plus drive back to Teesside so didn’t hang around for the presentation and celebrations. Not many other people seemed to do so either.
Tags: Bo'ness United, East Kilbride, Lowland Cup
Trail of the Lion King 
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