Bo'ness United beat East Stirlingshire 2-0 at Newtown Park on Saturday, the only fixture in the Lowland League to survive a weekend of hard frost that postponed matches elsewhere.
Temperatures fell to zero degrees, and Bo'ness United's under-20 team had played in minus four degrees at the same ground the previous night. Football has been played at Newtown Park since 1882. The stadium's band hall has been destroyed by fire and a grandstand has been removed over the years, but the pitch is now artificial, which kept it playable through the frost.
Volunteers keep the ground running
Chris Veitch, the club secretary, spent Saturday morning spreading salt on the terracing before organising matchday. The stadium includes trailers and huts that house trophies and hospitality guests alongside structures built by miners of the past.
Kitman of 63 years
Charlie Patrick has been the club's kitman for 63 years. He first came to Newtown Park as a teenager and is now 78. "I was working with a boy who played for the club and I thought I would come up to see what it was all about," he said. He stayed. "Every year I tell them: 'That's it, I'm retiring', but I always come back."
Patrick, a bachelor, said the club is his link to society. "It's important to me because it gets me out and talking to people, doing something," he said. He once ran the line as an assistant referee before giving it up. "I had to stop it," he said. "I got carried away and regularly got sent off." His face appears in photographs that line the walls of the club's two lounges and its committee room, standing alongside the heroes of past campaigns.
Scottish Junior Cup memories
Bo'ness United have won the Scottish Junior Cup three times, in 1948, 1976 and 1984. Patrick said the competition gave him his greatest memories at the club. "I have watched us in four finals and we have won two," he said.
He named the 2-0 win over Baillieston in 1984 as his best memory. "Lex Shields scored two tremendous goals that day. The second one was amazing and I will never forget that. I can still see it in my mind's eye," he said. Shields dribbled past a group of players before nutmegging the goalkeeper. He died last year, aged 66.
The 1984 final at Ibrox
Gavin Kirkwood, 62, was the goalkeeper in that 1984 win and played on until he was 48. He recalled reaching the Scottish Junior Cup final in his first two seasons at the club, losing the first before winning the next. "I was only 21 when we won at Ibrox," he said, adding that he expected the club to reach a final every season after that.
Kirkwood, who lives in Bo'ness and attends most home games from the members' lounge, where subscriptions go directly into the club's transfer budget, said the town still remembers 1984. "If I am walking through the town, I am regularly stopped for a chat and it always turns to 1984," he said.
"It was the greatest moment of my career, one of the greatest moments of my life," he said. "I remember Lex's goals, of course, but I always remember walking around the ground and seemingly shaking the hand of every supporter. Then it was back to the town for an open-top bus, a reception, and then around the clubs and pubs with the cup. Good times, great memories."
Kirkwood left Bo'ness United in 1994 to join Armadale and then Arniston, returning to play for Bo'ness a couple of times before retiring at 48. He said Shields's death was "a tremendous shock, very sudden" and that "he was a great player and some character. We all miss him."
A club shaped by change
John Spowart has watched Bo'ness United since the mid-1960s. He said the club has changed a great deal over that time. "The grandstand came down in the 1990s and the artificial surface was introduced a few years ago, so things are always changing," he said.
The club now works with a community club and has plans for a £4 million hub behind one of the terraces.
A team has represented Bo'ness since the end of the 19th century. The original Bo'ness club played in the Scottish League before being wound up in the 1930s and immediately reformed as an amateur side. In 1946, Bo'ness merged with Bo'ness Cadora to become one of the biggest Junior clubs in Scotland. Spowart said the club now plays in the Lowland League, where it currently sits fifth.
East Stirlingshire's struggle
East Stirlingshire, who lost 2-0 on Saturday, face their own test of endurance. The club dropped out of the SPFL and now play home matches as tenants at Ochilview in Stenhousemuir.
Ian Fleming, a director at the club, said keeping it going is a constant effort. "It is always kind of tough," he said. "We are here this week and we are playing. That's something of an achievement."
Fleming said the club has only two directors, himself and Andy Williamson, both of whom hold full-time jobs. "There are only two directors. Me and Andy have full-time jobs, so it's difficult to go out and get sponsors. We have just got a couple of other sponsors on board and they have been great," he said.
East Stirlingshire sit bottom of the Lowland League, though there is no relegation from the division this season. "I know I am biased but we are not playing like a bottom of the table side," Fleming said. "But that is where we are."
The club controls hospitality and kiosk sales on matchdays at Ochilview, which Fleming hopes will help it become financially sustainable, and he wants to keep recruiting players from the local area. He said he and Williamson are driven by the wish not to be in charge if the club were ever forced to close. "Andy and I always say that we don't want to have our names above the door if the padlocks are put on," he said.
Fleming has been a director for 14 years and a supporter since the early 1990s. "Aye, it's been a long shift," he said.
