I have a long standing “understanding” with my better half that Saturday afternoons belong to me during the football season.
She doesn’t understand football and I don’t understand her preoccupation with shopping malls and clothes shops. And so we go our different ways and that “understanding” extends to a full day escape when the annual trip to Fort William comes along.
There was a bonus of a summer game this year with no worry about whether the game would proceed or not. The downside was the traffic as an assorted array of caravans, camper vans, dormobiles and cyclists did everything in their power to thwart my progress along Loch Laggan.
Kick-off was delayed for five minutes to allow Locos’ Chairman Eddie Innes to extricate himself from a tailback – that was his story and he was sticking to it.
The three hour, turned nearly four hour journey, also allowed uninterrupted listening to BBC Scotland’s “Off The Ball”. I can take or leave their programme, but on Saturday Stuart and Tam were very much “on the ball” and somehow contrived to divert from football to farming.
Two cows were standing in a field having a blether. One cow says: “What do you think of mad cow disease? The other cow replied: “It doesn’t bother me. I’m a kangaroo!” I stopped in a lay-by for a cup of coffee and a sandwich while taking in the wonderful West Highland scenery.
And, I nearly forgot – there was a game of football. It was rather subdued. Fort are regrouping yet again as they have lost players over the summer and the club is dealing with the recent fire damage.
They did not play that badly, but two of the Locos’ goals were “soft” due to errors by trialist goalkeeper Martin Taylor. In fairness, however, he made a couple of good saves. 4-0 to Locos was probably a fair reflection of play, but it is always difficult to judge in this fixture.
Locos passed up a lot of chances, but young Joe McCabe came on, scored another goal, looks full of running, and is not afraid to get stuck in. He continues to impress and is a fine prospect. That was the main positive.
Afterwards it was straight home to Forgue for our annual village barbeque. A grand way to finish off a perfect day out. It might be a long way, but a trip to Claggan Park is always enjoyable and is highly recommended.
This week’s article is sponsored by the Fort William Tourist Board.