42

Balmoral Stadium

Tuesday 12^th August 2025

I had planned for my first game to be at Pittodrie. It felt like the logical choice. It was the closest ground to home with just a half hour walk to get there and the parade following Aberdeen’s Scottish Cup win was one of the factors that had made me decide to start attending Scottish football matches in person. The game that I’d booked a ticket for was Aberdeen’s Europa League play-off against either FCSB (otherwise known as Steaua Bucharest depending on your opinion of the Ship of Theseus paradox) or Drita which was their reward for that cup victory so it seemed the perfect way to start my journey through Scottish football. Then I spotted that Cove Rangers were playing at home on a Tuesday evening….

The KDM Evolution Trophy is the new and inevitably worse branding for the Scottish Challenge Cup. Previous sponsorship led to such wonderfully named competitions as the Irn-Bru Cup and the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup. Now I can’t work out who the sponsor is even after googling them which surely doesn’t bode well. For many reasons it’s not a competition that makes much of an impact on the footballing world. Top flight teams aren’t involved other than their B (or U21) teams, games aren’t normally televised (although a few do appear on BBC Alba through the season) and even highlights can be severely lacking. As a result it feels like the only way to know for sure that the competition actually exists is to see it in person. It’s essentially an opportunity for lower league clubs in Scotland to get a few more matches in their calendar (whether the manager and players want them or not….), a few more fans through the gates, and offers a realistic opportunity to win some silverware and a bit of prize money, with a total of £1.25M being shared between the teams in 2025/26.

The forecast for Aberdeen on Tuesday evening was about as perfect as you could hope for, clear blue skies, no wind, and 22°. With no other plans and an opportunity to tick off the first ground on the list without using up a Saturday I decided I was going. As an extra bonus, tickets were reduced to £10 for cup games and there were a few seats available in the Alan McRae Stand.

Cove Rangers don’t particularly fit with the romantic view that some people have of classic Scottish football teams from the classified results on a Saturday afternoon. Although they formed in 1922 they spent much of their time in local amateur leagues before joining the Highland League in 1986 and then the SPFL League Two in 2019. Despite their brief history in the SPFL they have been remarkably successful winning League Two at their first attempt (with some help from the Coronavirus pandemic) and then going on to win League One in 2021/22. Their time in the Scottish Championship only lasted a single season though before they were relegated back to League One where they have remained since.

The ambitiously named Balmoral Stadium doesn’t help with the widespread view of Cove Rangers as an upstart team without any real history that have forced their way through the Scottish lower leagues with the help of some generous financial backing. The ground sits on the edge of an industrial park to the south of Aberdeen, just behind Ikea. One advantage of this however, particularly on a Tuesday evening, is that parking doesn’t present any problems.

I arrived at the ground around 30 minutes before kick-off and survived the queue of three people to get through the gates in no time. I spent a bit of time standing at the side of the pitch watching the teams warm-up and, in hindsight, the fact that both groups of players went through exactly the same routines in the same order should probably have given me a hint of what was to come. As the teams headed inside I found my way to my seat in what was actually a really nice and well-appointed stand for such a small ground. It was then announced that Cove Rangers would be playing in their new third kit which had been designed following a collaboration with local charity UCAN. Given I’ve worked closely with UCAN for the past ten years this felt like a nice coincidence for the first game on this journey.

The teams emerged and with the minimum possible fuss the game was underway. Early on it became clear that neither team really wanted to lose the game rather than either team particularly wanting to win it. The opening exchanges were cagey with the only decent chance in the first twenty minutes or so coming from the ball breaking kindly for Cove Rangers’ Arron Darge (brother of Scotland Rugby captain Rory) who hit a powerful shot which was headed for the top right corner before being well saved by The Spartans’ Blair Carswell. From the resulting corner everyone’s favourite player, A. Trialist, went down off the ball. This was either a genuine and unfortunate injury or a case of someone quickly realising that they don’t really fancy running around an Aberdeen industrial estate on a Tuesday evening. His day was done after just nine minutes.

The most memorable moment of the early stages of the game wasn’t even on the pitch. An elderly couple sat near the front of the main stand excitedly got the attention of one of the stewards in order to point out, using SAS style hand gestures, that two young boys were watching the game by standing on the hill behind one of the goals meaning they could see over the fence around the ground. They animatedly demanded that something was done about this before giving up when the realisation dawned on them that the steward couldn’t have possibly cared less. Given that kids tickets were only £5 I doubt the financial future of the club hinged on getting the two of them through the gate. The action on the pitch wasn’t doing much to encourage them either and they wandered off after around half an hour.

The first half was marked by a distinct lack of opportunities for either team although it felt like Cove started to take control in the last ten minutes or so. On 40 minutes it looked like they had the breakthrough as David Eguiabor met a cross whipped in by Parker from the left wing with a neat header that found the back of the net but which was immediately ruled out for offside. Eguiabor managed another shot just off target following some neat Cove passing on the verge of halftime but as the whistle blew for the break fears of starting The 42 with a 0 – 0 were growing.

Cove started the second half much as they had ended the first half and it seemed as though if either team were to break the deadlock it would be them. That said there was still a lack of a cutting edge with half chances at best and some steady if agricultural play from both teams. The breakthrough came on 56 minutes when some persistence from Cove was finally rewarded. A through ball from Blair Yule ricocheted off a Spartans defender and was collected by Darge who broke into the box and calmly placed the ball past Carswell.

This quickly led to a change from Spartans manager Douglas Samuel (the longest serving manager in the SPFL having been in charge of the team since 2012) who made a triple substitution on 60 minutes. The fresh legs immediately helped The Spartans who began to get a foothold in the game again. There was no response from Cove manager, Paul Hartley, even as his team began to look increasingly tired and The Spartans increasingly dominated possession for the next 20 minutes. The inevitable equaliser came on 81 minutes when Jamie Dishington drove the ball low across goal and Mark Stowe was left with the easiest of tap-ins to level the scores.

A late change to bring on MitchMegginson up front for Cove never looked likely to change the outcome as Cove’s attacking intent had been blunted by The Spartans’ control of the second half. It seemed as though both teams suddenly remembered they didn’t want to lose and they could all go home happy(ish). As did I; the first ground ticked off, a fun evening out at a bargain price, and an eight minute drive home.

The Facts

• Ground
  • Balmoral Stadium
• Home
  • Cove Rangers
• Away
  • The Spartans
• Competition
  • The KDM Evolution Trophy
• Result
  • 1 – 1
• Scorers
  • Arron Darge | Mark Stowe
• Attendance
  • 256
• Cost
  • £10
• Total distance travelled
  • 9 miles
• Transport
  • Car
• My MotM
  • Arron Darge, absolutely everything seemed to go through him in midfield including both the goal and Cove Rangers’ only other shot on target.