42

Cappielow Park

Saturday 8^th November 2025

After a week off last weekend to finish off the work on redecorating our living room I’m back at it this week and decided to turn it into a bit of an all-day adventure. There were two games that I was considering, both of which would require multiple trains to get there.

The first was St Mirren hosting Hibernian which did hold some appeal. It would be my first time seeing either side and whilst St Mirren Park might be a slightly soulless modern stadium the team have punched above their weight in recent years (including having just made the Scottish League Cup final) and are normally well supported as a result.

I went for the alternative option though (as you’ve hopefully already realised by now). Ever since my trip up to Dingwall, where I saw them defeat Ross County, I’ve had a soft spot for Arbroath. This was only reinforced when I saw them at Gayfield and the chance to follow them to another away fixture was too good an opportunity to miss.

It helped that the away fixture would be at Cappielow Park against Greenock Morton. Cappielow, much like Gayfield, is one of the classic grounds of the 42 and one that lots of away fans look forward to visiting. It’s a mixture of covered seating and open terracing, has a grass pitch, and boasts an iconic view of the James Watt dock crane rising above one end of the ground. The cantilever crane stands 50m tall, is one of the most immediately recognisable sights along the River Clyde, and features in almost every photo taken of Cappielow.

Greenock are the only football team to feature the suffix Morton and there is no definitive answer on where the name originated. The two most popular theories are that it came from a road, Morton Terrace, that ran alongside their first ground or that it came from James Morton, one of the first directors of the club. Interestingly, for the first 120 years of their existence they were known simply as Morton Football Club with the Greenock having only been officially added to the club’s name in 1994.

As I mentioned at the start of this entry I knew that today would be a (very) long day. However if I’m going to get round all of the 42 then the visits to these further flung grounds will need to be fitted in and having stayed closer to home more recently a long trip to an interesting ground didn’t seem like the worst way to spend my Saturday.

It also offered the potential to see a decent result for Arbroath. They had had a fantastic run of form in October with an away draw against promotion chasing Partick Thistle followed by a 4 – 0 demolition job of Queens Park at Gayfield. The next week saw a surprise win against table-topping St Johnstone (who had been unbeaten to that point) before the unpredictability of the Championship was shown vividly by a loss to the previously winless Airdrieonians. Last week saw Arbroath right the ship with another win, and a very convincing performance, as they saw off Ross County at home. Sitting third in the table with 21 points from 13 games they are already close to eliminating any threat of relegation back to League One.

On the other hand Greenock Morton have had a strangely consistent, but consistently average, season so far. From their 13 games they’ve only managed 12 points with the vast majority of these coming through nine draws. They aren’t far away from being dragged into the relegation scrap below them and need to find a way to turn those draws into wins. I was hoping that any aspirations they had for doing this would wait a week and I’d get the chance to see Arbroath take something back with them from their visit to Cappielow.

I was up and out of the house by 9am and set off to walk to the station and pick up a cup of tea before my train to Glasgow at 0945. I arrived in good time and got myself sorted, onto the train, and settled in my seat for the first three hour leg of the journey. It was your classic dreich Scottish morning with plenty of haar coming in off the North Sea. It ruled out any chance of enjoying the views that you normally get from the train when you come down the east coast. Visibility was so bad that when we were coming into Dundee you couldn’t even see Fife on the far side of the Tay. I saw one other obvious Arbroath fan get on the train as we came through the town but there were far more rugby fans making their way down to Edinburgh to see Scotland take on New Zealand at Murrayfield (more on that later…)

The weather improved as we headed west and by the time we pulled in to Glasgow the sun was trying it’s best to make it’s presence felt. I had to change both train and station in Glasgow so I walked from Queen Street to Central to find the train out to Greenock. The route went through Paisley (home of St Mirren) so I was joined on the train by plenty of Hibs fans making their way to the other game that I had considered for today. The game had been switched to an evening kick-off so I was glad I’d avoided it in the end and I can only assume that the fans headed there at 1pm were intending to be very well lubricated before they got to the ground….

The journey along the Clyde was quite picturesque with views towards Dumbarton across the water and the rock which dominates the town and provides the backdrop (and nickname) for their ground. I arrived with enough time before the game to walk along the river and stretch my legs after spending all morning on the train. The buildings along the water reminded me of Liverpool’s dockside with red bricks in contrast to the granite that I’m more used to now in Aberdeen. I walked round the outside of the ground and found the club shop to pick up a pin badge. That task took longer than expected as four visiting Dutch fans in front of me spent an age choosing scarves and somehow ended up buying seven between them.

Away fans are often put in the terraced Wee Dublin End but Morton clearly didn’t expect many people to make the journey so the Arbroath supporters had been put into one end of the main stand instead. I was pleased to have got to the ground early as it allowed me to find a seat with a good view. Many of the older grounds around Scotland have stands with impeded views due to supporting pillars but I was able to find a seat far enough forward that this wasn’t an issue. The main stand at Cappielow is also raised above the dugouts so even though I was only sitting four rows back I still had a good view of the whole pitch.

The players came out for their warm-ups and were accompanied by one the better pre-match playlists that I have heard so far with the highlight being Devil’s Haircut by Beck. Not something I imagined hearing blasted round the ground when I set off this morning. Warm-ups complete the players went off before coming back out for an impecably observed minute’s silence for rememberance day. Arbroath then got the game underway but were on the back foot within the first minute when a long ball from the Morton defence was picked up by Owen Moffat who was clean through on goal. Before he could take his shot the linesman raised his flag for offside but all the Arbroath fans around me agreed that he had been onside by a couple of yards. Arbroath had had their first let off.

The next let off came just four minutes later. Moffat was again involved and managed to work his way to the byline wide on the right. He played the ball low and fast across the six yard box but Tomi Adeloye wasn’t able to get a touch on it at the far post.

Early on Arbroath’s only attacks were coming from long balls with the best opportunity falling to Findlay Marshall after a clearance from Arbroath keeper Aidan McAdams. Marshall could only create a half chance though and it was far from testing for James Storer in the Morton goal. Halfway through the first half Arbroath did start to assert some pressure. It began with Scott Stewart and Taylor Steven working well together on the right wing and creating a chance to cross. Storer wasn’t sure whether or not to come but in the end no Arbroath player attacked it and the ball was cleared by Morton. A series of tactical fouls be Morton midfielders stymied a number of attacks and it felt like Arbroath were starting to take control.

That was undone when Morton took a quick free kick on the right wing and Moffat ran past Stewart and crossed the ball deep into he box. The cross was met by centreback Kris Moore who acrobatically volleyed the ball into the back of the net via the crossbar. It was a brilliant finish and one that McAdams could do nothing about. Even the Arbroath fans applauded a moment of genuine skill.

The goal took all the sting out of Arbroath’s attacking intent and it looked as though they were waiting for the halftime whistle to come. The only remaining entertainment in the first half came from a fan behind me who was repeatedly giving Adeloye abuse for wearing short sleeves and gloves (a campaign I was fully supportive of).

The second half got underway and it was obvious that Morton were happy to try and see out the game if possible. It was Arbroath that were trying to make the running but nothing was quite falling for them. On 63′ Arbroath brought on Ryan Dow and Nikolay Todorov and the impact was immediate. They were playing with more pace and intent and were causing Morton problems down both flanks.

Morton’s response to this was to begin wasting time on an industrial level. Throw-ins were taking up to a minute to be taken and cramp was tearing through the Morton team. It was effective and thoroughly frustrated the Arbroath players. The referee handled the situation dreadfully by pulling Morton players aside to speak to them about it at length but not booking anyone until deep into stoppage time. You could see the Morton players laughing at how much they were able to get away with.

Despite the effect of the substitutes Arbroath were still struggling to make a clear cut chance. Most balls weren’t clearing the first man and it took until the 74th minute before a cross found Todorov who forced a good save from Storer to maintain Morton’s lead.

The only other chance of note came when an Arbroath corner found Tam O’Brien at the back post. He headed back across goal and Jack Wilkie threw himself headfirst at the ball. He took a boot to the face for his efforts and the referee decided that not only wasn’t it a foul but also that he wouldn’t stop the game for the head injury. Wilkie stayed down and Morton flooded up the pitch taking advantage of the space left by Wilkie. They ended up putting the ball in the back of the net but the referee’s blushes were saved by the linesman’s flag.

Seven minutes of added time were announced but Arbroath’s increasingly desperate attacks never looked like getting them anything from the game and Morton saw things out exactly as they would have hoped.

I left the ground and headed back to the station to make this morning’s journey again in reverse. The train into Glasgow was busy with people heading in to the city for nights out but I found a seat and it passed quickly. I made my way from Central to Queen Street and the train to Aberdeen was much quieter. That was until we arrived in Dundee where the train was overrun with heavily drunk Scottish rugby fans. I was joined at my table by a woman in her 40s who was with her parents. I had my headphones in and tried to ignore them but it became increasing difficult as the woman started literally hooting at me. Eventually she tapped me on my shoulder and asked if i wanted help with my crossword. I politely declined and she said that was probably for the best as she didn’t know how to do them. Thankfully they got off at Carnoustie.

I ended up getting back home at around 10pm. A 13 hour day probably should have been more tiring than it actually was. It was great fun to travel down on the train, the ground was fantastic, and while the game was far from the best I’ve seen it did feature a goal that might well be the best I see on this journey.

The Facts

• Ground
  • Cappielow Park
• Home
  • Greenock Morton
• Away
  • Arbroath
• Competition
  • Scottish Championship
• Result
  • 1 – 0
• Scorers
  • Kris Moore
• Attendance
  • 1,672
• Cost
  • £22
• Total distance travelled
  • 280 miles
• Transport
  • Train
• My MotM
  • If a central defender can pop up and score an acrobatic volley to win the game then I’m more than happy for him to have the man of the match so I’ll go for Kris Moore. It wasn’t a game filled with quality moments or consistent play but that finish will stick in my mind for a while.