42

Gayfield Park

Saturday 13^th September 2025

Organising a visit to Gayfield Park has been a priority since I settled on completing the 42. The whole idea had first formed while watching Arbroath open their season against Ayr United on BBC Scotland and everything about the game and the club in general appealed to me. As a part-time club that have repeatedly punched above their weight in recent years Arbroath felt like the kind of team that I could see myself falling for.

The club do an incredible amount of work in the local community including programmes around healthy eating and weight loss, physical fitness, mental health, early years literacy, charitable donations, a community cafe, and a range of football teams (both male and female) for every age and ability. They have also managed to effectively engage fans to actively support their local team rather than just turn up for the odd game. This was almost certainly not an easy task with multiple Scottish Premiership teams within easy reach.

An obvious example of both the work with the community and the appeal to fans is the range of benefits that season ticket holders are offered. As well as allowing attendance at 18 home games for between £25 for children under 12 and £290 for full price adults the club have also arranged discounts with 18 local businesses including hotels, restaurants, car washes, garages, solicitors, fishmongers, and gift shops. On top of that if you spend £750 at the local builders merchant, who are the club’s shirt sponsor, you get the full cost of your season ticket refunded. It really shows what a motivated and organised club can achieve when they want to.

Arbroath are back in the Championship after winning promotion from League One as champions last year. The general consensus was that they would struggle to compete at a higher level and that they would likely be facing a tough task to avoid immediate relegation. This was an understandable opinion as many of the clubs in the Championship are full-time clubs who inevitably get more time to work with their players and typically have much higher budgets to spend. They have started exceptionally well though with ten points from five games. Their only loss came away to promotion favourites St Johnstone and they have picked up good wins away from home at both Queens Park and, as I saw last week, Ross County.

I’d mentioned my plan to get round all 42 grounds to my friend Gordon, who I often travel up and down Scotland with to attend various gigs, and he immediately said that he would be up for coming to some of them with me. In particular he was keen on the teams between Aberdeen and Dundee and, slightly randomly, Ayr United. Early on we found a date for an Abroath game that worked for both of us and we started to make plans. Gordon also spoke to Will, the captain of our 2nd XI cricket team, and he then contacted me asking if he could come along. I also managed to persuade Gordon’s son, Daniel, after we both watched a fairly abject losing performance from Aberdeen against newly promoted Falkirk, suggesting that watching Arbroath would be less painful than subjecting himself to another Aberdeen game. He (eventually) agreed and I had inadvertantly organised a Banchory Cricket Club day out.

We agreed to go down by train, partly because my car was in need of a trip to the garage after last weekend’s mammoth round trip to Dingwall and partly because the four of us were split between Aberdeen and Torphins. I arrived at Aberdeen station in good time and waited for Will. When he still hadn’t arrived for our 12:07 train by midday I gave him a call, no answer…. He then phoned me back a couple of minutes later (sounding very out of breath) to say he had forgotten he didn’t have his bike and had had to run to the station. He arrived just in time and we got on with two minutes to spare.

Gordon and Daniel joined us at Stonehaven and we spent the journey talking about the end of the cricket season and this afternoon’s game. As I’ve already seen both teams this season they were all interested in who to keep an eye on. Even though I’d only seen him for 20 minutes against Raith Rovers I picked out Andrew Tod as probably the best player I’d seen across both teams (spoiler alert: I was right…). Getting off the train we started our search for a pub to get a drink before the game. Nothing took our fancy in the centre of town so we decided to walk down to Gayfield to find Tuttie’s Neuk which I knew was opposite the ground. It was exactly what we were looking for, full of Arbroath memorabilia including a League One winners medal from last season, and with supporters from both teams filling every inch of space. After a couple of drinks I headed over to the ground before the others to have a look around and get a few photos.

The away end backs on to an amusement arcade which lends that side of the ground it’s name. As you can see in the photo above an enterprising child can take in every other second of the game through some cleverly timed jumps on the trampolines outside. The main entrance for players and club officials also features a memorial to Arbroath’s biggest claim to fame, a 36 – 0 win over Bon Accord that (with the exception of one anomaly) still stands as a world record win in a competitive match. The 140th anniversary of that feat was just yesterday and so a feature about it was prominent in today’s matchday programme.

Having had a look around I was rejoined by the others and we made our way into the ground. Our first priority was some lunch and I only had one thing on my mind. The BBC Scotland game against Ayr United had included a halftime feature where the presenters tried a smokie pie. They are made using Arbroath smokies and can only be bought at the ground. I’d read online that they sell out early so I made sure to get one as soon as we were in and we went up onto the terracing to enjoy them while we watched the teams warming up. The pie was every bit as good as I’d been hoping for and I suspect it will be difficult to beat at any future grounds.

With rain starting to fall we decided to find our seats in the main stand and hope that the roof would provide us with sufficient cover. We were sat four rows back and directly behind the away dug-out. It looked to be a pretty good spot although a concrete pillar to my left meant a slightly obstructed view but neither penalty area was blocked and it seemed that it would be easy enough to see round it on both sides. As the two teams retreated back to the dressing rooms to dodge the rain and receive their last instructions before the game Smokie Joe was sent out to entertain the crowd. I couldn’t resist the opportunity and headed down to the pitch to get a photo with him.

As the players came out of the tunnel the heavens opened. The fact that the wind was also picking up and coming in off the North Sea in front of us meant that the roof was of little benefit as the rain was driven into our faces. A minute’s applause was held before kick-off to commemorate Jimmy Bone, a former Arbroath player and manager, who had also played a couple of times for Scotland in the 1970s and who had died this week. The game then got underway with the weather definitely impacting on proceedings to begin with. The wet surface and stiff breeze meant that anything wayward raced away from players and trying to control long balls involved more luck than judgement.

Arbroath managed the first few chances but they were all more scrappy than clear cut. Nikolay Todorov put a looping header just wide, a deflected shot went past the post for a corner, and the subsequent ball into the box was missed by absolutely everyone when it seemed easier than not for Todorov to get something on it. Dunfermline made Abroath pay for not taking their chances when they pounced on the second ball from a long kick by Arbroath keeper Aidan McAdams. The ball fell to Jefferson Caceres who strode forwards before playing in Tod on the left side of the box. He seemed to slightly scuff his shot which might have deceived McAdams as he found the bottom corner to give Dunfermline the lead.

Arbroath initially responded well. They managed a couple of close efforts one after the other before winning a free kick just outside the box in the middle of the pitch. A couple of players stood over the ball but it was Jack Wilkie that saw his effort deflected wide. In truth Dunfermline never looked seriously threatened during this passage of play.

Any Dunfermline profligacy with the ball was met with increasing frustration by manager Neil Lennon. This eventually resulted in a loudly shouted profanity which was leapt on by the Arbroath fans around us who reminded him that there were children present and suggested he wash his mouth out. Later repetitions of this behaviour were given similar responses before Lennon turned to the crowd with a guilty looking smirk on his face and to his credit that was the end of his bad language. The interactions with the fans didn’t end there though. When Arbroath were awarded a free kick for what Lennon clearly felt was a soft challenge he complained loudly to the referee. A comment from a fan (which I missed) drew a laugh from Lennon who turned to us and claimed that he’d never be able to play these days if that was a foul. The opportunity to sit so close to the opposition bench and have such frequent and light-hearted interactions with a manager as well known as Lennon felt like a bit of a treat and something you’d never get at a higher level.

Back on the pitch Dunfermline had survived the pressure from Arbroath and were looking to reassert themselves. Just before halftime they struck for a second time. Some intricate passing on the left wing saw the ball played forward to Zak Rudden. He held play up long enough to be joined by some support through the middle and then picked out Tod who slid in to again put the ball past McAdams. A goal on halftime always feels important and Dunfermline will have gone in for the break feeling as though the game was now their’s for the taking.

The rain had lessened steadily during the first half and at halftime the sun made it’s first appearance of the day. Unfortunately for Arbroath that’s about as bright as the afternoon got for them. Right from the whistle to get the second half underway Dunfermline looked like the sharper team. Tod was causing all number of problems for Arbroath’s defence and early on curled a shot from the left wing towards the opposite top corner. McAdams seemed happy to watch it go past but we were sat with a perfect view of the flight of the ball and it couldn’t have missed by more than a couple of inches.

Tod was clearly a man on a mission and he managed to get his hat trick on 59′ minutes in sightly controversial circumstances. A lucky bounce saw the ball fall to Rudden who flicked it on to Tod who initially ran onto the pass before realising he was offside as the linesman raised his flag. He then stopped and let the ball go past him to Robbie Fraser on the left wing. The Arbroath defence had paused when the flag went up but the referee waved play on and Fraser picked out Tod for his third goal. It felt like a harsh decision against Arbroath that was compounded when Aaron Muirhead was booked for protesting the goal.

All fight went out of Arbroath at that point and it was clear that they were wanting to get off the pitch as quickly as possible. Unfortunately they still had half an hour to play and more punishment to endure. On 65′ Tod turned provider when his cross picked out Rudden who was unmarked at the back post and had the whole goal to aim at as he tapped it in.

There was still time for Dunfermline to get one more. This time substitute Rory MacLeod ran on to a flick from Rudden and forced the ball past a helpless McAdams. It could have been worse when the referee missed a blatant handball in the Dunfermline defence which they took advantage of to rush forwards. Only a good save from McAdams denied Josh Cooper from adding a sixth. The final whistle was a relief when it came. In truth Arbroath hadn’t played badly and 0 – 5 felt a harsh reflection of their performance, particularly in the first half. Dunfermline however were excellent and looked a different team to the one that had taken on Raith just a few weeks ago.

We were out of the ground quickly and retracing our steps back to the station. Despite the final whistle only going at 16:48 we were able to make it back in time to get the train to Aberdeen at 17:04. On the train there was already talk of other potential trips together with some grounds, understandably, more appealing than others.

The Facts

• Ground
  • Gayfield Park
• Home
  • Arbroath
• Away
  • Dunfermline Athletic
• Competition
  • Scottish Championship
• Result
  • 0 – 5
• Scorers
  • Andrew Tod (3), Zak Rudden, Rory MacLeod
• Attendance
  • 2,074
• Cost
  • £22
• Total distance travelled
  • 88 miles
• Transport
  • Train
• My MotM
  • Jack Wilkie, obviously the correct answer here is Andrew Tod, if you score three and set up another then you’re the clear man of the match, and probably by some distance too. I couldn’t really have picked out an Arbroath player to take the award but the stadium announcer declared that Wilkie was their man of the match so I’ll assume he saw something that I hadn’t and go with that choice.