17/42 - Hope Stadium, New Douglas Park, Hamilton

21st October 2018
Ground Number: 17
Ground: Hope Stadium, New Douglas Park, Hamilton
Home of: Hamilton Academical FC
Match: Hamilton V Rangers
Score: 1-4
Attendance: 5013

We could only manage a game on the Sunday this weekend and thankfully there's a game on and it's at a ground we haven't been too yet. Result! Hamilton v Rangers it is. Easier said than done though mind.  Tickets HAD to be bought in person at the stadium and weren't on sale on the day of the match. This is a disaster! Never mind, an email to the Club explaining what we're doing and seeing if they could help us out would fix the problem right? Wrong! The reply came back stating tickets must be bought in person and not on match day. Do we make a trip to Hamilton just to buy tickets? 

One final try, this time to the Hamilton Supporters Liaison Officer, and success! Sean couldn't have been more helpful. He understands what we're trying to do and understood we were not Rangers fans trying to gain sneaky access to the ground. More on that later by the way. Tickets secured we were finally on our way to Hamilton to tick off ground 17.

Handily when you're arriving in Hamilton there are plenty of football traffic signs and loads of free parking everywhere. A short stroll via an underground car park and we arrive at the ground. There's a rather bigger crowd here today than what we've been used to the last few months. We met up with Sean, collected our tickets, and located the Club Shop. Pin badge time!

Or rather no. No it wasn't. For a Premiership Club, Hamilton Accies have a very poor range of stock in their shop. The staff were almost surprised when we asked for a badge. None in stock. None going to be in stock any time soon. Ebay it is. A shame though as we'd always prefer to give our money to the clubs. Off to our seats and we're, as always, in with the home supporters in the Main Stand.

There's 2 large stands inside the ground, both a bit unique in their design. The seating area is accessed via stairs and all of the facilities (toilets / snack bars etc) are at ground level next to the pitch. It works. We like it.

Up to our seats then and it's immediately apparent we're not surrounded by just home supporters. (The guy sitting next to me actually has a Rangers tattoo on his wrist!) Everyone is behaving though so no harm done I reckon. Off to our left is the North Stand which houses the travelling fans. It's similar in design (albeit smaller) than the Main Stand we're in. Directly opposite us is a small marquee structure with no more than 10 rows. Again this is housing the away fans today. Off to the right is a non accessible area which isn't used by fans of either side. It's a bit of a mish mash of a ground but it does have some character at least.

The game is underway and by kick off there are still hundreds of empty seats around us. I'm not sure why Hamilton made it quite so difficult to get tickets for today. Surely they should be making it easy and encourage fans to come along? £22 was the price of a ticket today by the way. Fair for a Premiership match we felt. Rangers were well on top of this match and Hamilton seemed quite happy to sit back and let them have possession. We had a decent view of the action with the only gripe being it was hard to see the ball when the play was the nearside touchline due to safety barriers etc.

Rangers dominance finally paid off just before half time as they took the lead their play merited. 1-0 half time then. How would the Hamilton pie fare? Let's go and find out. Really pretty good as it would turn out. David's official rating was 8/10 and I'd go with that. Hot, tasty, filling. Everything a pie should be really. 

The second half starts and it's much the same really. Rangers continue to dominate but don't really trouble the Hamilton keeper. But wait a minute, out of nowhere Hamilton grab an equaliser and it's an absolute cracker of a goal! Suddenly we have a game on! Well we do for all of 4 minutes which is when Rangers are awarded a somewhat dubious penalty. Incredibly, 3 minutes later they have another and with that the game is over. They grab a 4th deep into injury time and, to be fair, they run out deserved winners today.

It was great getting back to a Premiership ground today. A great match with a good atmosphere and a great pie! Tick, tick, tick! Here's how the pin badge collection is looking sans Hamilton Academical! Just check out the size of that Berwick Rangers one!

Next up, Airdrie!