STUART FRASER

[ Home / Past Articles / CV ]

FOOTBALL
MOTHERWELL V AS NANCY FROM PERSPECTIVE OF RANGERS FAN
Freelance Article
By Stuart Fraser
7^th October 2008

Fir Park is only a five minute drive from my flat and with Student ticket prices at £10, I thought it was an ideal opportunity to see some European football this season. I have at least another ten months before their will be any European action at Ibrox after the disaster of Kaunas but the less said about that the better.

I must confess that it wasn’t my first trip to Fir Park as I ventured along the week before for the excellent CIS Cup third round match between the Steelmen and the Accies. If the match against Nancy was going to be anything like that, then the Fir Park crowd were in for another cup cracker.

Being a Ger, I couldn’t help comparing certain aspects of the night to a European night at Ibrox. The first thing that hit me was how easy it was to find a parking space on the street near the ground. I didn’t leave my flat till after 7pm and by the time I got parked up, it was around 7:15pm. If you were looking for a space in and around the streets of Govan thirty minutes before kick off, you would be very lucky to find one.

As darkness was falling along with the rain, the atmosphere was building outside Fir Park. Unfortunately so were the queues. The match was an all-ticket affair but there were still masses of fans waiting to get into the ground. Not something you would see at Ibrox especially for an all-ticket match.

Eventually I got through the turnstiles with a few minutes to spare before kick-off and I headed straight to my seat in the Phil O’Donnell stand. Well just about! There seemed to be mass confusion with people struggling to find their seats. Luckily I managed to squeeze through the waiting pack and I took my seat just as the referee blew his whistle to get the match underway.

Fir Park was almost full and I must admit there was a tremendous atmosphere inside the ground. The South Stand, which resembles the Broomloan or Copland stands at Ibrox, is the largest stand in the ground and sometimes looks a bit empty on television but on this occasion the majority of seats were taken. However with my section of the stand being absolutely full to the brim, it was sardines to the tin and the man beside me obviously hadn’t got to grips with deodorant.

There were a small group of Nancy fans to my left but to be fair to them, they were creating plenty of noise. It had all the makings of a great match until the seventeenth minute. Nancy won a free-kick outside the box and although it was blocked by keeper Graeme Smith, Nancy’s Marc Antoine-Fortune was first to the rebound and he put the French side 2-0 in front on aggregate. This meant that the Well had to score three to go through and the tie was effectively over.

Just like the atmosphere, Motherwell’s performance went a bit flat after that and five minutes later they found themselves two down. The goal again came from a set-piece on the edge of the box and Mark McGhee was clearly unhappy at his side’s sloppy defending. Papac, Bougherra, Weir & Broadfoot could no doubt teach the Motherwell back four a thing or two.

Nancy showed their class after that and had several opportunities to go even further in front. As much as Motherwell tried, they just could not offer anything in attack and the disastrous season for Scottish clubs in Europe continued as the referee blew his final whistle. Our co-efficient will take a hammering after this and to be honest, Celtic don’t look like they will help the cause either.

European nights at Scottish stadiums are always something special and Fir Park got to experience that but sadly only for seventeen minutes. It may have been short lived but it has seriously whetted my appetite for the return of European football at Ibrox next season.