Elgin a Tonic
Elgin City versus Peterhead was the second and final game of this weekend’s itinerary.
After last night’s beers in Johnny Foxes in Inverness, it was time to shake off the cobwebs and do it all again.
Of course, Elgin is a place we have visited before, in our first season of ground hopping.
Unfortunately, due to time spent building the Hoppers Guide website and memories fading, Elgin was one of the ten grounds we visited in that period that weren’t documented.
On the first visit, we watched a doomed Cowdenbeath team win handsomely by four goals to one.
Indeed, Cowdenbeath should offer us a season ticket – we have never seen them lose, despite their fall to the Lowland League.
What better time to revisit and review than when we were already in Inverness for the weekend, some forty miles southwest of Elgin?
So, let’s get right on with the review.
The Journey
Our journey was, mercifully, a fraction of what it would have been if we had come specifically for this game.
From our home town to Elgin is a journey that takes around eight hours by bus and train.
Today it would take less than an hour by train from Inverness.
We headed to Inverness train station and caught the 10:56 train to Aberdeen.
There were some lovely views of the Moray Firth leaving Inverness. During the ride, we also went past Nairn County‘s Station Park and Forres Mechanics‘ Mosset Park grounds.
Two for the future, hopefully!
We arrived in Elgin at 11:40 and headed uphill towards the town.
Elgin
Elgin lies six miles south of the North Sea in the Moray region of Scotland.
The town lies on the curving bends of the River Lossie before it heads North to the coast.
Despite the football club being called ‘City’, Elgin is officially a town. In 2022 Elgin unsuccessfully applied to become a city during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Previously known as a royal burgh and a cathedral city, its status has a confusing past.
The accepted theory is that Elgin got its name from a Norse general called Helgyn who founded a settlement here in the tenth century.
Others suggest it has Celtic origins and could mean several things in Gaelic. ‘Beautiful Place’ and even ‘Little Ireland’ are two of the suggestions.
Maybe Helgyn settled in a beautiful place and everyone can be happy?
A castle was established on Lady Hill during the reign of David I (1124 to 1153) and its ruins still stand on the hill.
Also on Lady Hill, is a monument to the fifth Duke of Gordon. Standing eighty feet tall, the Grade A listed monument is a tribute to the former soldier and politician, who raised the 92nd Highlanders Regiment.
Originally, this column had a lantern on top of it in a tribute to the cathedral, known as the Lantern of the North. The locals didn’t like it and it was replaced with the statue of the duke we see today.
The Duke of Gordon’s remains are buried at the nearby Elgin Cathedral.
Elgin Cathedral
Elgin Cathedral, unfortunately, was destroyed by fire and now lies in ruin.
Foundations were laid in 1224 and the magnificent building stood until 1390 when the Wolf of Badenoch and his forces burned it to the ground.
We visited this stunning cathedral ruin on our last trip here and it is a fantastic place to look around.
Here is a gallery of some of our photographs from our previous trip to Elgin.
Much of the economy in the Moray area today, relies on the RAF base at Lossiemouth.
Whisky distilleries are also an important part of working life here.
Indeed, the Gordon & MacPhail distillery sits across the street from Borough Briggs and can be seen in some of our videos below.
Notable People From Elgin
Trainspotting and Grey’s Anatomy actor, Kevin McKidd.
Triathlon World Champion, Helen Jenkins.
The Saint and The Avengers actress, Monica Stevenson.
Former Hearts and Dundee United player, Stephen Pressley.
Several well-known footballers have graced the Borough Briggs turf over the years.
These include; John McGinlay; Bruce Anderson; Zander Clark; Craig Beattie; Ross Laidlaw; and perhaps the most famous of all, Jimmy ‘Jinky’ Johnstone, who played for Elgin at the end of his career in 1978/79.
Elgin – Before the Game
After walking the streets of Elgin, we ended up in the town centre and headed to the Muckle Cross.
During our weekend, we noticed that both Inverness and Elgin were considerably less litter-strewn and graffiti-infested than other towns and cities in Scotland.
If we have one criticism of Scotland, it is that. Please use the bins folks, you live in a beautiful country, keep it that way.
The Muckle Cross is the local Wetherspoons and we were hoping to get breakfast there.
Mrs Hopper saw a wool shop and we headed in there first. She came out proudly clutching a couple of balls of wool and we walked the rest of the way to the pub.
Having noticed the time was now 12:05, it was doubtful we would get breakfast, which isn’t served after noon.
Confirmed!
Neither of us wanted lunch, so we headed to another place we had visited before – Pancake Place.
Mrs Hopper being American, my Spidey Senses were tingling. Was this her cunning plan all along? Delay the Wetherspoons visit until after twelve and then head here?
After all, she does like her pancakes!
Elgin City – Borough Briggs
After eating, it was time to head towards Borough Briggs and have a pint in the social club at the ground.
Having been before, we knew that Elgin has a great little clubhouse and negated our desire to find a pub in the area.
If you prefer to drink away from the ground, you could try The Thunderton House pub.
Looking at the photo above, the social club is accessed via a door with a red Tennents beer sign above it.
Once inside, you can turn left for the club shop, or right for the bar.
Club Shop
The shop is a small area within the main stand.
You can get the usual merchandise here, although the pickings were pretty slim as the season draws to a close.
The room has a ‘reception desk’ feel and I’m not sure if it actually may double up as such. There is even a glass wall case containing valuable bits of cut glass and a large club crest.
After previously buying one of their anniversary shirts and a pin badge for my collections, we came inside here for photos only.
Social Club Bar
The bar room is a good size and is nicely colour schemed in red and white with black furniture and a grey carpet. These colours are taken from the club crest and the room feels modern and fresh.
We ordered two pints of Tennent’s, costing a very reasonable £6.80 for both.
While we sat there, a gentleman walked around handing out teamsheets and we gratefully took one from him. The last time we were here, there were no programmes available, so I definitely wanted a teamsheet.
A few large TVs were on the walls, showing the Scottish Cup semi-final between Celtic and Aberdeen.
We found a free table and sat down to watch an exciting game of football. It was clear that the locals were firmly behind Aberdeen and a loud cheer was let out when Ester Sokler scored a late equaliser for the Dons.
A shame time was getting the better of us and we had to miss the extra time and penalties.
Aberdeen did themselves proud against a team that sits seven places and forty-three points ahead of them in the SPL.
We left the bar the same way we had come in and headed for the turnstiles.
Getting In
The tickets for today’s game were purchased via Fanbase, costing £14.00 per person.
They are a digital purchase stored on their app on your mobile phone.
The gateman scanned our tickets and we entered Borough Briggs.
Programme
The first thing I noticed once inside, was the wonderful sight of a printed programme for sale.
A great value issue it is, too!
£2.00 gets you thirty-two glossy pages with seven full pages of adverts.
There is a visitor’s profile, the manager and director’s views, news, info and even a section on City’s women’s team.
Excellent value, well done Elgin City!
East Terrace
The east end of the ground is an open, shallow terrace, consisting of seven steps.
A wide path runs along the bottom of the terrace, leading to the North Stand and beyond.
Five-a-side pitches lie behind the East Terrace, where Elgin City boys played against Peterhead boys.
North Stand
The North Stand is a long, covered terrace that runs the length of the pitch.
The nine-stepped terrace is split between home and away supporters, although, on both of our visits, fans were free to stand where they liked.
Technically, the western end of this terrace is for away supporters and there is a partitioned area (with a wide open gate).
Comically, away fans need to walk through the home fans section to get to the away end.
It’s a good job the Glasgow Derby isn’t run like this! 😂
The partition fence is one of several things that can impede your view of the action. There are supporting pillars running from the roof to the concrete floor. Also, the four floodlights on this side of the ground, penetrate the roof and have their bases on the terrace.
It might be wise not to leave it too late and pick a prime position if choosing to stand here.
West Terrace
Again, the West Terrace is another open terrace, though notably smaller than the East Terrace.
It is both shorter and only six steps in depth, with safety rails at the bottom.
A grassy bank takes up the rest of the space behind the goal.
The youngsters who had been previously playing five-a-side pre-game, had a whale of a time here, playing football and generally larking about during the game.
South Side
Carrying on around to the south side of the ground, another small, open terrace occupies the western end of it.
This carries on down to the Main Stand which straddles the halfway line.
The Main Stand is all-seated and has 478 spaces.
The seats in this stand were originally from Newcastle United‘s St. James’ Park.
Elgin City obtained five hundred seats from Newcastle when the Geordie club upgraded the seating in its own main (Milburn) stand.
At the eastern end of this side of Borough Briggs, is the ever-popular pie hut.
We didn’t have anything due to big queues and still being full from our pancake brunch but word is that they are good.
Four more floodlights are sited on the south side of Borough Briggs, two on either side of the main stand.
The capacity at Borough Briggs is 4,520 and the playing surface is natural grass.
Borough Briggs celebrated its centenary in 2021.
Elgin City – Borough Briggs Gallery
Elgin City – Bonus Borough Briggs Gallery
These photographs were taken on our first visit to the game against Cowdenbeath on April 23rd, 2022.
Elgin City Tidbits
The Elgin City Football Club was founded in 1893.
The club’s nickname is the Black and Whites.
Elgin City was founded via the merger of Elgin Rovers and Vale of Lossie.
In 1968. Elgin City became the first and so far, only Highland League club to reach the Scottish Cup quarter-final. After qualifying for the First Round, they went on to defeat Forfar Athletic and Arbroath before being narrowly beaten by Greenock Morton in the quarters.
Most of the club’s existence has been spent playing in the Highland League of Scotland.
They were granted SPFL status in 2000. Ironically, they were elected to the Scottish League in the same year as today’s opponents, Peterhead. Both teams joined the then, Third Division.
During their twenty-four seasons in the Scottish Football League, Elgin has been neither promoted nor relegated.
Borough Briggs is the most northerly football league ground in the United Kingdom.
Elgin City – Pre-Game View of Borough Briggs
Elgin City v Peterhead – The Game
Form
April has started with two consecutive draws for Elgin City, including an impressive 1-1 draw at League champions, Stenhousemuir last time out.
During March, they garnered seven points from a possible fifteen. The highlight of March was a crucial 2-1 victory at fellow strugglers Stranraer.
Visitors Peterhead, meanwhile, had taken four points from six in April.
After a 2-2 draw against Bonnyrigg Rose, the Blue Toon beat the always hard-to-beat Forfar Athletic at the Balmoor Stadium.
During March, they managed just eight points from fifteen. Despite this, they still found themselves in second place before today’s game and would look to consolidate that position today.
Given all this info, I was predicting a 2-2 draw.
Kick-Off
Summary
Elgin can consider themselves unlucky not to have won this match and were it not for a red card, maybe they would have.
They took the lead in the tenth minute through Ross Draper.
Russell Dingwall’s corner was met by the head of Draper, who guided it nicely into the right-hand side of the goal.
Cue the celebrations from the home fans – a win today would guarantee Elgin’s safety!
I managed to capture the goal in the video below.
Elgin continued to have the better of the game for much of the half.
Chances for either team were at a premium but when called upon, the Peterhead goalkeeper, Stuart McKenzie, stood firm.
Keith Bray was one of three names taken by the referee in a half that didn’t feel like it merited three cautions.
This harsh booking would prove to be pivotal later on.
Half Time – Elgin City 1 Peterhead 0
During the interval, Mrs Hopper went to get a hot drink from the pie hut on the south side of the ground.
She returned five minutes later saying the queue was far too long.
Meanwhile, I was checking my phone to see how Stoke‘s vital match with Plymouth Argyle was going.
2-0!
And in the correct end!
Yay!
A fine time to find a bit of form and in fairness, the team seems to be showing there may be better things ahead.
I could now watch the second half feeling a little more relaxed.
EDIT: An even better 1-0 win at Southampton was to follow the week after, which guaranteed our survival for at least another year in the Championship.
Second Half
The pivotal moment that changed the game came in the 57th minute.
Unfortunately, our view of the incident was partially obscured by the segregation fencing, so I couldn’t see whether the second booking was merited or not.
Either way, the referee deemed it to be worthy of a red card and Keith Bray was sent off for Elgin.
After this incident, Peterhead, not surprisingly, took over as the dominant team.
Peterhead’s equaliser came in the first minute of injury time.
It felt harsh on Elgin who had held firm defensively with ten men but that’s football. Peterhead saw their chance and took it.
In a repeat of the goal by Elgin, Peterhead equalised from a corner kick.
Alfie Stewart put in a fine delivery from the far side and Peter Pawlett rose to guide the header in at the near post.
Again, I caught the goal on video which you can see below.
I liked the look of Peterhead’s Hamish Ritchie but the Hoppers Guide Man of the match has to go to Ross Draper. He scored the goal that kept Elgin City up last season and he did it again today.
You can read a full Match Report here, courtesy of the Peterhead FC website.
Attendance – 831
Entrance Fee – £14.00
Programme – £2.00
Elgin City Anniversary
With no match highlights available, I will post this BBC video celebrating Borough Briggs’ 100th birthday, instead.
Updated League Table
League table courtesy of the BBC Sport website
Up Next
Elgin’s final two matches of the season will be against Dumbarton (A) on April 27th and a final home game that is of paramount importance to the visitors, Clyde.
They and Stranraer will spend the last day of the season battling to avoid the relegation playoff spot.
Peterhead will face The Spartans (A) on April 27th before a final home game against Dumbarton on May 4th.
That match could be a pre-cursor for the playoffs, which both teams will be involved in.
EDIT: Elgin earned a third consecutive draw in the match at Dumbarton, which finished 2-2.
Peterhead also earned a 2-2 draw against Spartans at Ainslie Park.
Thoughts
Borough Briggs is a lovely place to watch a game of football.
With the Duke of Gordon watching on from Lady Hill, it felt almost peaceful, despite the yelling from the passionate fans around us.
We have enjoyed both of our visits to this wonderful club and I have no problem recommending it to any Hoppers out there who have yet to visit.
Choose your positioning wisely, though. Views can be restricted in the covered terrace and the weather could ruin the experience in the open ends.
We haven’t been in the main stand, so I can’t comment on the experience from there.
The social club is excellent and welcomes fans of the opposition, too.
It was nice to see that Elgin City has reintroduced a printed programme since our last visit. It really does make a difference as far as I’m concerned. Not only does it help you to know who the players are, but it’s also a memento of the game to look back on, down the line.
After seeing the kids from both teams playing five-a-side against each other, it’s lovely to see kids incorporated into the clubs at a young age. Making them feel an important part of the match day will hopefully, make them fans for life.
Mrs Hopper is a fan of Elgin (the town) and both of our visits have been good. So impressed she even bought a bobble hat last time we were here!
Small Changes
One small thing I would change is the club shop. There needs to be more on offer for the fans in my opinion.
Currently, the Elgin City website doesn’t seem to be working but I’m sure they probably have a better selection on there when it is working.
Nothing beats being able to browse the merchandise physically, though.
Also, it may be wise to consider a way of shortening queues for food and drinks. Before the game and at halftime, the long line put us off buying anything.
Union Badgers
I couldn’t leave out the young guys who stood behind the goal cheering their team on throughout.
Around ten young fans did their utmost to drive the team forward and the drummer deserves extra credit for his constant pulsating rhythm.
If they can add to their numbers, Borough Briggs will be rocking!
Elgin – After the Game
After the final whistle, we made our way back to Elgin train station, admiring some of the lovely houses as we went.
There is no wonder that Elgin is one of the most expensive places in Scotland to buy property.
Also, there are churches everywhere! So many, that some of them have been repurposed into Indian restaurants and gyms!
The day previous, I thought Inverness had a lot of churches but I believe Elgin won that particular battle.
We reached the train station and caught the 17:38 back to Inverness, arriving at 18:20.
After stocking up on a few snacks from the local Co-Op, we headed back to the lodgings and had a bite to eat.
A quick nap later, we were up and out for another night at Johnny Foxes.
Tonight, the entertainment was by a band called Haggis, Neeps and Fatties.
They were having some unfortunate technical issues with the speakers and appeared to lose some of the crowd while they worked it out. (It took them over an hour.)
Once they got going though, the crowd seemed to reappear and everyone had another great night. We left just after their final song around 2 a.m.
I love that place!
Sunday was a day of doing absolutely nothing. We lazed around in our lodgings reading and eating snacks and not caring what went on outside our room walls.
Homeward Bound
Monday saw us head home. We caught the 10:53 train from Inverness to Edinburgh (arrived at 14:30) before heading to Platform 6 for the train to Newcastle.
This departed at 15:00, arriving at 16:30. A thirty-minute wait saw us catch the X1 home and we were through the front door around 18:00.
I was back out again twenty minutes later!
Sunderland U21s were playing Liverpool U21s at Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground, sited in our town. I had pre-determined that if we were back in time, I would go.
I’m glad I did, too. Liverpool fielded a strong side that included some of the Carabao Cup-winning team and also some of those named for Champions League games.
This didn’t stop an impressive Sunderland team, managed by ex-Reading midfielder, Graeme Murty, from taking a 2-1 win.
What a weekend!
Next Up for Hoppers Guide
Next week we will be staying local and will take in another of the fabulous Northern League’s members.
A short trip to Sunderland RCA’s LGV Park awaits, assuming the weather doesn’t ruin yet another league fixture.
Their opponents will be Seaham Red Star.
Onto the next!
EDIT: This visit didn’t happen due to me being unwell.
Our next game turned out to be Hibernian v Aberdeen on May 12th.
