One of Scotland's oldest football grounds has been given the same playing surface as one of the most iconic football teams in the world.
Teams from across all age groups and leagues are queuing up to play on the new surface at Armadale’s Volunteer Park, after work was completed on laying a new 3G synthetic sports pitch in October last year with funding from West Lothian Council.
The pitch upgrade has given the park the same playing surface the stars of Spain’s Barcelona FC play on.
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Bill Baird, Club president of Armadale Thistle described the success of the first part of the work at one of the country’s most historic football grounds.
Volunteer Park, known locally as The Volley was founded in 1881. It has been home to Armadale Thistle since 1935.
Mr Baird told a meeting of Armadale and Blackridge Local Area Committee that there had been reservations about installing a synthetic pitch at the historic park but a total refurbishment of the existing pitch was badly needed.
The new Fifa-approved pitch was installed last summer by a firm called All Sports. The park was handed back to Armadale Thistle in October last year and the ground came into use seven days a week as a football centre, as opposed to just getting used two or three times a month to host Armadale Thistle home matches and the occasional charity marches.
Mr Baird told the meeting: “History was made on the 5 October when Armadale Thistle defeated Edinburgh College 6-3 in an East of Scotland football league match in front of 355 spectators.”
On average 300 plus participants train and coach each week at The Volley and six competitive matches are now played each weekend from under 10s right up to the semi-professional Armadale Thistle senior team.
The new Fifa approved pitch has received “extremely favourable” reviews from numerous players, clubs and associations. As a result the Scottish Cup Under 17 semi final between Blackburn United and Airdie took place there and attracted 550 spectators.
“It is the same pitch as Barcelona has on its ground so we think if it's good enough for Barcelona it's good enough for Armadale Thistle,” said Mr Baird.
Answering a question from committee chair Andrew McGuire he said the changeover to the new surface had brought a bit of a kickback, but added “we did actually get one of the best playing surfaces we could. The old grass pitch did not meet the rules of the modern game. We had a problem with the water table with a natural spring feeding onto the corner of the pitch.”
The ground has since also hosted two Scottish Amateur cups this year as well as the Scottish Junior Cup semi final.
Local businesses say footfall is significantly up since the investment in the ground particularly on big match days.
“Two of the local pubs said they were busier on the Scottish Junior Cup semi final than what would normally been their busiest day of the year, on Armadale Gala Day,” said Mr Baird.
Council funding of £1m had originally been scheduled for Watson Park in the town in 2014 however serious water logging problems stalled the improvement work. In October 2020 the council voted to transfer the funds from Watson Park to Volunteer Park and work jointly on a project with Armadale Thistle and Armadale Football club to upgrade the Volley with a new pitch, floodlighting and changing facilities.
Volunteer Park holds the West Lothian record for the highest attendance at a senior match which was Armadale Football Club against Albion Rovers Scottish Cup in February, 1921. 12.600 attended that game, and the record for the highest attendance in a junior match was Armadale Thistle against Broxburn Athletic Scottish Junior Cup quarter final in 1955 which 11,800 attended that match.
Thistle is second only to Linlithgow Rose in terms of attendances, one of the three biggest teams in the East of Scotland league.
The work has secured the future of the Volunteer Park for the next 25 years. The next phase in the upgrade will be the introduction of refurbished portable buildings as bespoke changing facilities for the youth and community teams. That work starts next month. Phase three will see the upgrade of the historic 1921 pavilion starting next year.
Councillor Stuart Borrowman said: “I'm intrigued that there is not that much drinking goes on at Armadale Gala Day.
“Bill’s right. He alluded to the fact that this started out as money allocated in 2013 for a pavilion at Watson park. Much of the meandering history of that does reflect well on the council, some of it does. but we have ended up now spending the money a decade later and it looks to be spent very well.
“It would be churlish of me not to say Scott Hughes the asset manager of the council has been the steady central figure from the council, but there are others who have done an enormous out work The committees of the two football clubs have been superb. It’s no accident that Bill is the Armadale citizen of the year for 2023 and he and his colleagues have done an enormous job and I’m thrilled that after a decade we have got to where we are.”
Councillor McGuire said: “What always astounds me about the committee is that there's always a way forward. You always find a solution to whatever barrier or problem the council has presented you with. That’s to be commended there’s not many who can do that.
“The place looks fantastic. It would be churlish too not to mention Scott’s role in all of this. Scott has been a helpful friend along the way and really understands football. It’s really fantastic to go from seeing The Volley padlocked and chained night after night to being open and full of people. Well done and thanks very much.”
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