Broomfield Bulletin Returns

Issue 1 - Queen's Park @ Home

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to the first edition of the relaunched (unofficial) Broomfield Bulletin. The continued growth of other forms of media has made news and information on our football clubs available at our fingertips tips. However, we at the Broomfield Bulletin believe that there is still a need, importance and market for informed, critical and engaging written content on contemporary and historical matters. We hope that the Broomfield Bulletin will provide supporters with exactly that. Please bear with us while we master the form and content of what the programme will ultimately become. Enjoy issue 1 and any feedback or suggestions are welcome. Enjoy the game and ‘mon the diamonds!

Championship Round-Up

Airdrie began their Scottish Championship campaign with a 1-0 victory over last season’s runners-up Raith Rovers. A Dylan MacDonald header continued the diamonds’ hoodoo over Raith and was enough to cost former Airdrie manager Ian Murray his position in the Rovers’ hotseat. Managerless Raith followed up their opening day defeat with a 1-0 victory over Partick Thistle, courtesy of a Dylan Easton penalty. Thistle are yet to score a goal in this season’s Championship, beginning their year with a 0-0 draw at home to Greenock Morton. The Greenock side have also fired only blanks so far, drawing their second game 0-0 at home to new boys Hamilton Academical. The Accies have found the net twice, courtesy of Oli Shaw and Jamie Barjonas, but both goals were not enough to earn Hamilton their first win as they fell to a 3-2 defeat to current league leaders Ayr United and goals from Jamie Murphy, Marco Rus and George Oakley’s second of the season. Ayr are the current pacesetters, with 9/9 points following two wins over Hamilton, and a 5-0 thumping of Airdrie sandwiched in between.

The 23/24 League 1 winners Falkirk kicked-off the 24/25 Scottish Championship with a 2-1 win over today’s visitors Queen’s Park. A Dom Thomas pearler not enough to overcome strikes from Calvin Miller and Sean Mackie. Falkirk retained their ‘invincibles’ tag and regained derby bragging rights with their 2-0 win over Dunfermline Athletic thanks to a Ross MacIver finish and a Calumn Morrison penalty. Dunfermline and Queen’s Park are also both yet to taste victory in the Championship so far. The Pars preceded their defeat to Falkirk with another 2-0 loss, this time to recently relegated Livingston, who won with goals from Scott Pittman and Stephen Kelly. Livingston were the opposition in Queen’s Park’s second game where both sides played out a 1-1 draw at Lesser Hampden, Zak Rudden opening the scoring for the home side and Matthew Clarke replying for the visitors.

Transfer Round-Up

Airdrie were left to do something of a rebuild this summer following the departure of 16 players from the club. Chief among them were several of the play-off heroes of 2022/23 including former captain and assistant manager Callum Fordyce and 2002-onwards top goalscorer (71) Calum Gallagher to Raith Rovers and Arbroath respectively. Both players were fittingly inducted into the Club’s Hall of Fame during the 1924 centenary dinner in recognition of their contributions in a diamond.  

The fans’ Player of the Year for 2023/24 Charlie Telfer left the club following two successful seasons in which we gained promotion to the Championship, won the Challenge Cup for a fifth time and reached the Premiership play-off quarter-finals with Telfer playing a key role in each campaign. Telfer’s displays earned him a move back to the Scottish Premiership with Ross County.  

Telfer will be joined in the Premiership by Josh Rae, who signed for St Johnstone. Rae’s penalty save and subsequent emotional celebrations following the shoot-out victory will be one of the indelible images of our play-off win at New Douglas Park.  

The other hero of the play-offs and indelible image maker, Gabby McGill has yet to find a club as of time of writing. However, he has been spotted on trial at such English luminaries as Grimsby Town and Darlington.  Cammy Ballantyne, and loanee Arron Lyall following his release from Rangers, swapped New Broomfield for Cappielow, and will return to Airdrie in the blue and white of Greenock Morton.  

Cup winning striker Nikolay Todorov will also return to ML6 with new charges, this time in the form of Lanarkshire rivals Hamilton Academical, who signed the big striker after the start of the League Cup.  

Robbie Hemfrey will join Gallagher at Gayfield, quickly signing for Arbroath following his release. While his time at Airdrie was comparatively short, his penalty save in his first Gayfield appearance will be fondly remembered.  

As will the star-making performances of young Kenayo Megwa who returned to his parent club Hibernian at the end of the season after an oustanding turn on the right-hand side of Airdrie’s defence. Fellow loanee Josh O’Connor also returned to Hibernian, after scoring 5 goals in a diamond, the highlight being the decisive second to record Airdrie’s first win at Tannadice since 1995.  

Other departures included Chris Donnell who returned to parent club Fulham, and reserve and academy players Corrie Fellows, Joe Cassidy and Ally Spalding.  Airdrie have also been busy on the recruitment side, signing 14 players at time of writing. The diamonds will attempt to replace the defensive reliability of Callum Fordyce with the signing of Scottish centre-half Aidan Wilson from Glentoran. Wilson has already put in a number of assured performances, including a lauded display at Pittodrie, and helped keep 3 clean-sheets in our first 5 games.  

Airdrie have turned to Wilson’s near namesake Ben Wilson to replace the goals of the aforementioned departed frontmen. The Northern Irishman has started as he means to go on in that respect with 6 goals in our 7 matches so far, including a debut hat-trick in the 8-0 slaughtering of East Kilbride.  

Rhys Armstrong has looked a clever pick-up. Signed from Spartans, Armstrong has had several composed displays in the middle of the park and was instrumental in our 4-3 comeback win v Dumbarton in the League Cup group stages.  

Manager Rhys McCabe has went for a familiar face to replace Josh Rae in goal, opting to sign popular goalie Murray Johnson on a season-long loan from Hibernian. Johnson will face competition for the gloves from Rangers loanee Kieran Wright.  

Another returning face from Hibernian is Murray Aiken, signed on loan until January and he will be joined in midfield by fellow loanee Terrell Agyemang, on a season-long loan from Middlesbrough. 

6”4 striker Aaron Reid has been handed the #9 jersey after signing from Aberdeen, and the Airdrie faithful will hope he can replicate diamond #9s of the past.  

Young forward Cammy Cooper (Oxford United), attacking midfielders Chris Mochrie (Dundee United) and Lewis McGrattan (Greenock Morton) will also be hoped to be among the goals.  

Ex ‘Lowland League player’ Dylan MacDonald has inherited the right-back position and has already put in a Man of the Match performance in the home win v Raith Rovers.  

Signed from today’s visitors Queen’s Park, Cammy Bruce will provide competition at left-back for last season’s Young Player of the Year Mason Hancock.  

Centre-half Sam Graham is Airdrie’s most recent signing. Spending last season at AFC Fyldeand having previously been on the books at Sheffield United, it is hoped Graham will add a steeliness to the diamonds’ rearguard.

Queen’s Park themselves have been busy in the transfer window, signing 10 players and losing 14. Queen’s were dealt a blow when they lost talisman striker Ruari Paton to Port Vale on the eve of the season. Spiders’ fans will hope the addition of Zak Rudden from Dundee and the reported £150k fee received for Paton will somewhat soften the blow. The southsiders also managed to net a £100k fee from Burton Albion for defender Alex Bannon. The loss of Bannon, injury to Charlie Fox and retirement of Danny Wilson left some fans concerned about a lack of depth at the back. Since these incidents, Callum Davidson has moved to sign Nikola Ujdur from Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dane Murray on loan from Celtic. Cammy Kerr will provide defensive reliability at right-back following his signing from Dundee. Kerr replaces Tommy Robson who was previously a stalwart of the professional era at Queen’s. Tommy Robson has signed for Clyde in League 2 and goalkeeper Jacques Heraghty will join him in the fourth tier after signing for The Spartans. Queen’s have swapped Heraghty for Jack Wills, making his loan signing from St Johnstone permanent. While, the rest of last season’s loanees - Mackenzie Carse, Ben McPherson (both Celtic) and James Crole (Cardiff City) have returned to their parent clubs. Ryan Duncan is another new loanee signed for this season, from Aberdeen and Roddy MacGregor and Josh Hinds round-out the signings for the first team, signing from opposite ends of the country in Inverness and Truro City respectively. Aaron Healy has returned to Arthurlie from his spell at Queen’s and other departees Callum Haspell, Patrick Jarrett, Stuart McKinstry and Cillian Sheridan are yet to find a club at the time of writing.  

Look Back At History

Today we’re going back 132 years to the 13th of August 1892. On this day, Airdrieonians would open their brand new stadium “Broomfield Park” to an already established Queen’s Park side. This match was part of Airdrieonians early efforts to establish themselves in Scottish football.

We believe the teams would have lined up something like this below. Both teams in a very attacking 2-3-5. Airdrie in their usual red and white stripes at the time as this was roughly 20 years before the now famous diamond was donned.

Airdrie started the better and on the 8th minute, Walkinshaw opened the scoring making him the first player to score at Broomfield. Minutes later Russell beat the keeper to make it 2-0 and become the second player to score at the new stadium, Queen’s Park didn’t wait long before firing back however and within 15 minutes the game was back tied at 2-2 with J.Berry and Jackson scoring past Brannan. After withstanding much pressure from Queen’s, Airdrie managed to hit back on the counter and not long before the HT whistle, Scott was able to strike and give Airdrie the lead back. In the second half Queen’s shown their class and went on to win the match 5-3 with the second half goals coming from D.Berryx2 and Robertson. Airdrie didn’t get the result they wished for on their grand opening but the 2000 odd fans there would have been very pleased with how their team fared against such a tough opponent.

Airdrieonians 3-5 Queen’s Park - 13th August 1892

Played for Both

Jimmy Boyle -

Jimmy began his career with Queen’s Park, signing for them from Celtic Boys Club upon leaving school as a 16 year old in 1985. He started life at Queen’s in the U18s side, as a full-back after playing as a striker in secondary school. Jimmy made his first team debut at Stirling Albion’s Annfield, in a 0-0 draw on 12th October 1985 and he remained a regular at Queen’s Park for the next 3 and a half seasons. Overall, Jimmy made 147 appearances for Queen’s Park, scoring 16 times. Most noteworthy, a trademark Jimmy Boyle penalty gave Queen’s the lead at Parkhead in a Scottish Cup round 4 tie on 15th February 1986, before they narrowly lost 2-1.

Following his spell at Queen’s Park, Jimmy signed in 1989/90 for Airdrieonians where he enjoyed the most successful and notable tenure of his career. Across his 8 years at Airdrie, Jimmy played a key role in the club’s promotion to the Premier League in 90/91, reaching 2 Scottish Cup finals and 2 League Cup semi-finals, playing in the 92/93 European Cup Winners Cup and winning the Challenge Cup in 94/95. As at Queen’s Park, Jimmy found the net against Celtic in season 92/93, as he did against Rangers, earning the diamonds a 1-1 draw on both occasions. On their way to the League Cup semi-finals in 1994, a Jimmy Boyle double earned Airdrie a 2-1 Lanarkshire derby victory v Motherwell at Fir Park.

In 1998, Jimmy left the club after making 242 appearances and scoring 15 goals.

Jimmy returned to ML6 in 2002 for another brief spell as a player, before going on to manage and run the club’s U19s teams. Jimmy succeeded fellow Airdrie great Kenny Black as Airdrie manager, taking over the job in July 2010. During what was a difficult time for the club on and off the park, Jimmy still managed a limited team to the First Division play-off final. Airdrie lost the final 2-6 on aggregate to Dumbarton, but nevertheless achieved promotion to the first division as a consequence of Rangers Football Club’s liquidation. Jimmy was ultimately relieved of his managerial duties in October 2013. However, Jimmy’s success in a diamond has been recognised and celebrated with a Hall of Fame induction and a 2016 shortlist nomination at right-back for Airdrieonians’ greatest XI.

Credit - Queen’s Park FC Memories

Billy Neil -

Billy Neil, began his career with his local side Airdrieonians as an amateur - opting for a career in banking alongside playing football. Described as a ‘stylish centre-half’ and ‘renowned for fairness’ Billy made more than 50 appearances for Airdrie between 1956-1961. Having already achieved international success as a schoolboy with a Scotland Schoolboys cap against England whilst at Airdrie Academy, In the Rome Olympic Games of 1960, Billy was picked at right-back in Great Britain’s 2-2 draw with hosts Italy. The other full-back position was taken up by then Queen’s Park player Davie Holt, while lining up for the Italians were such names as Giovanni Trappattoni and Gianni Rivera. Billy however, missed the other two games which saw Great Britain exit the Olympics after defeat to Brazil and a victory over China. Billy continued to enjoy club and international success after signing for Queen’s Park in 1961. He played 400 times for the Spiders, including in a 5-3 Scottish Cup quarter-final defeat to a Celtic side two months shy of being christened the ‘Lisbon Lions’. Internationally, Billy was capped 14 times for the Scotland amateur national team, and was part of the national team who won the European amateur championship in 1963, coming from 2-0 down to beat West Germany 5-2 in the final. Scotland’s success saw Willie and his team mates invited to the Kenya Indepdence Celebration tournament where they competed against Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. He again featured for Great Britain, in their unsuccessful attempts to qualify for the 1964 and 1968 Olympics and played for the Middlesex Wanderers amaetuer touring side, ‘an amateur select side which prided itself on exceptional levels of fair play’. After retiring in 1970, Billy remained on the Queen’s Park committee and was integral in the training of future Scotland goalkeeper Bobby Clark.

Billy Neil (second from left) Photo credit The Independent and Rex Features.

With thanks to the SPFL, The Herald and The Independent.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13182572.william-neil/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/billy-neil-footballer-part-of-the-last-great-britain-football-team-to-play-in-an-olympic-games-on-merit-9783183.html https://spfl.co.uk/news/gardner-speirs-and-jimmy-boyle-on-unfamiliar-familiar-groun

Recent Head-to-Head

Recent Head-to-Head

July 17th 2021

League Cup Group F

Queen’s Park 0-0 Airdrieonians

September 3rd 2021

Challenge Cup Round 2

Airdrieonians 1-1 Queen’s Park

Smith ‘49 Gillespie ‘86 (pen)

September 11th 2021

Scottish League 1

Queen’s Park 0-0 Airdrieonians

December 29th 2021

Scottish League 1

Airdrieonians 1-0 Queen’s Park

McInroy ‘71

January 29th 2022

Scottish League 1

Queen’s Park 1-1 Airdrieonians

Fox ‘27 S McGill ‘28

March 19th 2022

Scottish League 1

Airdrieonians 2-0 Queen’s Park

Smith ‘38

Easton ‘45+1

May 12th 2022

Scottish Championship play-off final first leg

Queen’s Park 1-1 Airdrieonians

Murray ‘64 McCabe ‘87 (pen)

May 15th 2022

Scottish Championship play-off final second leg

Airdrieonians 1-2 Queen’s Park (AET)

McCabe ‘13 Smith ‘17

Murray ‘112 (pen)

October 20th 2023

Scottish Championship

Airdrieonians 1-1 Queen’s Park

C Gallagher ‘39 Turner ‘46

December 30th 2023

Scottish Championship

Queen’s Park 1-2 Airdrieonians

Thomas ‘34 Hancock ‘66

Todorov ‘90+3

March 2nd 2024

Scottish Championship

Airdrieonians 1-1 Queen’s Park

Hancock ‘63 Thomas ‘13

May 3rd 2024

Scottish Championship

Queen’s Park 2-0 Airdrieonians

Paton ‘26

McLeish ‘82

Of the last 12 games between the sides, 5 have ended in a 1-1 draw at full-time and 6, 50%, have finished 1-1 after 90 minutes. What odds on today’s match ending 1-1?

Match Info

Date: Saturday August 24, 2024

Kick Off: 3:00pm

The Albert Bartlett Stadium, Airdrie

Referee: Craig Napier

Assistants: Dougie Potter, Kevin Buchanan

Trivia

Who started their playing career at Queen’s Park and finished it at Airdrie, and then started their coaching career at Airdrie before going on to manage Queen’s?

Find out next week.