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Mr Kipling Deep Filled Mince Pies

Price: £2.50 for a box of 6 (05/10/2024)

Mr Kipling Deep Filled Mince Pies box
Mr Kipling Deep Filled Mince Pies box

The Mr Kipling name has been synonymous with miniature, sweet, baked goods in Britain for over fifty years and their strapline “exceedingly good cakes” has become a well-known marketing slogan in the UK and beyond. The brand was born in 1967 and I was recently disappointed to learn that there was no real life Mr Kipling behind the company. The name was simply invented by the owners.

Mr Kipling Deep Filled Mince Pie
Mr Kipling Deep Filled Mince Pie

The 2024 version of the Mr Kipling Mince Pies comes with an endorsement on the box from the Good Housekeeping Institute. They declare these pies to be ‘taste approved’, which apparently means that they will have been rigorously tested by their teams of experts. The packaging text describes the pies as “deliciously rich and fruity mincemeat in a buttery pastry case”.

Cold Taste Test

My first impression was that this is a very nice mincemeat recipe. Very traditional, and nicely balanced. Sweet, but not overwhelmingly so, and with no single ingredient dominating the mix of flavours. The pastry is pretty decent too for a cold, pre-baked item. Nice and firm and crumbly. As far as the mass-produced, mid-market pies go, it’s one of the better ones.

Hot Taste Test

As with all the other mince pies that I have reviewed in this series, I gave a Mr Kipling mince pie a 13 second blast in the microwave. It’s not as good as heating them up in the oven, but it’s much quicker and uses less energy. I can report that the pie was just as tasty when warm as it is cold, if not more so. If heating a batch up in bulk for guests then I’d definitely use the oven to get the pasty extra crispy, but the microwave does a decent job and these pies responded well.

Mr Kipling Deep Filled Mince Pie
Mr Kipling Deep Filled Mince Pie

Verdict

These are very satisfactory pies. They’re not show-stoppers, but they are a good, dependable choice for any festive spread. All those years of pie-making experience in the kitchens of Mr Kipling towers have been put to good use and these pies are worthy of their distinguished heritage. My only minor quibble is that, despite the claim on the box, they are not particularly deep filled compared to some of their competitors. There’s a noticeable and significant gap between the top of the mincemeat and the lid of the pie. Come on Mr Kipling – don’t skimp on the filling!

Nutrition

Typical values (per 100g):

  • Energy: 387 kcal
  • Fat: 13.6 g
  • Saturates: 5.4 g
  • Carbohydrate: 61.6 g
  • Of which sugars: 30.9 g
  • Fibre : 2.1 g
  • Protein: 3.5 g
  • Salt: 0.3 g

Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Mince Pies

Price: £3.00 for a box of 6 (25/09/2024)

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Mince Pies box
Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Mince Pies box

This is Sainsbury’s top of the range mince pie offering for the 2024 festive season and the blurb on the box says “Our melt in the mouth all butter pastry mince pies are packed with a festive blend of luscious fruit, aromatic peel and warming spices, infused with a generous nip of brandy. Bakde to perfection at a family owned bakery with four generations of baking expertise”, which as apparently why you can ‘taste the difference’. Visually they look very almost identical to the Tesco Finest mince pies with an eerily similar snowflake pattern on top. They have also hit the shelves at the same price point as their competitors from Tesco, but how do they match up in the taste test?

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Mince Pie
Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Mince Pie

I’m happy to report that the Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference mince pies are suitable for vegetarians. They are a decent size and are packed almost to the brim with filling, so there are no issues on the quantity front. Now, what about the quality?

Cold Taste Test

The first thing you notice when biting into them is the quality of the pastry, It’s one of the things that most commonly differentiates premium pies from the mid-range varieties. These pies have a nice thick and crumbly all butter pastry case that oozes class even without oven heating. The mincemeat is decent, although it’s not one of my favourites. I think it has diverged slightly too far from a traditional mincemeat taste, which after all, is what makes a mince pie a mince pie.

Hot Taste Test

A quick burst in the microwave does improve the mincemeat somewhat. It’s a very sweet blend of fruits – some would say too sweet – and the brandy is barely noticeable. I think they are too sweet to contemplate eating very many in one session, but one would make a nice dessert alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Mince Pie
Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Mince Pie

Verdict

There’s no doubt that they are decent mince pies but I don’t think they merit their elevated price tag. If you can pick them up when they’re on special offer then by all means go for it, but I won’t be coming back for any more if they remain at £3 a pop. Either way, I think I prefer the Tesco Finest equivalent this year, so I’ll probably be seeking them out if I’m in the market for more premium mince pies.

Nutrition

Typical values (per 100g):

  • Energy: 397 kcal
  • Fat: 13.8 g
  • Saturates: 7.2 g
  • Carbohydrate: 64.2 g
  • Of which sugars: 34.4 g
  • Fibre : 2.1 g
  • Protein: 3.0 g
  • Salt: 0.28 g

Georges Mikautadze – Player Profile

When Georges Mikautadze signed for Olympique Lyonnais in the summer of 2024, the move represented an emotional homecoming for the twenty-three year old. It’s a little known fact that the Georgia international striker was actually born and raised in Lyon and had spent several years at the club’s academy before moving away to pursue his professional career elsewhere.

Mikautadze’s parents had moved from Tbilisi to Lyon in the late 1990’s and Georges was born soon after. He took to football from a young age, initially playing at a club named FC Gerland in the shadow of Lyon’s famous old stadium, before his invitation to join the OL academy. After seven years on the books at Lyon, he didn’t quite make the grade and moved on to another local club, Saint-Priest.

In 2016 he decided to leave his hometown and move northwards, to Lorraine, where he joined the academy of FC Metz. A couple of years later, Mikautadze began to feature regularly in the club’s reserve team playing at the Championnat National 3 level. The teenager bagged eight goals for them in the 2019-20 season and also made his top flight debut with a fleeting substitute appearance for the first team in a defeat away to Nice during an injury crisis in December 2019.

Breakthrough in Belgium

Mikautadze was farmed out to FC Metz’ partner club RFC Seraing for the 2020-21 season. Competing in the 1B Pro League (the second tier of the Belgian football pyramid), Mikautadze was an instant success, scoring nineteen times in his twenty-one league matches to finish as joint top scorer. His goals propelled Seraing to second place in the table, securing a play-off for promotion to the top flight. He found the net a further three times in the two-legged play-off against Waasland-Beveren, setting his team on the way to a 6-3 aggregate victory.

He returned to Seraing on loan again the following season to lead the line in their Jupiler Pro League campaign. Mikautadze found the going a lot harder in the top division, but nevertheless he managed nine goals in twenty-eight appearances as his struggling side battled against relegation. Once more they ended up in the playoffs, this time fighting for survival, and once more Mikautadze was decisive, scoring the only goal in the two legs versus RWD Molenbeek to preserve Seraing’s top-flight status.

Having scored an impressive 36 goals in 57 appearances across all competitions during his two seasons with Seraing, the twenty-one year old Mikautadze was finally deemed ready for the Metz first team. Languishing in Ligue 2, Les Grenats looked to the young centre-forward to spearhead their promotion push during the 2022-23 season.

Promotion and a big money move

Mikautadze hit the ground running with a goal on matchday one and never looked back, finishing as divisional top scorer on twenty-three goals with another seven assists to boot. He was elected as Ligue 2 player of the season by the UNFP (the French players union) and his performances were the driving force behind Metz’ promotion to Ligue 1, finishing in second place just three points behind champions Le Havre.

After a flying start to his Ligue 1 career in August 2023, with two goals and an assist in his first three games, Metz decided to cash in on their rapidly emerging superstar. Dutch giants Ajax paid €16 million to secure his services on a five-year contract and so Mikautadze decamped to Amsterdam.

However, Ajax were enduring a nightmare start to their Eredivisie campaign and their latest recruit found it difficult to settle into his new environment. He was drafted straight into the team for the first game following his arrival, a goalless draw away at Fortuna Sittard, but then only featured twice more in the starting eleven before the end of the year.

In total, Georges Mikautadze was only granted 340 minutes of playing time spread across nine appearances during those frustrating four months at Ajax and he failed to register either a goal or an assist. Therefore, the Dutch club decided to loan him back to Metz when the transfer window reopened in January 2024, with a view to building up his top-flight experience.

Metz were involved in a desperate struggle against relegation by the time Mikautadze returned, but his goals gave them a lifeline. He embarked on a run of ten goals in as many matches from late February, which helped keep the out of the automatic drop zone. However, they couldn’t pull clear of the relegation play-off spot and unfortunately succumbed over two legs against Saint-Étienne.

A coming of age in Germany

The summer of 2024 was when Georges Mikautadze’s undoubted talent finally began to capture the attention of a wider audience thanks to his swashbuckling displays in a Georgia shirt at Euro 2024 in Germany. He had first been called into Willy Sagnol’s Georgia squad back in March 2021 when he was tearing it up in the Belgian second division with Seraing and he scored his first international goal in a friendly win against Romania a couple of months later.

Mikautadze has been a regular in the Georgia squad ever since, and he played an important role in helping them qualify for their first ever major tournament, sneaking past Greece on penalties in the play-offs last March. At the finals themselves, Georgia were the surprise package, playing an entertaining brand of counter-attacking football.

Mikautadze found the net in each of their three group games. Firstly he got the equaliser in a 3-1 defeat to Turkey and then he scored from the spot in a 1-1 draw with Czechia that saw the Georgians pick up their first point. They sensationally beat Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal 2-0 in their final group game, with Mikautadze again tucking home a penalty. That set up a last sixteen tie with Spain and, although Georgia lost 4-1, Mikautadze had done enough to finish as joint top scorer in Euro 2024 on three goals alongside such luminaries as Harry Kane, Danny Olmo, Cody Gakpo, Jamal Musiala and Ivan Schranz.

Back to his roots

Post tournament, Georges Mikautadze’s much burnished reputation meant that he was suddenly hot property on the transfer market so Metz exercised their option to make his loan move from Ajax permanent. They sensed the opportunity to make quick buck while his stock was high and immediately started to listen to offers for his services.

A deal was initially agreed with AS Monaco but Mikautadze jilted them when Olympique Lyonnais came calling and the chance arose to return to his hometown and boyhood club. He signed a four year contract with Lyon with a transfer fee of around €18.5 million paid to Metz. He became the first Georgian to play for Lyon and he chose 69 as his shirt number in homage to his home département, the Rhône, of which Lyon is the capital.

Unfortunately Mikautadze didn’t get off to the best of starts alongside his fellow Gones as he missed a penalty on his debut at Rennes and failed to find the net in his first five appearances. He has appeared somewhat too eager to get off the mark in his new colours, snatching at chances and shooting when a pass might have been the better option, but no one can doubt his enthusiasm and he has the potential to become a firm fan favourite at the Groupama Stadium.

TESCO Mince Pies

Price: £1.50 for a box of 6 (23/09/2024)

TESCO Mince Pies box
TESCO Mince Pies box

These Tesco mince pies are the standard ‘common or garden’ mince pie offering from Britain’s largest supermarket chain. They are generally the cheapest mince pie variety regularly on sale in Tesco stores. In previous years, they have often been found on special offer at a reduced price of around £1.00 in the run-up to Christmas and hopefully that will be repeated in 2024. Their attractive price point has made them my go-to mince pie for economic, day-to-day, large volume consumption over the years.

TESCO Mince Pie
TESCO Mince Pie

These Tesco mince pies have been given the epithet ‘merry’ by the packaging design department and the strapline describes them as ‘joyous buttery pastry and rich fruity mincemeat’. Visually the pies are almost identical to their Tesco Plant Chef brethren with the same little and large five-pointed star design on top. The nutritional numbers are pretty similar too – these ones come in at just 1 kcal less (per 100g), and have less fat (but more saturates), less sugars, but more salt.

Cold Taste Test

There’s a sprinkling of white sugar granules on the top that provides a tiny bit of crunch to each bite. The pastry is reasonably crumbly and they haven’t skimped on the filling. The mincemeat tastes more or less like I expect traditional mincemeat to taste, which in my view is a strong point in their favour. There’s nothing pretentious about them. None of the experimenting with unusual flavours that can detract from some of the premium mince pies on the market. They fulfill all the criteria that one would expect from a basic, plain and simple mince pie and therein lies their beauty.

Hot Taste Test

Heating them up really brings out the rich flavours of the filling and the pastry certainly responds better to microwaving than the Plant Chef ones did. The filling is justifiably described as rich and fruity, with apple puree, apricot puree, sultanas, currants, raisins, orange and lemon peel all combining with the mixed spices to create a mouth-watering blend of flavours. Their taste is, in my view, far superior to that of the Plant Chef pies and almost on a par with the far pricier Tesco Finest Mince Pies.

TESCO Mince Pie
TESCO Mince Pie

Verdict

They say that good things come in small packages and that’s certainly true for these pies. Sure, they’re smaller than the premium pies and one might not be quite enough to sate your appetite, but I overcome that by eating two at a time! They are simply a good quality, good value, traditional mince pie and I’ll keep on coming back for more until the sad day in January when they disappear from the shop shelves for eight long months.

The price tag is, of course, one of their major plus points. On the downside, they do contain palm oil.

Nutrition

Typical values (per 100g):

  • Energy: 385 kcal
  • Fat: 13.5 g
  • Saturates: 5.8 g
  • Carbohydrate: 60.8 g
  • Of which sugars: 25.2 g
  • Fibre : 2.3 g
  • Protein: 3.8 g
  • Salt: 0.25 g

TESCO Plant Chef Mince Pies

Price: £2.15 for a box of 6 (06/09/2024)

TESCO Plant Chef Mince Pies box
TESCO Plant Chef Mince Pies box

Plant Chef is Tesco’s own brand of 100% plant-based meals and foods. I’m not sure why they felt the need to include mince pies in the Plant Chef range seeing as the other varieties of Tesco mince pies are also suitable for vegetarians. These ones do, nevertheless, go a little bit further by declaring themselves as vegan. There is, however, a caveat to that on the rear of the packaging where it says ‘not suitable for milk and egg allergy sufferers because these allergens are present in the environment‘. Make of that what you will. Presumably they are not present in sufficient amounts to compromise a vegan regime.

TESCO Plant Chef Mince Pie
TESCO Plant Chef Mince Pie

These mince pies are described as ‘fruity and crumbly’ on the box and the Plant Chef range claims to offer ‘crowd pleasing classics … with big, bold flavours that pack a tasty punch’. They are much lower in saturated fat and sugar than the Tesco Finest mince pies that I previously reviewed, so they aren’t quite as bad for you, but does that come at the expense of the taste?

Cold Taste Test

The pastry is simply not as good as most other mince pies on the market. It’s soft and somewhat stodgy and is probably the main deficiency of the product. The filling is more passable, although definitely not as flavoursome as some of the competition. The consistency is a bit too smooth for my liking, without enough small chunks in the mincemeat, but at least there’s a reasonable quantity of it.

Hot Taste Test

Given the texture of the pastry, these are mince pies that would really benefit from a stint in the oven to crisp them up. Microwave heating didn’t help on that front, but it did help to bring out the flavour of the mincemeat filling somewhat, making the pies much more palatable.

TESCO Plant Chef Mince Pie
TESCO Plant Chef Mince Pie

Verdict

Overall I was a bit disappointed by these Plant Chef mince pies. They are bland and underwhelming in comparison to other similarly priced pies and I doubt I’ll be buying them again, especially as they are considerably more expensive that Tesco’s standard mince pie offering. Maybe they have their niche in the vegan market, but vegetarians will find plenty of superior alternatives amongst the regular supermarket brands.

Nutrition

Typical values (per 100g):

  • Energy: 386 kcal
  • Fat: 14.7 g
  • Saturates: 4.8 g
  • Carbohydrate: 58.3 g
  • Of which sugars: 27.3 g
  • Fibre : 2.1 g
  • Protein: 4.1 g
  • Salt: 0.13 g

TESCO Finest All Butter Pastry Mince Pies

Price: £3.00 for a box of 6 (06/09/2024)

TESCO Finest All Butter Pastry Mince Pies box
TESCO Finest All Butter Pastry Mince Pies box

These TESCO Finest mince pies are described on the box as “rich, crumbly, all butter pastry packed with a delicious mix of plump vine fruits and glacé cherries. Infused with French brandy and ruby port, with a refreshing twist of lemon zest, tangerine oil and festive spices. Finished with a gentle dusting of sugar.”

TESCO Finest All Butter Pastry Mince Pie
TESCO Finest All Butter Pastry Mince Pie

This was my first mince pie of the 2024 festive season. As is customary, they began appearing on shop shelves in early September, bringing to an end a desolate seven months of mince pie deprivation. It was with great relief that I snapped some up at the earliest opportunity.

Vaunted as ‘rich and decadent‘, these pies sit at the very top of Tesco’s own brand mince pie range. Care is taken over the presentation, with an attractive snowflake pattern on the pastry lid, and the deep filling can be seen reaching right up to the lip of the case. There’s a generous sprinkling of sugar to top them off.

Cold Taste Test

I tried my first one cold, straight out of the box, which, for convenience, is how I eat most of my mince pies. The texture and consistency of the pastry is what can let a lot of mince pies down if you don’t oven heat them, but these were about as good as pie pastry can be in a straight-outta-the-box scenario.

As you would expect from a premium product, the filling was noticeably deeper than a typical mid-range mince pie, and it was satisfying moist and fruity. Some premium pies can tend to be overly pretentious with their ingredients, moving too far away from a traditional mincemeat taste, but there are no concerns on that front here.

Hot Taste Test

I’m the only regular mince pie eater in my household, so it’s rarely worth putting the oven on for them if I’m just having the one. However, I do find that they heat up fairly well in the Microwave. I usually give them 15 seconds at 750 W. The downside is that the pastry won’t crisp up nicely like it does in a conventional oven or air fryer, but the heat can intensify the flavours in the filling.

After letting it cool for a minute, because hot mincemeat can really burn your mouth, I dug in. The warm, sweet mincemeat was instantly pleasing to my palate as the luscious melange of raisin and citrus flavours filled my mouth. There was only the slightest hint of the aforementioned brandy and port, but overall the combination of ingredients was well balanced and gratifying.

TESCO Finest All Butter Pastry Mince Pie
TESCO Finest All Butter Pastry Mince Pie

Verdict

These are good mince pies and are worthy of their ‘finest’ status in the Tesco range. I’ll definitely be buying them again from time to time when I fancy something a little more sophisticated than a bog-standard mince pie.

At £3 a packet, they are a bit on the pricey side, which is why they will never replace the mid-range pies as my regular, day-to-day, go-to pies. However, they do have their place as an occasional treat.

Nutrition

Typical values (per 100g):

  • Energy: 380 kcal
  • Fat: 13.6 g
  • Saturates: 9.1 g
  • Carbohydrate: 59.9 g
  • Of which sugars: 36.3 g
  • Fibre : 1.4 g
  • Protein: 4.0 g
  • Salt: 0.27 g

Moussa Niakhaté – Player Profile

Moussa Niakhaté is a tall and imposing left-footed centre-back who signed for Lyon from Nottingham Forest for €31.9 million in July 2024. He was ostensibly brough in to replace Jake O’Brien, who was sold to Everton at around the same time.

Niakhaté was born into a family of Senegalese origin living near Lille in the north of France and he soon found his way onto the books of local giants LOSC as a member of their youth academy. However, after seven years at the club, he was released aged fifteen and spent the following two seasons trying his luck at nearby Wasquehal and Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Breakthrough at Valenciennes

Eventually he settled at Valenciennes in 2013 and earned his chance in the first team a year later, making his debut as an eighteen year old in a 0-3 home defeat to Dijon in Ligue 2 in October 2014. Niakhaté went on to accrue ten appearances across all competitions in that first season with the senior team and managed to establish himself as a regular starter early in the 2015-16 campaign.

Valenciennes manager Faruk Hadžibegić used the young Niakhaté primarily as a left-back during his time at the club, and it was during this period that he also got his first call-ups to the French national setup at Under-19 and Under-20 levels. His star was on the rise and in July 2017 he made the step up to Ligue 1 with a transfer to Metz, having made seventy-eight appearances and scored one goal for Valenciennes.

Tough times at Metz

Moussa Niakhaté’s association with Metz proved to be a baptism of fire to top-flight football for the promising young defender. He went straight into the first team as a left-sided centre-back alongside fellow Franco-Senegalese defender Fallou Diagne at the heart of the Metz defence. However, they struggled badly and were glued to the bottom of the table from week four of the season onwards, eventually finishing seven points adrift of anyone else and conceding the most goals in the division.

Despite the abysmal results and relegation, Niakhaté must have been doing some things right as he was saved from a return to Ligue 2 by German Bundesliga club FSV Mainz, who came in with a €6 million offer for him in summer 2018 and the promise of a five year contract. He jumped at the chance to try his luck across the border in Germany.

Maturing in Mainz

Now aged twenty-two, Niakhaté was drafted straight into the first team at Mainz and made his debut in the first game of the season, a 1-0 win at home to Stuttgart, during which he partnered club captain Stefan Bell at centre-back. Niakhaté barely missed a game over the next four seasons and went on to become the club vice-captain as Mainz finished consistently in mid-table in the Bundesliga.

During his time at Mainz, Moussa Niakhaté made his debut for the France Espoirs (U-21) team and picked up a total of eleven caps for them. Whilst in Germany, he also developed the knack of scoring the occasional goal, finding the net nine times in his 135 appearances for ‘Die Nullfünfer‘.

In the summer of 2022, Niakhaté moved on again to try his luck in another new country. This time the destination was England and the Premier League where he became one of twenty-seven new signings in an astonishing transfer splurge by newly promoted Nottingham Forest. The reported fee was around €10 million.

Frustrated at Forest

He enjoyed mixed fortunes at Forest in terms of playing time. His first season at the City Ground was blighted by injury. Having started the first two games of the season, he picked up a hamstring injury, which kept him out of action until March. He regained his place for the final twelve matches as Forest finished a creditable sixteenth in the table.

Niakhaté did manage more appearances in the 2023-24 season, although he was in and out of the line-up, starting only fifteen of their thirty-eight Premier League fixtures. He did, at least, score his first (and only) goal in English football in a 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa at Villa Park. Unfortunately he was dropped for the following seven matches, reappearing only for the final five games of the season, of which he started three.

Given that he wasn’t an automatic first choice at the club, it came as no surprise that Forest were willing to part with his services when Olympique Lyonnais came in with an offer at the end of the season. What was a surprise was the size of that offer. Lyon’s American owner John Textor stumped up €31.9 million for a player who was only valued at half that amount by the respected website Transfermarkt. It’ll be a tall order for Niakhaté to justify that fee, especially as Lyon were reportedly struggling to comply with financial fair play regulations at the time, but hopefully he can perform to the requisite level.

Switching to Senegal

Finally, a word on Moussa Niakhaté’s international career to date. He played his final match for the France Espoirs in June 2019 in a warm-up for the UEFA European U-21 Championships. He was included in the squad for the finals, but remained on the bench throughout the tournament as a France team including Houssem Aouar, Lucas Tousart, Jeff Reine-Adélaïde and Moussa Dembélé lost 4-1 to Spain in the semi-finals.

Three years later, with no sign of a call-up to the full French squad on the horizon, he made the decision to switch to Senegal and accept a call-up from their national team manager Aliou Cissé. His hamstring injury meant that he had to wait until March 2023 to make his debut as a late substitute in a 5-1 home win against Mozambique in Africa Cup of Nations qualifying. He made his first start in the return match a few days later, a 1-0 win for the Lions of Teranga away in Maputo.

Niakhaté was included in the Senegal squad for the Africa Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast in January 2024 and unfortunately he proved to be the fall guy in the penalty shoot-out against the hosts in the Round of 16. He was the only player to miss his spot kick following a 1-1 draw which ended Senegal’s participation in the tournament.

Montrose v Motherwell

Scottish League Cup: Group G

Tuesday 16th July 2024

Motherwell of the Scottish Premiership travelled up to Angus to take on Montrose, who play two divisions beneath them in League One. The match was part of the second round of fixtures in Group G of the Scottish League Cup, which is currently known as the Premier Sports Cup following a sponsorship deal with a pay TV company. Motherwell were the early group leaders, having beaten Edinburgh City 3-0 at home the previous weekend whilst Montrose were losing 3-2 at Partick Thistle.

Fans queuing to enter Links Park for Montrose v Motherwell.
Fans queuing to enter Links Park for Montrose v Motherwell.

Links Park, the home of Montrose Football Club since 1887, can be found just to the east of the town centre, some 600m inland from the long, sandy North Sea beaches that are so enticing on a fine summer’s day. The stadium’s capacity of 4,936 includes 1,338 covered seats in the Bryan Keith Stand, which was constructed in the mid-1990’s, shortly after the eponymous Keith gained control of the club.

This wasn’t my first visit to Links Park, but it was the first time that I successfully managed to witness a football match there. My previous attempt, some ten years earlier, was abruptly thwarted just after I’d paid on the turnstile. Within seconds of entering the ground on a late summer’s Saturday afternoon, the PA system announced that the referee had decided to postpone the match due to high winds. I did at least get a free pie by way of compensation as they sought to find a home for all the hot food that had been prepared.

Montrose prepare to kick off against Motherwell.
Montrose prepare to kick off against Motherwell.

The stadium boasts a 3G artificial pitch, which sees plenty of use as it is shared by local non-league side Montrose Roselea and can also be hired out by the local community. My £12 match ticket (purchased in advance online) allowed access to all home sections of the ground, including the seating, so I opted for a spot in the main stand close to the home dugout.

Links Park as seen from the top of the Bryan Keith stand.
Links Park as seen from the top of the Bryan Keith stand.

Motherwell started the game well and enjoyed the lion’s share of the possession without creating many clear cut opportunities. Montrose defended resolutely but found it difficult to gain a foothold in the opposition half and it seemed only a matter of time until the visitors broke the deadlock.

When the goal came, it was courtesy of a set piece straight from the training ground. Motherwell won a corner on their left side and manager Stuart Kettlewell was heard shouting ‘number 1’ several times to the taker and to some of the players waiting inside the penalty box. The pre-planned routine worked a treat, with an in-swinging corner met at the near post by Irish centre-back Shane Blaney, who headed into the net past the helpless Cammy Gill in the Montrose goal.

The players leave the field at half time with Motherwell leading 1-0.
The players leave the field at half time with Motherwell leading 1-0.

The half time interval came with Motherwell a goal to the good and looking comfortable. I took the opportunity to spend fifteen minutes wandering around the ground to check out the view from some different perspectives. Phyllis’s Pie Hut was clearly popular amongst the home fans, with a sizeable queue of people waiting to taste her wares. It was formally renamed in honour of it’s long-standing custodian, Phyllis McLean, earlier this year to mark her 25 years of service.

Phyllis's Pie Hut did brisk business at half time.
Phyllis’s Pie Hut did brisk business at half time.

I would estimate that around 450 Motherwell fans made the 116 mile journey from North Lanarkshire to Angus, and the bulk of them occupied the end third of the main stand, with the remainder gathering behind the the goal at the eastern end of the ground. It was an impressive travelling support for a Tuesday evening and they were a vocal minority in the crowd of 1,036.

The Motherwell substitutes doing their half time rondos in front of the main stand at Links Park.
The Motherwell substitutes doing their half time rondos in front of the main stand at Links Park.

The second half initially followed a similar pattern to the first, but as it wore on, the home side started to get more and more into the game. It became a more open encounter with Montrose realising that they were capable of getting something out of it whilst Motherwell strove to quell any hopes of a comeback with a killer second goal.

A view from behind the goal in the home end at Links Park.
A view from behind the goal in the home end at Links Park.

It seemed as though Motherwell had done enough to take the three points until Montrose produced a spirited late rally. They had one effort cleared off the line with eight minutes to go and then, four minutes later, they conjured up an equaliser through Ali Shrive, who turned sharply inside the box and guided the ball just inside the far post.

The players watch the penalty shoot-out from the centre circle at Links Park.
The players watch the penalty shoot-out from the centre circle at Links Park.

A quirk of the Premier Sports Cup is that drawn matches go straight into a penalty shoot-out, with the winner getting a bonus point. Therefore, with the match ending 1-1, we were treated to the spectacle of a spot-kick contest. It took place in front of the away fans, and perhaps that made the difference as Motherwell players slotted home all five of their penalties with Montrose missing one to hand the visitors a 5-4 win.

A Motherwell player scores during the shoot-out in front of the away end.
A Motherwell player scores during the shoot-out in front of the away end.

All of which meant that it was close to 10:pm by the time we began to file out of the ground, musing on the rarity of an evening match going to penalties yet still finishing in broad daylight. That’s the beauty of summertime football in Scotland.

Elgin City v Hibernian

Scottish League Cup: Group C

Saturday 13th July 2024

Scottish League Two side Elgin City welcomed Hibernian of the Scottish Premiership to their historic Borough Briggs ground for the opening round of fixtures in the 2024 edition of the League Cup. It was an unseasonably cold ‘summer’s day’ in Moray and warm coats were in order for many of the spectators. There was even a smattering of woolly hats in evidence amongst the crowd. Thankfully, despite the heavy cloud cover, it stayed dry throughout.

Fans arriving at Borough Briggs
Fans arriving at Borough Briggs for Elgin City v Hibernian

Borough Briggs is a quaint little stadium situated just to the north-west of the city centre and easily walkable from the train station. It dates back to 1921 and retains a grassy bank at each end, with a small amount of uncovered concrete terracing behind the goals. The main stand has 478 seats and a covered terrace runs the length of the opposite side of the ground, allowing for a total capacity of 4,520. The site is overlooked from the south by a monument to the 5th Duke of Gordon, which dominates the Eglin skyline atop a small hill.

Elgin City players warming up on the pitch.
Elgin City players warming up on the pitch ahead of their Scottish League Cup Group C clash with Hibs.

Arriving in plenty of time for the 3pm kick off, I found a parking spot in a sizeable public car park conveniently situated a few meters down Boroughbriggs Road from the stadium at a very reasonable rate of £2 for the remainder of the afternoon. Having purchased my £16 ticket online a couple of days previously, I was able to bypass the queue of people paying on the gate and present my QR code for scanning at a turnstile dedicated to ticket holders. The seating area was long-since sold out, so I’d bought a standing ticket and opted for a spot close to the halfway line with a pillar to lean on underneath the terrace roof.

Elgin's Borough Briggs ground starts to fill up.
Elgin’s Borough Briggs ground starts to fill up with a bumper crowd of over 1,700.

I’d estimate that some 400-500 Hibs supporters had made the journey up from Edinburgh to see their club’s first competitive fixture under new manager David Gray. Gray is a former Manchester United youth teamer who went on to have a distinguished career as a player with Hibernian between 2014 and 2021. He’s had three spells as a caretaker manager at the club before finally landing the role on a permanent basis this summer, aged just 36.

Some fresh-faced Hibs ultras take their place in the away end.
Some fresh-faced Hibs ultras take their place in the away end.

A small band of youthful looking, self-styled ‘ultras’ took up residence behind the goal in the away end and provided a backing sound-track of drum beats to accompany the proceedings. The bulk of the visiting fans occupied the end third of the covered terrace that is segregated from the home section by a metal grill just to the right of my vantage point. They accounted for a sizeable proportion of the 1,788 crowd.

Elgin City and Hibs players contest the ball in midfield.
Elgin City and Hibs players contest the ball in midfield.

Elgin City were formed in 1893 and, for the majority of their existence, they competed in the Highland League. However, they gained Scottish Football League status in the year 2000 when they and Peterhead were incorporated into the fourth tier of the national league system. Elgin have remained at that level ever since and struggled last season, only avoiding the relegation play-off by four points. In contrast, Hibernian finished eighth out of twelve in the Scottish Premiership and the gulf in class was apparent from the early stages.

A rare attack for the home side.
The stony gaze of the 5th Duke of Gordon falls upon Borough Briggs as he contemplates a rare attack for the home side.

Hibs’ Dutch striker Dylan Vente opened the scoring in just the eighth minute with a tap-in following a low cross into the danger zone from the right. The visitors were largely in control thereafter and Elgin struggled to hold onto possession for long whenever they ventured into the opposition half. The second goal came just a minute before the interval when the same player struck again, this time heading in a cross from the left.

Yet another cross into the Elgin City box.
Hibs apply some second half pressure with yet another cross into the Elgin City box.

It was one-way traffic for most of the second half, with debutant centre-back Marvin Ekpiteta heading in a cross five minutes after the restart, having stayed forward following a corner. Australian international winger Martin Boyle added a fourth a few minutes later with a strong run and shot from the right flank before Vente rounded off the scoring with another header to complete his hat-trick. A comparatively uneventful final half hour saw Hibs keep their hosts at arm’s length to see out the 5-0 victory.

Full Time. Elgin City 0-5 Hibernian.
Full Time. Elgin City 0-5 Hibernian.

Elgin will rue the fact that four of the goals came from crosses, so there will be plenty of work for them to do on the training ground to address that deficiency ahead of their forthcoming fixtures. Both teams will go on to play Peterhead, Queen’s Park and Kelty Hearts in Group C, with Hibs strong favourites to top the table and progress to the knockout rounds. The best three runners-up from the eight groups will also qualify, but Elgin will require a rapid upturn in form if they are to challenge for one of those spots.

The only dampener to a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon came as I exited the ground, when one of the numerous local seagulls scored a direct hit to my bald patch with some particularly well aimed droppings as it swooped over the concourse. I was thankful that the washrooms were close at hand.

At the time of writing, match highlights were available on YouTube via the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU2seQkcgHk

Saïd Benrahma – Player Profile

Saïd Benrahma initially joined Lyon on loan from West Ham United in February 2024, but the move was made permanent the following summer after the winger impressed with three goals and four assists in his fifteen appearances during the second half of the season. The transfer fee was said to be something in the region of €14 million.

Playing primarily on the left side of the forward line, Benrahma settled in quickly at Lyon and linked up well with Alexandre Lacazette to help the club pull clear of the danger zone at the bottom of the Ligue 1 table and eventually qualify for the Europa League. He had become frustrated by a lack of playing time during his final few months at West Ham under David Moyes, and will be hoping to reignite his career as a regular starter in Pierre Sage’s Lyon outfit.

Growing up in Algeria and France

Benrahma was born in the small city of Aïn Témouchent in the north-west of Algeria, not far from the Mediterranean coast and the bustling port city of Oran. Sadly, Aïn Témouchent was devastated by an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale in December 1999, when Benrahma was just four years old. Growing up in nearby Sidi Bel Abbès, a larger city once synonymous with the French Foreign Legion, young Saïd took his first steps in youth football with a small club named NRB Bethioua.

The Benrahma family emigrated to France when Saïd was eleven and he soon found himself a football club near his new home in the suburbs of Toulouse. By the age of sixteen, he was on the books of US Colomiers, one of the most prominent amateur clubs in the city. He started to catch the eye of visiting scouts with his performances there, and earned himself a move to Nice shortly before his eighteenth birthday in 2013.

First team opportunities few and far between

Initially playing in the reserve team in the Championnat de France Amateur, Benrahma was a regular goalscorer but he found first team opportunities hard to come by. He mustered a paltry eighteen appearances for the Nice senior team in his first three years at the club before a series of loan moves took him to Angers, Gazélec Ajaccio and Châteauroux, the latter two in Ligue 2. His twelve goals in 34 games for Châteauroux in the 2017-18 season was an impressive haul, but not enough to convince Nice to persevere with him and they sold him to Brentford for €1.7 million.

The twenty-three-year-old Benrahma made 38 appearances in The Championship for The Bees during his first season in west London, plus another seven in cup competitions, scoring eleven times as he quickly became a fan favourite. His numbers were even better the following season as Brentford narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League, losing 2-1 to Fulham after extra time in the play-off final.

Big-money move across London

By now, Benrahma had become hot property and West Ham moved to sign him on loan in October 2020, before paying around £25 million to make the move permanent the following January. He became an integral component of their first team squad over the following three seasons, playing primarily on the left wing or as an attacking midfielder. Following on from two impressive Premier League campaigns, the pinnacle of his West Ham career came during the 2022-23 season when they lifted the UEFA Europa Conference League title.

Benrahma scored some crucial goals as The Hammers progressed towards the final, including a penalty to give them a 2-1 win against AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of the semi. He repeated the trick in the final in Prague, where his 62nd minute spot kick conversion opened the scoring against Fiorentina in what would be a 2-1 win for the Londoners.

Stop-start career with Les Fennecs

To date, Saïd Benrahma has amassed twenty-eight caps for his native Algeria since making his debut in a friendly match against Senegal at the Stade du 5 Juillet in Algiers in October 2015. He came off the bench with twenty minutes to go and helped inspire a 1-0 victory courtesy of a goal from Yacine Brahimi nine minutes from full time.

Benrahma had to wait almost three and a half years before his next international appearance, and first start, in a 1-0 friendly win over Tunisia in March 2019. Injury forced him to miss that summer’s Africa Cup of Nations, but he’s been a fairly regular squad member since then. He scored his first goal for the national team during a 4-0 win in Djibouti in the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup. His second and most recent international goal proved to be a the winner in a World Cup 2026 qualifying match against Uganda in Kampala in June 2024.