
The Ghost of Greenock Academy haunts this Google Street View mashup.
Part of the intent behind following Greenock Morton FC here at Plenty of Nothing has been to learn more about Greenock, Scotland. Though it's my father's home town I have only been there a couple of times and until starting this project I possessed only the vaguest notion of its topography or history. The 36-game league schedule has required me to learn something new about the place every couple of weeks, and has enhanced my geographical understanding of the rest of Scotland too, or at least the First Division part of it. No doubt the odd mixture of football and architecture is perplexing to anyone who has stopped here to read about one or the other. And oftentimes the connection between the football and the architecture is pretty tenuous.
Take today for instance. Hamilton Academical visit Cappielow this afternoon, the perfect opportunity to write something about Greenock Academy. Greenock seems to have had three old-school school buildings: Greenock Academy, Highlanders Academy (which I'll deal with next time Ross County come to town), and Greenock High School. The arch-Victorian Greenock Academy building no longer exists, but you can see it pasted into the present day above. That photographic mashup is the work of bradshaw at Inverclyde Old and New. If you found last year's post "Morton Terrace Then and Now" interesting you'll appreciate his site.
Who are at the top of the Academical honours list? Top scorers so far this year are Mark McLaughlin and Dougie Imrie. The latter transferred to St. Mirren in January. Mark McLaughlin was born in Greenock, but has never played for Morton. Among the all-time greatest Accies are David Wilson, and Colin Miller.
It's the preseason right now in Japan, where summer football is played. Today J2 club Mito Hollyhock met J1 Kashima Antlers in the Ibaraki Soccer Festival, a prefectural derby. Japan is twelve time zones ahead of Nova Scotia, so the game is done. Antlers 1, Hollyhock 0. In the 2008 season Kashima dressed like Brazilian club Flamengo, in honour of their manager Zico, and the uniform would have qualified both clubs for the Dennis the Menace Red and Black Hooped Group, but both have moved on to other kits.
[Hamilton win 2- 1. Morton goal by O'Brien. Morton are back in seventh. Ross County still hold first place but only by goal difference over Falkirk. Two thirds of the way through the season there are still only twenty points between top and bottom.]