Played at all 42 current SPL/SFL grounds?

[HibeeJibee]

Or 41 to be precise, as Stenny + ES share.

There's a thread on the Pie-&-Bovril forum (see link) about this. Paul Sheerin was presented with an award last week for achieving this feet [...although it now appears he probably hasn't played at Peterhead?!?!] but press reports at the time indicated he was the 3rd player to do so. (Presumably meaning to have played at the 42/41 current grounds... which includes New St Mirren Park, only recently opened, and Annan which was a non-league venue until 2008).

Can anyone confirm whether or not Sheerin has a full set?

And any ideas who the other 2 players are (if it's actually a correct statistic)?

P&B thread:
http://www.pieandbovril.com/forum/index ... t-grounds/

[Scottish]

This is after a quick run through his career so don't take it as gospel but it will give you something to work on. Sheerin has definitely played league football at 38 of the current 41 grounds. The ones I can't find him playing at are Cowdenbeath, Dumbarton & Peterhead. Nor do I think he ever played a league match at Firs Park before East Stirlingshire started to ground share.

However he has played at three other league grounds - Kilbowie, Raydale Park and Love Street.

[Skyline Drifter]

This is after a quick run through his career so don't take it as gospel but it will give you something to work on. Sheerin has definitely played league football at 38 of the current 41 grounds. The ones I can't find him playing at are Cowdenbeath, Dumbarton & Peterhead. Nor do I think he ever played a league match at Firs Park before East Stirlingshire started to ground share.

However he has played at three other league grounds - Kilbowie, Raydale Park and Love Street.

and allegedly Broomfield according to the same press reports?

He's definitely played at Cowdenbeath in a cup tie for St Johnstone. Can anyone confirm whether or not he has played at Strathclyde Homes Stadium? It seems fairly clear he has never actually played at Balmoor, though he was an unused substitute there once in a cup tie for Inverness (so some people may choose to count that, I wouldn't).

[Skyline Drifter]

Sheerin HAS played at Dumbarton. For Ayr United in a League Cup tie in 2002.

So we're back to Balmoor then. It appears he's never officially taken the field there though he's been an unused sub in a cup tie and has played there in a friendly.

[Scottish]

Just to clarify from my earlier post, I was referring specifically to LEAGUE appearances - "Sheerin has definitely played league football at 38 of the current 41 grounds"

Even if accepting Cup ties at Cowdenbeath (League Cup) and Dumbarton (Challenge Cup) he definitely hasn't played at Peterhead. Though the way things are going if he hangs around he could well play at all three of these grounds in the league next season.

It looks unlikely he has ever played at at Firs Park. Nor did he play at Boghead when it was a league ground though he did play at the old Bayview (does that count as a separate ground from the old one? I'm not familiar with it at all). I'd take press suggestions he played at Broomfield with a pinch of salt. Broomfield closed in 1994.

To conclude: He has played at 40 of the current 41 league grounds in SFL competitions but at only 38 of them in the league. He has also played at three former grounds which were league venues during his career.

[Skyline Drifter]

Just to clarify from my earlier post, I was referring specifically to LEAGUE appearances - "Sheerin has definitely played league football at 38 of the current 41 grounds"

Yes, I know you were. I was just filling in two of the missing grounds to add to the point.

I'd take press suggestions he played at Broomfield with a pinch of salt. Broomfield closed in 1994.

Mm, yes, looks likely. But no great surprise given that the whole premise has turned out to be nonsense.

To conclude: He has played at 40 of the current 41 league grounds in SFL competitions but at only 38 of them in the league.

Yes (SFL or SPL to be a pedant), though to be fair amongst the array of nonsense claimed on this, no-one ever suggested he'd played league games at them all, just that he'd played at them all. I'm actually surprised he's played as many in the league.

Anway, in summary:
We have Albion Rovers making an award to Sheerin on the back of info supplied to them by an unnamed press source for being the third player to appear at "all 42" grounds in Scotland.
BUT:
1. Rovers now deny ever mentioning he was "third", only that he was one of "very few" to do it. Notwithstanding this, people in attendance at the match in question are adamant that the announcer said he was the third and the press then ran with that as a "fact" thereafter.
2. There are not 42 grounds in Scotland currently, only 41 (and Sheerin hasn't appeared at the one that dropped off the list from when it was 42).
3. No-one seems to know what the criteria to qualify as "playing" at every venue is. Do friendlies count? Does an unused sub appearance count? Reserves?
4. No-one knows whether the stat was only meant to refer to the current 42 or to anyone who has appeared at 42 differen league grounds at any given point (apparently Roddy Grant had done that at one point).
5. Most humerously of all it transpires Sheerin hasn't actually played at Peterhead's Balmoor Stadium anyway (yet) unless we are counting either friendlies (where he played one for Aberdeen) or unused sub appearances (he was once an unused sub for Inverness).

[Scottish]

Personally I wouldn't count friendlies, reserves or unused substitute "appearances." I seem to recall something about Roddy Grant having played on all the then current league grounds - though I don't know whether this was league only or all competitions. I don't know who the other one is.

It's a feat that's much more difficult to achieve in a four-division set-up, especially given the lack of player movement between lower league clubs and the SPL. Pre-1975 I imagine playing at every ground was pretty commonplace as an ever-present in a promoted side would have played at every then 2nd division ground and the next season could do so at every 1st division one bar the two clubs that had been relegated in the meantime and there was every chance he'd run into them on the way back down or up.

[kiwiscot]

Somewhere in the back of my braincells I remember former Clydebank player Joe McCallan playing at all 38 (then) League grounds and all 16 (then) Highland League grounds some time in the mid nineteen eighties. In England I think Trevor Hockey was the youngest player to have played at all 92 clubs.

[Skyline Drifter]

There is a big article on this on the SFL website now featuring Sheerin's memories of each ground. It's clear he IS counting that unused substitute "appearance" for Inverness at Peterhead as having "played" there.

Also it isn't Broomfield that he's claimed to have appeared at, it's Brockville. Not sure if that was my error or if I heard it from a source that was wrong.

[MadMac]

He did play at the old Bayview (does that count as a separate ground from the old one? I'm not familiar with it at all)

Different ground altogether on an entirely different site.

[HibeeJibee]

I'm afraid that, for me, Paul Sheerin has been given an award for an achievement he hasn't completed yet.

Personally, I think "playing at" means exactly that... featuring... and not being an unused substitute.

I wouldn't count friendlies/bounce games/testimonials either.


It's also not beyond the realms of possibility that others have 'done a Sheerin', via unused sub 'appearances' / reserve or local cup matches / friendlies / etc.


Although it seems like this "third person to achieve it" thing may be a red herring / some misunderstanding?

[Skyline Drifter]

Craig Nelson completed the current 41 grounds competitively when playing for Brechin at St Mirren Park yesterday. We've checked this one and he's definitely been on the pitch competitively at all of them (though he doesn't appear to have ever played East Stirlingshire away at any ground).

Paul Sheerin is still playing but still short a competitive on the pitch appearance at Peterhead so far as I am aware.

[jimmygrumble]

Paul Sheerin has played at Peterhead.

8 August 2000 CIS League Cup 1st Round: Peterhead 2, Inverness CT 3. Sheerin replaced David Bagan after 13 minutes.

[LEATHERSTOCKING]

A little confusion regarding Roddie Grant in one of SKYLINE DRIFTER`S posts above. Grant(Brechin City) scored an own goal in the 3rd Division game against Hamilton Academical 3/2/2001 and thus created a record of scoring against every one of the 42 clubs contemporarily playing league football in Scotland; not "playing" on every ground.

[Skyline Drifter]

A little confusion regarding Roddie Grant in one of SKYLINE DRIFTER`S posts above. Grant(Brechin City) scored an own goal in the 3rd Division game against Hamilton Academical 3/2/2001 and thus created a record of scoring against every one of the 42 clubs contemporarily playing league football in Scotland; not "playing" on every ground.

He had also played on every ground at one point. The two factoids are unconnected. In fact he achieved it "twice".

He completed the set of every league ground at the time in 2001/02. Gretna later replaced Airdrie / Clydebank but he played at Raydale in early season 03/04 to complete the set again.