SPL grounds, Google Street View style!

While the rest of you where out enjoying Scottish Cup action or otherwise meaningless SPL games, Inside Left, his season well and truly over and slightly overstimulated on strong coffee and blue Smarties spent a pleasant evening ground-hopping Google streetview style.

→ Aberdeen
I could have got you panoramic views of the overly expensive and really not all that nice Dick Donald Stand, formerly known as the "Beach End", or even Inside Left's own beloved South Stand, but for any Aberdeen fan worth their weight in 1983 Gothenburg memorabilia, the Merkland Road entrance is really the only way to enter the stadium. Passing under the granite façade through some of the narrowest turnstiles in Western Europe, you can sense the history. Don't be put off by the "family stand" signs: the Merkland has a fair proportion of junior gynaecologist amongst its membership judging by the terminology shouted at the home team, especially these days.

→ Dundee United
I've never liked Tannadump; you can't fucking park anywhere, the away end is tucked away in some stupid corner where you can't see anything and whenever I've been there to see Aberdeen play we always lose. Interesting but true fact: like my match predictions, perhaps it's the way I pick them, but I've never seen Aberdeen win at Tannadump. Terrible record so it is, and a terrible record to go with a terrible stadium.

→ Hearts
The first time I ever went to see Aberdeen away at Hearts, a 2-2 draw in 1988, Jim Bett and Tom Jones (taking a break from touring) scoring for the Dons, I was dead impressed with a stadium that's so cunningly hidden from view when walking down Gorgie Road. You'd almost miss it if you're looking the wrong way. Once you get inside it, and the place is buzzing Tynecastle is easily one of the best grounds in Scotland if you ask me.

→ Hibernian
Ah, Easter Road. Back in the bad old days of soccer casuals, a trip to Edinburgh - and in particular a trip to Easter Road - was always fraught with danger. There's been many a time that we'd be chucked out of pubs by the local constabulary straight into the path of several hundred rabid and often well armed Hibs fans. Edinburgh is where I learned how to run. It's also the only stadium I've come close to being thrown out of.

→ Falkirk
I've never been to the old stadium, and I've never been to the new one either. Judging by the Street View, it looks like being one of those stadiums that you find in every town planner and Chief Constable's wet dream, to wit: out of sight, out of mind. What a dump. And it's brand new anaw.

→ Celtic
Oh, and speaking of dumps. Actually, that's not fair. The new Celtic Park is rather grand, a shining example of what modern football stadiums should be like. Back then (and I'm talking the mid 80's) you generally looked forward to trips to Glasgow because Aberdeen used to win more often than we do now, making up for the fact that it was a desperately unpleasant and intimidating place to go. Celtic Park (or is it Parkhead, I never know what to call it) has lost of a lot of it's charm since the refit (like Hamdpen) but it was always a better place to go than across the river to Mordor. Speaking of which ...

→ Rangers
Ah now, here's a stadium. Yes, those spanky stands everywhere are nice and all that, but the Main Stand, designed by Archibald Leitch is one of the few remaining examples of classic stadia construction in Britain. It certainly is something to keep your mind off the urine and other assorted bodily fluids and solids raining down on you from the top deck of the Broomloan Stand while your team is being slaughtered on the park. Quite why they put away supporters in the downstairs part of a two-tier stand is beyond me, but sure, what do I know.

→ Kilmarnock
I'm sure I'm not the only Aberdeen fan who realises, usually just as you're passing Cumbernauld, that that Third Division fixture in Elgin might have been a better idea rather than driving all the way across Scotland to Rugby Park. I mean, you really want to love your football to even bother. Still, once you get there try the pies, they're very good. Usually better than the football on display. It's a nice stadium now, but it wasn't always.

→ Motherwell
Not a bad wee ground. Away supporters are housed in the South Stand, a strange doo-dah which from any other angle looks like a large stage, what with those floodlights holding up the roof. It looks so out of place with the rest of the stadium (it's too large and square and boxy). Otherwise a nice ground, but shame about the pitch,which always manages to looks like the North Lanarkshire Young Farmers have just had their annual Tractor Pull extravaganza on the pitch the previous evening.

→ St Johnstone
It's been a while since I've been there (a Scottish Cup fixture in 1987, Aberdeen winning 1-0) so there's not much I can say about it. Judging by the Street View, the entrance looks nice. Lots of parking too, possibly.

→ St Mirren
I've not been to the new ground yet. Even Google where too early to take their wee picture of the ground, in which the new stadium looks more like a DIY superstore than a stadium. Instead here is a picture of the old ground which is a "proper" stadium, unlike that nonsense at Falkirk. Or St Mirren's new stadium.

→ Hamilton
The Spice of Life stand. Yes. It's true. Bad name, dull stadium. Like St Mirren Park, the back of the main stand at New Douglas Park looks like the regional headquarters for a small to mid-size furniture chain.