My Match Holiday - 322 La Rosaleda

Málaga CF 1v0 Everton

XXIX Trofeo Costa del Sol

Saturday 11th August 2012

The second part of My Match Holidays was in Málaga, which  is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia on the Costa del Sol and the southernmost largest city in Europe. 
The Costa del Sol (Coast of the Sun) is found in southern Spain on the northern side of the Mediterranean Sea, the southernmost point of continental Europe and approximately 130km north of Africa.
Málaga's is one of the world’s oldest cities with a history spanning over 2,800 years, originally founded by the Phoenicians as Malaka in 770 BC, then from the 6th century BC under the dominion of Ancient Carthage. From 218 BC it was ruled by the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire as Malaca (Latin), then after the fall of the empire came under Islamic Arab control as Mālaqah for 800 years.
In 1487 the city finally came under the realm of the Spaniards in the Reconquista. The archaeological remains and monuments from the Phoenician, Roman, Arabic and Christian eras make this historic city centre an "open museum", displaying its rich history of more than 3,000 years.

As much as I like to explore previously uncharted cities, the artistic heritage of the birthplace of Pablo Picasso wasn’t the purpose for my visit. The only reason me and my son James took the 35 minute train ride along the coast from Arroyo de la Miel was for the XXIX Trofeo Costa del Sol.

Málaga organised its own summer tournament between 1961 and 1983, the former CD Málaga won this competition on three occasions, beating Real Madrid, Red Star Belgrade and Derby County in the finals. After a long time of inactivity from 1983 the competition was revived after a twenty years gap. Since then Málaga CF has won the competition on three times, beating Newcastle United, Real Betis and Parma FC. The six trophies are currently placed together in the Málaga CF display cabinet.

Although there was an original Málaga football club in 1904, it wasn’t until the merger of the areas two biggest clubs; Malagueño FC and Málaga Sport Club that football came to prominence in the city. The clubs formed Club Deportivo Malacitano in 1933 and were elected to the Spanish Second Division from the 1934-35 season
The club was renamed Club Deportivo Málaga in September 1941 and formed a reserve club in 1948, taking over junior side CD Santo Tomás, who were renamed Club Atlético Malagueño, reviving the club’s original name. Throughout their history they were the definitive yo-yo club, involved in a record eleven relegation and promotion campaigns, spending a total of 20 years in La Liga. The clubs most successful period came in the early 1970s with two seventh place finishes in a 5 year stint in the top division.

In 1992 after financial troubles CD Málaga went into liquidation, although the reserve side continued, playing the 1992-93 season in Tercera División Group 9. Two years later after winning promotion followed by another relegation campaign, they too faced financial problems and looked set to seal the same fate as their parent club. 
A referendum by the club's members in December 1993 resulted in favour of a name change and so in June 1994 CA Malagueño were renamed Málaga Club de Fútbol S.A.D., becoming the official heir to what was previously called Club Deportivo Málaga

The club moved to Stadio La Rosaleda (The Rose Garden) from the Baños del Carmen, used for the first time on 13th April 1941 for a fixture between the CD Malacitano and AD Ferroviaria. The official opening took place on 14th September 1941, with a friendly match against Sevilla, when the club premiered their new name of CD Malaga.


The Rosaleda was one of the seventeen host stadiums for the 1982 FIFA World Cup, hosting three matches and is currently owned in three equal shares by the municipality of Málaga, the Málaga Provincial Council and the Government of Andalusia.
The 28,963 capacity stadium was revamped over a six-year period from 2000, designed in a joint venture by architects José Segui Pérez and Sando-Vera. The stadium reflects on itself at each end, at each side is a two tier grandstand decked out in blue and white flip seats. One of the stands has Malaga CF lettering picked out in white opposite the main stand which has the tunnel and dugouts. Both stands are partially covered with the roof rising, so if the rain in Spain doesn’t fall mainly on the plane, the supporters in the bottom tier will more than likely get drenched! Behind each goal there’s open two tier stands which wrap ‘round to meet the grandstands, both have electric scoreboards at the top, parallel with the goal. There is also a medical centre and clinic underneath the goal stand.

The current club progressed through the Spanish leagues and have played nine seasons in La Liga reaching their peak last season when finishing fourth and winning a crack at this season’s Champions League qualifiers. The club was sold in June 2010 to Qatari investor (*deep breathe*) Abdullah bin Nasser bin Abdullah Al Ahmed Al Thani, who bought the club shares from Lorenzo Sanz.

After spending over 150m euros on big money players, it now appears that Al Thani basically can’t be arsed with the club anymore. Over the last few months no club payments or players wages were paid and the sale of star players Rondón and Cazorla, sees the club perilously looking in the opposite direction unless new financial investment can be found, undoing the great progress made in recent years.

Although we both enjoyed the occasion and loved the stadium the match itself against Everton was a poor affair, as both defences bossed the game with numerous offside decisions, typified when Jelavic had a header ruled off which would have put the Toffeemen a goal up on the hour mark.
Malaga had most of the attacking flair but there was too much tippy-toe style football around the box, with no one wanting to take the responsibility of having a dig at goal. However the decisive goal duly arrived on 73 minutes. Joachim received the ball wide on the right and made a pacey run towards the penalty area before being tripped on the edge of the box. From the resulting free kick Weligton was unmarked with plenty of room for the big Brazilian to head the ball past Howard into the top corner of the net. 

I wasn’t looking forward to the long slog towards the city centre in search of a taxi after the game, so we were chuffed to find taxis lined up outside the main entrance to the stadium. We headed to the Benalmadena costa to meet the breadknife and my favourite daughter in the Bus Stop pub, which became our favourite boozer in this resort. Due to the large amount of Brits living on the Costa del Sol, Malaga has a sizeable British following known as the Guiri Army and I spoke the a proud member of this organisation in the bar afterwards. The word “Guiri” is actually a Spanish slang word for tourists and a stereotypical guiri is; a sunburned, fair-haired and skinned English-speaking white person wearing shorts, socks, sandals, sunglasses and with a camera in full view and as much as I would like to give Malaga my full support, I’m afraid I  only have five of those nine traits so I don’t qualify as a member of this fine body of soldiers. 

Matchday stats
MCF 1(Weligton 73) EFC 0
Admission 30euros
Programme:none

Ground no.322 La Rosaleda - Match Holiday album (23 pictures)

My Match Holiday - 321 El Tomillar

Atlético Benamiel 0v3 CD El Palo

Pre-Season Friendly

Wednesday 8th August 2012

This year’s summer holiday was spent on the Costa del Sol in the small Spanish town of Arroyo de la Miel. The town is situated between the resorts of Fuengirola and Torremolinos, and is a ten-minute walk from the coastal resort of Benalmadena. 

As luck would have it, there was a football ground just a five minute stroll from our holiday home and I was blessed with even more good fortune, as the town’s local club Atletico Benamiel had a home fixture on the second night of my holidays.

The club formed in  June 1975, taking their name from the connecting communities of  Benalmadena and Arroyo de la Miel, enrolling in the Andalusian Federation of Football. They currently play in the Primera Andaluza, which is the 5th level of competition in the Spanish League Football in the Community of Andalusia. The league consists of 4 groups of 18 teams, The Yellows contest in Group 3 - the Málaga and Jaén division.

Home matches  are played at El Tomillar, which is discreetly hidden and tucked in between neighbouring apartment blocks and is shared with local side CD Benalmadena FC. The ground has a partly covered main stand with  yellow and light blue bucket seats with an additional similar style seats bolted onto the terrace behind the far side goal. We watched the first half of the game from the stand and the second from the terrace bar in the far corner of the ground, where you can enjoy refreshments while watching the game.
At the main entrance there’s two buildings which accommodates the team changing rooms and club offices. Opposite the stand are the team dugouts with a pair of floodlight pylons at each side which run parallel with the main side. El Tomillar also had an artificial surface and the overall capacity is around about 1000 with 268 seats.

Benamiel faced CD El Palo in a pre-season fixture, the visitors play at a higher level than the hosts in  the Tercera División The gap in class was apparent from the off as the visitors recorded a comfortable three goal victory, breaking the deadlock on 34 minutes in an otherwise uneventful first half before a better second period, adding two late goals to give the final score a more genuine reflection on the overall ninety minutes play.

If your holidaying in the Costa del Sol and looking to take in a match then your spoilt for choice in Andalusia, with plenty of clubs to choose from in the Tercera and  the Divisiones Regionales. Whilst away I did manage to take a break from the San Miguel to bag another ground, going to see the second best team in Spain(if you take away Barca and Real) and the premier club in the this part of the autonomous community of Andalusia - Málaga C.F.

Matchday stats
ABFC 0 CDEP 3(#7 34 #21 82 #10 86)
att.140approx
Admission:none

Ground no.321 El Tomillar - Match Holiday album (20 pictures)

My Matchday - 323 New York Stadium

Rotherham United 3v0 Burton Albion
League Two
Saturday 18th August 2012

When the obsessive and lifetime pursuit of visiting the grounds of the top 92 ranked clubs in England and Wales was finally achieved last season, there was no way I was going to allow the “I’ve done the 92” bragging crown slip off so soon.

So with one new addition to the collection to add this season, I made sure I got it ticked off as quickly as possible, attending the first competitive fixture at Rotherham United’s New York Stadium.

I’ve been to Rotherham a few times in the past, watching NUFC at Millmoor in the 1980s, but this occasion was my first “proper” visit to the South Yorkshire town i.e. on the lash/pub crawl.

Rotherham was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire which lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother between Sheffield and Doncaster. 

There was an Iron Age and Roman settlement in the area, but it wasn’t until the early Middle Ages that Rotherham was founded; establishing itself as a key Saxon market town and later in this period became the centre of a large parish on both sides of the River Don

Rotherham United originally planned to move away from Millmoor and build a new stadium in May 2008, after a disagreement with ground owner Ken Booth. The Millers took up temporary lodgings at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield and purchased land for a new community based stadium in January 2010.
The club chose the site of the former Guest and Chrimes Foundry, the steelworks made water taps which they improved and adapted to use on fire extinguishers.
The ground was named 'New York Stadium' as this area of the town is locally referred to as 'New York' and was chosen ahead of 'The Foundry' and 'The Waterfront Stadium'. The club hope that this unique name could bring potential investment from New York, New York in the U.S. of A.
Planning permission was granted in November 2010 with construction starting in June the following year, designed by S & P Architect’s and built by Gleeds and GMI Construction at a cost of £20m.

The stadium is built in the shadows of Millmoor, located on the opposite side of the rail line. I was really impressed with the NY Stadium, steep banks of seating and no empty space in the corners; give the ground a nice compact homely vibe. The stadium has a capacity of 12,009 decked out in club colours of red seats with The Millers and RUFC picked out in white.
The main stand on the west side of the stadium is known as the Eric Twigg Foods. The stand has a central shelf with executive boxes, and houses the TV gantry with large dugouts at each side of the tunnel.
Behind the north goal is the KCM Recycling Stand which is the new kop style singing end holding 2000 home fans and opposite the away end known as the Morrison Stand. The only difference between the two ends is the electric scoreboard on the south side with both sides having a staggered step style roof. 
I sat on the east side of the stadium in the family stand, named the Ben Bennett Stand with a capacity of 4000 which also has specialised disabled access. 
The Millers have played three warm up games prior to this first competitive match. The first game was against Barnsley on 21th July, Barnsley’s Jacob Mellis scored the first ever goal at the stadium but United came back to win 2-1. This was followed by friendly fixtures with Sheffield United and Hearts.



Rotherham United maintained their billing as promotion favourites by christened the new ground with a comfortable win over Burton Albion.  
The Millers were 2-0 up after only 11 minutes, boosted by the carnival atmosphere generated by the home support. Nardiello scored from the spot after a trip on Zander Diamond before strike partner Odejayi nodded home to double the advantage.
Burton looked dangerous on the break but blew their chance of getting back into the game when Lee Bell was sent off after two quick yellow cards, the second a reckless tackle which reduced the visitors to ten men.
Ben Pringle’s crisp shot took a wicked deflection to loop over keeper Ross Atkins which made it 3-0, to but the gloss on an excellent start to the Millers life at their swanky new home

In my previous blog entry I championed East Coast trains on their quality service, but I must have spoken too soon, as on this occasion I was let down on both outward and return journeys. I left Newcastle at the correct time of 959, but a delayed train in front halted my arrival in York meaning I missed the direct train to Rotherham, although I managed to rescue the situation by going via Doncaster, so overall I arrived at my destination only 10 minutes later than the scheduled 1225. My return home was delayed by an hour after someone jumped in front of a train at Alexandra Palace, but overall these hiccups didn’t spoil another excellent day out.

Prior to the match I met up with Squad#88 Graham Precious for a ‘Spoons tour, the Rotherham JDW treble of The Rhinoceros, The Corn Law Rhymer and The Bluecoat. I was also due to do this pub crawl with #108 John Robertson and #194 Keith Arthur, but John rang to let me know they didn’t have tickets and the game was a sell-out, so they were looking for an alternative game elsewhere, although things worked out ok as they got tickets for the away end and I bumped into Keith in Donny station later on.
After the game we had a couple of pints across from the rail station in The Bridge Inn where I had my best pint of the day - Old Mill ‘Bullion’(4.7%)**** and of course a couple of bevvy’s in Doncaster to kill time as I waited for the much delayed 1910 to Newcastle Central.

When I visited the Don Valley in 2008 I mentioned in my report that I hoped Rotherham would resolve their differences with the landlord and return to Millmoor, but in the end things have worked out for the best as The Millers now have a their very own stadium and one to be proud of, the 4-year exile in Sheffield a small sacrifice for such a big reward.

Matchday stats   RUFC 3(Nardiello 5pen Odejayi 11 Pringle 75) BAFC 0        att.11,441     Admission £20     Programme £3

Ground no.323 New York Stadium - Matchday Web album (24 pictues)

My Matchday - 320 Ochilview Park

Stenhousemuir 4v0 Brechin City 
Scottish League Cup 1st Round
Saturday 4th August 2012

As a regular user of the network formerly known as British Rail, I must say I can’t fault East Coast Trains. So far they’ve never let me down (touch wood) having found their service very reliable as I’ve travelled the length of this isle bagging football grounds. My particular favourite rattler is the 1144 Saturday morning service from Newcastle to Edinburgh. The reason I love this particular too-too, is that it runs non-stop, missing out Morpeth, Berwick and Dunbar, so after going to graft early I can have a nice kip in the quite carriage before arriving in the Scottish capital nicely refreshed by 1.15pm.

On my arrival today I caught the connection train to Dunblane at 1332, where I alighted at Larbert before taking a ten minute stroll along to Ochilview Park for Stenhousemuir’s League Cup first round tie with Brechin City.

Stenhousemuir is a town in the Central Lowlands, which lies in the Forth Valley within the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town is 2 miles north-west of Falkirk and directly borders Larbert in the west.
The village takes its name from "stone house" which was a Roman building on the north of the Carron River Valley known in later centuries as Arthur's O'on (King Arthur's oven) The building was demolished in 1743 so the stone could be used to rebuild a dam on the River Carron. The stones were swept away in a flood but a replica was made in 1763 to serve as a dovecote on the roof of the stable block of Penicuik House in Midlothian and the replacement stone still remains on the site of the original building.
Andrew McCowan arrived in the town as a young lad and established his confectionary business in 1924, manufacturing toffee, fudge, sweets and chews which included the Penny Dainty, Highland Toffee, Bonbons and in the 1980’s the Wham Bar.

Stenhousemuir FC was founded in 1884 following a break away from local side Heather Rangers, originally playing in the Midland Central League, before moving to the Central Combination League and the Central League. The club enjoyed brief success winning consecutive Scottish Qualifying Cup’s in 1901 and 1902 and the following year reached the Scottish Cup semi-final, losing 4-1 at home to Rangers.

Stenhousemuir moved to Ochilview Park when it opened in 1890 following spells at Tryst Park and Goschen Park. The ground is currently shared with local rivals East Stirlingshire and has also been the temporary home of both Stirling Albion and Falkirk whilst their own stadiums were under construction.
The Ochilview name stems from the nearby Ochil Hills, which can be visibly seen south of the stadium. The Warriors joined the Scottish Football League in 1921 and built a new main stand in 1928 which replaced the original wooden structure which was gutted in a fire. The maroon and white stand was made up of 310 bench seats and was known as the "Doll's House" by the fans.
The biggest gate came in March 1950, when 12,500 fans attended the club's Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against East Fife and the following year Ochilview had the honour of staging the first ever floodlit match in Scotland for a friendly fixture with Hibernian in November.


In the summer of 1964 a certain well known Scottish club revealed plans to get rid of the poorest supported teams within the Scottish Football League. Stenhousemuir, Albion Rovers, Berwick Rangers, Brechin City and Stranraer defeated this proposal with support from a number of clubs which including Celtic, Hamilton and Airdrieonians. So who was this immoral organisation which devised this selfish evil plan? Well it was the former football club known as Glasgow Rangers – and whatever happened to that lot? (oh the irony!...Eddy)

Ochilview was ungraded after a failed relocation scheme in 1994, which involved the sale of the stadium to a supermarket chain for £2.5 million.

The entrance to the ground is off Tryst Road on Gladstone Road which has the McGowans factory on the corner of the street. There is only two parts of the ground open to spectators, which is split by a refreshment bar which serves both sides. The Norway Stand replaced the covered terracing on the south side in 1994-95. The stand has a capacity of 629 and sits on the half way line, decked out in the club colours with two tripod like floodlight structures mounted on top of the roof.
The Tryst Road terrace on the west side of the ground was covered in 2003 and is mainly used by away supporters. Before the match I popped into the Ochilview Bar for a quick pint which is in the far corner of the terrace and is owned by the Club.
The old "Doll's House" on the north side was demolished in April 1999 after being refused a safety certificate. This side of the ground accommodates the team dugouts with a TV gantry in between and a row of small floodlights and a clear view of the Ochil Hills in the background.
The far side of the ground behind the goal is again unused for spectators. The stadium has a synthetic playing surface which was installed in 2006 and the overall capacity currently stands at 3,776.
Goals from new signings John Gemmill and Darren Smith saw Stenny comfortably book their place in the second round of the League Cup.

The hosts got off the a dream start with a fabulous 25 yard strike from John Gemmell with only 20 seconds on the clock, which was the fastest goal* I’ve seen scored in Scotland and one of the quickest of my football watching career.
The Warriors had to wait until the 76th minute for their second goal, substitute Darren Smith with a nice side foot volley from a left wing cross, then the other sub Stewart Keen slotted home the third from the spot. Sean Dickson was nudged out of the way by Gerard McLauchlan and the big defender received a straight red card. Smith claimed his second of the day in injury time running through on goal before producing a cool finish the round off a great afternoon’s work for Stenny.
* For the record

1.Alan Shearer after 10 seconds for Newcastle United v Manchester City(H)18/1/03
2.Wayne Phillips after 13 seconds for Gateshead v Ossett Town(A)23/3/08
3.John Gemmell after 20 seconds for Stenhousemuir v Brechin City(H) 4/8/12

I enjoy my visit the Ochilview and on the whole I found Stenhousemuir FC a very hospitable club and I'd like to wish them all the best over the coming season and good luck in the next round of the Cup.

Afterwards I caught the 1715 back to Edinburgh and as my train back to Newcastle wasn’t until 7pm, this gave me time for a couple of bevvy’s with Squad#155 James Little in the Half Way House, who had just seen Hearts set the early pace in the SPL by going top of the league on goal difference.
The biggest surprise of the day though was the weather, the forecast predicted showers but it was glorious and remaining boiling hot all day which is a total one off and an occurrence which I doubt will be repeated again this season when I again catch the 1144 to Edinburgh.


Matchday stats
SFC 4(Gemmell 1,Smith 76,90+1 Keen 87pen) BCFC 0

att.282

Admission £11
Programme £1.50

Ground no.320 Ochilview Park - Matchday Web album (22 pictures)