* The 100 Football Grounds Club *

Welcome to The 100 Football Grounds Club

2012-01-22T23:59:00.000+01:00

Welcome to Shaun Smith's groundhopping football blog 'The 100 Football Grounds Club'(est.2006) the original internet ground logging website. Please feel free to leave any comments if you wish. Cheers!!! site updated on post date

My Matchday - 306 Fenland Stadium

2012-01-22T16:32:00.000+01:00

Wisbech Town 2v2 Dunston UTS (a.e.t.)

FA Vase 4th Round

Saturday 21st January 2012

Away trips with Dunston in the FA Vase are amongst the highlights of my season, and I once again I enjoyed a good day out with the Fed Lads for the 4th Round clash at Wisbech Town.

We departed the UTS Stadium at 9am and after two (one would have been sufficient) stops we arrived in the Cambridgeshire town at 1.30pm. There was much debate over what today’s destination was actually called. I’ve always thought the town was pronounces as Wiz-beck, however my travel companion Lee Robbo declared it’s Wiz-beach, which was later confirmed by the locals. However if it is Wiz-beach then where is the A and where’s the Sea? (Did you C what I did there?)

Wisbech is a market town and inland port on the River Nene in the Fens of Cambridgeshire. The town’s main feature is Wisbech Castle built in 1071 by William I, which in the late 16th century became a notorious prison. Amongst those inmates were political Catholic priests and bishops, many of which died due to the jails unhygienic conditions. The Norman castle was destroyed in a devastating flood in 1236 and has been rebuilt several times throughout the centuries.

On arrival the club stewards pointed us in the direction of the nearest boozer. The ‘Black Bear’ was just a short walk away, so we also had time for pint in ‘The Locomotive’(Should be renamed “The Filthy Looks Saloon”…Eddy) before heading back to the clubhouse. As I waited to get served at the bar, I overheard one of the home supporters making an disparaging remark about people who live in the top end of the country, which quite frankly annoyed me. After travelling for over 4 hours and 200 miles this isn’t the kind of welcome I’m used to, and that I would expect at a respectable non-league club. I made the culprit aware that I was unhappy about the incident then disregarded it - determined to see a Dunston win which would wipe the smile of his smug face.

Wisbech Town formed in 1920 after the merger of three local clubs, originally joining the Peterborough & District League which they won on five occasions during the 1920’s and early ‘30s. The club formed a Limited Company and turned semi-professional in 1935, progressing to the United Counties League, becoming champions three times after the Second World War. In 1950 The Fenmen switched to the Eastern Counties League before joining the Midland League two years later.

In 1957-58 they reached the second round of the FA Cup, beating Colchester United 1-0 in the first Round, coupled with achieving promotion to the Southern League after finishing league runners-up. The club played within the Southern League set up for twelve seasons until returning to the Eastern Counties League in 1970.
Wisbech finished runners-up and won the League Cup in their first season back in the ECL and won the double the following season and lifted the league title again in 1976-77 and 1990-91.

In 1995-96 the club reached the first round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1966 and also finished second in the league winning promotion to the Midland Division of the Southern League. The club continued to produce good performances in the FA Cup reaching the first round again in 1996-97 and the following season they reached Round Two, losing 2-0 at home to Bristol Rovers.
Town had a second spell in the Southern League for five seasons until returning to the Eastern Counties League in 2002.

Fenland Stadium is a relatively new ground, opened in August 2010. The club previously played on several different grounds until moving from Harecroft Road in 1947 to Fenland Park, a former orchard in Walsoken. The record attendance at their former home was 8,044 against local rivals Peterborough United in August 1957.

Wisbech played there final game at Fenland Park in September 2008 and secured a temporary move to Outwell Swift's Nest ground after installing a seated stand, floodlights and terracing.
Construction began on the new 9-acre site ground in January 2010, with the first match on August 14th for an FA Cup extra-preliminary round tie against St Andrews which The Fenmen won 5-0.
The 118-seater stand which relocated from its brief home at Outwell is a basic structure filled with red seats. The stand is situated at the far side and is flanked by open hard standing. Behind each goal are fully covered single step terraces, named the Spicer McColl Stand and the Fenland Fire Stand.
Next to the turnstile entrance is the main building block which provides a large clubhouse, changing rooms and refreshment bar. The near side also provides more terrace space and the team dugouts. There’s also a club shop in one corner(£4.50 for a pin badge!) and the ground is finished off by a set of thin six lamped corner floodlights.

The Fenmen’s best performances in the FA Vase came in the mid-80s reaching the semi-final stage two years running. In 1984-85 they lost to Halesowen Town in a semi-final replay after a draw over the original two legs, and then the following year they again missed out on Wembley losing out to Southall. If The Fenmen are to progress towards the later stages in this year s competition they’ll have do it the hard way after this 4th round tie finished all square after 120 minutes.

Wisbech deservingly lead at the break after a disappointing first half performance from the visitors. The goal arriving on 25 minutes when a low cross from the right was sliced home by Nick Davey finding the roof of the net.
The Geordies produced a more positive performance in the second half, as they turned the match around courtesy of two scrappy goals. A free kick from 25 yards was crossed to the far post where Young nodded back across goal, where Bulford was on hand to get a faint touch that wrong footed the ‘keeper. Then on 76 minutes a free kick from the left from McAndrew, missed everyone and found the far corner of the net, although initially I though Swailes got his head on the cross.
Dunston looked set for a place in the fifth round but on 81 minutes it was all square, Matt Lunn picked up the ball on the right and darted into the box, then from a tight angle his cross shot found the top corner, if he did mean to shoot (I couldn’t tell from behind the opposite goal) it was a great goal to take the match into extra time.

The hosts almost took the lead after the restart hitting the foot of the post, but extra time was dominated by a monsoon which swept across the pitch which limited any clear cut chances and a crucial winner for either side. On 110 minutes a game which was littered with yellow cards produced a second booking for Michael Dixon, but Dunston’s ten men comfortably held on, which means The Fenmen will have to do the reverse journey to Tyneside next Saturday.

Unfortunately I’ll not be in attendance next week, but I can guarantee that followers of Wisbech Town can look forward to an enjoyable and hospitable afternoon at the UTS Stadium, because that’s just the way we are, as we understand how to treat visitors to our part of the world.

Squad #10 Tim Rigby attends the last match at Fenland Park. – Tims 92 Tims 92

Matchday stats
WTFC 2(Davey 24 Lunn 81) DUTSFC 2(Bulford 50, McAndrew 76)
att.548
Admission £7(but I paid a fiver)
Programme £1

Ground no.306 Fenland Stadium - Matchday Web album (21 pictures)

My Matchday - 305 Flaxley Road Ground

2012-01-15T20:16:00.004+01:00

Selby Town 0v2 Staveley Miners Welfare

Northern Counties East League Premier Division

Saturday 14th January 2012

On this very day in 1988 as a bright eyed and bushy tailed shy young lad, I made my seventh attempt at permanent employment, crossing the office threshold for the very first time. I marked this 24 year anniversary and the fact my working career has stagnated with a day on the lash in one of my favourite drinking cities – York, incorporating of course another new ground visit at nearby Selby Town.

Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Selby is a town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, situated 12 miles south of the city of York, along the course of the River Ouse. Historically the river was part of the town’s large shipbuilding industry and a thriving port due to the Selby Canal, which brought trade from the city of Leeds.

The main feature of the town is Selby Abbey, founded by Benedict of Auxerre in 1069 and one of few surviving abbey churches of the medieval period. Its main feature is the 14th century Washington Window which shows the heraldic arms of the ancestors of America’s first president George Washington.

Selby Town formed in 1919 and the following year entered the Yorkshire Football League as founder members. The club were ever present throughout the history of the Yorkshire League before it became part of the Northern Counties East League in 1982. During the league’s 62 year history ‘The Robins’ were champions on five occasions, three times in the 1930s and successive seasons between 1952 and ’54.

They also progressed in the FA Cup during this decade, reaching the 1st Round in 1953-54 when a club record crowd of 7,000 witnessed the clash with Bradford Park Avenue, and the following season were knocked out at the Second Round stage by Hastings United, the longest cup run in their history.
Selby won their first honour in the Northern Counties East League in 1995-96, lifting the Division One title and have remained in the league’s Premier Division since,with there best performance as runners-up in 2004-05.

The Robins originally played at the James Street Recreation Ground, known as The Bowling Green, which had also been home to both Selby Mizpah and Selby FC at the turn of the century. The club moved across town to the Flaxley Road Ground in 1951, opening in August with a local derby clash with Goole Town in front of a crowd of over 4,000.

The ground is open terracing on three sides with a covered seated stand behind the north goal. The stand has the club name in large red letters on the white back wall and has three rows of wooden block seats with a cordoned off section of 16 seats set aside for club officials and guests.
There is a small covered stand added directly behind the opposite goal, with the team dugouts and changing rooms at the far side. Next to the turnstile entrance is the clubhouse which was opened in the late ‘60s and is quite spacious with a selection of hot food and drinks.
There's a set of tall floodlights on each side which were installed in 1994 and as part of a three-year sponsorship deal, Flaxley Road was renamed the Rigid Group Stadium from August 2010. There’s plans afoot to move to a brand new Conference-standard stadium on East Common Lane next to Selby College.

The Robins stretched their current run of successive defeats to eight games and remain rooted at the bottom of the NCEL Premier Division, as a goal either side of half time secured a comfortable win for Staveley who strengthened their position at the top end of the table.
The visitors were awarded a penalty five minutes before the break when keeper Barford brought down Barraclough with Ryan Damms making no mistake with the spot-kick. The points were assured on 54 minutes, when a nice exchange of passing was finished off with a neat chip over the keeper from Simon Barraclough, to move The Welfare into second spot in the promotion race.

To break up my journey to Selby I enjoyed a canny pub crawl in York, a city where your spoilt for choice as far as a decent pint is concerned. I started off with breakfast and a pint in the Punch Bowl, then called into Brigantes, Last Drop Inn, Three-Legged Mare and the cities oldest pub Ye Olde Starre Inne.

I arrived in Selby at 2.10 and the Flaxley Road Ground is a 10 minute walk to the station, so I headed straight to the clubhouse for a pint and a read of the match day programme, which had an interesting feature inside titled ’On this day… 14th January.
The many landmarks on this particular day include Zsa Zsa Gabor getting her leg chopped off(2011) The Simpsons premiered on Fox-TV(1989) Roy Castle breaking a tap dancing record on the Beeb(1973) and the Sex Pistols final concert in 1978. Another personal milestone which could go on that list is in 1988 when I began working for one of the world’s biggest communications businesses, an occasion I marked by not actually being in the f***ing place but instead spending a great day doing the things I like i.e. enjoying my football ground hobby and a day on the lash.

STFC 0 SMWFC 2 (Damms 40p Barraclough 55)
att.82
Admission £5
Programme £2

Ground no.305 Flaxley Road Ground - Matchday Web album (21 pictures)

The 100FgC 2011 Accolades

2011-12-31T14:28:00.000+01:00

(Shaun's choices in the 100FgC new years honours list)

*Best Match Attended*

Gateshead 5v4 Sunderland RCA,Durham Cup QF 12th January.

The best game of the year goes to a Durham Cup tie witnessed by roughly 100 supporters “crammed” inside the International Stadium, the quarter final tie between Gateshead Reserves and Sunderland RCA producing a nine goal thriller.

The Northern League side came from behind to lead 4-2 courtesy of a Richard Logan hat-trick and looked set for a place in the next round, however the young Heed side refused to lie down, scoring three goals in the last nine minutes to progress into the semi-finals on route to lifting the Durham Cup for the first time in the club’s history.

*Goal of the Year*

Paul Clayton - Alfreton Town

My goal of the year goes to Alfreton Town striker Paul Clayton, who scored a cracker against Gateshead in the Blue Sq.Bet Premier in November. The ball was played up the right wing to Jake Moult, his back heel flick fell into the path of Clayton who placed an unstoppable shot beyond the reach of Jak Alnwick from 18 yards.

*Favourite Previous Uncharted Senior Ground*

Amex Stadium - Brighton & Hove Albion

The Amex Stadium wins the best senior ground because it’s bonny, with lovely comfy seats, nice mantled shiny stands and most of all it became my Shangri-La in the lifetime pursuit of The 92.

* Favourite Previous Unchartered Non-League Ground*
Church Road - Hayes & Yeading

Church Road in Hayes is another classic old non-league ground which was lost this year after over 90 years of use. I arrived just in time for the final match making the long trek to Middlesex on a Tuesday night for the final farewell.

*Favourite My Matchday*

281 Plainmoor

The most enjoyable My Matchday was my furthest journey of the year, a 380 mile drive to Torquay on the Thursday before their Good Friday clash with Wycombe Wanderers.

This was the first of an Easter treble which included Yeovil and Bournemouth which formed part of an enjoyable weekend in the South West for the Smudger family.

*Best Pre-Match Bevvy*
The Bear - Oxford

The Bear Inn in the fine city of Oxford is probably the titchiest pub I’ve ever been in. The bar is decorated throughout with old school ties and serves a regular selection of Fuller's beers as well as a couple of guest ales. The Bear claims to be the old boozer in the city and is worth seeking out, found just off the main High Street on Bear Lane.

*Silver 'Spoons Award*
Tilley Stone - Gateshead

At long last we have a JDW in Gateshead(the one in the Metty doesn’t count) The Tilley Stone opened in October and over the last few months I’ve been a regular caller, especially on Thursday’s, as the weekly curry nights are popular with the Smudger family.

*Scabby Eye of the Year*

Cornish Pasty - Yeovil

The ‘Scabby-eye Award’ goes not to a pie but another form of pastry based product with the delicious belly filling Cornish pasties at Huish Park in Yeovil. This is the first and probably the only time a Football League club takes this award which is usually dominated by the superior food on offer at non-league grounds.

Last years winners and the year before and the year before that can be viewed HERE.

My Matchday - 304 New Broomfield

2011-11-26T21:58:00.022+01:00

Airdrie United 3v3 Arbroath

Scottish League Division Two

Saturday 26^th November 2011

It was my intension that last month’s trip north to Raith Rovers was to be my last journey to Scotland until the spring. However it was hard to resist taking a gamble on the weather to book advance trains to Edinburgh and if I couldn’t bag another ground there’s always the back up plan of a day on the lash in one of my favourite cities.

The weather was rough in the West side of Scotland, but not match threatening, so I confidently headed up to Airdrie in North Lanarkshire. The town forms part of a municipality with Coatbridge in the former district known as the Monklands, situated approximately 12 miles east of Glasgow.

The Airdrie name is believed to have originated from Gaelic dialect; An Àrd Ruigh meaning a level height or high pastures land, or possibly from An Àrd Àirighe denoting a sheiling or wayside town

Airdrie United formed in 2002, born out of a collapse of one club and the takeover of another. Airdieonians with debts of almost £3m went out of business after finished runners-up in the Scottish First Division in the 2001–02 season, their vacancy in the SFL taking up by Gretna, a non-league side playing in the Northern Premier League in England.

Airdieonians fan and accountant Jim Ballantyne led a consortium to gain entry to the Scottish League with a newly formed club out of the ashes of “The Diamonds” with a buy-out of the ailing Second Division side Clydebank, to take over their League place and relocated to North Lanarkshire.

The new club kept the traditional Airdrieonians colours of all white with a wraparound red diamond and the name changed to Airdrie United. Although the club are officially a continuation of Clydebank, they are mainly recognised as a reincarnation of Airdrieonians, with Clydebank having been reformed by the UCS supporters group, plying their trade in the West Region of the Scottish Junior League.

Airdrieonians formed in 1878 and played at the original Broomfield Park from 1892. My own link to Airdrie, or should I say, the Tyneside connection to the club comes in the way of a famous son of North Lanarkshire - the legendary Hughie Gallacher.

After signing from Queen of the South in 1921, Hughie made his name at Airdrieonians, earning the first of his 20 Scottish caps in 1924 going on to score 23 international goals. During his four years at Broomfield he scored 91 goals in 111 appearances before heading south to St James Park in a 6,500 deal in December 1925.

The wee man became one of the earliest legendary Newcastle number 9s, a key member of the 1926-27 title winning team with a remarkable 133 career goals in 160 matches before a big money move to Chelsea. Such was his popularity at United that when he return with the Blues a record attendance of 68,386 was set, with several thousand locked outside. Gallacher scored 81 goals in 144 games and was Chelsea’s top scorer in each of his four seasons at Stamford Bridge.

Hughie went on to play at Derby County, Notts County and Grimsby before returning to Tyneside in 1938 at Fourth Division Gateshead. A delighted and emotional Gallacher was quoted as saying “It’s grand to be back on Tyneside, my heart has been here ever since I left United eight years ago. I intend to spend the rest of my life with my adopted folk in Gateshead."

Crowds at Gateshead’s Redheugh Park soared to 20,000 as he hit 18 league goals for the club before retiring from football due to the outbreak of World War 2. Hughie continued to live in Gateshead until his sad demise and tragic suicide in 1957, taking his life just a short walk from my own home in Gateshead, stepping in front of an oncoming express train on the London-Edinburgh line at Low Fell.

Broomfield Park was sold to supermarket chain Safeway for £5.5m in May 1994. The club’s intention was to build a new, 10,000 all-seated stadium to SPL standard in readiness of gaining promotion from the First Division. However acquiring planning permission proved difficult as the club struggled to find an appropriate site, which meant Airdrie had to groundshare with Clyde at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld for four seasons.

Once a viable site was found, building work on the Shyberry Excelsior Stadium (as it was originally called) was completed in time for the start of the 1998-99 season. The stadium is made up of four separate single tier stands with open corners. The Jack Dalziel Stand is the largest, having a row of executive boxes at the top and decked out in red seats with white diamonds and AFC (What about the ‘U’?) picked out in black. The Perspex dugouts are at each side of the tunnel and the stand also houses the ticket office, club shop, conference and banqueting facilities and a public bar.

Opposite is the East Stand which is closed to the public and is only used by the press. I was one of the eight in the spacious press box, made up of six writers and two on the TV gantry section. The stand is similar in height and appearance as the North and South Stands behind each goal, the seats are horizontally colour banded into white red and black.

The ground also has electric scoreboards behind each goal, four prominent corner floodlights and a new 3G artificial pitch which made its debut in August 2010.

Although only one stand was available to the paying public on this visit, overall New Broomfield holds 10,171 with a record attendance of 9,613 coming in the 2005 Scottish Challenge Cup Final between Hamilton Academicals and St. Mirren.

The biggest gate for an Airdrieonians match was 8,762 against Celtic in a Scottish League Cup tie in August 1998, as for Airdrie United it’s currently 5,924, set during the Scottish Cup 3^rd round against derby rivals Motherwell in January 2007.

I arrived in a sunny but windy Edinburgh at 1130am. Predictably I spent my brief time in the Scottish capital visiting a couple of unchartered JDW pubs, namely The Playfair in the Omi Centre and the Alexandra Graham Bell on George Street, before taking the 1248 train west towards Helensburgh Central.

The journey to Airdrie takes just over 45 minutes. The closer I got to Lanarkshire the darker and wetter it became, but having seen the weather forecast I was well prepared, well wrapped and water proofed. On arrival I completed a ‘Spoons hat trick in Airdrie, calling into The Robert Hamilton before taking the 20 minute walk to the stadium in the piss-istent rainfall.

I entered the press area via a gate at the Main Stand, the steward handed me a programme and informed me I had to walk around the pitch to the opposite stand, plus if I needed a drink or something to eat I had to walk back.

This wasn’t a convenience, in fact it was bloody great news as I took the longer route around the perimeter, able to freely take pictures with no problems whatsoever and without any hassle from the stewards, not like those mardy jobsworth tits that I experienced at Clyde.

I always enjoy attending games in Scotland but over the last few years the standard of football in the SPL and SFL had been, if I’m brutally honest, piss poor! I’ve been long overdue a great game, and I got it, the game had plenty of goals with both sides fully committed, giving their all in continuous rain and a swirly wind.

The game got off to a lively start; in Arbroath’s very first attack they were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box. Gavin Swankie stepped up and from 20 yards he curled his shot inside the keeper’s right hand post to give the visitors a 57 second lead (according to my digital watch)

Airdrie equalised in the 5^th minute, a cross by McClaren was handled in the box by Baxter and from the spot kick skipper Paul Lovering smashed the penalty in off the underside of the crossbar.

Arbroath regained the lead in the same fashion just before half time. This time a Swankie cross was handled by Green and Steve Doris made no mistake with his spot kick, then after the break The Smokies looked to have bagged the points when Swankie again was on hand to tee up Falkingham to fire home on 56 minutes.

Diamonds top scorer Ryan Donnelly rescued an unlikely point with a headed brace in a two minute spell, getting on the end of a Boyle cross on 69 minutes, then a minute later he was left unmarked to nod home from close range to take his goal tally to 18 goals in 19 games this season.

Both teams had chances to win it, the best effort falling to Donnelly who was denied a hat-trick with a tremendous tip over by keeper Hill, but overall neither side deserved to lose, a draw being the fairest result.

Full marks to both teams for producing a cracking game in horrendous conditions. I felt my planned arrival to Airdrie came 7 days too late after they pulled of a record 11-0 win in the Scottish Cup last week, but I’m quite happy to settle for a 6 goal thriller and an enjoyable but soggy day north of the border.

Matchday stats

AUFC 1 (Lovering 5pen Donnelly 69,70)

AFC (Swankie 1pen Doris 42pen Falkingham 56)

att.687

Admission:Press (£15)

Programme £2

Ground no.304 New Broomfield - Matchday Web album (22 pictures)

My Matchday - 303 North Street

2011-11-19T22:46:00.011+01:00

Alfreton Town 1v1 Gateshead

Blue Sq.Bet Premier

Saturday 19th November 2011

This week I was back on the road with the Heed Army for a relatively short trip (compared with what I’m used to) to Alfreton Town to tick off one of the three remaining Conference grounds I need to complete Blighty’s top 116 clubs.

Alfreton is a town and civil parish in the Amber Valley, neighbouring the districts of Bolsover and North East Derbyshire. The town was formerly a Norman Manor and later an Urban District.
Legend has it, that Alfreton takes its name from Alfred the Great, who drove the Danes from settlements in this area of the country and overhauled much of the damage. There’s also evidence that a settlement existed here in Saxon times.

Alfreton Town formed in 1959 following the merger of Alfreton Miners Welfare and Alfreton United. The club originally playing in the Central Alliance North Division One, before joining the Midland Counties League from 1961 - winning three league titles during the 1970’s.

Town became founder members of the Northern Counties East League in 1982, becoming league champions in 1987 thus winning promotion to the Northern Premier League.

Back to back relegations at the end of the 1990s saw the club back in the Northern Counties East League. However good fortune returned, two promotion seasons and a 4th place finish saw the Reds placed in the Conference North when the football pyramid was reformed in 2004.

Last season the club had their most successful season in winning the Conference North title with a ten point margin over nearest rivals AFC Telford to take their place at the top table of non-league football.

The local council provided a ground for the newly formed club on North Street, which was originally called the Town Ground. Within a year a covered banked terrace was built on the Welfare side, followed by seating for 180 and a small covered stand at the Alma Street end in 1963. The ground’s early years witnessed a record crowd when 5,023 saw a Central Midland league clash with Derbyshire neighbours Matlock Town in 1960.

In the early ‘70s the original stand was replaced with a covered terrace and seats combination, followed by floodlights and a new dressing room building, which was later renovated with a players lounge bar and directors box.

More improvements were made as the club progressed with the most significant change coming in 1994 with a new Main Stand. The stand runs pitch length and is split up into different sections, having two rows of blue seats and press box in the centre, the Tommie Bradley Terrace next to the club shop and at the opposite end of the stand is the Red Bar and the Lottie Bradley Hospitality Area.

The main turnstile entrance is in the corner off Bentley Close, where you’re met by the refreshment bar and club shop which has a huge selection of programmes and pin badges which is well worth visiting.

Opposite is the Tom McRoy Stand named after “Mr Alfreton Town” himself who was responsible for the amalgamation of the new club 52 years ago and is still going strong, celebrating his 92nd birthday this year.
The stand is two-thirds covered with a scaffold assisted TV gantry on the roof, with half a dozen rows of blue flip seats which continue around to the Bentley Close end behind the goal. The seats were purchased from Leicester City’s old Filbert Street ground at a bargain price of £1.50 per pew. The Bentley Close has only four rows of seats which were bolted onto the terrace in 2003 and there are plans to add cover in the near future, as well as moving the changing rooms and adding other facilities around the ground.

At the top end on the Alma Street side is a small steep terrace known as the 'Tin End' which is split into three separate sections. This has a small covered area in the centre section and the back walls are painted red.

In 2004 a new £70,000 floodlighting system was installed courtesy a £45,000 award from the Football Stadia Improvements scheme and several wheelchair access ramps for spectator points for the disabled. The Impact Arena as it’s now officially known* has a capacity of 3,600 with 1,500 seats.

(* as a regular at St James Park for 37 of its 119 years history, I prefer to call grounds by their traditional name)

On current form I expected a convincing away win, confidently predicting a 3-1 victory for Gateshead, but if I was any good at this prediction malarkey I would be rich enough to pack in work and spend my leisure time exploring the delights of stadiums around the continent.

Alfreton didn’t look like a side that’s struggling at the wrong end of the table as they dominated early on. Kris Gate was on hand to twice to make goal line clearances and Jak Alnwick tipped over a free kick from Anthony Church as the Reds bossed the first half.

The opening goal duly arrived on 37 minutes with probably the best goal I’ve seen so far this season. The ball was played into the right flank to Jake Moult, who’s back heel flick teed up Paul Clayton who hit a bullet first time shot which found the postage stamp position in the frame of the goal.

The Tynesiders improved after the interval, the Reds invited the pressure with keeper Joe Day denying Gate and Cummins, with the Heed number 11 also going close with a near post header.

The equaliser came on 68 minutes from Chris Moore, Brittain played a square ball to the edge of the box and the substitute fired home from 20 yards.

In the closing stages the hosts should have won it as the Heed’s desperate defending saw goalmouth scrambles and goal line clearances, the best chance saw Marwood on hand to clear off the line from Clayton and a Leigh Frank shot just whistled over the crossbar which would have been the third cracking goal of the afternoon.

The Town fans post match view was that this was the best home performance of the season. The luxury of having almost a full squad to choose from making the difference and if they can produce performances of a similar ilk then they have every chance of surviving this season.

A travelling distance of just 146 miles from the Civic Centre to the ground meant a 10am departure and an arrival time of 1.30, so this gave me amble time to check out a few of the local hostelries. I had arranged to meet Squad #108 John Robinson his brother Neil and Squad#194 Keith Arthur when I arrived, but their replacement bus service from Derby was caught in heavy traffic so unfortunately they didn’t arrive till just before 2.30pm.

I did do a solo run to the local Wetherspoons – Waggon & Horses, followed by the King Alfred where I met a drunken exile Geordie from Birtley who had lived in Alfreton for the last 10 years. He was positive that he knew me from his days working in Gateshead, however he may have been mistaking as he was really really pished!

My last pre-match pub was The Victoria where most of the Heed Army had taking root and this was where I finally met John (ground no.509 today) and Keith (ground no.381) for the first time, which brings my 100FgC handshake total to 53/198.

Its always good to meet up and have a bit crack with some of the squad, also I was made welcome by the staff working at the ground who were very friendly, so overall a it proved a very good trip and a canny day out.

Matchday stats

ATFC 1(Clayton 37) GFC 1(Moore 68)

Att.651

Admission:Press (£13)

Programme:£2.50

Ground no.303 North Street - Matchday Web album (20 pictures)

All Roads Lead South or How I Finally got The 92 Monkey Off My back

2011-11-07T20:15:00.009+01:00

I can clearly recollect when the notion of trying to do the 92 was first

mentioned. At the time I was still living at my Mam’s house, lazing around in the sitting room with Ian Patrick, two typical dole wallers listening to The Undertones Sin Of Pride album whilst waiting for the racing to start on TV.

In our 40 plus years of friendship, we’ve always tested each other on football trivia. On this particular day there was one of those guides to the football season, free with an earlier issue of Match magazine lying on the coffee table. We were testing each other on football grounds and the quiz led to chat about how many grounds we had been to so far and the idea of one day completing the set.

After a wholehearted agreement was made, we looked at making a start at Newcastle United’s next away fixture at Stamford Bridge, which was a perilous ordeal in 1983, but if we harboured ambitions of doing all the grounds then we had to take our lives into our own hands and run the risk of the Chelsea Headhunters.

We survived the daunting trip to west London. A couple of wayward bricks failed to cause any damage to our coach plus we had the added bonus of a Toon victory, so that was ground number 23 successfully ticked, which meant I was already a quarter of the way to achieving my goal.

The following season United looked a good bet for promotion, so I tried to get to as many of the previous uncharted Second Division grounds as possible, then the following season in the top division I made my debut at the homes of the country’s top clubs to finish the 1984/85 season on 46 grounds, so I was now half way there, so far so good.

After this successful spell I spent the next few years treading water, trying to tick grounds while only supporting your team gave little chance of making major progress. Living in the north-east is a big disadvantage as well because all roads lead south, so attending neutral games isn’t as easy as living in the middle of the country when you have all points of the compass to aim at.

The dawn of the 1990s began with a trip to Reading in the FA Cup, as I reached my half century at Elm Park. From then on it became a case of two steps forward then four steps back, relegation into the Conference and ground moves meant I couldn’t get past the number 57. I first peaked at this total at Meadow Lane in 1993, then at St Marys in 2002, Darlington Arena in 2007 and Sincil Bank in 2008.

When I next hit “the Heinz” at the Keepmoat Stadium at the beginning of the 2008/09 season I never looked back, as I now regularly ground bagging at neutral matches, ticking off another 8 to finish the season on 65, with Luton Town’s relegation adding the predictable Forth Bridge syndrome to take the running total to 64.

The 2009-10 season began a new dawn in my football supporting life.After a lot of soul searching I made the decision to pack in my season ticket of 27 years at NUFC. There were many reasons why I parted with my seat in the Gallowgate End, one of which was so that I take some time out from St James Park and concentrate on getting The 92 Monkey off my back.

I was one of the few Toon supporters that welcomed relegation to the Championship, I felt at the time that the club needed to get rid of the overpaid “star” players, to basically start again and come back stronger, but a more selfish reason was that I could tick off Preston, Plymouth and

the two grounds in south Wales.

The season was a good one, not only did Newcastle win the Championship title but I bagged 14 League grounds to finish off with a healthy 78, of course that was before the Forth Bridge painters kicked in again, taking four away which meant I still had 18 left to do.

I approached 2010-11 campaign obsessed with finally completing the set in one and a half seasons, setting myself a finishing line target of Christmas 2011. Last season I played a blinder, scratching off a mighty fine 16 to finish the season on 89, with naturally the two steps back meant I only had 5 left to do in the first half of the new season. I managed to bag the last handful with ease this season, the only hiccup being ticket issues at Brighton which I got around by buying a ticket for the away end.

So after 28 years since a couple of spotty teenagers spent those long work-free days talking about lasses, records, betting and football trivia I finally arrived at the Amex Stadium, my much sought after “Shangri-La” and a major cross off my bucket list.

With that box now ticked I can start thinking about completing other bucket list targets, the likes of skydiving, standing at the top of the Empire State Building, doing the Coast-to-Coast walk and if I’m really really lucky an Ménage à trois! But whatever else I manage to achieve it won’t give me the same satisfaction as completing The 92, its took a long time but nonetheless, it’s been an awarding experience

My Matchday - 301 Amex Stadium

2011-11-07T13:58:00.011+01:00

Brighton & Hove Albion 2v0 Barnsley

Championship

Sunday 6th November 2011

And so it came to pass that on the thirteen thousand six hundred and ninety fourth day since I went to football ground number one, I can at long last look at the league tables of the top four English divisions knowing I’ve done the bloody lot!

The 92nd ground honour in this long belated achievement goes to the Amex Stadium, the new home of Brighton & Hove Albion which also completes a Seagulls hat-trick, following on from visits to the Goldstone in 1983 and an enjoyable day with the Brighton lads at the Withdean last April.

The American Express Community Stadium is located near the village of Falmer in Brighton and Hove. The stadium was designed by London-based KSS Architects with building work undertook by Buckingham Group in December 2008. The £93m construction of the stadium is sunk three storeys into the ground, having 138,000 cubic metres of chalk removed for its foundation.

The ground is dominated by the large three-tiered West Stand, which has two strips of executive facilities above and below the middle tier, including 14 luxury boxes and the premium fans' 1901 Club .The bottom tier is the largest which also has the managers/players section and altogether the stand has a capacity of 11,833.

The Family Stand is on the east side which holds 5,404 fans and like the West stand has an attractive curved roof. If the need arises for the stadium to be increased a further tier can be added to the East stand which would bring the capacity up to 30,000. This also means the extra unused space at the rear gives an unfinished appearance to the stand.

The North Stand has 2,688 seats and is occupied by the club's main vocal support and also has a control centre and large video screen scoreboard. I was amongst the visiting away supporters in the South stand which is similar in design with 2,575 seats. Both stands behind the goal have distinctive sloping roofs which link the four individual stands together.

The stadium was completed in May with the first game, the now customary new stadium ‘tester match’ being the 2011 Sussex Senior Cup Final between Brighton and Eastbourne Borough on the 16th July, followed by the official opening with a pre-season friendly with Tottenham Hotspur at the end of that month.

The first League fixture was against Doncaster Rovers on the 6th August, who were coincidently the last opponents 14 years earlier at the Goldstone Ground. The Seagulls supporters celebrated watching League football in a ground which they can finally call their own with a victory, with two late goals from substitute Will Buckley clinching a 2-1 win.

The Falmer Stadium confirmed sponsorship naming rights with American Express Europe, Brighton and Hove's biggest private sector employer. The Amex includes a banqueting and conference facility, a nursery school crèche, education facilities for the University of Brighton, large office space, the ticket and merchandise store and the 200 capacity ‘Dick's Bar’ named after the club's life president Dick Knight.

The stadium offers real ales from local breweries; Harveys and Dark Star, both businesses have been supporters in the club's pursuit for a new stadium and there’s also a unique special guest beers option from breweries local to the away teams.(Although drinking ale isn’t something that this author indulges in*wink*…Eddy) However on this visit there was no guest ales and the Harveys Ale was off the menu, the only option being puffy larger, on which I declined.

As I was at Brighton’s last game at the Withdean in an ideal world it would have been great to have been at the first match at the Amex, however the demand for home tickets has meant my eventual visit is amongst the away supporters, so for this day I was an honorary Tyke!

I left Newcastle on the 0755 to Kings Cross, alighting at Peterborough where I met up with Squad#88 Graham Precious, who was also completing ‘The 92’ for the first time. I was pleased that the two stars of Radio 4’s The Completists got to finish together, as Graham has played a major part in my progress over the last few years, chauffeuring me to the likes of Aldershot, Burton, Chesterfield and Crawley.

We drove out of Peterborough at 1120 and arrived at Falmer at 1.30 which was around the same time as everyone else who travelled by car. In search of a decent parking space Graham drove straight into the main car park and told the steward that a parking space was reserved in the name of Precious with his personal suffix of “As in valuable” The parking steward searched in vain for a Mr Precious on the parking guest list, which obviously wasn’t there, but after a quick word with his gaffer we were allowed through to pick up a free prime parking spot.

I bought a programme and was pleased to see that our 92 visit was mentioned

on page 9, before visited the club shop where the large queue outside was reminiscent of the days when pensioners stood outside the post office on a Monday morning to pick up their pension an hour before it opened. I bought the usual pin badge, a postcard (see top picture, only cost one English pound) and for this special occasion a pint glass with the Seagulls crest which I’m going to have engraved with the details on reaching the 92.

At half time I met up with Squad #111 Steve Mann who had travelled from Hastings for the match and ground visit. It was the first time we had met and he too had the clever idea of picking this game and an away end ticket to tick off the Amex.

As the game went into the last few minutes with the result assured, we made a sharp exit and just as we hit the A27 5Live confirmed a 2-0 win for Brighton had ended a run of nine league games without a win.

The first ever Sunday match at the Amex started quite even as both teams playing turns each at having an unsuccessful furrow up field. The best chance for the visitors came on 27 minutes when a Perkins chip was tipped onto the crossbar by “There’s only one Stevie Harper” then just before the break the hosts took the lead, when a shot by Harley was well saved before falling into the path of Gordon Greer, firing his left foot drive past the despairing defender on the goal line.

The Seagulls doubled the lead just before the hour mark when a penetrating run and shot from Mackail-Smith came back off the crossbar but Ryan Harley was on hand to finish off his good work with his second goal of the season.

A welcome result for Gus Poyet’s side, the win takes Albion back up to 10th spot and only two points from the play-offs positions.

The quick getaway meant I arrived back at Peterborough at 7.30pm, which gave me a good hour for my first pint or three of the day. I had plenty of time to visit the two JDW’s in the town; The Drapers Arms and College Arms, which I found easily enough but what I couldn’t find was a chippy or takeaway, as I was in desperate need of some bait after having nothing since breakfast.

I arrived back home just before midnight, tired but delighted that I’ve finally done it at last, my 123rd League grounds on from my first visit to St James Park in 1974 is no.92 - The Amex Stadium, a great new addition to League stadia and worthy final destination on my long quest.

For you Googlers a more detailed look at Brighton & Hove Albion can be read on my visit last season; My Matchday - 285 Withdean Stadium.

Also you can read more about how I finally did ‘The 92’ in the article - All Roads Lead South

Matchday stats
B&HAFC 2(Greer 44 Harley 57) BFC 0
att.19,841
Admission £24
Programme £3

Ground no.301 Amex Stadium - MatchdayWeb album (19 pictures)

My Matchday - 300 Priestfield Stadium

2011-10-23T01:42:00.008+02:00

Gillingham 1v0 Oxford United

League Two

Saturday 22nd October 2011

My penultimate ground on this long journey towards the completing the 92 takes me to the only ground in the football League which is set in the Garden of England - the county of…(wait for it)..Kent!
Gillingham is a town in the unitary authority of Medway which includes the settlements of Brompton, Rainham, Hempstead, Rainham Mark and Twydall.
The name originates from the Gylla's family, followed by the Old English words; ingas (family, followers) and ham (village, homestead) and was first recorded as Gyllingeham in the 10th century.
Gyllingas was a war lord named from the old English word "gyllan" meaning "to shout". He was a famous man in Kent history as he led his fighters into battle screaming and shouting. (If a biopic was made Brian Blessed would be perfect for the role…Eddy)

New Brompton FC formed in 1893 originating from a team called Excelsior which played on the Great Lines. The new club proceeded to purchase a ground on Priestfield Road for £600, which had a wooden stand and a pavilion.
In 1899 a stand was built by a group of dockland workers on the Gordon Road side, made up of wooden benches under a thin roof that remained robust and survived until 1985, being the oldest remaining stand in senior football at that time.
The club changed their name to Gillingham FC in 1913 and the following year built a new stand which was damaged in a gale, having its roof ripped off and most of the ironwork damaged. The structure only lasted one year due to its poor design, pity the dockland workers weren’t around to build another sturdy stand in exchange for beer and tabs!
The Gills were elected to the newly formed Football League Division Three in 1920 which was followed by extensive ground work over the next decade with new terracing and cover to the Rainham End.
The club lost its league status in 1938 and as a Southern League club the renamed Priestfield Stadium witnessed a record crowd of 23,002 for an FA Cup tie with QPR in 1947. Gillingham again became Kent’s only League club in 1950 and more ground improvements followed at a cost of £28,500. The pitch was levelled with a new perimeter wall, as well as new terracing and cover added on Gordon Road.
In 1963 Priestfield became one of the last League grounds to install floodlights at a cost of £14,000, switched on for a League Cup tie with Bury, which was the last noteworthy development until the Taylor Report in 1985.
The Priestfield Stadium as we know today was developed after Paul D.P.Scally took over as chairman in 1995.
The first new stand was built in 1997 on the unused Gordon Road side. The 2,400 capacity stand cost £2m, kept as a single tier due to row of houses on the street, with only 12-15 rows of seats. Above there’s a TV gantry and electric scoreboard central with the club name on the facia in white capital letters.
The main stand at the north side is the Medway Stand opened in 2000. The two tiers are split by a row of 20 executive boxes with two rows of seats outside each box. The stand also housed the changing rooms, media centre, fitness facilities, offices, club shop and the Blue Rock Café nightspot.
The Rainham End terrace was replaced with a single tier cantilevered stand in 1999 and like the other completed stands is decked out in blue seats with white lettering.
The Town End terracing was removed in 2003 and replaced with a temporary seated stand named after the late legendary football commentator Brian Moore who was a former director and Gills supporter. The away end has 3,400 uncovered green seats and depending on the away following only one section of seating is open to spectators.
In the north-east corner is the Conference and Banqueting Centre and the players enter the pitch from here. The ground is completed by a set of four tall corner floodlights which I spotted from the train station and due to a sponsorship deal the ground has been rebranded as the MEMS Priestfield Stadium with a capacity of 11,582
Even though I attended the match as a neutral, I favoured the home side because like a vast majority of football fans on Tyneside, we have a soft spot for the Gills as they were the team that sent SAFC into Division Three in 1987.
As the game progressed my favouritism diminished in desperation to see some goalmouth action from either side, as neither keeper had a save to make in a dire opening 45 minutes. Then when least expected, just on the stroke of half time, the best effort on goal found the back of the net with a spectacular effort from 25 yards from Lewis Montrose.
The U’s dominated after Joe Martin was sent off for a second booking early in the second half with Davis, Potter and Hall all going close for the visitors.
Goal scorer Montrose was shown a late red for a rash challenge on United substitute Asa Hall, then deep into injury time James Constable missed a sitter when clean through on goal, chipping his effort well wide of the post.
The nine-men held on and the result leapfrogged Gillingham above Oxford into fifth spot as the U’s drop down to seventh after their eight-game unbeaten run came to a disappointing end.
The journey from Newcastle to Gillingham is quite a decent trip, once arriving at Kings Cross there’s no clart on with the tube, just a simple stroll around the corner to St. Pancras International to catch the South Eastern connection to Kent. So after departing on the 0630, I arrived in Gillingham bright eyed and bushy tailed by 11.15am.
As Priestfield is a short 10 minute walk from the station I decided to head straight there to take some photos plus I thought while I was on, I may as well enquire about a press pass, because like wor lasses granny use to say “shy bairns get nowt”
On arrival the on duty steward allowed me through the players entrance to the media office where I eventually met a very nice helpful club official called Ray Foord, who on my behalf tried to contact the press officer on his mobile. Unable to make contact he took me up into the players lounge to wait, telling me to help myself to a hot drink and a sit down after my long journey south.
Just then an elderly club official approached me telling me off for wearing jeans as there’s a dress code in the players lounge. He also mentioned that apparently I’ve got him into some kind of trouble, that was until Ray piped up to tell him that I’m not the man he thought I was, seemingly I have a doppelganger in Gillingham!
I decided to decline the offer of a drink and a seat and head into town instead. “Why do you want to do that” said Ray “There’s nothing there!” Of course there were some things in town that I found interesting - Medway Records which is a cracking music store and two GBG listed pubs; Will Adams and the Frog & Toad. When I returned at 2.15pm there was a press pass with my name on it at the desk, so many thanks for your help and hospitality Mr. Foord you’re a genuine gent.

I had planned to meet up with squad#68 Jonathan Elton when I eventually came to tick off Priestfield, as he lives in nearby Chatham, but unfortunately it was badly timed as he’s currently on holiday.

I received an email from squad#153 Mark Chatterton this week saying he would love to meet for a drink to celebrate my 300th ground, but he text me that morning saying he couldn’t make it due to car trouble.

Last week I had my annual bevvy with squad#31 Steve Dobson prior to his beloved Spurs playing at Newcastle, he was in the company of football blogger Richard Bysouth who said he hadn’t been to Gillingham. But guess what? I didn’t meet him either, as he was running late so we didn’t have time for a drink, although luckily I bumped into him at half time and we also had a quick word after the match.

Overall I had a great day, the only downer being engineering works between Peterborough and Doncaster which put an extra 2 hours on the journey home, so it was nearly midnight when I arrived back at 100FgC HQ. Nevertheless that couldn’t spoil my good mood after completing another expedition from The 92 tour, which leaves me with just one left to go and that final destination is a club with a brand new stadium that coincidently once used to play home games at Priestfield.

Matchday stats GFC 1(Montrose 45) OUFC 0
att.5819
Admission:Press (£21-£24)
Programme £3

Flysouth Bysouth(report to follow)

Ground no.300 Priestfield Stadium - Matchday web album (20 pictures)

299. Stark's Park

2011-10-15T21:54:00.011+02:00

Raith Rovers 2v0 Partick Thistle

Scottish League First Division

Saturday 15th October 2011

I first clapped eyes on Stark’s Park whilst travelling on the east coast line from Edinburgh to Dundee and since then its been a ground that I’ve been looking forward to visiting, not just for its unique appearance but because it’s the only ground with a rhyming name in senior fitba.

Raith Rovers formed in 1883 in the former royal burgh of Kirkcaldy on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, the largest populated town in Fife. The town takes its name from the Pictish words Caer and Caled which translates as "place of the hard fort" or "place of Caled's fort". Kirkcaldy has long been nicknamed the Lang Toun in reference to the nigh mile long main street, which eventually stretched to four miles when the burgh boundaries were extended to the neighbouring hamlets of Gallatown, Linktown, Pathhead and Sinclairtown in 1876

Raith isn’t actually a settlement but an area of land that once stretched from south of Loch Gelly as far as Kirkcaldy. The Battle of Raith is said to have taking place here, when invading Angles forces defeated an alliance of Scots, Britons and Picts under King Áedán mac Gabráin of Dál Riata. There is also a Raith House and Raith Tower which sit on Cormie Hill to the west of the town and several parts of the town are build upon the Raith estate.

Although there were other football clubs in the shape of Kirkcaldy United and Kirkcaldy Wanderers, Rovers were the most successful team in the town, turning professional in 1892 and became the first club in Fife elected to the Scottish League in 1902/03

The club played at two previous grounds until settling at Robbie’s Park, then in 1891 were forced into a move when the land was incorporated into a new public estate called Beveridge Park, named after Provost Michael Beveridge. The team moved a short distance, transported their pavilion along Pratt Street to Stark's Park named after and run by councillor and licensee Robert Stark.
The Archibald Leitch Grandstand was built in 1922 and was partly funded by the sale of Alex James to Preston North End, replacing the original main stand which was destroyed by fire in 1918. The L-shaped structure still stands today, its main feature being the gable roof with the RRFC and club crest an the facia. The stand runs from the corner of the ground to half way which leaves the other half filled with unused terracing. The players emerge from a proper tunnel as the changing rooms are under the stand with the team dugouts pitchside. The stand is furnished with a mixture of old and new, with wooden flip seats and a section of bucket seats. The pavilion remains largely unchanged apart from remedial work and upgraded seating and a new metal roof in 1999.

Major developments were made to Stark’s Park during the 1950s after a record gate of 31,306 against Hearts in February 1953, with new concrete terracing and partial cover behind each goal, which along with the "coo shed" opposite the main stand meant there was cover to all four sides of the ground. Shortly afterwards four large floodlight pylons were added with the cost of the improvements mostly subsidised by the sale of star players like Jackie Stewart to Birmingham City, Jim Baxter to Rangers and Jimmy MacEwan to Aston Villa.

The Railway End shed was replaced with a new roof and seats in 1981 which also ran half pitch length, which was later extended in 1996. It’s now easy to see the two separate stands as there is no seats in the empty stand, which is unused apart from the TV Gantry and a large Rovers supporters flag.

Raith won their first major honour in 1994 after lifting the League Cup(Coca-Cola Cup) by causing a major upset in defeating Celtic 6-5 on penalties after the final finished in a 2-2 draw. This success meant to club qualified for the UEFA Cup and with the extra revenue two new 3,370 all seated stands were built behind each goal by Barr Construction.
The stands are decked out in dark blue with white lettering amongst the seats, with the main feature the floodlights perched in each corner of the stands. The McDermid Stand is set aside for away supporters and the overall capacity stands at 10,104.

During the clubs UEFA Cup campaign they faced eventual winners Bayern Munich at Easter Road due to their own grounds limited capacity with the Germans returning to the San Starko when the all-seated stadium was complete.
The Scottish Division One clash with Partick Thistle got off to a drab start, looking like of a potential nowts each draw which wouldn’t have pleased the three special guests in attendance. Those being myself, Squad#155 James Little and former PM Gordon Brown, who seemed to spend the game sitting in the pavilion checking his phone. (Probably checking on the Heed score as well…Eddy)

Raith took the lead on 31 minutes when a corner kick to the far post was nodded back across goal into the path of Laurence Ellis who tapped the ball home to score on his 300th appearance for the club.
The second half was much better with Rovers doubling their lead on 56 minutes through John Baird, giving plenty of time and space to nod home from six yards. The hosts won comfortably and could have expanded the score line, while Thistle depending on long range efforts, lacking a cutting edge in front of goal.

So it wasn’t exactly a vintage performance from Raith, nothing to get the Rovers fans so excited that they’ll be "dancing in the streets of Raith tonight" (in tribute to Sam Leitch)
After enduring long journeys south so far this season, it was nice to take a short trip north, leaving Newcastle on the 1144 direct train to Edinburgh. On arrival I met up with James the Hearts fan (I refuse to call him a jam tart!) for the rest of the jaunt across the Forth which took about 40 minutes.
On arrival we planned to call for a pint in the Starks Bar, but the boozer is now closed and boarded up. However we spotted three gents walking at a swift pace meaning they must surely be heading to a pub, so we followed them until the big red capital T emerged in the distance, which in these parts is a sign of a pub which sells Tenants Lager. The Estuary pub is on Links Street and had a mixture of Rovers and Thistle fans watching the football on TV.

Afterwards we were back in Edinburgh by 5.30pm which gave me an hour before my train home, so we had time for a pint in the Cask & Barrel(Swannay 'Orkney Best' 3.6%***) before James dropped me at the train station where I still had time for a drink in the Halfway House (Barneys Beer 'Pale Ale'3.8%***).

I was nice to be home early, back in 100FgC HQ by 8.15pm, but unfortunately there always has to be a fly in the ointment! I finished the ‘My Matchday’ report on the train which I was due to publish when I got home until it suddenly disappeared from my laptop and into cyberspace, which meant I had to write this whole article again from scratch. Also to make things worse and rub salt into my wounds, the breadknife was watching that effin X-Factor on TV, which all resulted in a disappointing end to the days events.
However these trivial things couldn’t spoil a great day, which was mainly due to Squad#155 for make the trip possible by picking me up at Waverley and driving across to Fife. My mission of finishing the English 92 is almost complete and I look forward to more trips north of the border in the spring when I’ll start chipping away at the Scottish 42.

Matchday stats
RRFC 2(Ellis 31, Baird 56)PTFC 0
att.1769
Admission £17
Programme £2

Ground no.299 Stark's Park - Matchday webalbum (24 pictures)

Wearside League Wanderings - part six

2011-10-09T14:27:00.001+02:00

The sixth part of my wanderings around the Wearside League features two new clubs who were accepted into the league for the 2011-12 season, both coincidently faced north-east Non-League legends Willington.

293. Hill Top Ground

Gateshead Leam Rangers 2v0 Willington
Wearside League
Wednesday 17th August 2011

Leam Rangers formed as a youth football club in 1993, the brainchild of current Club Secretary Rob Houghton. The club secured a lease on council land at the top of the Wealcroft on Leam Lane Estate in the southern end of Gateshead. The Hill Top Ground was transformed from an overgrown grassed wasteland to a canny little ground with good facilities, which is now suitable to host Wearside League football.

The club now run 22 boys and girls teams from ages 6 to 18 as well as two senior sides. The Leam played in the Durham Alliance between 2009 and 2011 until a successful application to step up to the Wearside League last summer. The club still have a youth side in the Durham Alliance which is used as a stepping stone to the senior squad.

The redevelopment of the ground is due to the hard work and dedication of Mr Hughton with the help of willing volunteers. He even took a bricklaying course to build a dressing room, as the kids were using metal storage containers without the use of a washroom or toilet.

The ground now has a pleasant club house in between new changing rooms and refreshment bar after a successful application for funding was made to the Football Foundation. The entrance has the club name adorning the metal gates and the pitch is fully fenced off with new hard standing on the nearside. The far side has a pair of stone dugouts and the grass bank is a popular spot for spectators.

Gateshead Leam Rangers opened their first Wearside League campaign with two away defeats and I was in attendance as the Hill Top Ground hosted its very first game at level 7 of the Non-League pyramid against Willington.

The Leam produced a gritty and determined performance to mark the occasion with a first victory of the season. A goal in each half by David Lucas secured a comfortable win, the opening goal coming after only 7 minutes, the striker nodding home a peach of a cross from Liam Barnett(see pic below), then the duo again combined on the hour mark when Barnett was tripped in the box and Lucas despatched the penalty kick to chalk up the Leam’s first three points.

The Leam have a great set up and the club’s progress means that Rangers are now the closest club from my home at Gallowgate View, so I’ll be able to frequently pop down and check on the team’s progress.

The 100FgC was again in attendance on Non-League Day on the 3rd September, with both Michael (Squad #119) and Andy Hudson(squad#173) watching the game with Peterlee Town.
You can read the lads in depth reports on Leam Rangers at;
The Accidental Groundhopper (Michael)
Ganning Away (Andy)

Matchday stats
GLR 2(Lucas 9, 60pen) WFC 0
att.70approx
Admission £2
Programme 50p

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
298. Ford Quarry

Sunderland West End 2v3 Willington
Wearside League
Saturday 8th October 2011

Sunderland West End formed just this year when The Jolly Potters merged with Wearside League outfit Houghton Town. The Jolly Potters were a successful side in the Wearside Combination League, winning a hat-trick of league titles and the Alan Hood memorial trophy twice, since forming in 2006.

The club play at Ford Quarry which is in the South Hylton district of Sunderland The ground is off St Lukes Road, where a road bends down the bank and leads you to the ground entrance. The junction isn’t easy to spot as I drove past it a couple of times until I noticed the pitch at the bottom of the hill.
The Ford Quarry ground was officially opened by Sunderland Council Leader Paul Watson on the 3rd August, when a charity game took place between Sunderland West End and Northern League side Sunderland RCA in aid of The Peter David Lane Trust Fund. The ground has large changing room facilities, a fully fenced off pitch with a pair of metal dugouts.

After I saw Willington lose at Leam Rangers, they suffered a heavy home defeat against Ryhope in the following match. Since then they’ve won eight league fixtures off the belt and stretched it to 9, but only just, after snatching a late winner to deny West End a point.

West End took the lead in the 9th minute when Stubbs capitalised on a defensive mix up to shoot home from a tight angle, but Willington quickly responded, seven minutes later Yorke nodded home from close range, then just before half time Lee beat the offside trap and having plenty of time to pick his spot with a neat finish.
The second half saw West End have plenty of possession with the visitors leaving their two main strikers mooching around the half way line, relying on the long ball tactic to catch the home side on the break.
There was a long stoppage after 75th minute when one of the West End players went for a 50-50 ball and fell over and banged his head against one of the stone posts on the perimeter fence. After a 5 minute delay the player got to his feet and thankfully was ok - “I’m alreet, I just knocked me’sell oot that’s aall” was his insouciant response as the game went on without him.

Just as it was looking as if we had witnessed a goalless second half, the match finished with a dramatic climax. West looked to have grabbed a well earned draw in the 90th minute when a cross shot from Coomber found the top corner off the net, then in the 6 minutes of added on time the game swung back and forth with both teams desperate for a winner.

The winning goal duly arrived in the second minute of stoppage time. The home keeper who played a blinder all afternoon produced two terrific saves from close range, until the ball was unfortunately parried into the path of Lee who was left with an open goal to simply walk the ball over the line to make it nine league wins on the bounce for the men from County Durham.

Sunderland West End are another good addition to the league and matches like this one are a credit to the Wearside League - a cracking game and well worth the two quid admission fee!

Matchday stats

SWE 2(Stubbs 9,Coomber 90) WFC 3(Yorke 16, Lee 42,90+2)
att.47(HC)
Admmission £2
programme:none

My Matchday - 297 Memorial Stadium

2011-10-02T01:01:00.030+02:00

Bristol Rovers 1v3 Cheltenham Town
League Two
Saturday 1st October 2011

For the second week running I ventured across to the opposite side of the country, heading from the north-east to south-west for my first ever visit to Bristol Rovers.

Over the years I’ve seen The Pirates in action on numerous occasions, but I’ve never seen them play as hosts. I did intend to visit Eastville in 1980, but at the time the club were sharing at the home of their City rivals after the South Stand was destroyed by a fire.
Newcastle played at Ashton Gate in successive away matches early in the season and we decided we would rather make the 600 mile round trip to Bristol to see the landlords rather than the tenants play at Ashton Gate.

I also missed out on watching Rovers play at Twerton Park in 1992, as I was on a beer, sex and souvlaki holiday on the Greek island of Rhodes. The Magpies made a blistering start to the 1992-93 season, and a 2-1 win gave United their fifth in a sequence of eleven consecutive wins at the start of that season. On that sunny afternoon the Toon were led out by a 5 year old mascot, who at the time was visiting his 13th ground and some 15 years later became Squad#79 in the 100FgC.

The customary early start for your truly, which meant getting up in the middle of the night and walking across to the town via the High Level Bridge to Central Station. I boarded the 0645 Cross Country service to Plymouth, arriving at Bristol Temple Meads station at 1145.
Bristol is the sixth most populated city in England, built around the River Avon with a short coastline on the Severn Estuary, which flows into the Bristol Channel.
Historically the city was an important port, handling trading goods to the likes of Ireland, Iceland and Gascony and became a centre for shipbuilding and manufacturing. Bristol’s chief sea port has a long history in trade, where deals were personally struck in the former trading area around The Exchange in Corn Street over bronze trading tables, known as "The Nails". It’s said that maybe this is where the expression "cash on the nail", meaning immediate payment, may have originated from.

Bristol Rovers FC originally formed in September 1883 as Black Arabs, in association with the Arabs rugby club, initially playing friendly matches on a pitch at Purdown in Stapelton.

The following year the club were renamed Eastville Rovers playing at Ashley Hill, Horsfield Downs and also the Ridgeway in Upper Eastville. In 1897 the club joined the Birmingham & District League and finally found a settled base at the former ground of Bristol Harlequins RC in Eastville.

The renamed Bristol Eastville Rovers became a professional outfit in the 1897-98 season, dropping the middle name in February 1899, before joining the newly formed Southern League where they played until 1920, when they were accepted into the Football League.

Eastville Football & Athletic Ground was purchased for a measly sum of £150 and remained Rovers’ home for the next 89 years until 1986, when financial problems resulted in the club being forced into a temporary ground share at Twerton Park in Bath.

Bristol Rovers were tenants at Bath City for 10 years until taking up another tenancy with Bristol Rugby Club in 1996 at the Memorial Ground in the Horsley area of Bristol.The stadium was opened in September 1921 on an area of land named Buffalo Bill's Field that was previously occupied by allotments. The ground is named in honour of the Rugby Union players from the city that died during World War One.
Bristol RFC redeveloped the ground, replacing the old Shed with the Centenary Stand to mark the club's 100th anniversary in 1988 and the West Stand, which had stood since the ground was built, was demolished and replaced in 1995. The Memorial Ground was also renamed with the Stadium suffix around this time.
The rugby club suffered major financial difficulties after relegation from the Premiership in 1998, resulting in Bristol Rovers taking over the ground ownership. The roles reversed with the rugby club becoming tenants in their original home.

On one side is the striking looking West Stand, which has a unique look to it, split into three sections with 10 hospitality boxes at the top, terracing at the bottom and 710 white seats in between. There’s also a TV gantry at the top with an electric scoreboard on the gantry’s facade. Next to the stand on the other side of the players’ tunnel is the South West Stand which is a small covered terrace, which is used as the family enclosure with space for 720 spectators.

At the opposite side is the Uplands Stand which has covered seating to its rear and terracing at the front. The stand is quite high in height with a good view over Bristol, one of my colleagues in the press box mentioned it’s the coldest stand in the country, my reply being that he mustn’t have been to Gateshead Stadium! The stand is prominently blue with staircase access to the seats at the sides and the front. There is open terracing at each side and the dug outs are located in front, which means that team staff have to trail across the pitch to the changing rooms in the West Stand.

The South Stand was originally erected as a temporary stand, having just over 1,000 green seats with a gazebo type covering, decked out in blue and white patched squares. The stand runs for just over half the width of the pitch and is shared with the away supporters.

Behind the opposite goal is the Blackthorn North Terrace, which is a covered terrace for home supporters with a capacity of 3,710, which brings the overall stadium capacity for football purposes to 11,750.

The Carrot Crunchers Derby or better still; The Cider Swiggers Derby was won by the club from 40 odd miles up the road, who produced a solid and confident away performance, giving the Gashead fans a frustrating afternoon.

In the opening half Cheltenham looked dangerous when pushing forward while Rovers struggled to string two passes together, the only threat coming from Zebroski, who created a couple of half chances for himself but failed to hit the target.

Town took the lead on 34 minutes. Kaid Mohamed ran half the length of the pitch before poking the ball home, then within ten minutes the lead was doubled when Luke Summerfield thumped the ball home from the edge of the box from a corner kick.

The three points were guaranteed just after the restart. The Cheltenham players must have worked hard in training on corner kick routines this week, this time the corner was

played to the near post where James Spencer flicked the ball home for another clever goal.

Rovers pulled a goal back on 64 minutes. The ball was cleared from a corner kick, which fell nicely for Lee Brown, his first time shot from 25 yards taking a slight deflection, giving the keeper no chance.

The home side rallied to get back into the game but it never looked likely as Cheltenham had chances themselves to catch the Rovers defence on the break. Overall a good game after a slow start, maybe the injury to Danny Woodards, stretchered off in the opening minutes knocked the stuffing out of Rovers, but take nothing away from The Robins, a good performance so the cider will be flowing on the edge of the Cotswolds after this “derby” win tonight.

To be honest I wasn’t really looking forward to this trip. I’ve got nowt against Bristol, but a five hour each way journey didn’t give me a tingle in the loins or have me rubbing my hands with glee. I had problems booking decent trains with the only sensible journey home being the 1740 from Bristol Parkway, changing at Derby, so the time span from match to train station was tight.

On arriving I had time for a couple of pints in the city centre, ticking off a couple of ‘Spo

ons at The Knights Templar and Commercial Rooms, as well as the GBG listed Old Fishmarket.

I wanted to get to the ground early so I decided to head to Parkway station, then get a

taxi so I could book my return in advance, arranging to get picked up at the bus stop on the end of Filton Avenue at 5pm.

After the game the taxi arrived spot on time so I was safely back at the station for 5.15pm. Then as I waited for my train, I received a string of text messages from an irate taxi driver informing me he couldn't wait any longer and wondering why I hadn’t shown up, so his fare had been “bumped” by a rival taxi firm.

On the long journey back home I had half an hour to spare between connections in Derby, so I had time to visit the excellent Brunswick Inn on Railway Terrace. The pub has a huge choice with 16 handpulls with a selection from its own Brunswick Brewery, unfortunately I only had time for a quickie before catching the train back to Newcastle.

I’m delighted to get this ground ticked off and to finally see Bristol Rovers play a home game, I enjoyed my brief visit to Bristol and I’ll hopefully return one day for a much longer stay. I finally arrived back home at 11pm, my train crossing the Tyne via the High Level some 16 and a half hours since I walked over the same bridge in the early hours of the morning when this daytrip kicked-off.

Matchday stats

BRFC 1(Brown 65) CTFC 3(Mohamed 36,Summerfield 43, Spencer 48)

att.6,108

Admission:Press(between £16-£24)

Programme £3

Ground no.297 Memorial stadium - Matchday Web album (22 pictures)

My Matchday - 296 Kassam Stadium

2011-09-25T02:03:00.007+02:00

Oxford United 1v1 Accrington Stanley
League Two
Saturday 24th September 2011

My main objective for this season is to finish off the current 92 before the arrival of our brutal winter which looks set to force an unwanted mid-season break. So for my latest solo train journey, I boarded the 0622 Cross Country train service to Reading, alighting in the picturesque city of Oxford.
The city is renowned for its famous university, the oldest in the English speaking world. There are two rivers flowing through the city, the Cherwell and the Thames which meets at the south, this stretch of the Thames is known as the Isis. The Oxford skyline demonstrates every English architectural period since the arrival of the Saxons, with its churches and university buildings as well as the mid-18th century Radcliffe Camera.
Oxford is known as the "city of dreaming spires", which is credited to poet Matthew Arnold, however the term I would use is “city of bloody good bands” with three of my favourite groups over the last 20 years, namely Radiohead, Ride and Supergrass, formed out of Oxford

A vicar and a doctor met in a pub (no this isn’t the beginning of a joke) in 1893 and formed Headington FC, using players from the Headington Cricket Club. The club added the United bit to their name the following year and later joined the Spartan League.
In 1960 they were renamed Oxford United and within two years were in the Football League after winning the Southern League title for a third time.
The golden era for the U’s was during the 1980’s, winning consecutive league titles and promotion to win a place in the top tier of English football in 1985, then lifting the ’86 League Cup with a 3-0 win over QPR in the final at Wembley.
The club were relegated to Division Two in 1988, which started an 18 year downward spiral that ended with relegation from the Football League in 2006. This was the first time in the history of English football that a team which had won a major trophy were relegated to the Conference.
After a four years gap the club regained their League spot through the play-offs, overcoming York City 3-1 in the final at New Wembley.

Headington United started life at the Quarry Recreation Ground, before moving to Wootten’s Field in 1898. During the early part of the 20th century the club led a nomadic existence, playing on various pitches in and around Manor Park including a return to the Quarry, before securing land on Matlock's Field in 1925 which became known as the Manor Ground.

The Club announce in 1995 that by the end of the decade they were moving to a purpose built stadium at Minchery Farm in the Blackbird Leys area of the city, leaving behind Manor Ground their home for the previous 76 years.
I visited the Manor Ground twice during the 1980’s with Newcastle United. Both matches played midweek under lights in the same competition; the League (Milk)Cup, both resulted in disappointing and inept displays from the Magpies, by and large two unforgettable nights of misery.
The first tie took place in 1983, goals from Neal Whatmore and Andy Thomas gave Oxford a two goal lead at half-time with a late consolation goal from Keegan not enough to give the U’s a 3-2 aggregate win.
I was back again two years later and yet another pretty shitty night. The only highlight being we had time for a couple of pints before kick-off, which lightened our moody slightly before a 3-1 hammering as Oxford were on route to Wembley. Trevor Hebberd scored and another two from Thomas, which must have prompted Newcastle to fork out £100,000 for his services the following summer.

The new stadium meant the club left behind their spiritual home in Headington for the first time. Building work began in the summer of 1996 by Taylor Woodrow, but due to financial constraints construction ceased in December 1997.
Following the arrival of Firoz Kassam as chairman in 1999 work on the stadium recommenced in February 2000 by Birse Construction. The new owner ironed out the on-going legal problems, cleared a large percentage of the debt and squared up financially with Taylor Woodrow.
The ground is owned by the Firoka Group Company and was designed by ACP Architects with the overall construction costing £15m. The first game took place on the 4th August 2001 with a friendly against Crystal Palace, with the first competitive match the following week against Rochdale in the Third Division. United lost the game 2-1 in front of a crowd of 7,842 with Jamie Brooks scoring the Oxford goal.

The stadium has three separate all-seated cantilever stands filled with blue seats with an open end on the west side onto the car park and Vue complex.

The main stand is the South Stand, which has a capacity of 4495 over the two tiers, which are split with 28 executive boxes in between. The central façade wall is decorated with significant dates in the clubs history, similar to what they’ve done at the Emirates, but done in a more discreet way and not an arrogant in your face way like the Gunners.

Opposite is the North Stand which is similar in size and design, with just a single tier of 5026 seats, which are shared with away supporters. The stand also has floodlights mounted on the roof.
Behind the east goal is the Oxford Mail Stand which is also has a parallel appearance, but with less capacity with room for 2879. There’s also a basic electric scoreboard behind the west goal.
I do have one gripe about the stadium, which is the appearance of the walls around the turnstile areas which looks an eyesore, covered with graffiti and desperately in need of a tidy up and a good lick of paint.

The current capacity is 12,500 with the biggest attendance being just short of a full house when 12,177 witnessed the 3-2 defeat against Leyton Orient in May 2006, which sealed the clubs fate and sent them crashing into the Conference.

The spoils were shared between Oxford United and Accrington Stanley in this League Two clash, a fair result with maybe the visitors just shading it. The despondent chorus of boos from the U’s supporters on full time tells the story of a frustrating 90 minutes.
Accrington could have been three goals up before McClaren gave Oxford the lead on 35 minutes; a free kick from 20 yards took a wicked deflection to totally wrong foot the ‘keeper to give the hosts a fluke lead.
Before then, Murphy had a goal chalked off for offside after netting the rebound from a Winnard header, which came back off the post. United keeper Ryan Clarke pulled off two great saves, tipping over an effort from Fletcher, and then denying Murphy with a point blank save.
The equaliser came just after the hour mark when the ball fell into the path of Peter Murphy on the edge of the box, hitting a first time shot which nestled in the bottom left corner of the goal.
Both sides huffed and puffed for a winner but it didn’t look likely as the match fizzled out into a draw, which pushes Oxford out of the play-off positions.

Needless to say my brief previous visits to Oxford weren’t enjoyable, so I made sure I made up for it this time, by arriving early so I could have a good toby around and a good pub crawl.
I arrived just after 1030 and headed straight to Wetherspoons for breakfast. This JDW pub is inspired by the famous Two Ronnies sketch, hence the name - Four Candles. I also frequented the Swan & Castle, Royal Blenheim, Bear Inn and Far From the Madding Crowd before catching the bus to the ground at around 2pm.
The bus fare was £2.90 return and the regular service meant I was back in the town centre in good time to catch the 1807 back to Newcastle.
As soccer Saturday’s go this one was just about perfect, not only did I have an enjoyable day in Oxford, but good news from elsewhere as both my teams in black and white had good wins courtesy of hat-trick heroes.
My target to finally finish off the 92 is getting closer with just three more to go, hopefully if my plans come together then the set can be achieved before winter calls, when my footy travels grind to a temporary and impetuous halt.

Matchday stats

OUFC 1(McClaren 35) ASFC 1(Murphy 62) att.6472

Admission £20.50 Programme £3

Ground no.296 Kassam Stadium - Matchday Web album (19 pictures)

My Matchday - 295 Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground

2011-09-21T23:00:00.011+02:00

Sunderland Reserves 1v0 Gateshead Reserves

Tote Cup (Group C)

Wednesday 21st September 2011

Eppleton Colliery Welfare is the only major north-east football venue still in existence that I was still to visit. The ground hosts the annual Durham Challenge Cup final and as the game usually takes place on Good Friday, I always miss it because I’m usually away during the Easter holidays.
Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground is in the former mining village of Hetton-le-Hole, situated between Durham and Sunderland. The ground also hosts chief residents Sunderland Reserves, Sunderland Ladies and local Sunday league side Hetton Lyons, FA Sunday Cup winners three times in the last five years.

The ground was of course home to former Northern League club Eppleton CW, who formed back in 1929. The club entered the North Eastern League in 1947 before joining the Wearside League in 1951. After a spell in the Houghton & District League they returned to the WL after a ten year absence in 1974. Successive league titles at the turn of the ‘90’s saw a step up to the Northern League Second Division in 1992-93, winning promotion in their debut season.

The club lasted three seasons in the top flight but after relegation they became annual strugglers, eventually dropping into the Northern Alliance in 2003 and unfortunately within two years the club were no more.

The Welfare Ground was originally shared with cricket, having a pavilion and a stand behind the goal. The pitch lay east of its current position until the 1970’s, when the cricket field moved northwards, with the cricket outfield adjoining the top end of the football pitch.
Ground improvements were made to coincide with the club’s promotion to the Northern League. Cover was added to the central section of the banked terrace, including a section of wooden benches and a new four pylons floodlight system.

In 1993 Sunderland Council embarked on a £3m revamp of the ground, which saw the old stand replaced with a smart looking two tier cantilever stand, the bottom tier has 250 blue seats split into four sections, with standing room at the top for a further 350 spectators.
The other three sides is open with hard standing and grass banking with large Perspex dugouts opposite the stand.

The ground is overshadowed by the Hetton Centre building which houses the community organisation ‘The Hetton Town Trust’ which rose from the former Eppleton Colliery Welfare. The centre includes the Bob Paisley Bar, named after the legendary former Liverpool manager who was born in Hetton-le-Hole.

Missing out on the Durham Cup final every year, the only way I could visit Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground was by having to suffer watching the mackem reserves on the odd occasion they use the ground instead of either the Stadium or Academy of Light. But thankfully this ground was picked as the location for the Tote Cup fixture against my beloved Gateshead, the Heed reserves returning to the venue of their triumphant DCC victory last season.

The first round of the Tote Cup is regionalised into a group stage. Gateshead and Sunderland grouped together with Hartlepool United, Hull City and Scunthorpe United.
Current Tote Cup holders Sunderland got off to a winning start in defence of their trophy as Roarie Deacon’s second half strike settled the tie. The mackems had good chances in the opening half, all falling to Oumare Tounkara who hit the post, headed over from close range and blasted two efforts into the Hetton Centre car park.

Gateshead battled well but never seriously tested the home ‘keeper, while between the other posts, Heed’s Jack Alnwick, on-loan from Newcastle United looked unbeatable. That was until the 74th minute, the Tynesiders defence finally breached as Deacon latching on to a right wing cross, having time and space to pick his spot to give the Wearsiders a rare win over a Tyneside club.

Eppleton Colliery Welfare is a tidy little ground and despite the slight slope, the pitch it’s probably one of the best playing surfaces in the region. It’s a shame that Eppleton CWFC went to the wall just as the ground was developed as it would be a welcome addition amongst north-east Non-League football grounds in either the Northern or Wearside League.

Matchday stats

SAFCres 1(Deacon 74)GFCres 0 att.330

Admission with team sheet £3

Ground no.295 Eppleton CW - Matchday Web album (15 pictures)

My Matchday - 294 Highbury Stadium

2011-09-10T22:18:00.013+02:00

Fleetwood Town 3v1 Gateshead
Blue Sq.Bet Premier
Saturday 10th September 2011

Fleetwood Town’s Highbury is a ground I’ve put off visiting until now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as if I’m anaphylactic to fish or anything, it’s just I’ve waited until the redevelopment of the stadium was completed, so I can capture the ground in all its glory.

The 5,663 capacity stadium has been totally revamped since 2007, with the finishing touch being the smart looking £4.5m Parkside Stand which was opened to spectators in April. The stand has a 2,000 all- seated single tier with a shelf-like executive area at the back, having two rows of seats in front of seven hospitality boxes. The stand is completed by a semi-circular wrap around roof with large glassed walls at each side.

Opposite is The Highbury Stand which opened in 2008, with 550 red seats divided into six rows and runs half the length of the pitch, the other half has the building that was used as dressing rooms with a video screen scoreboard and there’s also a TV gantry box on top of the roof.

There is covered terracing behind each goal, the Percy Ronson Stand was the first stand built in the revamped ground in 2007 and is usually set aside for away supporters with room for over 600 fans.

The Memorial Stand replaced the old Scratching Shed at the Park end, named in honour to those who lost their lives in service and in memory of the trawlermen lost at sea from the port of Fleetwood. The stand holds 1473 and opened in August 2008 and unlike the Percy Ronson stand the roof covers the whole end.

A rare treat of a bit of a lie in for this trip, as it’s usually an early start and a canny hike when travelling away with the Heed. Our coach left Gateshead at 10.15pm and after being millimetres away from dunshing a car on the A685, we arrived safely at 1.30pm

Fleetwood is a town on the Lancashire coast in the Wyre district in North West Fylde, an eight mile tram ride north of the bright lights of Blackpool.

The town is built on a Peninsula and was once a productive deep sea fishing port until fishing restrictions were made after the Icelandic Cod wars in the 1970's. The port is now a tourist attraction with a retail shopping park and the picturesque seaside resort is a quieter alternative to the noisy neighbourhood down the road.

We drove past the old fishing docks and the local McDonalds, with Squad #26 Alan Price suggesting we should stop off for a Fleetwood Big Mac! Thankfully we didn’t, the coach driver dropped us off at the JDW pub - The Thomas Drummond instead.

Drinking in Fleetwood is a very cheap day out. I had 2 pints in the ‘Spoons; Northern ‘Casino’(3.8%) cost £1 and Franklin EXP(4.2%)£1.99. On route to the ground I went to seek out the Strawberry Garden which is owned by the local Fuzzy Duck Brewery, where I had a pint of ‘Feathers’(4.0%) priced at £2.30 with 50p off a pint for CAMRA members. So overall I had three pre-match pints for under a fiver.(That’s 1994 prices…Eddy)

Similar to the visitors for today’s Blue Sq.Bet Premier game - Gateshead F.C., Fleetwood too has a history of disbanded and reincarnated clubs.

The first of many were Fleetwood Rangers back in 1887 playing at the Corpse Ground for 10 years before Fleetwood Amateurs formed. The club dropped their surname in 1908 joining the professional ranks, playing at Warrenhurst Park before a moving to a pitch on land at the rear of the North Euston hotel in September 1909, joining the Lancashire Combination League.

The North Euston ground was limited with little room for expansion so after one year the club relocated one mile out of town to a piece of land opposite the Queens Hotel. After the club folded in 1927 Fleetwood later returned to North Euston until the local Council purchased four acres of land on Highbury Avenue adjacent to the Memorial Park in 1936.

The first match at Highbury Stadium took place on 26th August 1938, but due to the outbreak of World War 2 another ball wasn’t kicked until 31st August 1946, equipped with a freshly built covered terrace opposite the Main Stand.

The majority of the club’s history was spent in the Lancashire Combination, winning the title once in 1923-24, until becoming founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968. In 1971 they lifted the League Cup but struggled in the division and after consecutive years at the foot of the table they folded in 1976.

The club reformed the following year in the Cheshire League and progressed to the North West Counties League in 1982. There was also a trip to Wembley in the FA Vase in 1985(lost 3-1 to Halesowen Town) but again the club folded in 1996.

The present and most successful rebirth formed in 1997 as Fleetwood Wanderers in the North West Counties 2nd Division. Due to a sponsorship deal the club were immediately renamed Fleetwood Freeport until the current and traditional Town suffix came in 2002.

Town rapid progress has seen promotion through both North West Counties and Northern Premier leagues, reaching the Conference North in 2008. In the 2009-10 after finishing runners-up to Southport, the Cod Army celebrated reaching the Conference beating Alfreton Town 2-1 in the play-off final at Highbury Stadium.

A Record Attendance of 4,112 was set last season against AFC Wimbledon as The Fishermen reached the play-offs, finishing the regular season in 5th spot but lost the two-legged semi-finals to the eventual promotion winners.

The Tynesiders unbeaten since the start to the season faced the biggest test so far, with Fleetwood producing their best display with a 3-2 win at Kettering last Saturday

The first half was a tight affair, the best opportunity falling to Jamie Vardy just after the half hour mark, his close ranger effort produced a great save from Farman.

The second half was more entertaining. The deadlock broken on 51 minutes with a magnificent strike from Andrew Mangan, who unleashed an unstoppable drive from over 30 yards which crashed in off the underside of the bar.

Viera went close to doubling the lead with a close range header before man of the match Robert Atkinson saw his headed effort cleared off the line.

James Curtis had a shot blocked as Gateshead put on the pressure in search of an equaliser, but were undone on the break. Substitute Brodie played a good ball into the path of Vardy, who ran on to round the defender and finish well.

In the final minute Gateshead halved the deficit with a 25 yard Beckham-eque free-kick from Odubade, but again the home side caught the visitors on the breakaway, Brodie again combined with Vardy, the striker grabbing a brace with another neat finish which had the Captain Pugwash tune blasting over the PA for a third time.

So Gateshead’s unbeaten start comes to an end, while Fleetwood will be buoyant after back-to-back wins and six goals after a stuttering start to the season in front of goal.

The Blue Sq.Bet Premier league looks pretty open this season which should see plenty of highs and a only a few lows for the Heed this campaign.

There doesn’t seem to be a stand out team that’s going to run away with the title this season, which makes for a competitive league and a thrilling eight months ahead.

Matchday stats
FTFC 3(Mangan 51 Vardy 80 90+4)GFC 1(Odubade 90)

att.1388
Admission: Press (£18)
Programme £2.50

Ground no.294 Highbury Stadium - Matchday Web album(23 pictures)

"Клуб 100 Футбольных Полей" B Magshop

2011-08-17T17:29:00.007+02:00

I recently did an interview for the Russian and Ukrainian football fanzine Mag Shop Report. The magazine is dedicated to football fans from this region, with photos of stadiums and match day reports from fans in this part of the world. The fanzine also includes interviews with older supporters, younger generation ultras and features a good section on alcoholic beverages titled ‘Beer School’

Groundhopping isn’t so popular in the former USSR as it is in Britain and mainland Europe, but the first fanzine of its kind in Russia is trying to promote the hobby, with plans afoot to release an English edition of the magazine.
Mag Shop is written and edited by Yuri Paretski from Zelenograd, who supports his local club and CSKA Moscow. After our interview which is featured in Issue #6, Yuri became the first and only member of the 100FgC from Russia - Squad#196. In recognition of Yuri joining the Roll of Honour the latest edition features the 100FgC badge on the cover of issue #7.
Further details can be found on the website www.magshop.appee.ru or you can email Yuri at this address.

My Matchday - 292 Aggborough

2011-08-13T23:09:00.012+02:00

Kidderminster Harriers 2v3 Gateshead
Blue Sq.Bet Premier
Saturday 13th August 2011

Aggborough is a ground that has somehow eluded me, having failed to visit in the club’s Football League days, as well as the last two season in which Gateshead have been in the Conference. I only need five grounds to complete the Conference set and its good to get one of those ticked-off straight away on the opening day of the season.

I travelled by coach with the GFC Supporters Club, departing from the Civic Centre at 8am. Kidderminster is a town in the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, located between the cities of Birmingham and Worcester. The journey went smoothly and without a hitch, arriving in good time at 12.40pm

Kidderminster Harriers kick off the new campaign at home to Gateshead in a season which marks the club’s 125th anniversary.

The Club's origins began as an Athletics club in 1877 before switching to rugby in 1880 becoming Kidderminster Harriers and Football Club, before converting to association football and became professional in the autumn of 1886.

The club initially ground shared Aggborough with local Birmingham & District League rivals - Kidderminster Olympic, until the clubs amalgamated, joining the newly formed Midland League in 1891.

They only lasted as a fully professional club for one season, resigning from the league and folding before reforming the following season as Kidderminster Harriers F.C.

Harriers won their first title in the Birmingham & District League in 1938-39, gaining promotion to the Southern League, but progress was halted due to the outbreak of WW2. The club again won promotion in 1948, playing in the Southern League until the turn of the 1960’s, a decade which was their most successful era, winning the West Midlands League on four occasions and finishing runners-up twice.

They again returned to the Southern League from 1972 until a second place finish in 1982-83 saw the club join the Alliance Premier.(Conference) In 1987 Harriers made their first of three visits to Wembley in the FA Trophy final beating Burton Albion after a replay and finished runners-up in 1991 and 1995.

Aggborough opened in May 1890 when the recent amalgamated club played Walsall, at the time the ground was oval shaped with a wooden stand with a banked athletics track and held a good 15,000 supporters.
A Corrugated iron shed was built in the 1920’s, known as the Cowshed, and a 460 seated grandstand opened in 1935, the stand roof later extended to cover a concrete terrace.
The ground was one of the first in the country to host a floodlit match with a game against Aston Villa in December 1951 and on 14th September 1955 became the first to host an FA Cup tie under lights when Harriers played Brierley Hill Alliance in a preliminary round replay, winning 4-2.
A new system was installed in the mid-sixties and a new covered terrace was erected in 1979, the Bill Greaves Memorial Stand replaced the cowshed which was damaged in a gale, the stand named in honour of their late chairman.
In 1983 further improvements to the terracing, updated floodlights and the ground squared off replacing its oval shape in preparation for the Harriers step up to the Alliance Premier League.

The 1993-94 season was an eventful one for Harriers both on and off the pitch, progressing to the 5th round of the FA Cup, knocking out Birmingham City and Preston before losing to West Ham United by a solitary goal at Aggborough. The Conference title was won for the first time but promotion to the Football League was denied due to problems with the main stand which was deemed as unsafe.

The following year the main stand was replaced with a covered single tier all seated Reynolds Stand, which is filled with red seats with ten executive boxes at the back. The rear of the stand incorporates the Aggborough Suite, club shop and supporters pub The Harriers Arms.

The ground had been upgraded to Football League standards with the stand, new club entrance and souvenir shop meant when a second Conference title was achieved six years later they took their rightful place amongst the 92, be it short lived, returning to non-league five years later.

The Bill Greaves Terrace was redeveloped as an all-seated stand in 2003. The East Stand is a basic single tier block of red seats with HARRIERS picked out in white, which takes the seating capacity up to 3,140.

There is matching covered terracing behind each goal, with the only difference being that the away end on the south terrace has an electric scoreboard perched on the roof. The overall capacity stands at 6,238 with the record attendance standing at 9,155 against Hereford on 27th November 1948

Gateshead started the season with an impressive victory in an entertaining encounter at Aggborough.
The Heed got off to a dream start when Gate was fouled on the edge of the box, the resulting Cummings free kick was handled by Storer and Jon Shaw made no mistake with the spot-kick, nonchalantly chipping the keeper to give the visitors a 3rd minute lead.
Gateshead doubled their lead when a cross from Odhiambo found Cummins in acres of space to nod home, but the lead was halved a minute later when a neat move was started and finished by Harriers man of the match Nick Wright on 20 minutes.
Kiddy pressed for an equaliser and made it all square five minutes later, a corner kick was met with a firm head by Kyle Storer making amends for his earlier handball error.
After an open first half both sides closed ranks in the second period. The match looked to be heading for a draw until ten minutes from time, when a low hard cross by Odhiambo was turned in by Kris Gate, which sent the 53 Heed Army fans behind the goal into raptures.
Jamille Matt had a great opportunity to grab an equaliser deep into injury time, but The Tynesiders held on to gain a well earned victory and a great start to the new season.

What a superb matchday to start off the new season. Arriving at Aggborough early gave us plenty of time to explore the town’s hostelries and as always I was equipped with Google map and pub list. I led the Heed Army around the streets of Kidderminster like the pied piper of Gateshead, starting off in the excellent King and Castle. The pub is set within the Severn Valley Railway museum and is a recreation of a GWR refreshment room, which serves the specially brewed Wyre Piddle(3.9%)[3.5***] which is very nice and only £2 a pint.

Afterwards we headed over to the Boars Head and predictably checked out the local JDW - The Penny Black before heading back to Aggborough for the match.

Thanks to Squad #169 Captain Carter for supplying me with ale on the journey down and a special mention to our coach driver for getting us there and back in good time, arriving back in the Heed by 9.30pm.

As I’ve already stated a great day out, having a canny drink and a brilliant result, so what more could I ask for? Hopefully more of the same over the next nine months.

Matchday stats

KHFC 2(Wright 20 Storer 25) GFC 3(Shaw 3pen Cummins 19 Gate 80)
att.1,636

Admission:press (£14)

Programme £3

Ground no.292 Aggborough - Matchday Web album (18 pictures)

The 100FgC squad - membership closed.

2011-08-09T19:58:00.005+02:00

The 100 Football Grounds Club is now full with all the squad numbers allocated and no vacancies for new members. I decided some time ago that the membership was never going to be infinitive and planned to cap the squad to a final total of 100 + 99.

The main reason for this decision is that anyone with an interest in groundhopping would have surely came across this website over the last 5 years and if readers wanted to be in the 100FgC, would have shown an interest in joining.
I’d like to thank everyone who has shown their support, all 198 of you, your now privileged to be part of an exclusive club. Happy ground hopping, travel safely and let me see those ground totals increase. Cheers!

New Facebook Group

2011-08-05T22:39:00.003+02:00

Facebook has deleted the old Appreciation group which was set up by Steve Clifton a few years back, so I've set up a new friendface group.

If you wish to join then do so by following the link on the right side panel and click on "like" on the facebook page.

Thanks in advance!

My Matchday - 291 Northolme

2011-08-01T10:00:00.002+02:00

Gainsborough Trinity 1v2 Grimsby Town
Pre-Season Friendly
Saturday 30th July 2011

The Northolme has been high on my list of “T’do” grounds for quite a while now. The once former Football League ground has an uncertain future with talk of the club looking to relocate. The favourable location is said to be a community based facility on a 20 acre site on Corringham Road. This project seems on the backburner at the moment, the value of the property has rising since the initial interest from the club and could be earmarked for a housing development, although the club are still on the look out for suitable sites.
Gainsborough is a town on the River Trent within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire and historically one of the capital cities of Mercia during the Anglo-Saxon period before the Danish rule. In 868 Alfred The Great married Ealswitha, the daughter of Ethelred and chief of the Anglo-Saxon tribe the Gaini, and it’s from this that the town gets its name.

Gainsborough Trinity formed as Trinity Recreationalists in 1873 by Reverend George Langton Hodgkinson, the vicar of the town’s Holy Trinity Church. They became founder members of the Midlands League in 1889, finishing as champions in their second season, then twice as runners-up which gained election to the Football League 2nd Division in 1896.
The club spent 16 seasons in the Second Division, peaking with a sixth place finish in 1904-05 but after years of struggle returned to the Midland League after being voted out in favour of neighbours Lincoln City.
The Holy Blues joined the newly formed Northern Premier League in 1968 until the reconstruction of the non-league pyramid saw the club placed in the Conference North in 2004.
A couple of interesting facts about Trinity for you Google wallers. They were the first club to play the renamed Manchester United when they changed their name from Newton Heath and the club have never been relegated in their 138 year history(Unlike neighbours Lincoln City and Scunthorpe United last season…Eddy)
From the 1850’s the Northolme was originally a cricket ground becoming the oldest dual purpose venues in the country with several cricket clubs in the area taking up football during the winter months from the 1860’s.
A 200 seated stand was built at the turn of the 20th century on the south side, with a covered standing area added at the opposite side. The stand was replaced in 1911 and stood until the Second World War, when the ground was vandalised with both stands a victim of arson.
The ground developed during the 1930’s with the current grandstand erected after the war. The Victory Stand as it as it was originally named is now known as the Ping Stand. The stand has a capacity of 504 blue seats split into two section with a short peaked roof and three supporting pillars at the front. The teams dugouts are kept apart on each side of the stand to keep a clear spectator view. The changing rooms and Club On The Park Social Club is also on this side of the ground.
The turnstile entrance is in the corner, where there’s a covered terrace with a snack bar at one side and opposite is the club shop and MC cabin.
The far side goal is open terracing and there’s more covered standing pitch side. The cover runs nearly pitch length with four floodlight pylons, parallel with the pylons on the Ping Stand side.
The ground is nicknamed “The Chapel” and once had a capacity of 20,000 but now houses 4,304 with the record attendance of over 9,500 for a Midlands League clash with Scunthorpe United in 1948.
After enduring a stressful journey to Crawley Town the previous night it was nice to take a leisurely drive up from my sleepy village base near Grantham.
I again met up with my travel companion from the previous evening, Precious Grimsby (squad#88) who travelled 11 miles across from his home in Kirton Lindsey, meeting in the Blues Club, which is a really good supporters club bar, where they sell a couple of real ales. I sampled Grafters ’Over The Moon’ (4%) ***+hf
The match was a typical pre-season friendly played on a glorious summers afternoon. Grimsby took the lead after half an hour when Serge Makofo latched onto a through ball, using his pace before unleashing a left foot drive into the far corner of the net.
Trinity equalised early into the second half when a lob from half time substitute Darryn Stamp caught the Mariners keeper by surprise, before the visitors claimed victory on 66 minutes. Anthony Church netted with a brave diving header, following in on a fine save from the keeper. The goal came as a cost as the striker hobbled off injured, staggering away from the pitch as if he had just drunk 10 pints of ’Over The Moon!’
I really enjoyed my long awaited visit to Northolme. The ground is a classic and if I was a Gainsborough supporter I would be gutted to be leaving such a pleasant home. Any talk about where and when the club will relocate is all rumour at the moment and I hope that’s the way it stays, as it would be a sad day if this former League ground was to disappear for good.

Matchday facts

GuTFC 1(Stamp 48)GrTFC 2(Makofo 31,Church 66)

Att.TBC

Admission £6 Programme:Free team sheet. (Also bought last issued programme for 20p)

Ground no.291 Northolme - Matchday Web album (24 pictures)

My Matchday - 290 Broadfield Stadium

2011-07-31T15:33:00.011+02:00

Crawley Town 3v2 AFC Wimbledon
League Cup Preliminary Round
Friday 29th July 2011

Five years after almost going out of business, Crawley Town kick off the 2011-12 season as a Football League club after winning the Conference title by a tatty field last season, 15 points ahead of fellow promotion winners AFC Wimbledon.
The two clubs renew rivalries straightaway in the preliminary round of the League Cup, the tie taking place due to relegated Birmingham City giving a bye in the competition because of their pending involvement in the Europa Cup, which also means I can quickly tick off Broadfield Stadium before the season gets into full swing.

The former market town of Crawley developed from the 13th century due to its location on the main road from London to Brighton. It served as a popular relocation for families moving out of over populated London, being designated as a new town in 1946.
Gatwick, the UK’s second busiest airport is located 3 miles north of the town, last year over 31.3 million passengers passed through Gatwick, making it the 9th largest in Europe for passenger traffic and the 12th busiest in terms of international users.
Apart from football my only previous knowledge of Crawley was being the location where The Cure, one of my favourite bands of all time were formed in 1976 by my long lost cousin Robert Smith, with Michael Dempsey and Lol Tolhurst when attending St Wilfrid's RC School.
Crawley FC played in the West Sussex League after their formation in 1896 before moving to the Mid-Sussex League in 1901. They went on to the Sussex County League then the Metropolitan League in the 1950s, a decade when the Town suffix was added to their name.
In 1962 the Red Devils turned semi-professional, joining the Southern League First Division the following year. In 1969 the club had a brief stint in the Southern Premier League before eventually winning promotion again in 1983-84, where they played for 20 years until winning the title and promotion to the Conference.
Over the last few years the club have battled with financial problems, flirting with administration in the late 1990s, then in March 2006 the players and staff wages were halved with the entire squad put up for sale, going into administration in June of that year with debts totalling £1.4m, due to the financial plight of club benefactors the Majeed brothers.
The struggle continued with the Red Devils hours from liquidation in August 2006, but the club survived, confirmed clear of debt in May 2007. Another setback came in February 2010 as they faced a winding up order in the High Court due to money being owed to HMRC, however the case was later dismissed by the High Court as the club proved the debt had been paid.

Last season saw a complete financial turnaround, totally transformed from a club living on the bones of its arse to being tagged the Man City of the Conference. Mysterious and anonymous financial clout saw big money signings and under the guidance of experienced manager Steve Evans the ambitious “Project Promotion” was achieved just as the supermarkets took stock of chocolate eggs and stuffed toy rabbits.
A memorable season will also be remembered for their giant killing exploits in the FA Cup, after knocking out League clubs Swindon Town, Derby County and Torquay United, they were a width of a post away from taking Manchester United back to Broadfield in the 5th round after a brave display in front of a near 75,000 crowd at Old Trafford.

Crawley Town moved a couple of miles across town to Broadfield Stadium, after 48 years at their previous home Town Mead which was sold to developers in 1997. Broadfield is the club’s sixth ground having previously played at Malthouse Farm, Victory Hall & Rectory Field, Yetmans Field and Ifield Recreation Ground.
The council owned stadium has a capacity of 4,996, dominated by the main West Stand which has a single tier capacity of 1,150 red seats. The stand looks more attractive by the triangular designed red tubing which supports the three floodlights on the roof. Spectator access is gained via staircases at the front and there’s also Perspex windshields at each side.
The North and South terraces’ are both fully covered with the roofs curving around in the corners to meet the main stand. At the far side the open East Terrace has a basic centrally positioned electric scoreboard and three floodlight pylons.
The record attendance is 4,522 against Weymouth in the club’s 2003-04 title winning season, witnessing a 2-1 victory against the eventual runners-up.

Crawley Town is now pushed into the same envelope as previous ground visits to Norwich City(19- 9-81) and Crystal Palace (29-11-97) as journeys from hell when circumstances beyond my control has meant I’ve missed the kick-off and a good chunk of the match.

This trip was split into the two parts. The first leg of the journey was with the breadknife and kids, as we were staying with family in Lincolnshire for the weekend, then Mariners fan, Squad#88 and fellow radio star from The Completists - Graham Precious picked me up in Grantham at 3.30pm.

The drive south takes around three hours, allowing plenty of time to negotiate the nightmare on tarmac; the M25, however Graham got caught up in heavy traffic in Lincoln so didn’t turn up until 415pm, but there was still sufficient time left to get to the match and maybe have a pre-match pint.

The journey was going swimmingly until we came to a sudden halt in the middle of the M25, roadwork’s stretching 10 miles on the north side of the Dartford Toll Crossing meant it took a good one and a half hours to do the last 13 mile before crossing the Thames.

When we finally got to the toll, the digital display clock at the cash point read 7:38 in bright red digits. It was as if the clock was taunting me, telling me we still had a good 40 miles left with only seven minutes until kick-off.

Full marks to Graham though, his bully-boy tactical driving meant he made up good time, reaching the stadium just as I heard a loud cheer and the match MC announcing that the scorer of AFC Wimbledon’s goal is Luke Moore.
We discovered we had just missed the first goal of the game, but after we finally settled on the South Terrace, I overheard a Crawley fan saying he wasn’t impressed with his team’s performance and also stating what a poor game it had been, maybe the players were waiting for our arrival because the match I watched was a cracking game with both teams hungry for a place in the First Round of the League Cup.
Crawley equalised on 38 minutes when a left wing cross found Akdan in the box unmarked with time to rifle in a right foot shot into the far corner, only for Dons new summer signing Jack Midson to restore the advantage straight from the restart.
It was nice to see a goal from Torres, but this was Sergio not Fernando, who again drew the home side level, seizing on a loose ball before placing his shot with precision past keeper Brown.
Both teams went all out for a winner and it was last seasons top scorer in the Conference, Matt Tubbs who grabbed it with a superb piece of skill, showing great control to bring the ball down on his chest and volley the ball home to book a date with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on the 9th August.
Broadfield Stadium will be a welcome addition to the Football League and I can see both clubs doing well this coming season and I wouldn't be surprised if Crawley Town manage to repeat the feat of Stevenage last term, by winning promotion in their first season in League Two.
After the game we went to the club shop for a programme and after a bit of a wait, we were informed they had sold out, but they’ll most likely do a reprint. I also tried to get a pin badge but they had none of these either, reason being they had to send them back due to a spelling mistake.( Crowley Town or Red Evils perhaps?…Eddy)
The return journey went smoothly, back at my weekend headquarters at Ann and Malcolm’s for 1215am. Malc has built his very own pub at the top of his garden which is named(by yours truly) ‘The Man Cave’ I had a quick pint of Guinness before finally going to bed (which was inside the man made pub) pleased I’d quickly ticked off the newcomers to the 92 and I also having another match to look forward to at Gainsborough Trinity later in the day.

Matchday stats CTFC 3(Akpan 38,Torres 53, Tubbs 64) AFCW 2(L Moore 26, Midson 46)

Admission £16 Programme:sold out

att.3,204

Ground no.290 Broadfield Stadium - Matchday Web album(18 pictures)

100FgC 5th Birthday.

2011-07-25T19:55:00.002+02:00

It’s 5 years to the day that The 100 Football Grounds Club was launched.

On the 25th July 2006 I posted my list of grounds, as well and my mate Ian Patrick’s details and linked this site to a couple of websites. Within an hour Rev Nick Percival from Barnsley, Jack Warner from Perth, Australia(who I haven’t heard from since) and Blyth Spartans supporter Alastair Gibbs-Barton left a blog comment with their own ground statistics, so the 100FgC was officially born with five founder members. The membership has steadily grown over the last five years to the point where the squad is near full capacity, with only 3 squad numbers left before it finally closes.

During this time I’ve covered matches at 191 grounds featuring 251 different clubs. I originally intended to just post pictures of my ground visits, but then decided to write a small piece to accompany the pictures, but I got a bit carried away and began to enjoy writing, My Matchday articles covering club and ground histories, match report, travelling and of course, the most important part of a match day; pubs and bevvy.

Thanks to all the members who have joined and made this little club of ours a success and it’s been a great thrill to meet up with some of the squad and make new friendships over the last few years. I get the impression that some seasoned groundhoppers belittle this organisation, but so what, it is what it is, and I’ve achieved exactly what I set out to do in 2006, which was bring together a set of football fans from different clubs from all over the world, all with the same passion and common interest. So here’s hoping the 100FgC continues on and in 5 years time I’ll be celebrating a groundhopping decade. Cheers!

News from 100FgC HQ

2011-06-09T22:41:00.006+02:00

The membership of the 100 Football Grounds Club squad currently stands at 186. Any regular readers who have intended to add themselves to the ‘Roll Of Honour’ please do so as soon as possible as there's only 13 squad numbers left before membership reaches full capacity and closes.

The website has been going for almost 5 years now so I suppose anyone with an interest in ground hopping and joining this little organisation would have done so by now, nevertheless there’s still plenty of time to declare your interest, just email me at this address >>> 100FgC

As part of the 100FgC 5th Anniversary I had intended to try organising a squad get together at the beginning of next season, with Brighton as the destination and Albion’s new Amex Stadium as the obvious venue for a day of bevvy and football. However according to my south-coast correspondent, tickets will be like gold dust for the first few games as all season tickets have sold out with only about 1000 tickets available on a match to match basis.

I would still like to organise something to mark the blog’s 5th birthday, so if anyone has any suggestions then please contact me and we can hopefully come to some arrangement.

I would like to take this opportunity to mention a few landmarks achieved by the 100FgC squad over the last season.

Congratulations to #161 Michael Swaffield who completed the current ‘92’ at Chesterfield’s B2Net Stadium on 7th May and #152 Mark Chatterton who also achieved the set at Spotland on 23rd April. You can read about Mark’s achievement on his website - http://www.doingthe92plus.co.uk/

Other credible mentions got to #34 David Poole, #130 Bill Hunter and #139 Sam reaching 200 grounds, #47&48 Julian and Joerg Liestner 400,#43 James Rennie 500, #16 Marc Wordehoff 600, #17 Patrick Haller 700 and #20 Ansgar Spiertz who has now seen football in 92 countries. (apologies for anyone I may have missed)

Last but by no means least, my heartiest congratulations go to #93 Dan Gooch and #139 Sam who are expecting the first ever 100FgC baby. The “bump” has already been to 28 grounds with more matches planned at the beginning of the season before the happy arrival at the end of August. I’m sure the rest of the squad would like to wish Sam & Dan all the best on this special occasion.

My travel plans for 2011-12 are looking rather limited and few and far between but I’m confident that I’ll finally finish ‘The 92’ and reach the 300 mark sometime next season, so until then enjoy the brief football free break and the rest of the summer.

The 2010-11 Epi-log.

2011-05-29T17:46:00.001+02:00

Thanks to everyone who has logged on and kept in touch with my shenanigans throughout the season, with special thanks to the members of the 100FgC who accompanied me on my travels during the course of the season and it was great to finally meet up with some of the squad for the first time.

The Boring Stats
Matches attended 77
(would have been more but December was a white out)
Goals 259 (personal best)
(including record score of 11-0)
New Grounds 35
(FL 15 NL 15 Scot Lg 1 Scot NL 3 Euro 1)

This season I’ve been mostly liking;
Wimbledon promoted and back where they belong.
100FgC on Radio 4
Not watching England on TV
The Halloween Massacre
5under1and
Kevin Nolan’s funky chicken
Scotch Pies
Cornish Pasties at Yeovil
Heed in the Trophy
Heed Ressies in the Durham Cup
Fed in the Vase
Hat Trick for The Bay
Trips to that there London
Ale trail from Newcastle to Gretna
A personal attack in the Darlington match programme.
Ryan Giggs
Arsenal finishing fourth in a two-horse race.
The Far Far Away Trilogy
more Wetherspoons Tours
more GBG listed pubs
more Torchey Travel
Seeing the last games at Church Road, Hayes
Seeing the last game at the Withdean
Finish runner-up in works Dream Team(500 smackers)

This season I’ve been mostly disliking;
FIFA
Semi Final heartbreak at Darlo
Weeks and weeks of snow
A Tory Boy from Teesside
Team England
Chris Hughton’s dismissal
Stevenage
Huddersfield Town not winning promotion
Blackpool relegated
Stockport County relegated
Enrigue going..
..Barton going..
..Carroll gone!
Tchoyi Story 3
And I’m still Wembleyless!

My Matchday - 289 Newtown Park

2011-05-21T21:41:00.009+02:00

Bo'ness United 0v4 Linlithgow Rose
East Region Super League
Saturday 21st May 2011

My final trip of the season was in Scotland for the big title six-pointer in the East Region Super League, probably the country’s biggest game of the day apart from that small matter taking place at Hampden Park.

I arrived in Edinburgh at 1pm where I was greeted by Squad#155 James Little who was taking me to Newtown Park, the home of Bo’ness United for the big local derby with Linlithgow Rose.
Bo'ness/Borrowstounness, is a coastal town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland on the south bank of the Firth of Forth, 17 miles north-west of Edinburgh and 6 miles east of Falkirk. Bo'ness is now chiefly a commuter town with residents travelling to work in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falkirk, but historically was a centre of heavy industry, coal mining and a major port.

The B.U.'s were formed in 1945 when former Scottish League club Bo'ness merged with the junior club Bo'ness Cadora. The club joined the Edinburgh & District League, which they won three times in their early years as well as lifted the Scottish Junior Cup in 1948. Two further league titles in the 1950s and 1960s plus more success followed in the Junior Cup, lifting the trophy in 1976 and 1984, as well as adding four East of Scotland Cups to their list of honours.
Bo’ness were East Region Division 1 champions for a second time in 2007-08 winning promotion to the East Super League and are the current title holders. Last season the club went on to the win their first League Championship since 1969, leading the table from beginning to end, clinching the title in a thrilling final league match against their feisty rivals.
Newtown Park has always been home to Bo’ness United and has been a football ground since the 1880s. The ground has a capacity of 7,500 made up of terracing on three sides with one side of cover. The Main Stand is no longer used for spectators as it’s been declared derelict and is only used as the team changing rooms. The classic looking wooden structure had elevated seating with a standing paddock at the front with blue wooden supports and beams.
Opposite is the terrace enclosure which cost £80,000 and runs in length between the two 18 yard lines. The stand has a silver frame with the club name and crest on its fascia. The terracing behind the goal is made up of 15 gravel filled steps and at the far side is a grass bank with four crash barriers. There’s also floodlights behind each goal and the ground is finish off with a white brick perimeter wall

For the second successive year the two fierce rivals met with the title up for grabs, but this season it’s both clubs challenging for the league, locked on the same points with the BU's having a superior goal difference.
I must have caught Bo’ness on an off day because they didn’t look like a team at the top of the table, maybe the recent hectic schedule has taking its toll as they were comprehensively beaten by their old enemy’s from down the road.
Linlithgow took the lead half way through the first half when Nelson latched on to a deflected shot to fire home and they continued to press with some top class saves from the United keeper keeping the slender score line at the interval intact.
Two minutes after the restart Tommy Coyne capitalised on a goalmouth scramble to double the lead and from then on they were never in danger of letting the lead slip. Herd latched on to a free kick to nod home on 63 minutes and McLennan capped off a fine performance with a fine effort from a tight angle five minutes from time.
A Bo'ness victory would see them needing only a single point from their final two games to clinch the title, but this victory for Rose means that the BUs, assuming Linlithgow win their final match against Bonnyrigg, need maximum points from their remaining fixtures.

So the title race is still wide open but on the evidence of this display it’s Linlithgow Rose that look championship material.
The drive from Edinburgh to Bo’ness and the return journey included a liquid stop at The Duddingston Arms in Newton. On arrival back in the Scottish capital James recommended the CAMRA award winning Halfway House where I enjoyed a lovely pint while waiting for my train. A special thanks to James for suggesting visiting Newtown Park and making it possible by chauffeuring me through the busy Edinburgh traffic.

Apparently the world was due to end on this day at 6pm, the same time as I boarding my train home meaning my demise could have happened on foreign soil! Of course this Camping balderdash was grade one bullshit, so alas this means I’ll be back next season to add to my grounds total and inform my dozen or so readers of where, why and how it was all done.

Update
The following weekend Bo'ness retained the East Super League title and will play in the Scottish Cup again next season.

They won their final game away at Forfar 2-0 whilst at the same time Linlithgow lost 2-4 at home Bonnyrigg in the Battle of the Roses, a match which my travel companion James attended.

Matchday stats
BUFC 0 LRFC 4(Nelson 22,Coyne 47, Herd 63, McLennan 85)
att.700.est(TBC)
Admission £5
Programme:none

Ground no.289 Newtown Park - Matchday Web album (21 pictures)

Around The Alliance - part six

2011-05-18T23:58:00.020+02:00

286. Stocksfield Sports Ground
Stocksfield 0v2 Shankhouse
Northern Alliance Premier League
Wednesday 4th May 2011
Stocksfield is a village situated on the south side of the River Tyne in south-west Northumberland, between Newcastle and Hexham.
Stocksfield Sports Ground is a large complex consisting of cricket, rugby, floodlit 5-a-side courts and three football pitches. The football club use the pitch at the far side in front of the Newcastle-Carlisle train line, which is fenced off on three sides with one side left open to accommodate a second cricket pitch, there’s also a pair of neat wooden dugouts in front of the Tyne Valley line banking.
The cricket pavilion is used for changing facilities and there’s a large car park at the entrance, although this was full due to both cricket and football taking place on the same evening.
The club formed in 2005,winning the Pin Point Personnel Amateur Cup the following year and made progress with two promotions in 2006-07 and 2008-09.
Their first season in the Northern Alliance Premier Division last term was played at the vacant Kimberley Park in Prudhoe, but the reformation of Prudhoe Town has meant a return to Stocksfield.Shankhouse grabbed a well earned win with a goal in each half, with a cross-come-shot from Gustard on 13 minutes and sealing victory five minutes from time with a lovely goal from Dormand, the striker connecting with a corner kick to volley the ball home from inside the box.

Between the goals both sides created good chances, but the visitors deserved the three points, hitting the woodwork and missing a few one-on-ones which would have made the score line look more handsome.

Matchday stats

SfFC 0 ShFC 2(Gustard 13, Dormand 86)
att.27(HC)
Admission and programme:none

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287. Derwenthaugh Park
South Shields United 2v3 Stocksfield
Pin Point Recruitment Charity Cup Final

Thursday 12th May 2011

Derwenthaugh Park is found west of the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead on At Well Road in Blaydon. The ground was built on wasteland on the former site of the Derwenthaugh Coke Works for Swalwell Juniors in 1998. The facility has two full size pitches both with dugouts, with the main pitch fully fenced with floodlights and some hard standing. There’s also a large function room with changing rooms and four floodlit astro turf 5 a side pitches.
Swalwell Juniors comprises 18 teams, made up from kids between the ages of 6 and 17. The senior side has played in the Northern Alliance Second Division since 2009 and the club also run a reserve team.

Swalwell FC played hosts to the Pin Point Recruitment Charity Cup Final, the competition gives financial support to good causes and charities in the north east.
The Charity Cup will be renamed the Bill Gardner Memorial Trophy from next season as a mark of respect to the league's long serving Press Officer who passed away in December 2010.
The final turned out to be a cracker and a proverbial game of two halves. Shields were the better side in the opening half, looking dangerous when breaking forward with their pacey strike force. They took the lead on 39 minutes when Aristote Guerin seized on a loose ball in the box then just prior to the half time whistle, a goal to grace any cup final. Tijan Kah picked up the ball wide right, outpaced the defender, pulled off a few lollipops before unleashing an unstoppable and precise drive into the top left hand corner - a tremendous goal!
So 2-0 at half time and the team in the Blyth Spartans reject strips looked set to lift the trophy, but a Glenn Caygill header on 56 minutes halved the deficit which began a great Stocksfield comeback.
Ten minutes later Scott Johnson’s hard work and persistence paid off, poking the ball home from close range before the fight back was completed five minutes from time, substitute Martin Graham finally smacking the ball into the net after an array of missed chances.
Stocksfield deservingly win the cup but it’s a shame that Shields United, having already tendered their resignation from the League couldn’t go out with a bang by lifting the trophy.

Matchday facts

SSUFC 2(Guerin 39, T Kah 45) SfFC 3(Caygill 56,Johnson 66,Graham 85)

att.130.approx

Admission with programme:£2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
288. South Newsham Pavilion

Blyth Town 2v1 Harraby Catholic Club

Northern Alliance Premier League

Wednesday 18th May 2011

I featured Blyth Town in the third part of the Around The Alliance series in May 2008. At the time the club had problems with their pitch and were giving special dispensation from the League to fulfil their fixtures over on the South Beach pitches.

So after three years I’ve finally got around to revisiting the club at their home turf against Cumbrian based Harraby Catholic Club, the only club in the Alliance Premier who I’d previously never seen in action.

South Newsham Pavilion has two pitches, the main ground is fully railed off with a pair of Perspex dugouts. The pavilion has bar facilities and changing rooms, there’s also a 5-a-side court behind the nearside goal.
At one point I thought there was no football to be had. Harraby still hadn’t turned up by the designated kick-off time of 6.30. The team bus finally arrived at quarter-to-seven having been stuck in traffic, which meant the match was ok to k.o. at a later time of 7pm.

Blyth took an early lead through Hopwood with a header at the far post before an equaliser on 26 minutes, Wordsworth was left unmarked to nod home a left sided free kick.
The match was finely poised and could have gone either way but it was the home side that clinched it, Haig capitalised on a defensive mix-up to skilfully round the keeper and shoot past the covering defenders on the goal line.
Overall quite a good game, which is usually the case and it’s very rarely a disappointing affair when watching games around the Alliance.

Matchday stats

BTFC 2(Hopwood 5, Haig 73)HCC 1(Wordsworth 26)
att.28(HC)
Admission & Programme:none

My Matchday - 285 Withdean Stadium

2011-05-01T03:02:00.011+02:00

Brighton & Hove Albion 2v3 Huddersfield Town

League One

Saturday 30th April 2011

When a club play their final match at a home stadium, the occasion is usually met with a touch of sadness, retracing memories of matches past can bring a tear to even the most hardened of supporters. There is however one exception to the rule, as Brighton & Hove Albion aren’t just celebration winning League One, but also leaving one of the most unpopular grounds to have ever graced the Football League.

Brighton & Hove Albion left 95 years of history behind at the Goldstone Ground in 1997. The ground was sold by a bunch of former wanksplat board members in an attempt to clear the club's mounting debts and avoid bankruptcy, without any thought or dialogue with the club’s supporters .

My only ever visit to the Goldstone Ground was in 1983 when Second Division Newcastle United faced The Seagulls in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup.

At the time Albion were at the foot of the First Division, so there wasn’t too much between the sides, so we travelled to the south coast in optimistic mood.

I remember that trip well, we left at midnight, stopped off in London early doors, then headed down to Brighton at 11am. On the day United played well but fell behind to an Andy Ritchie goal on 56 minutes. The Magpies rallied for an equaliser and it finally came on 72 minutes with a right foot drive from Terry Mac, earning a replay which we all arrogantly thought would be a formality at St James Park the following Wednesday

Brighton’s FA Cup exploits of 1983 are well remembered for Jimmy Melia’s shoes, the team travelling to Wembley by helicopter and of course the immortal commentary quote of “And Smith must score” however none of this would have becoming part of FA Cup folklore if it wasn’t for the incompetence of one man, step forward - Mr Telford Mills(Rotherham, South Yorkshire)

Referee Mr Mills became the Geordie public enemy No.1 (one of several throughout the decades) after disallowing not one, but two legitimate looking goals from Varadi and Keegan in the last five minutes of the replay denying United a place in the 4th round of the ‘83 cup.

Brighton won the game courtesy of a goal on 62 minutes by Peter Ward, his final goal for the club which set up a home tie with Manchester City on route to the twin towers of Wembley. Keegan was quoted afterwards, saying “I’m as sick as a Skegness donkey” Well we know how he felt, as we’ve had that nauseous feeling annually for the last 28 years.

(Video evidence HERE)

Peter Ward Soccer Star picture courtesy of Nigel’s Webspace http://cards.littleoak.com.au/

Brighton ended up at the Withdean after a failed attempt to lodge at Fratton Park with Pompey before arranging a ground-share 71 miles away in Gillingham.

Albion played at the Preistfield Stadium for two seasons and after another unsuccessful ground-share bid at Worthing they returning “home” to the only available option in Brighton at the home of the local athletics club.

The Withdean Stadium is named after its location in the Brighton suburbs, built in 1936 on the site of Marshall’s Playing Fields and originally used for lawn tennis.

The stadium currently has a capacity of 8,850 and during the club’s 12 year stay the record attendance was 8729 for a League Cup tie with Manchester City in September 2008.

The North Stand is the only permanent fixture, originally at the stadium before the club took residence and will be the only stand left when they leave, The stand provides the only cover, running pitch length and decked out with light blue seats. The stand is open at the back, apart from advertising hoardings so you can clearly see The Sportsman pub which sits behind it.

The other three sides are made up of temporary stands with green seats, The largest is on the South Side which runs pitch length and in a previous life appeared as temp seating at The Open golf tournament with a capacity of 4,500.

The East End has two large stands one of which is a Family Stand and there’s also a small section of seats and disabled section below the cabin which has the digital clock on top.

Away supporters are designated the West Stand which, due to the surrounding running track, look so far away from the action they could be in a different postcode! Changing rooms and hospitality facilities are provided by portacabins in the north west corner

In October 2005 Deputy Prime Minister at the time John Prescott, gave permission for Albion to build Falmer Stadium The project was delayed due to opposition from Lewes Council and local residents in Falmer, until permission was once again granted in July 2007 by Hazel Blears, the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Preliminary work finally got underway in November 2008 and the new stadium will open in July in readiness for The Seagulls 2011/12 campaign in The Championship.

As you may expect another canny-hike meant an early start, leaving Newcastle on the 0635 to Kings Cross, then catching the tube to London Bridge for my connection south, eventually arrived at my destination just before 11.30.

The city is the major part of Brighton and Hove on the south coast of East Sussex. The ancient settlement of Brighthelmstone dates before the Domesday Book,developed during the 18th century as a health resort for sea bathing and a popular destination for day-trippers from London.

Brighton experienced rapid population growth at the turn of the sixties, but its biggest claim to fame in the 20th century came in 1974; the Brighton Dome the venue when ABBA triumphed with Waterloo in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Brighton always reminds me of the 1979 movie Quadrophenia, based on The Who’s Rock opera of the same name which formed the backdrop to some of the pictures main scenes

I recently seen the film on ITV4 and was astounded by the number of times the line “Uwe going darn to Bry-tin at the weekend?” was used in the first half of the film and watching it now compared with over 30 years ago, except for a few redeeming features its basically not that good.(It’s bobbins!…Eddy)

On arrival I was greeted by Squad#77 Danny Last from the multi-award winning European Football Weekends blog. Our meeting was a bit of a Frost/Nixon moment and I would describe Danny as the James Brown of internet football journalism ie; “The hardest working man in blog business” I’ve knew Danny for a few years, but only via cyberspace, through text message, email, Facebook and Twitter but we’ve never communicated the old fashioned way via the art of chat, so it was great to finally but a voice to the face.

We called into the Brighton club shop then had a quick bevvy in 'The Evening Star' before heading to ‘The Battle of Trafalgar’ to meet up with the rest of Danny’s mates, or as I like to call them - “The Fred Perry Appreciation Society“ (I fitted right in with the correct attire)

The pub has a suntrap beer garden at the rear, so we stayed for a few pints until catching the 1407 train to the ground.

Prior to kick-off I confessed that I wanted Huddersfield to win, mainly due to the Geordie connection of ex-Mags Lee Clark and the aforementioned Terry Mac as well as ex-Heed striker Lee Novak. I also would love to see the Terriers clinch the second automatic promotion spot ahead of Southampton, as I’m not too chewed on The Saints after an unpleasant visit to St Mary’s a few years ago. Daniel Ward scored a late winner in a thrilling 3-2 win which meant I did get the result I wanted but maybe not the eventual outcome.

Benik Afobe fired Town ahead early on with a neat finish before Liam Bridcutt went close for the Seagulls with a header which smacked the crossbar.

Ashley Barnes levelled early in the second half, scoring the rebound with a diving header when his penalty was saved after a foul on Elliott Bennett.

Afobe capitalising on a defensive mix up to regain the lead but it was short lived as Matt Sparrow levelled with a great finish with a low right foot drive, before Ward fired in deep into injury time to win it for the Terriers.

Only goal difference separates the two sides battling for second spot but Southampton have a better goal difference as well as a game in hand.

Post match the Brighton team were presented with the League One trophy, with manager Gus Poyet leading the chorus of “We Are The Champions” The Seagulls supporters trooped out of the Withdean for the very last time, without any guilt or regret about leaving behind a stadium, that even through its unpopularity, it has witnessed four trophies of sorts in 12 years.

I also trudged away from the ground for the long journey home delighted to have picked the perfect occasion to visit the stadium, being the last Seagulls game, seeing the trophy presented and being a lovely sunny day, the perfect conditions for such an open stadium.

I would like to thank Danny for making it possible by “calling in a favour” regarding the match ticket and being a perfect host and I look forward to returning to Brighton early next season at their sexy new Amex Stadium in Falmer.

Matchday stats

B&HA 2(Barnes 47,Sparrow 69)HTFC 3(Afobe 8,61 Ward 90)

att.8,416

Admission £25

Programme £3

Ground no.285 Withdean Stadium - Matchday Web album (31 pictures)

My Matchday - 284 Gillford Park Stadium

2011-04-28T00:43:00.007+02:00

Gillford Park 0v2 Marske United
Northern League Division Tw0
Wednesday 27th April 2011
I took a leisurely midweek drive along the A69 to one of the two Cumbrian based Northern League grounds that I still needed to tick off.
Gillford Park FC are based in the southern part of Carlisle, formed in 2004 by Mike Linden and Geoff Andrews, managers of a local amateur team, along with former League player Steven Skinner.
The club were accepted into the Northern Alliance Division Two for the 2005/06 season, playing on a shared pitch with Sunday League team Carlisle Spartans. The club won promotion in their first season, finishing runner-up to Whitley Bay ’A’ with a side comprising of locally based players from the Carlisle area.

The following season the team moved across from the second pitch to the main stadium at Gillford Park. The ground is found before reaching the railway bridge on Pettersill Bank Road, access is via a long concrete track off the main road which leads to the Railway Club and stadium.
The ground has a capacity of 4,000 made up of two seated stands. The Railway End Stand is behind the goal next to the turnstiles and has a cantilever roof with a mixture of red, white and blue flip seats. The stand also has a refreshment bar, changing rooms and a window view at the top which houses the PA system and offices.
The stand behind the team dugouts sits on the half way line, having a block of red seats with a light blue con-iron frame and 6 white supporting pillars. The terrace at the opposite side is fully covered and behind the far goal there's no hardstanding with insuficent room for spectators, so isn't used.
The club made rapid progress, winning the Northern Alliance Combination Cup in 2007 and two further promotions in three seasons brought Northern League football to the city of Carlisle for the first time. Floodlights were erected in the summer of 2009, bringing the ground up to Northern League standard.

Gillford Park have had a difficult season to say the least, locked out of their home for the majority of the season by landlords the Carlisle & District Railway Club after signing a 25 year lease just a few years ago. Thanks to the co-operation of their fellow Northern League clubs they had to reverse all their fixtures, playing all matches away until finding refuge in Whitehaven, at the Copeland Stadium in January.
The Carlisle County Court granted an interim injunction to allow the club the use the ground and facilities, so they finally played their first “home” fixture of the season on March 5th against Crook Town. Since then they’ve had to squeeze in 15 of their remaining 17 sNL Division Two fixtures at home, this game against Marske United being their penultimate match of a hectic finale to the season.
The disagreement with the proprietor seems to have extended into the car park. I arrived at the ground at 7pm where two ladies standing outside the Railway Club politely asked me to park further down away from the social club. I drove a bit further before being stopped by a volunteer from the football club who ushered me inside the stadium itself asking me to park behind the stand, before he cursed the annoying neighbours.

Gillford Park’s opponents Marske United went into this game knowing a win would clinch the third promotion slot along with Newton Aycliffe and Guisborough Town.
The first half produced very little, Marske United played like a team in a hurry, trying to get the required victory as quickly as possible and came close to breaking the deadlock through Karl Charlton, but his effort agonisingly hit the foot of the post.
The Seasiders were more patient in the second half, taking the lead on 55 minutes when Charlton pounced on a loose ball to sweep home from the edge of the box and with a quarter of an hour remaining Chris McGill got on the end of a right wing cross, to produce a sweet volley that clinched victory and sNL Division One football next season.

So after originally finishing the Northern League clubs 3 years ago, due to promotion and relocations I still have one ground left to again complete the set - much further west through Cumbria to Whitehaven. However I may have to do Gillford Park again if the dispute with the stadium landlords isn’t resolved. The football club are “very confident” that Gillford will be at the Railway Club next season, but after that who knows, I wish “Carlisle’s Non-League Team” the best of luck in their efforts in finding stability, be it at their current home or elsewhere in the town.

Matchday stats
GPFC 0 MUFC 2(Charlton 55,McGill 76)
att.TBC

Admission £4

Programme £1

Ground no.284 Gillford Park Stadium - Matchday Webalbum (24 pictures)

My Matchday - 283 Dean Court

2011-04-26T16:13:00.012+02:00

AFC Bournemouth 2v1 Bristol Rovers
League One
Monday 25th April 2011
The third and final leg of my Easter treble finishes at Deans Court with a day spent in blazing hot Bournemouth.
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort in Dorset, founded in 1810 by Lewis Tregonwell, The town’s growth coincided with the arrival of the railway, becoming a recognised town in 1870. Originally part of Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganisation of local government in 1974.
Bournemouth's location on the glorious south coast has made it a popular destination for tourists and was once surveyed as being the happiest place in Britain to live.

AFC Bournemouth originated out of the remains of the Boscombe St. John's Lads’ Institute F.C. in 1890, playing matches at King’s Park. The club became Boscombe F.C in 1889, competing in the Bournemouth and District Junior League on a pitch in Castlemain Road, Pokestown, before a return to King’s Park.
In 1910 the club was granted a long lease for a new ground on wasteland next to King’s Park by their president Mr. J.E. Cooper-Dean. The ground opened in December 1910, named Dean Court after the club benefactor who was instrumental in the club’s relocation.

The Cooper-Dean estate contained numerous cherry orchards, this as well as the team’s red jerseys gave the club the nickname of “The Cherries”
In 1923 the club changed their name to Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic Football Club and were elected to the Football League. Around this time the ground had only a small wooden stand, then in 1927 the club purchased turnstiles and a steel framework from the Wembley Empire Exhibition. The frame was used towards the building of the Main Stand. The stand held 3,700 seats with dressing rooms and offices and a standing paddock, all at a total cost of £12,000.
The South End covered terrace opened in 1936 followed by the extension of the west terrace, known as the “New Stand” in 1957, financed by a record attendance of 28,799 against Manchester United in the FA Cup.
In 1971 the club moved to the top of Football League, but only alphabetically, changing their name to AFC Bournemouth, but ground wise nothing changed until the club purchased land from the Cooper Dean estate to built a new stand on the north terrace. The project came to a standstill due to rising costs, so by 1984 the club abandoned the idea, demolishing the structure and building 27 houses instead. The properties were sold at a profit of £500,000 which helped eased the clubs financial worries.

The ground was completely rebuilt in 2001, with the pitch rotated ninety degrees from its original position, moving away from the aforementioned north end houses. The Cherries ground shared at Dorchester Town for eight games until the stadium was complete. Originally it was rebuilt as a three sided stadium with open corners. Each stand is of a similar size and style decked out in red seats, with the East and Main Stands having AFCB picked out in white. The Main Stand is located on the west side and differs slightly having a row of executive boxes at the rear.
Temporary seats were placed on the undeveloped south end of the ground in autumn 2005, which are rarely used.

Cherries’ legend Steve Fletcher came off the bench to grab a late winner and keep Bournemouth in the League One play-off picture against struggling Bristol Rovers.
Wayne Brown latched on to a long ball before slotting the ball under Jalal to give the visitors an early lead, but they were soon down to 10 men after David McCracken needlessly elbowed Adam Smith as they prepared for a corner kick.
It was soon 10-a-side as Danny Hollands saw red for two bookings just before half time as Bournemouth struggled to make any impression on the game.
Rovers looked likely to hold on until substitute Mathieu Baudry headed the equaliser on 84 minutes then four minutes later Ings capitalised on a mistake by keeper Conrad Logan to tee up Fletcher to score and send the bumper Bank Holiday crowd at Dean Court wild.
AFC Bournemouth remain in sixth place in the table with a three point cushion over seventh-placed Leyton Orient with two games left to play.

The weather on the south coast this Easter weekend has apparently been warmer than Spain. Since we left Tyneside on Thursday morning the weather has been glorious especially on the Dorset coast in Poole on Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday in Bournemouth. We arrived in Bournemouth around mid morning and the beach was already beginning to get packed with lazy sunbathers, it was hard to believe that we were actually still in England.

This has probably been one of the Smudgers best weekend breaks. We’ve had a fantastic time, everything has gone to plan and I’d say the only trouble we’ve had over the five days is getting people to understand our accents. This happened on several occasions, but the best example of our far far away southern hosts having trouble with the Geordie lingo was at Yeovil, when I asked for a cup of coffee and was handed a hot dog!
As was the case at Torquay on Friday, yet again I need to mention another warm welcome and say a big thanks to the staff at Dean Court for a great afternoon.
To finish the holiday all that was left was another mammoth road trip back home. The busy Bank Holiday traffic meant we finally arrived home at 1230am, “Wor Al” having clocked up at total of 985 miles over the weekend,however the laborious road travel has been well worth it having ticked off the three furthest grounds left in ‘The 92’ in one go!

Matchday stats

AFCB 2(Baudry 84, Fletcher 84)BRFC 1(Brown 4)
att.7,869
Admission PP(£18-£25)
Programme £3

Ground no.283 Dean Court - Matchday Web album (23 pictures)

My Matchday - 282 Huish Park

2011-04-26T13:53:00.006+02:00

Yeovil Town 2v2 AFC Bournemouth
League One
Saturday 23rd April 2011

The second leg of my Easter treble was a day trip to the vibrant market town of Yeovil situated on the southern tip of Somerset.
The town was first recorded in the Domesday Book as Givle, a thriving market community with a population of around 1,000. In 1205 the town was granted a charter by King John and by the 14th century had gained the right to elect a portreeve.
From the nineteen century Yeovil became a centre for the glove making industry as the town’s population rose, achieved borough status in 1854 and electing its first mayor.
In recent years the town has achieved a few firsts, being the pioneers in launching biometric fingerprint scanning in nightclubs and the first Council to ban Heeleys roller shoes, as well making skateboards, roller blades and skates illegal. (spoil sports!)

Yeovil Football Club formed in 1890, sharing their original home with the local rugby club before relocating to Pen Mill Athletic Ground, however the present club originated from Yeovil Casuals who formed in 1895.
The club became Yeovil and Petters United when amalgamation with Petters United before finally adopting the Yeovil Town name from 1907.
The club played at The Huish between 1928 and 1990, which was famous for its 8 foot side-to-side slope and the scene for the biggest FA Cup giant killing of all time, when the Southern League side beat First Division Sunderland in the FA Cup 4th Round in 1948/49 in front of a 16,318 record crowd.

The Glovers won the Southern League title on three occasions and in 1979 became founder members of the Alliance (Conference) League. The club had spells in the Isthmian Premier after suffering relegation, but after winning promotion in 1996-97 the club made rapid progress culminating in a place in the Football League after clinching the 2002-03 Conference title.

Built in 1990, at the time Huish Park was the country’s largest new non-league ground in decades, set in the Yeovil suburbs with the old slopping pitch at The Huish covered by another Tesco superstore.
The Cowden and Agusta Westland Community stands are similar in design, both cantilever single tiered stands decked out with green seats with white lettering. The differences are the former has a control box, press area and disabled sections while the later has executive boxes along the back, players tunnel and dugouts.
Away fans are housed in the Copse Road Terrace which is an open terrace and opposite is the Blackthorn Terrace which is fully covered. I stood on this terrace for the game and must mention the in house band that generates a good atmosphere in the ground, amongst their ranks is a very impressive trumpet player, who does a great rendition of the ‘Rocky’ theme.
There’s electric scoreboards on three sides of the ground with the largest behind the away terrace and in each corner there is a set of tall floodlight pylons.
The current capacity is 9,665 (Seating 5,212) and the record attendance is 9,527 v Leeds United for a League One clash on 25 April, 2008.

Yeovil came back from a man down and a two goal deficit to clinch a point with an injury time equaliser from Shaun MacDonald.
The Glovers faced an uphill battle after ex-Toon defender Paul Huntington was sent off for two bookings early in the second half
Bournemouth took command, going in front through a Danny Ings' penalty after Nathan Smith fouled Adam Smith, then Ings looked to have clinched the win when he swept home a Liam Feeney's cross on 68 minutes.
With ten minutes remaining the visitors confidently made three substitutions in readiness for the pending home fixture with Bristol Rovers in 48 hours, but somehow collapsed in the final five minutes
Yeovil's Adam Virgo converted a penalty after Harry Arter's handball, then sub Fletcher could have restored the two goal cushion at the other end. before conceding a corner a minute later. From Craig Alcock's corner kick MacDonald rose highest to head the ball home and earn The Glovers an unexpected draw.

The drive up from Dorset took around an hour. I dropped the breadknife and the kids off in Yeovil town centre then headed straight to the ground to secure a decent parking spot, giving plenty of time for a pint of ‘Green and White Ale’ and a deliciously filling Cornish pasty in the marquee beer tent at the stadium.
I also met another member of the 100FgC for the first time before kick off - Squad#151 Jon Blake. Jon is a Bournemouth support who now resides in South Shields but was down visiting family in Christchurch, and like me, was also going to Dean Court on Monday.
Debra(aka the bread knife)thought that Yeovil was a smashing little town and apart from a mini riot involving Bournemouth fans outside Wetherspoons, they had a pleasant afternoon(..and not a skater boy to be seen…Eddy) It’s a pity I didn’t get the chance to see the town for myself but I still had a smashing afternoon in Yeovil, where I saw an entertaining game of football at Huish Park.

Matchday stats

YTFC 2(Virgo 86pen MacDonald 90+3) AFCB 2(Ings 55pen 68)

att.6,150

Admission £18(terrace)

Programme £3

Ground no.282 Huish Park - Matchday Web album (23 pictures)

My Matchday - 281 Plainmoor

2011-04-26T12:01:00.006+02:00

Torquay United 0v0 Wycombe Wanderers
League Two
Friday 22nd April 2011
This year’s Smudgers Easter break was to a land far far away, reet doon into the south-west of England to tick off the three furthest grounds left to complete the current 92.
The first leg of the treble was a 380 mile drive to Torquay in the Torbay area of Devon. The Torquay name originates from the quay of the ancient village of Torre, which takes its name from the tor rock, which can be seen by the town's Tor Hill Road.
The town's economy was initially based upon fishing and agriculture then in the early 19th century it developed into a fashionable seaside resort, originally frequented by members of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and later by Victorian society. The town's warm and healthful climate earned the town the nickname of the English Riviera.
Torquay was the home of “my bread knife’s” favourite writer Agatha Christie, who lived most of her life in the town and as a tribute there’s an "Agatha Christie Mile" tour with plaques, dedicated to her life and work.

Torquay United were formed by a group of school-leavers under the guidance of Sergeant-Major Edward Tomney in 1899. The club originally played friendly matches on Farm fields at the top of Penny's Hill on Teignmouth Road, before joining the East Devon League in 1900.
The club played the next four years at the Recreation Ground, while Plainmoor was being used by Torquay Athletic Rugby Football Club. In 1904 the rugby club secured the lease of the Recreation Ground and United's League rivals Ellacombe moved into the vacated site at Plainmoor, which left United homeless.
The club returned to the farmers field until being forced into another move after the site was sold for development, taking refuge with Torquay Cricket Club in nearby Cricketfield Road for the next four years,
In 1910 United merged with Ellacombe to become Torquay Town, the new club sharing the ground the with local rivals Babbacombe.
After the First World War Devon rivals Plymouth Argyle and Exeter City were both elected to the Football League as founder members of Football League Division Three South, which encouraged both Torquay Town and Babbacombe to merge, restoring the Torquay United name in 1921 and elected into the new league in 1927.

The first wooden grandstand costing £150 transferred from Buckfastleigh Racecourse was built on the east side of the ground in time for United’s debut season in the Football League. Cover was added to the south side terrace in 1933, but little changed at Plainmoor until the 1950’s. The Popular side was partly covered and floodlights were added. The decade also witnessed a record attendance of 21,908 for an FA Cup tie against Huddersfield Town.
The Main Stand was extended in the 1960’s which increased the capacity to 22,000 but just six days after the fire at Valley Parade in 1985 a fire destroyed a third of the stand which saw the capacity fall to under 5,000 due to health and safety matters.

From 1992 Plainmoor finally began to seen some major changes with the mini stand at the Ellacombe Road end replaced with an all-seated Family Stand. The stand is fully covered with a blue cantilever roof holding 1,275 yellow seats and six executive boxes. The stand also has club offices, club shop, as well as the Boots and Laces pub and the 200 Club bar. The directors seats are situated in the middle of the stand below the clock modelled around the club crest.
Away supporters are housed in the Warbro Road End. Cover was added to the terrace in 2000, the roof having a similar style to the opposite goal and has control room at one side.
The Main Stand has a single tier of seats and the extension is made up of yellow wooden seats with a con-iron peaked roof with wooden support beams. Access into both stands are via staircases the sides, where there’s a section of terracing at the front. The stands only run to one side so there’s more terracing towards the Warbro Road End.
The Popular Terrace was rebuilt in 1994, made narrower and fully covered to hold 2,300 fans, with a TV gantry perched on the roof.
The ground is completed by a set of traditional floodlights and the current capacity is 6,000.

The Gulls will look back at this match and wonder how on earth they failed to convert at least one of the numerous chances that would have earned them a well deserved victory and strengthen their position in the League Two play-offs.
Torquay twice hit the wood work, with a Guy Branston header hitting the post and a Ronan Murray effort coming back off the crossbar.
Branston had another header for the hosts and Chris Zebroski forced an excellent save from Wanderers keeper Nikki Bull, but The Gulls biggest culprit was substitute Billy Kee who wasted two glorious chances with just the goalkeeper to beat.
The draw means that Chesterfield are now officially promoted and if Wycombe are to join them in League One next season, then this “lucky draw” could turn out to be a very valuable point.

The Easter holidays started on the Thursday morning with our long haul drive to Devon which took exactly 7 hours including a 30 minute rest stop. Apart from slow moving traffic on the M42 and a busy section on the M5 around Bristol the journey went without a hitch, so we arrived safely at our hotel at 5.45pm
The long hours on the road was made much easier with a good selection of in car CD’s, for example the whole of The Beatles White Album took up a large chunk of time, taking up a good section of the A1 into South Yorkshire.

This was the first time we’ve visited Torquay and I must say we were very impressed with the town and thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the English Riviera , having a pleasant night out on Thursday and a good Good Friday.
Special thanks to Tim Herbert and the staff at Torquay United for making my visit to Plainmoor a pleasant one and I wish the club the best of luck in securing a place in the play-offs.
After the match I hotfooted it back to the car for the next leg of the “Far Far away trilogy” leaving Devon and driving through the hills of Dorset to our base camp in Poole for the next chapter of the Smudgers Easter weekend break.

Update

Torquay made the play-offs after a 7th place finish. The Gulls beat Shrewsury Town in the semi-finals before a narrow defeat to Stevenage in the League Two play-off final at Old Trafford.

Matchday stats

TUFC 0 WWFC 0

att.4,009

Admission:PP (£18)

Programme £2.50

Ground no.281 Plainmoor - Matchday Web album (23 pictures)

My Matchday - 280 Church Road

2011-04-20T12:33:00.014+02:00

Hayes & Yeading United 3v1 Gateshead
Blue Sq.Bet Premier
Tuesday 19th April 2011

It’s exactly one calendar month since my original intended visit to Church Road. The re-jigging of the fixtures means that Gateshead FC now have the honour of being Hayes & Yeading’s last competitive opponents before the ground closes its gates for the final time after 91 years of football history.
The history of the ground goes back to Botwell Mission, who originally played at the Coldharbour Lane enclosure on Botwell Common from their formation in 1908, until moving to new ground in 1920 on Church Road, which was then known as Cox’s Meadow.
In 1924 the club changed their name to Hayes FC and the following year saw the construction of the Main Stand, which has been in use ever since.
The stand sits on the half way line and has a capacity of 450 red seats with the classic design of a stand from this era, having raised seating with staircase access at the front and corrugated iron peaked roof. The only additional change to the stand is 50 extra seats added at the front behind the team dugouts, the club name on the gable end and a scaffold supported TV gantry on the roof.
Terracing replaced the standing banking after the Second World War with a roof added at the far side terrace. The Shed terrace is two-thirds covered and the rest of the ground is made up of terracing which sweeps around to meet both stands.
The capacity is 4,730 with the record attendance set in 1951 when 15,370 crammed into Church Road for an FA Amateur Cup tie against Bromley.

Hayes FC stepped up from the Athenian League to the Isthmian League in 1971. In 1995-96 they edged Enfield on goal difference to win the league title for the only time which saw the club spent six seasons in the Conference.
Hayes were placed in the newly formed Conference South after the reconstruction of the pyramid in 2004-05 and on the 18th May 2007 merged with former Isthmian League rivals Yeading FC.
Yeading FC formed as a youth side in 1960 and first played competitively in the London Spartan League. The club went on to win the Isthmian Premier in 2004-05 and played a solitary season in the Conference South before the two clubs became United.
I first became aware of Yeading when they drew Newcastle United in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup in 2005. The game was switched from The Warren to Loftus Road and I remember sitting watching the game at home feeling quite anxious after a goalless first half. United went on to win the game with two second half goals, however Toon fans will recall the game for the debut of Jean-Alain Boumsong, who had a nervous first game against players playing six divisions below the Premier League.

The final game turned out the be a perfect send off for the old ground, with a 3-1 victory over Gateshead securing Conference football for United next season.
Hayes & Yeading took an early lead when Bradley Pritchard got on the end of Peter Holmes's cross, producing a tidy finish from close range.
Five minutes after the break an Ashley Winn strike from the edge of the box, took a slight deflection for the equaliser as Gateshead began to get a foothold on the game.
Hayes substitute Ben Wright restored the advantage, with a header at the far post from a Holmes corner kick , before Lee Brown put the gloss on the performance with an injury-time penalty after Ben Clark fouled Andy Yiadom.
So the ideal finish for the hosts last ever game, the very last kick of the match and at Church Road was a goal.

Four Heed fans, all four of us members of 100 FgC squad, but from this day forward we shall be known as “The Hayes & Yeading 4” being the only ones who made the long trip from Tyneside to Middlesex.
Torchey Travel set off on this long midweek jaunt at around 12.30pm. The “H&Y4” consisting of myself, Squad#51 Torchey, #37 MC Dean and #185 Simon Grobari. For the first leg of the journey I had the honour of driving the Torcheymobile, doing the first 200 mile stint, before our excursion guide took the wheel for the last bit of the journey.
We arrived in Hayes at 5.45pm and headed straight to the Botwell Inn on Coldharbour Lane. It was here that I arranged to finally, at long last, after all these years, meet up with one of the primary members of the 100FgC - squad#10 Tim Rigby, who is the author of the fabulous

Tims 92 Website.
Before the game we had time for a quick pint in the clubhouse, which must be one of the best social clubs in the league, not just inside but from the outside with its ivy covered front wall and a decent pint of John Smith’s to boot!
Once inside the ground I bumped into more of the100FgC team, squad#179 and Wycombe Wanderers fan Russell Cox, as well as “Barnet Boy” aka Squad#96 Tom Salinger. Caroline another Heed fan had travelled down by train and there was also two London based Geordie exiles in the ground, so if you include Tim as well, the Heed Army ranks swelled to nearly double figures!
This matchday wasn’t just another Heed away game, it was more about the last game at Church Road and I was pleased to be in attendance for such an occasion. I arrived back home at 3.30am, obviously very tired but it was well worth it when you consider that after the game both Gateshead manager Ian Bogie and his assistant Terry Mitchell, shook hands with the “H&Y4” and thanks each and every one of us for travelling down and supporting the team. It’s nice to be appreciated and it makes these long arduous trips worthwhile.

Matchday stats

H&YU 3(Pritchard 10,Wright 71,Brown 90+3pen) GFC 1(Winn 50)

Att.502

Admission;(PP) £13

Programme £2.50

Tims 92 report

Ground no.280 Church Road - Matchday Web album (22 Pictures)

My Matchday - 279 Central Park

2011-04-17T11:04:00.017+02:00

Cowdenbeath 1v2 Falkirk

Scottish League Division 1

Saturday 16th April 2011

My initial attempt to visit Cowdenbeath this season coincided with the dawn of the rotten British winter on the last weekend in November. Then in February when the worst of the inclement weather was over I tried again, but was thwarted by a signal failure in Birtley delaying my train for over 70 minutes which meant I would have been lucky to catch the second half.

However it turned out to be third time lucky - a successful attempt in visiting Central Park as it‘s a “must tick” this season as the ground and surrounding area are part of a two-part redeveloped with the football club planning to relocate to a new purpose built community stadium;

The Central Park area has been identified in the Fife Council's Mid Fife Local Plan as a key area for the physical and economic regeneration of Cowdenbeath. Following discussions with Fife Council and recent public consultation events, a formal application has now been submitted for planning permission for the redevelopment of the Central Park site, which would see the provision of a supermarket, small retail units and housing. The aim is to regenerate the area, create jobs and boost the local economy.

“Staying at Central Park in the long-term is not an option", said Donald Findlay QC, Chairman, Cowdenbeath Football Club. "Central Park has a proud history but, unfortunately, it no longer meets the needs of the football club while the running costs are extremely high. "The sustainable future of the Club is dependant on relocating to a purpose-built, low maintenance and income-generating-facility within Cowdenbeath. “This is a key part of our vision to see the Club continue to flourish on the field and acting as a hub for many community activities. The proposal would safeguard the future of the football club as a community asset and it would also ensure a positive legacy from the redevelopment of Central Park for the people of Cowdenbeath." (source http://www.cowdenbeathfc.com) The development would generate the finance for the new stadium, with plans for a site in the Broad Street area of the town which is the favoured location of the football club and Fife Council. The club are encouraging the Cowdenbeath public to back the proposal and sign the petition at the ground or use the online petition.

Cowdenbeath lies in south-west Fife, 18 miles north of Edinburgh. The burgh built up from the mid-19th century through coal mining as flourishing coal pits were sunk in the surrounding areas, which established the town as a central headquarters for Fife mining.

The oldest football club within the Kingdom of Fife, formed around 1881 joining the Scottish League in 1905, going on to win the second division title in 1914 and 1915. In those days there was no automatic promotion between the two divisions, with promotion decided on a voting system. The east of Scotland based clubs felt hard done by, with promotion constantly denied in favour of the western clubs. Cowdenbeath were amongst several eastern clubs to quit the Scottish Football League and form the 'rebel' Central League which proved to be highly successful.

Cowdenbeath moved to Central Park when it was opened in 1917, having originally played at North End Park. The Main Stand was built in 1921, to coincide with the Central League clubs rejoined the Scottish League, after decided to introduce promotion and relegation between the two divisions.

The Blue Brazil aren’t blessed with a roll of honours, they won the Second Division for a third time in 1938-39 and their last appearance in the top flight of Scottish football was a solitary season in 1970-71, after winning promotion when finishing second to Falkirk the previous year. The ground is in the town centre behind the High Street and a handy five minute walk from the train station. The Main Stand is two separate structures. The old West Stand originally had a capacity of 3,000, until falling victim to arson in 1985, with half the stand destroyed by another fire in 1992. The stand is filled with benches and has a few supporting pillars and a peaked roof. The clubs noisiest fans are housed towards the west goal and at the opposite side is the press box.

The Alex Menzie Stand opened in March 1995 and includes dressing rooms, board room, function suite, club offices and boardroom. The basic looking stand is split into three sections of red seats, the combined total seating capacity of both stands is 1,622 and the overall capacity is 5,268. Central Park is more famous for the tarmac oval circuit which circles the pitch, which was formerly used for greyhounds and speedway and regularly hosts stock car racing.

Racewall Cowdenbeath stage various championships in each formula, with a Scottish championship and also many other World, European, British & National Championships. This means fans on the east and west terraces are quite far away from the pitch with meshed safety fence somewhat spoiling the view, so quite a few fans stand at the top end next to the West Terrace turnstile.

The South Terrace stands central, flanked by grass banking which continues around to the east side. The turnstiles are next to the main stands so visiting supporters have to walk around to the far terrace. The record attendance at Central Park stands at 25,586 for a League Cup quarter final tie with Rangers on 21st September 1949.

Falkirk hit back from a goal deficit at half time to win at Central Park with two second half goals, which leaves Cowden second bottom of the First Division. The Blue Brazil took the lead after 32 minutes when Greg Stewart converted Lewis Coult's cross, taking the ball on his chest before producing a splendid finish.

Falkirk hit back from a goal deficit at half time to win at Central Park, leaving Cowden second bottom of the First Division. The Blue Brazil took the lead after 32 minutes when Greg Stewart converted Lewis Coult's cross, taking the ball on his chest before producing a splendid finish.

The hosts could have double their lead ten minutes after the restart when a Robertson header was somehow pawed away by the keeper but Falkirk drew level 20 minutes into the second half through Mark Stewart. His initial header produced a fine save from Cowden keeper Roy, but from the resulting corner he pounced onto a flick to nod home from close range. Four minutes later the visitors grabbed the winner when Brian McLean lost his marker and finish with a strong header at the far post from Mark Millar's free kick as Falkirk comfortably held on to take maximum points.

My lifetime pursuit of finishing ‘The 92’ has dominated this seasons ground hopping adventures which has meant neglecting my favourable trips to Scotland. I always feel at home north of the border, maybe that’s because our Scottish friends are basically Geordies but with their brains bashed in (Is that not vice-versa?…Eddy)

Travelling to Cowdenbeath by train doesn’t take too long. I caught the 1203 which was behind schedule, as you could imagine this caused a bit anxiety on my part, but I needn’t have worried as the train was only 12 minutes late and travelled none stop to Edinburgh. On arrival I caught my connection train towards Glenrothes, reaching my destination at 230pm.

I had time for a drink after the game so made a bee-line to the highly recommended New Goth bar. Looking at the pub from the outside I wasn't too sure whether or not to go inside, the building was dropping to bits and looks in need of a complete face lift. I had a choice of either standing on the train station platform for half an hour or going inside, so I obviously did the latter and was pleasantly surprised to find a nice friendly pub, nice décor, spotless and nothing like I imagined it would be. The Goth have McEwans 80 shilling on draught, a beer which I haven’t supped since the 1980’s. The pint was top quality though, in the same class as the scotch pie I had at the match at half time.

Afterwards I made use of my spare hour in Edinburgh to watch the Manchester derby at Wembley on the pub TV. It was good timing as I caught the decisive moment in the game which booked City a place in the FA Cup Final, and I was quite amazed being the only person in the packed pub to punch the air with glee when the goal was scored. I thought everyone hated Man Yoo!

So Cowdenbeath is finally done and it’s been well worth the wait. The day went smoothly, I loved Central Park’s uniqueness and everyone I spoke to was very hospitable, but I wouldn't have expected anything less from our Scottish cousins. This is why I always enjoy my matchdays in Scotland and I’ll be looking forward to my next trek into Northern Britain, where and whenever that may be.

Matchday stats

CFC 1(Stewart 32) FFC 2(Stewart 65 McLean 69)

att.636 Admission (PP) £15 Programme £2

Ground no.279 Central Park - Matchday web album (18 pictures)

My Matchday - 278 Heritage Park

2011-04-12T11:37:00.004+02:00

Bishop Auckland 0v0 Dunston UTS

Northern League Division One

Monday 11th April 2011

At long last Bishop Auckland ended a nomadic eight years by moving into their brand new home, south-west of the town in Tindale Crescent.

Bishops played at one of the country’s oldest football grounds - Kingsway, which they shared with the town’s cricket club between 1886 and 2001.

The sale of the “Two Blues” home of 115 years was meant to proceed the club moving into a brand new ground, however disputes with the local council meant the Tindale project remained unresolved, resulting in Bishops having to ground-share with fellow Northern League clubs around County Durham.

The club shared with Shildon at Dean Street for two spells between 2002-2004 and 2006-2008, with a stint at Spennymoor’s Brewery Field in between, with the last two seasons spent at Darlington Road, the home of West Auckland Town. The current ground plans were submitted to Wear Valley District Council in September 2008, with planning permission granted two months later and building work beginning in November 2009.

The stadium was named Heritage Park prior to the official opening which took place on 24th October 2010. Sir John Hall had the honour of performing the opening ceremony, attended by season ticket holders, sponsors, shareholders, and VIP's along with 230 children from Bishop Auckland St Mary's Juniors and their coaches.

The stadium capacity of just over 2,000 includes 250 seats in the Main Stand. The stand is similar in design to the one at Penrith, having a cantilever roof with no supporting pillars with the clubhouse at the top of the stand overlooking the pitch. The stand is decked out with bright cream walls and blue flip seats with the club crest on each side of the stand and also includes a club shop.

There’s full cover at the west side goal, the terrace is seven steps high and has shelter for 472 spectators. The rest of the ground is open with hard standing and grass banking, the far side in front of the Sainsbury supermarket is named Terrace Hill.

The stadium has been awarded an FA Category C grade, meaning it is suitable for use up to the Northern Premier League - Premier Division.

Bishop Auckland are famed in Non-League football, winners of the FA Amateur Cup a record ten times with and losing finalists on eight occasions.

The club formation dates back to 1882 when theology students from both Cambridge and Oxford Universities whilst studying at Auckland Castle, formed a team known as Bishop Auckland Church Institute.

In 1886 a club dispute saw the formation of a breakaway team called Auckland Town, which eventually saw the birth of Bishop Auckland Football Club. The team name changed in 1893 with the club wearing the two shades of blue which represent their Oxbridge origins.

Auckland Town became one of the 10 founder members of the Northern League in 1889, playing the inaugural season before joining the Northern Alliance the following season. The newly named club rejoined in 1893 going on to win the league title 19 times coupled with winning the League Cup on 7 occasions.

In 1988 Bishops stepped up into the Northern Premier League Division, winning promotion in their debut season in the First Division after finishing runners. The club’s best seasonal performance came when finishing second to Leek Town in the Premier Division in 1996-97, before subsequent relegation saw the Two Blues return to the Northern League in 2006.

The stadium’s opening game took place on the 2nd November with a friendly against Middlesbrough in front of a crowd of 1,341, followed by the first competitive game in the Northern League against Consett.

Both games ended in defeat and I originally planned to be in attendance for Heritage Park third match against former landlords West Auckland on the 23rd November. Unfortunately that match which was postponed as it fell in the week when the north-east winter officially commenced, then a second attempt against Dunston UTS in January fell victim to a frozen pitch.

So my visit to Bishops new home comes in the crazy season, when clubs play four games a week in a mad attempt to finish the season by the 30th April, this fixture being Dunston’s fifth game out of a total of 13 to be played during the month of April.

Both teams have recently been in good form and involved in high scoring games so it came as a shock that this game turned out to be Heritage Park’s first goalless draw.

Due to the problems with the ground’s drainage system, the pitch was covered with more sand than grass and with the recent dry weather as rock hard as Jimmy Nail.

The draw was just about the fair result with Bishops probably just shading the second half mainly due to a diligent effort from Wayne Gredziak (Didn’t he play Ice Hockey?…Eddy) The striker twice outpaced the Dunston defence only to see his efforts go narrowly wide, he also went close with a spectacular over-head kick and late in the game brought out a fine save from the visitors keeper.

The result moves Bishops up into 12th position while it’s now 11 games unbeaten in the Northern League for Dunston.

Matchday stats

BAFC 0 DUTSFC 0

att.195

admission £5

programmprogrammepprogramme £1

Ground no.278 Heritage Park - Matchday Web album (17 pictures)

My Matchday - 277 Twerton Park

2011-04-03T02:10:00.016+02:00

Bath City 1v0 Gateshead

Blue Sq.Bet Premier

Saturday 2nd April 2011

The start of a hectic April, which will see your host travelling the full length and depths of Blighty, begins with a 600 mile round trip to the City of Bath in Somerset.

Bath is a major tourism centre which attracts almost five million tourists each year to the city theatres, museums, and other cultural venues. The blend of Roman baths and sweeping Georgian terraces combine to produce one of the most elegant cities in Europe, which was awarded as a World Heritage site in 1987.

Bath was granted city status by Royal Charter in 1590 by Queen Elizabeth I, becoming a county borough in 1889 and later part of Avon when the county was created from 1974 until 1996. When Avon was abolished, Bath became the principal centre of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset.The city was established as a spa resort by the Romans in AD 43, building baths and a temple on the surrounding city hills in the valley of the River Avon through the UK’s only natural hot springs.

“Ahh …the beautiful sparkling healthy spa water of Bath, in Avon"

Due to pre-booked trains being too expensive, I travelled with the GFC Supporters Club which unfortunately means It’ll have to be another occasion to fully appreciate the delights of this beautiful spa town.

When I reached the rendezvous point I was surprised to find not a

conventional mini-bus but a taxi awaiting my late arrival. The jibe you sometimes get from home supporters of “did you come in a taxi” when a club brings a small away following was true in this case.

We left Gateshead at 730am, 7 supporters and our cabby with an additional Heed fan picked up on route at Wetherby. Thankfully the taxi meter wasn’t running, we paid a set fair of £350 made up of £30 each with the difference subsidised by the Supporters Club, which was great value, as our chauffeur played a blinder arriving in Bath just before 1pm and on returning we past the Angel of the North just after 10pm.

On arrival I picked up my press pass and was then allowed inside the ground to take some snaps of this classic non-league ground, before heading for a few pints in the GBG listed Old Crown pub, where I pulled a cracking (or should that be crackling..Eddy) looking lass, although she was a bit of a pig. (see last pic in Web album)

We also had time to call into Randall’s, the impressive clubhouse situated behind the Main Stand. The result aside it was a quite enjoyable day and I must add around 30 away fans in total made the long journey to the west country.

Bath AFC formed in 1889, originally playing at the Belvoir ground situated in East Twerton. The club changed their name to Bath Railway in 1902, then became Bath City, playing competitively from 1908 in the Western League Division Two. After the First World War the club located to the Lambridge Ground at the opposite end of the city on the old London Road and joined the Southern League for the first time in 1921.

Bath City moved to Innox Park in 1932, which had been opened since 1909, securing a £2,000 mortgage from the FA. The ground suffered from a 45 degree slope, which meant removing 15,000 tons of soil as well as surrounding trees to create a playing surface with perimeter banking, which took almost three years to clear.

The Main Stand was soon built at a cost of £2,000 with cover added at the popular side, until further development during the 1950’s saw a clubhouse, new changing rooms, club offices and more importantly terracing and floodlights, which was mainly financed by the supporters club and the odd five figure FA Cup attendance.

City won the Southern League title in 1977/78 for a second time, but missed out on election to the Football League by only a few votes, before becoming founder members of the Alliance League(Conference) the following year.

Relegation and promotion campaigns followed, before the club won promotion to the Conference South in 2006-07, going on to win the play-off final in their third season, beating Woking to regain a place in the Conference for the first time since 1997 and again gaining promotion last season.

The original Main Stand is still going strong, although it was close to death after an arson attack by Bristol City fans on tenants Rovers in 1990. The stand is fully refurbished with 780 black and blue flip seats with an open paddock below with the team dugouts at the front. The basic Family Stand filled with 236 blue seats sits next to the Main Stand. Built at a cost of £90,000 it opened not long after the fire incident in December 1990 and is made available for visiting fans.

Opposite is a covered terrace which runs pitch length with a pitched roof, the terrace slopes up at one side and on the hill behind is a row the houses which looks into the ground, aptly named Freeview Road.

Behind each goal is open terracing. The Bristol End is giving to away fans and opposite is the Bath End a smaller terrace which has a safety net. The ground is completed by a set of traditional corner floodlight which includes one pylon which stands outside in the car park.

Twerton Park has also played home to financial stricken Bristol Rovers from 1986 to 1996 and Team Bath who were a full-time professional outfit playing in the Conference South until resigning at the end of the 2008–09 season. The stadium has a capacity of 8,800 with 1,006 seats with a record attendance of 18,020, set in 1960 versus Brighton & Hove Albion.

Bath City made it three wins on the bounce thanks to Lee Phillips' 14th goal of the season early in the second half.

Chances were at a minimum in an even first half, Jon Shaw headed against the bar for a Brittain cross and seconds later a shot from Watkins came back off the foot of the post in the 35th minute. Phillips bagged the winner two minutes after the restart, playing a one-two with Watkins before slotting a left-footed strike from inside the area under the advancing keeper.

Phil Turnbull and Jon Shaw produced good saves from Robinson, while Paul Heckingbottom went close seeing his header come back off the crossbar. Marley Watkins also struck the woodwork for Bath with a 25-yard effort and Phillips should have done better after capitalising on a defensive mix up.

Gateshead pressed hard in search of an equaliser, but substitute Richard Offiong wasted a golden chance in the dying minutes after a clever free kick from Turnbull, blasting his shot into the wrong net, finding the one behind the terrace and not the one between the posts.

We’re now into the final month of the campaign and this is the first meeting of the two clubs this season, this is all due to the fixture computer and not because of an earlier postponement. After the full time whistle the two clubs meet again in just over 48 hours, so Gateshead have the opportunity to quickly gain revenge, while City hope to complete a quickie league double in the space of just a few days.

Matchday Stats

BCFC 1(Phillips 47)GFC 0

Admission (PP) £13 Programme £2.50

att.952

Ground no.277 Twerton Park - Matchday Web album (23 pictures)

My Matchday - 276 Victoria Road

2011-03-20T01:30:00.010+01:00

Dagenham & Redbridge 2v1 Charlton Athletic
League One
Saturday 19th March 2011
My latest trip to the capital was intended as another Gateshead away fixture at Hayes & Yeading, but due to the Heed’s progress in the FA Trophy the match was postponed.
Luckily my train tickets didn’t go to waste, heading over to the opposite end of the smoke to the east end of London to tick off Dagenham & Redbridge’s Victoria Road ground.

Dagenham is a large suburb which forms part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, located 12 miles east of Charing Cross.
It was historically a farming village, which remained undeveloped until 1921 when the London County Council began constructing the large Becontree estate. The population greatly increased during the 20th century, becoming primarily a residential area forming part of Greater London since 1965.
The location is also home to the Ford Dagenham assembly plant, which opened in 1931

and has produced almost 11 million cars and 37 million engines in its history.
However, my previous knowledge of Dagenham is through my good taste in music, with two songs titled ‘Dagenham Dave’ one from The Stranglers which appeared on the 1977 album No More Heroes, which is a tribute to one of the groups original fans who committed suicide by jumping off Tower Bridge into the Thames.
The other from Morrissey from the album Southpaw Grammar, which was also released as a single in 1995(which I also bought) and has a flattering picture of a young Terry Vegetables on the picture cover.

Your more likely to find out about the formation of Dagenham & Redbridge FC on ancestry.com, a long family tree which dates back to four amateur clubs - Ilford (formed in 1881), Leytonstone (1886), Walthamstow Avenue (1900) and Dagenham (1949). Leytonstone were the most successful of those clubs, winning the FA Amateur Cup on three occasions and the Isthmian League nine times.
Illford and Leytonstone merged in 1979, becoming Leytonstone Ilford, and took over struggling Walthamstow Avenue in 1988, renamed as Redbridge Forest in the summer of 1989.
Redbridge Forest won promotion to the Conference in 1991 before merging with Dagenham the following year to become Dagenham & Redbridge, winning promotion to the Football League in 2006-07.

The Victoria Road site has been a football ground since 1917, when originally used by the neighbouring factory side Sterling Works, however it was Brigg Sports formed in 1934, who played at the ground until moving to Rush Green Road in 1955. The ground became fully enclosed when Dagenham FC took over, moving from the Dagenham Arena situated within Old Dagenham Park.
Ground improvements were made through the remainder of the decade, with a newly laid pitch, turnstile block, toilets, extension to the terrace banking and the main stand opened in January 1956. Floodlights were switched on for an FA Youth Cup tie with Woodford in September 1957 and the following year more cover was added at the far side terrace at a cost of £1,400.

The ground was regularly maintained with major improvements coming over the last 20 years to coincide with the tenants ambitions to progress, rising from the Isthmian to the Football League.
Currently known as The London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Stadium,(Bit of a gob full!)the Main Stand was built in 2001 and has a seating capacity of 800. Now known as the Carling Stand, the small tier of red and blue seats are set above pitch level with staircase entry via the front gangway with the team dugouts in front.
Next to the this is the small covered Barking College Family Stand which was build to increase the overall capacity which allowed Redbridge Forest promotion to the Conference. The stand has a block of 200 seats with access gained at the front.
Opposite is the North Terrace which is fondly known as “The Sieve” and even on a glorious day like today there was still water leaking from its ceiling. The terrace is fully covered with a TV gantry perched on the red roof, which has the club name embossed in large white capital letters.
Turnstile entrance to the North Terrace is via the open Bury Road End terrace, which gives the option of either viewing the match from behind the goal or in the paddock. The Bury Road End also has an electric scoreboard and police control box.
The most recent development is the Marcus James Stand which replaced the Pondefield Road open terrace. The all seated stand has a capacity of 1,200 and was opened during the 2009-10 season. The away end has a block of red seats with DAGGERS boldly standing out in white and the players emerge from under the stand.
The ground has four corner floodlights which replaced the original eight floodlights during the summer of 2001 and has a current capacity of 6,078, with a record attendance of 7,200, for an FA Cup tie with Reading in 1967.
Dagenham & Redbridge’s recent run of good form continued with a convincing win over a lacklustre Charlton side.
Jon Nurse put the home side ahead on 33 minutes with a well placed effort from just outside the box and could have gone further ahead, but were twice denied by good saves by Ross Worner, which lead to a chorus of boos from the away end at half time.
Dagenham continued to improve in the second half, doubling the score on 55 minutes when a Damian Scannell cross found Danny Green who fired into the top corner.
The visitors scored a late consolation with a close range effort from Frank Nouble, but The Daggers held out for a deserved win, which improved their hopes of staying up, while Charlton must be one of the poorest sides I’ve seen this season.
Glorious sunshine greeted my arrival in London, then my good mood soon diminished with the news that the District Line was closed which meant I had to plan an alternative route to reach my final destination. This surely can’t be a coincidence. Every time I come down here they mess up my strategy. London transport must look at my ‘Possibles and Probables’on this website then decide THAT is where the line closure shall take place this week.
On my way south I plugged in my laptop on the train to use my 15 minutes of free wi-fi time. (Aye, that’s right. Bliddy a quarter of an hour! Should be free, never mind charging £4.95 an hour, the amount of money I spend on train tickets etc..rant..etc) to quickly (you have to be quick you’ve only got 15 minutes) check the news, my emails, friendface, twatter etc.
I received a message via friendface from Squad #67 James Durnford who was also in London, heading to a game at Metropolitan Police, so we arranged to meet up for a drink in The Tyburn on Edgeware Road, as I always welcome the chance to meet up with one of the 100FgC squad for a bevvy.
I had other plans while I was in the capital, which I had to abandon knowing I had the dreaded prospect of the bus replacement service( should it not be train replacement service?) so I caught the tube from Marble Arch to Bank and had a quick pint in the quite impressive JDW pub The Crosse Keys, before catching the train from Fenchurch Street to Barking.
I arrived at Barking at around 1.30pm. I asked the nice bus conductor lady how frequent the buses are and the duration of the four stop journey, which then gave sufficient time to spend in The Barking Dog, a Wetherspoons pub next to the bus stop which was already serving ales from the latest beer festival which starts later this week.
In typical comedy farce fashion of my recent travelling experiences, I had to end up with a bus driver who didn’t know where he was going, following the bus route with a map on his knee. The driver got lost and started to go the wrong way until a young lass marked his card, telling him that he’s supposed to go to Upney, which he then corrected with a swift U-turn on the main road. (London transport!! You don’t get this sort of carry on with Go Ahead Northern…Eddy)

I arrived at Victoria Road at 2.30pm and on the whole was really impressed with the set up at Dagenham. I noticed a lot of West Ham shirts in the crowd so Dagenham based Hammers fans are still turning out to support their local team, which is good to see.
The club still maintain their non-league ethos, being a community club who haven’t got too big for their boots since becoming a League club, plus more importantly, where else in League One or if fact, in the south-east of England, could you be adequately fed and watered for under a fiver!
A good day was spoiled by football news elsewhere. I’ll not mention the result from the match played in my least favourite city(see report prior to this) but I was saddened to hear that Gateshead couldn’t overturn Darlington’s one goal advantage in the semi-final of the FA Trophy, so yet again, Wembley dreams crash and burn for at least another year.
That result means that this is my last Saturday game in London this season, so that’s good news for tube travellers, as your truly won’t be in the big city, being the root cause of chaos and delay on the underground.

(apologies for the over use of bracketed comments in the report)

Matchday stats

D&R 2(Nurse 33 Green 55)CAFC 1(Nouble 90+2)

att.3,505

Admission £18

Programme £3

Ground no.276 Victoria Road - Matchday Web album (20 pictures)

Northern League Day

2011-03-13T12:38:00.004+01:00

Inspired by the nationwide success of last September’s Non-League Day, the first ever Northern League Day will take place at the traditional kick-off time of 3 o’clock on Saturday 9th April 2011.

With Middlesbrough at Sheffield United and Newcastle United playing in the lunchtime televised fixture away at Aston Villa the following day, we hope as many fans as possible will turn out to support their local non-league football teams.
More information including fixtures can be found on the dedicated website; http://northernleagueday.wordpress.com/

The website has contributions from fans of non-league football, including a post from yours truly, which can be read here.

The Football Bog Blog

2011-03-09T23:04:00.010+01:00

No.22 in a never ending series..
The ones at Vale Park - a canny walk for a slash!

These toilets are for supporters housed in the top tier of the Railway Stand. The bogs are found next to the turnstiles right at the bottom of the steep walkway which leads up to the back of the stand. This means it's quite a walk to the bog, which can be quite an uncomfortable stroll if your bursting for a slash. (which I can well and truly vouch for)

My Matchday - 275 Vale Park

My Matchday - 275 Vale Park

2011-03-06T01:17:00.011+01:00

Port Vale 2v1 Macclesfield Town
League Two
Saturday 5th March 2011

Vale Park is a ground that should have been ticked off years ago. Newcastle visited the potteries in two consecutive seasons at the start of the 1990’s, but for one reason or another, I twice missed out seeing United win 1-0.
The explanation being… well, I honestly don’t know, because even back then without fail, I would jump at the chance to watch United at an uncharted ground. Looking back I have a vague idea why I wasn’t available circa 1990-92, but I’ll keep my ink dry on that for the time being until my autobiography is published.

Port Vale are one of a few clubs not to be named after a city or town, playing in Burslem, one of the six towns which forms the city of Stoke-on-Trent.
The Staffordshire town has the proud title of the "mother of the potteries." In the early 17th century Burslem was at the forefront of the production of the best classes of pottery made in this country. The town was the birthplace of the greatest exponent of the potters' art - Josiah Wedgwood, who was born in Burslem in July 1730.
The club name is believed to derive from Port Vale House where the club were formed and various landmarks called Port Vale around the Longford area of the Potteries.

Vale played on various grounds after their formation in 1876, including a site close to Burslem Station on Moorland Park, when they were known as Burslem Port Vale, becoming a professional outfit in 1885.
The following year they moved to Corbridge Athletics Ground, where Vale joined the Football League, only to resign, before rejoining two years later before completely going out of business in 1907.
A church team took over the ground and the Port Vale name before moving to the Old Recreation Ground in the centre of Hanley in 1913, where they settled for just over 30 years until plans to relocate in 1944 on the site of a former clay pit on Hamil Road.
The new super stadium was to be the Wembley of the North an ambitious 70,000 capacity ground built on 14 acres of land. The ground took six years to build at a cost of £50,000, a lack of funds meant only two stands were originally build with two sides of open terracing, giving a reduced capacity of 40,000.
The first match took place on 24th August 1950, a crowd of 30,042 witnessed a 1-0 victory over Newport County.
The ground developed over the next decade, a new playing surface the most expensive ever laid at the time cured the troublesome drainage system. The seating capacity was raised and floodlights erected at a cost of £17,000, switched on before a 5-3 victory over West Brom on 24th September 1958.
The capacity increased to 50,000 by 1959 as Vale Park reached its peak with a record attendance of 49,768 for an FA Cup Round tie against Aston Villa on the 20th February 1960.

The Railway Stand was originally a large open terrace when the ground opened in 1950, with 600 seats installed the following year. The stand was rebuilt in 1954 at a cost of £25,000 split between 4,500 seats with a standing paddock at the front.
The stand is now all seated, the two tiers split by a brick wall. The top tier has white seats and is reached by a long steep path with turnstile access at the back of the stand, the bottom tier has a separate entrance next to the car park.
The Bycars Road End was the other original stand, built with only 350 seats at the rear. In 1959 new terracing increased the capacity to 6,500, the traditional 'home' end stood until 1989 when declared unsafe following the Taylor report.
The present stand was built in 1992 and is a bank of seats decked out in amber with black lettering.
In between in the corner section is the Family Stand, which was fenced off and unused from 1973 until 1989. The stand has two tiers, the top blue seated section is used while the bottom section looks closed.
When built, the Hamil Road End was a vast open terrace and highest part of the ground before the top point was levelled off in 1978. An electronic scoreboard costing £20,000 was installed in 1988 and cover finally added in 1992. The stand was fully seated in 1995 and is currently known as The Sneyd Stand for away spectators.
Lorne Street Stand originally consisted of two separate terraces either side of the players tunnel with the unique feature of the Directors Box perched on top.
The new Lorne Street Stand still isn’t finished after work initially started in 1998. Building work on the £3m stand came to a halt due to lack of funds with one half of the terrace still to be filled with seats. There’s two rows of executive boxes with the directors seats central. The stand also contains sponsors lounges, club offices, dressing rooms and the club shop. One corner has a disabled stand next to the Hamil End opened in 1989, believed to be the first of its kind in the League. The current overall capacity is just short of 19,000.

Port Vale maintained their position in the play off places after making hard work of what should have been a convincing victory over struggling Macclesfield.
Vale took the lead when a Kris Taylor corner missed everyone and fell nicely to Lee Collins with a diving header at the back post.
The home side were twice denied by the woodwork, Taylor hitting the post with a free-kick and Adam Yates saw a close-range shot rattle the crossbar.
Louis Dodds curled in a wonderful shot from 20 yards to seal it three minutes from time before Tyrone Barnett pulled one back in injury time, which was too little too late for Macc.

My recent trips haven’t gone according to plan, it’s getting to the point where I’m getting really sick of rushing to catch trains. Even a fixture at York City last Tuesday night, saw yours truly so rat arsed that I got myself lost, meaning I had to run like Seb Coe in his prime, catching the train with only seconds to spare.
So for my latest venture to Port Vale I allowed myself plenty of time. I departed Newcastle on the 0733 Cross Country service to Manchester, where I met up with my old indie pal Pete - the Too-Too driver from Crewe. We did a mini Wetherspoons tour of Manc before I caught the 1315 Virgin Train to Stoke-on-Trent.
Once I arrived in the Potteries it was a case of simply catching the 21 bus, just around the corner from the station, which according to FGG takes around 15 minutes. But as my travel luck would have it, my bus journey took nigh on three quarters of an hour, crawling through the lowlights and low points of which must be the scruffiest city within our green and pleasant land. I alighted the bus just as the players were lined up awaiting the referee’s whistle to kick off the League Two fixture, so yet again, I had to run like buggery to the ground only missing the first two minutes of the action.
There was no problems returning, the 21 bus seemed to be waiting for me after I took some photos and visited the club shop after the match.
I was back in the city which has so much to answer for at 6.30pm, which gave a good hour to return to The Manchester & County on Piccadilly to use up the remainder of my Wetherspoons vouchers before my 1942 rattler back to the Toon.
A good day out was spoilt with football news from elsewhere. Newcastle lost at home which wasn’t a surprise as we haven’t won a 3pm game in the Prem at SJP since August 2008. The Heed only drew at Alty, but my biggest disappointment was Dunston going out of the Vase, so my dream of a Wembley double is now diminished.
On the whole a pleasant day, good to see Peter the Engine again and finally ticking off Vale Park (be it 20 years late) which has been redeveloped into a smashing little stadium.

PVFC 2(Colins 28, Dodds 87) MTFC 1(Barnett 90+1)

att.5,459
Admission £19.50
Programme £2.50

Football Bog Blog #22

Ground no.275 Vale Park - Matchday Web album (14 pictures)

My Matchday - 274 Hargrave Park

2011-02-13T02:22:00.011+01:00

Stansted 0v2 Dunston UTS
FA Vase 5th Round
Saturday 12th February 2011
Previous visits to this part of Essex have obviously been to catch flights from BAA Stansted Airport, the UK’s third busiest airport. Jetting off to the likes of Italy and Germany to watch European football isn’t a patch on watching some proper football and it doesn’t get more “proper” than the 5th round of the FA Vase.

Stansted F.C. are based in the village of Stansted Mountfitchet, situated near the Essex/Hertfordshire border, just north of Bishop Stortford and only two miles from the airport.
The Airportmen play in the Essex Senior League, the only club to be ever present in the league since it was formed in 1971 and current league champions winning the title for the very first time last season.
Formed in 1902 they established themselves in the Herts County League from 1956, following periods in the East Herts League, which they won in 1935, before playing in the Spartan and London Leagues
During the 1980’s the club enjoyed their greatest era winning various cup competitions in the eastern counties, as well as going on to lift the FA Vase at Wembley in 1984. Stansted beat Dunston’s near neighbours Whickham in the semi-finals before winning a memorable final against Stamford 3-2.

Stansted moved from the previous ground at Green Meadow to their present home at Hargrave sports ground for the 1937/38 season.
Hargrave Park is found on the main Cambridge Road, which runs through the village. Admission is taking at the road junction into the main entrance, which leads up to the main car park and clubhouse.
The impressive clubroom was built in 1982 and has a barbeque area, which constantly serves hot food on the patio, as well as an outside seating area. The bar also benefits from having a few friendly Essex girl barmaids!
Inside the ground all the amenities are on the entrance side, a refreshment bar, toilet block and the main stand with changing rooms.
The stand sits on the halfway line and has a capacity of 200, filled with a mix of blue wooden benches and bucket seats, set inside a white wooden frame. There is also two separate tunnels with match officials having a separate entrance to the players.
The ground has a capacity of 2,000. The other three sides of the ground is open standing with the dugouts on the far side in front of the cricket pitch. There's aluminium temp fencing which isn't fixed, learning the hard way by nearly going arse over tit when I leaning on it!
There’s floodlights which were installed in 1983, but overall the ground needs a lot of work and TLC, meaning at the moment the club can’t gain promotion to the Isthmian League.

The four and a half hour coach trip to Stansted Mountfitchet was made on the Dunston supporters coach, departing from the UTS Stadium at 8am.
Last season I had an enjoyable trip away to Glossop with the Fed, but this season I missed out on the only away tie so far in the last round at Runcorn, so was pleased to get another chance to jump on the Vase bandwagon.
We had a trouble free journey to north Essex arriving at around 1.15pm, which gave us plenty of time for a pre-match drink, starting off in the side splittingly named ‘The Cock’ before myself and Lee Robbo headed off in to the main part of the village to seek out the GBG listed ‘Dog & Duck’
The Dunston players and committee prepared for the big game by heading south the previous afternoon, while the forty odd of us who made the long trip from Tyneside on the day were rewarded with a place in the last eight of the Vase with an impressive win in Essex.

The game was evenly matched in the opening period, the deadlock broken just after the half hour mark with a cracking goal from Fergal Harkin. The Stansted defence initially failed to deal with a long ball through the middle, which was cleared wide into the path of Harkin, who hit a first time shot close to the right touchline which sailed unaided into the net - a superb strike.
Dunston doubled their lead ten minutes after the restart, Bulford latched onto a fifty-fifty ball to outpace the defender before lobbing the ball over the advancing keeper from the edge of the box, which knocked the stuffing out of the young Stansted side and booked Dunston a place in the quarter finals for the first time in 18 years.

The supporters celebrated with the players in the clubhouse afterwards, staying back until 6pm, which would have delighted the Stansted committee, who must have made a bomb in takings at the bar due to our merriment.
After the game I also bumped into David Bauckham, someone I’ve knew for a few years but never actually met, knowing him/knowing me through our individual websites and through Friendface. David travelled up from Eastbourne to take snaps of Hargrave Park, for his new blog - Non League Photo Diaries and his Flickr site.

We arrived back in Dunston at 1045pm after a very enjoyable and rewarding day, however there’s another ground further south which I still haven’t visited - our national stadium. This is because there’s only three clubs which I would want to see playing under Wembley Stadium’s big arch and two of those clubs are only three games away from an FA final.
So I have a twin assault of finally making it to Wembley this season and you never know, the impossible dream could come true with both Gateshead based clubs reaching Wembley over the same weekend come early May.

SFC 0 DUTS 2(Harkin 32 Bulford 56)
att.453

Admission £5

Programme £2

David's Flickr album.

The Onion Bag - report

Ground no.274 Hargrave Park - Matchday Web album (20 pictures)

2011-02-09T23:07:00.003+01:00

Independent football book publishers Blackline Press are about to launch their 5th book - 92 Pies. It is the fantastic tale of Tom Dickinson's challenge to watch a game at the 92 league grounds in just ONE season.
There is a dedicated website, www.92pies.co.uk from which the book can be ordered for the special price of £11.99.