My Matchday - 228 Moss Lane

Alrincham 3v2 Gateshead
Blue Square Premier
Tuesday 29th September 2009

Altrincham is a market town in Greater Manchester within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The town is quite posh, with a strong middle class populace which stems back to the 19th century. Today’s residents including the likes of Premier League footballers and the cast of Corrie. Nowadays it's became a commuter town, with the neighbouring Bowden and Hale make the area the stockbroker belt of Manc.


Altrincham formed as Broadheath FC in 1891, becoming founder members of the Manchester League, changing their name to Altrincham FC in 1903.
In 1910 the club moved from Pollitt‘s Field to Moss Lane, which was originally part an area of common land known as Hale Moss.
The following year the club joined the Lancashire Combination, a league they played in for eight years until becoming founder members of the Cheshire County League in 1919.
The Robins spent almost 50 years in the Cheshire League, but it wasn’t until the mid-sixties that they finally became champions. Back to back titles followed by and a runners-up spot saw the club join the newly formed Northern Premier League in 1968.
Altrincham must be one of the most unfortunate clubs in Non-League football. The club finished runners-up in the Northern Premier League in 1978-79, which made them one of the original clubs in the newly formed Alliance Premier League (Conference)
The Robins won the first two Alliance titles, twice narrowly missed out on election to the Football League. In 1980 a solitary vote denied them a place in League Division Four. They came so close to becoming a League club and since automatic promotion was established in 1987 they haven’t finished amongst the promotion pack.
The club were relegated back to the Northern Premier League in 1997, spending the following few years jumping between the leagues until the 2004 reconstruction placed them in the Conference North.
Alty returned to the Conference National winning the old North v South final in 2005 beating Eastbourne Borough at the Britannia Stadium. Since returning to the top division the club have been lucky to remain in the league, the financial misfortune of others clubs has seen them saved from the drop over three consecutive seasons.
Altrincham have enjoyed success in the FA Trophy with Alty fans taking the walk up Wembley Way on three occasions. Winning the trophy in 1978 against Leatherhead, in 1986 over Runcorn, and losing out to Enfield in 1982.
They are also the biggest giant killers in FA Cup history, knocking out Football League opposition a record 16 times. The biggest scalp of all was top flight Birmingham City in 1986.
Their most famous celebrity fan is old papier-mache nappa himself - The Bard of Timperley -Frank Sidebotton and earlier this season Aussie cricket captain Ricky Ponting became a shareholder in the club after becoming pals with Altrincham chairman Geoff Goodwin.

I again used the excellent Torchy Travel executive Heed tours for my trip to Altrincham.
The only change to the line up which travelled to Kettering three weeks ago was Old Goat came in to the central back seat position, replacing Kav, unavailable due to work commitments.

Moss Lane is a classic homely Non-League ground. The main facilities are all located at one side of the ground. The Carole Nash Insurance Stand is a tall single tier, decked out in red seats with glass windshields and a few narrow supporting pillars. At one side there’s the Goodwin Family Stand, which is a smaller separate stand. The club shop, refreshment bar and a block of terrace steps are at the other side, along with the entrance to the Noel White Suite which is situated under the stand.
The Popular Side is a long terrace which runs pitch length which is mostly covered, the middle section has a higher roof which accommodates the TV gantry.
The Golf Road End is a covered terrace with red crash barriers which runs at a slight angle at each side, making the section behind the goal much wider.
The Hale End is an open terrace which is allocated to away fans, but with the Heed Army masses making up only 13 of the 769 in attendance, then no segregation was in place leaving the Alty fans free to use the terrace when their team kicked towards that end in the second half.

Two goals in stoppage time denied Gateshead a much needed away victory with a hotly disputed penalty giving all three points to the Robins.
The game bust into life with a goal after only 80 seconds. A defensive clearance fell into the path of Anthony Danylyk, who struck a sweet half volley from the edge of the penalty area which flew past the keeper’s right hand post.
The lead lasted only four minutes, Gateshead’s first venture forward saw a well hit Turnbull shot parried by keeper Coburn into the path of Graeme Armstrong. who had the simple task of netting the rebound home from close range.
After such a positive start to the game, the remainder of the first half was a scrappy affair. Both teams failing to find any rhythm, giving possession away cheaply. The home side produced more goal attempts, although nowhere near the target.
Altrincham looked more likely to take the lead in second half. Good wing play from Doughty on the right, should have been rewarded with a goal and then Sheridan went close with a free kick which was deflective over the crossbar.
On 68 minutes Gateshead took to lead with their first effort of the second half. A good ball from Francis found the overlapping Baxter, his cross to the statuesque One was nodded away by a defender, the ball then fell kindly to Turnbull, who struck a well hit drive under the diving keeper’s body from the edge of the area.
After using all their substitutes Gateshead were reduced to ten men after an injury to Richardson with five minutes remaining. This seemed to cause mass panic and a backs to the wall rearguard as the Heed tried to hang on for the three points.
A head injury to Altrincham’s Aaron Burns in stoppage time meant further time to be added to the allotted four minutes. Play resumed with a corner kick which was nodded home by the unmarked Chris Denham at the near post, the Gateshead defence losing concentration after the long delay.
Just as it looked like a great away win had turned into a well earned draw for The Tynesiders, things got worse. A penalty in the 6th minute of stoppage time was awarded for.. well to be honest I’m still not quite sure. Gateshead keeper Farman came out to collect a loose ball and as he gathered the ball the oncoming striker appeared to catch him in the chest with his boot before falling over. A free kick to the keeper, no a penalty kick! Even the Altrincham fans were flabbergasted at the decision. Apparently there was a foul by Curtis on Senior prior to that incident and that's the reason for the spot kick, but again it was a case of - what foul?
Anyway Matt Doughty made no mistake with the penalty and proceeded to do a lap of honour of Moss Lane in celebration.
A good win for Alty which took them into the top half of the table and only a few points off the play-offs. While it’s six defeats out of seven on the road for The Tynesiders, a record which will have to be vastly improved or our stay in the Conference will be a brief one season guest appearance.

Matchday Facts

AAFC 3(Danylyk 2, Denham 90+3 Doughty(pen) 90+6

GFC 2(Armstrong 6, Turnbull 68)

att.769

Admission £13

Programme £2

Ground no.228 Moss Lane - Matchday Webalbum (14 pictures)

My Matchday - 227 stadium:mk

Milton Keynes Dons 0v1 Leeds United
League One
Saturday 26th September 2009

Milton Keynes is a large town in Buckinghamshire, designated in 1967 as part of the Governments plans to regenerate a new town in the South East, to relieve the housing overspill in London.
The merger of the existing towns of Bletchley, Stony Stratford and Wolverton, along with a further fifteen villages in between made up a total area of 34 square miles. Amongst those was a small village situated east of the planned town centre, which gave the new town its name - Milton Keynes.
The fairytale of the birth of MK Dons is well known, it’s the classic tale which even now still seems a bit far fetched, as it’s never happened before and very unlikely to ever happen again.
It all started when local businessman Peter Winkelman had plans to develop a new stadium in the town, the problem was he didn’t have a professional club to play there.
He cast his eyes over a poor little club in South London, who had been homeless for 12 years, after unsuccessful attempts to move back to their true home in the London Borough of Merton.
He wanted the Dons of Wimbledon to ‘Come to Milton Keynes’ with promises of a home of their own which would be a financially sound and secure the club‘s future. The story reminds me of that song by the Style Council;

May I walk you home tonight
On this fine and lovely night tonight -
Well walk past the luscious houses,
Through rolling lawns and lovely flowers -
Our nice new town where the curtains are drawn
Where hope is started and dreams can be borne.

By 2002 the club was in financial ruin and more desperate to move to a new location to survive, after being approached by a consortium which including InterMK Ltd with a blueprint for a new stadium. The Dons agreed and The FA sanctioned the move in May 2002.

In our paradise lost we’ll be finding our sanity
In this paradise found we’ll be losing our way -
For a brave new day

The 62 mile move north was met with anger from the supporters of Wimbledon and all football fans alike. The club lost the majority of its loyal fan base shifting their alliance to the newly formed AFC Wimbledon, with the rest of the football fan family boycotting games featuring the Dons.
Mounting debts saw the club go into administration in 2004 and were also relegated to League One. Winkelman then purchasing the club, his promise of the move being financially rewarding having failed.
　
I was looking for a job so I came to town
I easily adopt when the chips are down -
I read the ad about the private schemes
I liked the idea but now I’m not so Keyne.
　
Once the club was sold Winkelman announced he was renaming the club to Milton Keynes Dons FC, as well as changing the club colours and crest.
The club was re-launched just nine months after they reallocated in June 2004. This move didn’t just bring the birth of a new club, it signified the death of another in Wimbledon FC.
A club which had fought its way through Non-League, before three consecutive Southern League titles saw them joining the Football League in 1977. The first club to win both FA amateur and professional cups, who gave the world the Crazy Gang, gone for good, but never to be forgotten.
　
Lyrics by Paul Weller.
Reached number 23 in the hit parade in July 1985
(C) 1984 Polydor Ltd. (UK)

The club played at their temporary home at the National Hockey Stadium for three seasons before moving to their purpose built stadium in the Denbigh district of town.
stadium:mk was designed by Populous, who had also designed Wembley and Emirates Stadiums and constructed by Buckingham Group Contracting at a cost of £50m.
The stadium currently holds 22,000 with the top tier still unused around three sides which would add an extra 10,000 to capacity. The ground is bowl shaped with a large gap in between the roof and the top tier which produces a lot more natural light.
The main West Stand differs, having an added shelf type tier with two rows of executive boxes at the top running the full length of the stand.
There’s a video scoreboard at the North Stand, which is also allocated to away supporters.
The East Stand is the only section with text picked out amongst the black seats, with MK (big red dot) DONS picked out in white.
The South Stand is known as The Cowshed, where the main Dons vocal support gather. I have to mention the excellent backing they gave their team throughout the game.

An injury time winner from Robert Snodgrass denied MK Dons a well earned point after playing the whole of the second half with 10-men.
The goal came in the second minute of stoppage time. A free kick wide left was swung in from Andy Robinson who found Snodgrass unmarked, making no mistake with a strong header past Gueret.
An even first half saw the Dons creating some good openings, striker Aaron Wilbraham failed to capitalise after good play from Chadwick and Lewington setting up the striker on three separate occasions.
Leeds had chances of their own, especially just before the interval with Snodgrass shooting wide after a Leeds counter attack and Kisnorbo sending a free header over
the crossbar.
An unnecessary challenge from Jason Puncheon on the stroke of half time, lunging in with a high footed tackle on Michael Doyle, gave referee Andy D’Urso no choice but to produce a red card.
Leeds failed to capitalise on the extra man advantage, the Dons battled well restricting the visitors to half chances from Beckford and Grella, while Leven went close for the home side with an ambitious volley from 25 yards.
Just as it looked like the Dons had earned a battling draw, they suffered the heartbreak of that last minute strike, which sent the 4,000 plus away following back to Yorkshire happy to see their side remain top of the pile in League One.

I travelled down to Lincolnshire on Friday where we were staying for a relaxing weekend break. I planned a leisurely drive down the A1 to Milton Keynes on Saturday morning, heading off at 1130am and expecting the 88 mile journey to be completed well before 1.30pm, well that WAS the plan.
The first obstacle I occurred was an accident on the motorway which diverted traffic off the A1. This meant an unwanted tour of the Rutland countryside which lead to bumper-to-bumperland aka Stamford.
At this point, if I had a newspaper with me, I would have checked if Stamford were playing at home, then parked up in the town to tick off the Vic Couzens Stadium instead, but I decided to keep going and hope I would make it. (as it turned out they were away)
After finally returning to the A1, I was again bullied off the motorway due to road works, forcing me on to the A14. I was really pushing it at this stage, with the ETA up to 2.50pm. Thankfully Margaret the Satnav was in fine form, guiding me on the A45 and eventually meeting the M1 which led me to the promised land of MK.
I finally arrived at 2.35pm, just managing to find a small parking space without double-yellow lines in the West Denbigh Industrial Estate.
I had enough time to visit the clubs shop, pick up my pass from the main reception and I finally took up my position in the stand just as the players were about to enter the arena.
The journey back to Lincs went smoothly, maybe because I avoided the nightmare A1, instead sticking to it‘s ‘M’ equivalent. Overall the stressful journey was worth it. I was really impressed with stadium:mk, the facilities are first class and as I’ve already mentioned the MK Army backed their team to the hilt. I got the impression of a well ran family club.
However after such an eventful day there was one big disappointment, after travelling all those miles I never spotted the one thing Milton Keynes is famous for - concrete cows! MOO!

Matchday Facts

MKD 0 LUFC 1(Snodgrass 90+2) Att. 16,713

Admission £22-£28

Programme £3

Ground no.227 stadium:mk - Matchday Webalbum
(17 pictures)

My Matchday - 226 Cardiff City Stadium

Cardiff City 0v1 Newcastle United
Championship
Sunday 13th September 2009

Riverside Cricket Club formed in 1899, playing at Sophia Gardens on a ground roughly next to where Glamorgan Cricket Club now stands.

The club applied to become Cardiff City FC after the Welsh town was giving city status in 1905. Their request was initially rejected, but were eventually allowed to take the name in 1908 once they became a professional club.

Within two years the club moved to a new ground on the site of a former rubbish tip, naming the ground after a British member of parliament, who was killed during the First World War - Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart.

After 99 years at Ninian Park, Cardiff City moved a short distance to their new purpose built 26,828 capacity - Stadiwn Dinas Caerdydd.

The stadium was built on the site of the former Cardiff Athletics Stadium by contractors Laing O’Rourke and forms part of the £100m Leckwith development.

The 60 acre project includes the 5,000 capacity Cardiff International Sports Stadium, which is used by Welsh League Two side Cardiff Bay Harlequins, as well as a retail park, new housing and hotel with bar and restaurant.

Cardiff City Stadium was designed by Arup Sport, constructed at a cost of £48m. Work commenced in early 2007 with the completion date set at December 2008, however the not so great British summer of 2007 caused a delay, so work was finally completed in May 2009.

The new stadium is very nice with all the facilities and comfort you’d expect from a spanking new stadium. However the one thing it lacks compared with the old ground over the road is the intimidating atmosphere, which was worth a goal head start when Ninian Park was jumping and filled to capacity.

The ground is identical on three sides, a single tier of shiny blue seats in the Ninian Stand, Grange Stand and Canton End. Away supporters are allocated the corner of the Grange Stand which also has a large video screen.

The Grandstand is different, having an extra shelved tier with a row of executive boxes behind and corporate hospitality suites in each corner.

There’s a large walkway which runs at the back of the stands which is used as a TV gantry. There’s plenty of scope to enlarge capacity if City ever reach the promised land and achieve Premier League status.

With all the backroom shenanigans and lack of cohesion behind the scenes it’s a surprise to report that Newcastle United have made a great start to 2009/10.

Prior to this game United had 13 points out of 15 including four clean sheets in a row ( Straights up! Check the stats) which earned caretaker gaffer Chris Houghton the Manager of the Month award for August.

The defence again held firm against Cardiff and old boy Michael Chopra, never looking in danger once they’d taking a 18th minute lead with a Fabricio Coloccini header.

The big hairy Argentinean probably had his finest game in a black and white..sorry! Solero coloured shirt. He started and ended the move laying the ball out wide to Ryan Taylor, his right wing cross was met with a towering header.

As well as a strong defensive display, Newcastle played some good passing football but lacked punch up front. Due to injuries problems, it was left to Nile ‘lone’ Ranger to lead the line himself, the youngster produced another impressive performance.

For City’s endeavour they never created any clear cut chances, efforts at goal were blocked by the Toon defence or comfortably collected by Harper.

City had a good penalty shout when Steven Taylor appeared to handle a Chopra shot and then in the last minute an opportunity to clinch a point. Alan Smith brought down Bothroyd on the edge of the penalty area, receiving a second yellow card and his marching orders. The resulting free kick by Chopra was fired into the Newcastle brick wall, assuring a professionals away performance and a fifth clean sheet on the bounce (Honest - take a look)

As is always the case when watching Newcastle away I travelled with Ian and Lee Patrick (100FGC squad nos. 2 & 79) Ian gave me the option of setting off at midnight or 4am, I told him that 5am would be ok, but Ian always has the impression that pending disaster awaits, so 4am it was.

A great driving performance by Ian, at total of 13 hours on the road, which is even more astonishing when you consider that when he picked me up, he announced that his attempt of an early night ended up as a sleepless night. So we could have easily ended up deserted in a ditch somewhere off the M6!

We arrived in Cardiff at 10am, taking advantage of free parking on Hadfield Road which is a short walk from the stadium and handy for junction 33 off the M4.

I wanted to take a proper look around Cardiff, so I left the lads and headed off alone into the city centre. On my stroll around the city I just happened to bump into three Wetherspoons pubs (which was nice!)

We arrived back home at 11pm and so that completes number one in a series of three, in our long Championship journeys of 2009/10 and I'm afraid to say that this trip into Europe is the shortest of the three.

Matchday Facts

Bluebirds 0 Magpies 1(Coloccini 18)

Att.25,630

Admission £26

Programme £3

Ground no.226 - Cardiff City Stadium - Matchday webalbum (20 pictures)

My Matchday - 225 Rockingham Road

Kettering Town 4v0 Gateshead

Blue Sq. Premier

Tuesday 8th September 2009

Kettering in a town on the River Ise in the East Midlands. The town grew as part of the Northamptonshire boot and shoe industry, which became an integral part in Kettering’s economy in the 19th century. The town was built up with new homes in Newlands and Rockingham Road for the factories owners, with terraced streets built to accommodate the workers.

Kettering FC formed in 1872, originally playing in the Midland League, winning two league titles before progressing to the Southern League at the turn of the 20th century.

Town was adding to the club name in 1924 and over the next five years finished runners-up and twice winners of the leagues East section, and overall champions in 1927-28.

Over the next two decades the Poppies played in the East Midlands League and the Birmingham & District League, adding more league honours in both competitions before returning to the Southern League in 1950.

Tommy Lawton guided Kettering to another league title in 1957, then a third success, this time under the leadership of Big Ron (jingle-jangle)Atkinson in 1973.

A Wembley appearance in the FA Trophy in 1979, losing 2-0 to Stafford Rangers in the final, was then followed by the club becoming founder members of the Football Alliance in the same year.

The club established themselves as one of the leading clubs in Non-League’s top league, although top position has eluded them four times, finishing runners up on two occasions twice in both the eighties and nineties.

The new millennium started well with another trip to Wembley, but a narrow defeat to Kingstonian denied the Poppies a chance to get their hands on the FA Trophy.

The following season the club were relegated from the Conference for the first time in over 30 years of top flight Non-League football.

Over the following seasons the club were promoted and again relegated, playing in the Southern League then the Ryman League, where a ninth place finish was enough the ensure a spot in the newly formed Conference North.

After previously missing out via the play-offs, they returned to the Conference when winning the North title in 2007-08 with a record 97 points tally.

The club originally played on George Eldred’s Field until 1894 when they moved to North Park until residing at Rockingham Road from 1897.

Built in 1972, the Main Stand is a large cantilever structure with a capacity of 1,747 red seats, as well as a model owl sitting in the roof to frighten off the pigeons. The stand is nearer the Rockingham Road end, the space at the other side is taking up by the Tin Hat Social Club, sponsors lounge and disabled area. The press area is in the corner of the stand but gives a central view due to the stands position.

The Britannia Road Terrace has cover running almost pitch length, the roof is set back giving shelter to those standing at the rear. There’s also a TV gantry which would be hard to spot if it wasn’t for the TV screen lit up inside and the big McDonalds logo on its wall.

There is open terraces behind each goal. Away supporters are allocated the Rockingham Road End which is smaller terrace with no steps, this replaced the old popular covered Tin Hat end. Large away followings are also allocated a section of the Main Stand.

The Cowper Street End is a larger terrace, with a large walkway at the top and steps below.

A feature of Rockingham Road is the four floodlights pylons which each form the letter K within the bulbs. The first club to do such a thing, way before di Villa with their A and V.

The ground was named the A-Line Arena, but recently became the Elgoods Brewery Arena(quality ales) and now has an overall capacity of 6,264.

Kettering have made a good start to the season, while Gateshead have struggled to adapt to life in the Blue Sq. Premier.

Of all the steps which run up the football pyramid ladder, the step between Conference North/South and Conference National must be the steepest step of all.

It’s a massive gap to overcome and we now realise the huge task ahead, so we could be in for a very long hard winter.

Kettering started the game brightly, going close through Spencer and Roper before opened the scoring after only ten minutes. A corner kick from the right eventually fell to Danny Thomas lurking on the edge of the box, he drilled his left foot volley into the ground, which bounced directly above Provett and into the roof of the net.

Provett made amends for his error minutes later, making a superb double save to deny Green who looked odds on to score.

Gateshead then enjoyed a good spell of pressure but lacked that cutting edge up front, with new signing Armando One having their best effort with a close range header.

Kettering’s pacey forward three of Thomas, Green and Ashikodi led the Heed defence a merry dance all evening and it was Moses Ashikodi who doubled the lead on 32 minutes. A fine through ball from Boucaud allowed the striker a free run and shot on goal after Robinson’s misjudgement had played him onside.

It was a case of how many more would the Poppies add to their goal tally in the second half. Thankfully for a Geordie sitting in a stand full of goal hungry Kettering fans, there was just two more to report.

Kettering’s third goal was of similar fashion to their second. This time it was Francis Green who took advantage of a square Gateshead defence, latching on to a through ball before producing a low hard shot past Provett.

The rout was completed ten minutes from time. A free kick wide on the edge of the penalty area was nodded home unchallenged by Damian Spencer. A goal which summed up the game perfectly - so easy for Kettering.

Gateshead just weren’t at the races at all, but let's not take anything away from Kettering. They look a very good side with a lot of pace in attack and two classy defenders in Roper and the coolly named Exodus Geohaghon.

The win took them into second place in the Blue Sq. Premier and if they continue with good performances like this, we may see them in a play-off spot come the end of April.

The long midweek journey to Kettering was made with 100FGC squad#51 John Young aka ‘Torchy Travel’ along with Kav, Simon Heed Groundsman(who also does a spot of gravedigger and has a hatred of red traffic lights) and 100FGC squad#26 Alan Price, all making our debuts at Rockingham Road.

On arrival we headed to the Tin Hat Social Club which has a

good selection of beer on offer, including five hand pumps, with a selection from the stadium sponsors Elgood Brewery. along with quality German beer Warsteiner (if that‘s what wets your whistle)

Midweek fixtures in this league are supposed to be reserved for matches with clubs who are located closest, to minimise travel, but arriving back home at 2.15am somewhat dispels that theory.

Feeling disappointed in the performance and result, I was still glad to have visited an old non league ground like Rockingham Road. It’s also gained me some valuable Torchy credit miles, which gives me a good chance of again booking a seat in John’s car on future away trips.

The Groundhog’s visit v AFC Wimbeldon last month.

Matchday Facts

KTFC 4(Thomas 10, Ashikodi 32, Green 73, Spencer 82) GFC 0

Att. 1230

Admission £9-£10

Programme £3

Ground no.225 Rockingham Road - Matchday webalbum(15 pictures)