Heed Hopper: January 2010

My Matchday - 240 Recreation Ground

Aldershot Town 1v1 Grimsby Town
League Two
Saturday 30th January 2009

Aldershot is a town in Hampshire, best known as the home of the British Army, the armed forces having established a base in the town in 1854, which became a permanent home for troops returning from the Crimean War.
The army camp saw the town’s population grow from 875 in 1851 to over 16,000 within ten years. Today the town has a population of 33,840 whilst the Aldershot Urban Area has a populace of almost a quarter of a million.

The original Aldershot FC formed in December 1926, setting up home on the council owned ’ Rec’ the following year. The first competitive match took place on August 27th in the Southern League, Grays Athletic their opponents in front of a healthy crowd of 3,500.
Aldershot were elected to the Football League Division Three South in 1932 after winning the Southern League title, replacing the defunct Thames AFC who gave up their place in the league.
The original Shots played in the Football League for 60 years, peaking at 8th in Division Three in 1973-74. The clubs suffered more lows than highs throughout their League career. The biggest highlight came at the end of the 1986-87, the first season of the Football League play offs. Aldershot finished 6th in Division Four and after seeing off Division Three bottom side Bolton Wanderers in the semi-finals they went on the beat Wolves 3-0 on aggregate in the final over two-legs. (sorry Tim!…Eddy)
The club’s financial plight first came to prominence in 1989, mounting debts resulted in the club being wound up in the High Court in July 1990 with debts of almost half a million pounds. However the winding-order was lifted after one week, with funds of £200,000 from a young property developer, meant the club could kick off the 1990-91 season.
Unfortunately the club’s saviour didn’t have the sufficient funds to keep the club running, which saw him eventually end up doing time for this crooking dealings while time was ultimately called on Aldershot FC.
On 25th March 1992 the club finally went out of business, resigning from the Football League with their record expunged. The final game played was a 2-0 defeat away at Cardiff City on the 20th March.
A new club was immediately born by a group of loyal supporters, rising like a phoenix from the flames, the club reformed with the Town suffix added to the name.
The new club resumed in the Isthmian League 3rd Division the following season, winning the league title as well as the 2nd Division the following year.
The Shots progressed through the four divisions of the Isthmian League over an eleven year period, winning its Premier division in 2002-03, thus gaining promotion to the Conference.
After twice missing out in the play-offs, Aldershot were promoted from the Conference after only five years. The Shots crowned champions in 2007-08, amassing 101 points, the Hampshire town returning to League football after a 16 year exile.

The Rec is set within a public park, the Main Stand is on the north side of the ground which is a small narrow all seated stand in club colours with a striped con-iron roof. The stand is overshadowed by the large office block at the rear. The forecourt at the stand entrance has a small club shop(pin badges sold out!) and office block.
The South Stand is the oldest structure, built in 1929. The cantilever roof overhangs at the front which acts as a sun visor and overall hasn’t changed much in those 70 years apart from the odd tweak here and there for safety reasons. The stand sits centrally with a mixture of red and blue seats including a section dedicated to away supporters. There’s also a pub situated underneath the stand called Wallys Bar .
The East Bank is a large terrace which is shared with the away supporters. The stand has a barrel shaped roof which was added after the war and later extended with a flat roof at the front. There’s extra terracing which extends out towards the seated stands with the unique feature of a line of trees along the side terrace.
The High Street End is unused apart from a gangway between the north and south sides and the space is filled with large sheets of advertising on scaffold supports.
The ground has a set of the classic subbuteo type floodlights which were switched on in May 1953, the highest attendance came in January 1970 - 19,138 for a FA Cup tie with Carlisle United.
For sponsorship reasons the ground is now known as The EBB Stadium at the Recreation Ground, with a current capacity of 7,100 with 2,000 seats.

Aldershot Town are currently managed by former Birmingham City, Portsmouth and Newcastle United midfield terrier Kevin Dillon, a man certain friends remind me as the footballer that cost me a fortune.
Dillon made his United debut along with fellow experienced new signings Quinn, McGhee and Burridge in a memorable 5-2 opening day win over Leeds United, with an impressive display in the heart of the Toon midfield. He almost added to the impressive score line, hitting the post early in the game which encouraged me to back him for first goalscorer in future games.
Over the following two seasons Dillon made 76 appearances scoring a grand total of zero, so he cost me about £70, that effort in his debut being the closest he came to hitting the back of the net.

Dillers has done at good job on the quiet since taking over the manager’s hot seat in November, recent good home performances against Rochdale and Bournemouth have taking the Shots into the play-off positions.
Grimsby on the other hand went into the match without a league win in 18 games, although they can count themselves unlucky, Adam Proudlock missing a penalty five minutes from time which would’ve gave the Mariners three precious points in their fight for survival.
The visitors took the lead in the 5th minute, a low cross from Michael Coulson was deflected into his own net by John Grant. That goal gave them a bit of confidence, creating a few half chances in the opening half to extend the one goal lead.
After a half time rollicking from Dill, The Shots were a different proposition in the second half, looking more dangerous and likely to score with each foray forward.
The breakthrough came on 68 minutes, substitute Danny Hylton raced on to a Morgan flicked header to shoot past Colgan at the far post.
The home side looked set to take the points but it was the visitors who almost snatched it. A Cowan-Hall cross was a handled by Sandell, the referee taking the linesman’s advice to give the spot kick.
Proudlock stepped up and sent his shot sailing high into the East Bank, blowing the chance to end Grimsby’s barren run and preserving Aldershot’s fine home record of only one defeat at The Rec this season.

Just when you thought it was safe to open the curtains, there it was at 5.20 this morning, its back and looking bad - yet more snow, a good 2-3 inches of the shit. Thankfully I was leaving the white stuff behind heading from the naughty north to the sexy south(reference to weather) safe in the knowledge that I was heading off to warmer climes.
The mouth watering prospect of a League Two fixture between Aldershot and Grimsby was arranged back in the hazy shade of July. Grimsby Town fan and 100FgC squad#88 Graham Precious emailed me with his planned fixtures for the forthcoming season with the offer of meeting up and travelling together.
So I set off on the 0635 from Newcastle Central to Kings Cross where Graham and his son Hayden were waiting to welcome me off the train at Newark Northgate. After stopping off for a McDonalds breakfast we hit the road to Hampshire just after 9am, the journey running smoothly arriving in the town by noon.
I picked out the Royal Staff pub for pre-match bevvy and a spot of lunch, which serves a selection of Fuller’s ales. The pub is quiet cosy, the landlord, bar staff and even the boxer dog Tyler made us feel most welcome.
It was a very enjoyable day, its always great when a plan comes together and the whole day went without a hitch. I arrived back in Newark at 7.50pm, which gave me a bit time to tick off another Wetherspoons pub before catching the 2147 back home. The only disappointment on the day was actually missing out on witnessing a rare Grimsby Town victory, which would have been good to see and even better for long suffering Mariners Graham and Hayden.

Matchday Stats

ATFC 1(Hylton 68) GTFC 1(GrantOG 6)

att.3195

Admission £15

Programme £3

Ground no.240 Recreation Ground - Matchday Web album (20 pictures)

My Matchday - 239 Home Park

Plymouth Argyle 0v0 Newcastle United
FA Cup 3rd Round
Saturday 2nd January 2010

Plymouth is a city in Devon in the South-West of England, between the mouths of the rivers Plym and Tamar which flow into the natural harbour of Plymouth Sound.
Plymouth is renowned for its sea port. The Pilgrim Fathers set off for the New World in 1620 and established Plymouth Colony, the second English settlement in America.
The port thrived during the Industrial Revolution, building Royal Navy ships and importing goods and passengers to the States.
Famous Plymothians include nautical traders Sir John Hawkins and of course Sir Francis Drake. According to legend Drake insisted on finishing his game of bowls on the Hoe before going into battle with the Spanish Armada, in a similar way that I insist on finishing my pint before going to the match!
The city now has a population of a quarter of a million, which makes it the biggest city in the country to have never played host to the top flight of English football.

Home Park was originally home to rugby, where local clubs Plymouth Albion and later Devonport played during the 1890‘s. The latter club departed due to a rent dispute which left the ground vacant for three years.
In 1901 the lease was taking over by the long established Argyle Athletics Club, the ground at the time being an oval shaped bowl with a cinder track and the surrounding land made up of farmland and allotments. The ground had two structures, a main stand and a open corner west terrace on the Popular Side.
The new owners staged their first event, an athletics meeting in 1901, however leaseholder Clarence Spooner was keen to stage football as Devon lacked a senior football club. A series of successful trial matches followed which attracted healthy attendances and convinced Argyle A.C. to focus on professional football.
Plymouth Argyle FC made their competitive bow in the Southern League against Northampton Town on the 5th September 1903 in front of a crowd of 4,438.

.
The Main Stand was originally a wooden structure with a centrally positioned gable with a capacity of 2,000. In 1930, ten years after joining the Football League the stand was replaced with a new full length grandstand costing £11,000.
The close proximity to the Plymouth naval base caused damage to the ground during the Second World War, the pitch was badly covered with bomb craters and worse still the grandstand was destroyed by explosives and inflammable materials.
The stand was replaced with temporary uncovered seating and a wooden pavilion was built in the corner of the pitch for the directors, which is nowadays used as a PA box.
The current Main Stand was built in 1952 with floodlight switched on in October the following year for a friendly with Exeter City.
The Leitch inspired stand runs pitch length with a green con-iron roof and windshields, seating is provided with the classic old wooden flip chairs.
In 1969-70 seats were added at the back of the lower tier, known as the Mayflower Stand which took the seating capacity to 4,100 and at the time the overall capacity to 40,000.

.
Cover was first added to the Devonport End terrace in 1930 with funds generated from the supporters club and extended towards the Grandstand two years later. For safety reasons the roof was taking down in 1980 and replaced four years later, while the Lyndhurst Side terrace was covered in 1965
In 2001 work began on both these stands as well as the open Barn Park terrace and corners, which was completed in February the following year. The three sides form a horseshoe single tiered stand, decked out in dark green with a simple white trim behind each goal and PAFC along the Lyndhurst Stand.
The Field of Greens now has temporary seats which replaced the Main Stand terracing in 2007 which run up to a row of executive boxes. There is a small enclosure in the corner with floodlights now perched on top of the Lyndhurst Stand and thin pylon poles at each side of the Main Stand.

.
Home Park was recently announced as a host stadium for England's 2018/2022 World Cup bid. The stadium will be redeveloped from 19,500 into a 40,000 capacity stadium, which will see the current grandstand replaced at the end of next season.

A disappointing game to start off the new year, played on a bobbly cut up pitch with both sides lacking creativity and as I predicted after only 20 minutes; “This game’s got nowts each written all over it”
It was Newcastle who had the two best chances, both coming at the end of each half. A Guthrie shot bringing out a flying save from Romain Larrieu just before half time, then as Newcastle rallied for a late winner, a Nicky Butt half volley was tipped on to the crossbar, the Argyle keeper producing another fine save.
Plymouth made only the one change after their convincing win over Reading early in the week, while United made seven, amongst those were Ryan Taylor and Fabrice Pancrate who didn’t produce a decent cross between them all afternoon.
Both sides will be disappointed with the draw, especially The Pilgrims who will have to endure the long trip north for a midweek fixture in ten days time.

Everyone knows that the furthest point between two English football league clubs is the 408 miles between St. James Park and Home Park, so how is such long time consuming trip navigated?

From Home to Home Park

Planes? - We tried to book planes to Exeter, we were quoted £82 which sounded fine. I went online to book the flights, however they forgot to mention the T.P.T.- the taking the piss tax - which meant the total fair was £151, which is too much expense so close to Xmas.
Trains? Either going cross country or via London, the journey was too long and again too expensive and wasn’t worth it.
Luxury coach travel? - Yes, I was up for that, but Ian wasn’t. He didn’t like the idea of being stuck on a coach for that length of time with the added difficulty of trying to get comfortable and catch up on some much needed sleep.
So that left us with just one option - the car. Ian was keen to drive us there after travelling by road to the likes of Portsmouth and Southampton. On one occasion he drove us to Exeter and back in one day for an evening kick off and that was just for a bliddy friendly!
So taking inspiration from the Aviva advert starring Paul Whitehouse(Green Arrrmee! …Eddy) it was Plymouth away today - “And that’s a long old poke init!”
I was looking forward to visiting Home Park but obviously apprehensive about the journey, but the trip went smoothly. I text radio station TalkSport and at 8.20am Mark Saggers and my old mucker Micky Quinn sounded quite impressed as they discussed how Shaunee Boy, Ian and Lee had departed at 3.50am on route by car to Plymouth.
After a couple of pitstops we were eventually greeted by bright sunshine with just a touch of ground frost as we pulled into the Home Park car park at 10.15am.
I took a look around the outside of the stadium and visited the club shop before gaining access inside the Main Stand for pictures, thanks to a helpful gentleman from the club.
Ian took the opportunity to catch up with his sleep, leaving myself and Lee to go on a Wetherspoons pub crawl, visiting three of the four pubs, the only one we didn’t visit was the pub nearest the ground - The Britannia, which was packed out with thirsty Geordies with the queue outside stretching back down the street.
The trek home didn’t get off to a good start as we struggled to get out of the car park. In our part of the world drivers are mostly polite and considerate to one another but in the far south it seems to be an “all for one and bugger the rest” attitude.
We encountered some heavy snow showers as we travelled through Derbyshire, but apart from that we had been very lucky with the weather, meaning I arrived safely home just after midnight.
As far as ticking off ‘The 92’ is concerned, my geographical location means this is the mightiest tick of them all and thanks to my life long travel companion Ian, it was achieved with relative ease. Plymouth supporters view the long journey very differently to us, we did it in just over six hours, so to us it’s not so much of a long old poke, more like a nice little day trip out to the coast.