My Matchday - 250 Stonebridge Road

Ebbsfleet United 2v0 Gateshead
Blue Sq Premier
Saturday 17th April 2010

Ebbsfleet United is the re-branded name of Gravesend & Northfleet FC who changed their name on May 1st 2007. Ebbsfleet is a small suburb of Northfleet, the renaming coincides with their sponsorship with Eurostar, whose trains serve Ebbsfleet International station. The area is on the south bank of the Thames in north west Kent and lies within the Thames Gateway

The club was formed in 1946 with the amalgamation of Gravesend United and Northfleet United, both had played in the Kent and Southern Leagues since the clubs were founded in the 1890’s.
The Fleet’s early history was in the Southern League, becoming champions in 1957-58, the club remaining in the league until becoming founder members of the Alliance Premier League in 1979.
G&N stay in the pyramids top league lasted only three seasons, with relegation back to the Southern League which they went on to win for a second time in 1993-94.
In 1997 they joined the Isthmian League which led to a return to the Conference after four seasons, winning the Isthmian Premier League in 2001-02.

Ebbsfleet United is renowned for the take over by the MyFootballClub website in November 2007. The website entered a deal to take over the club, with approximately 27,000 MyFootballClub members each paying £35 for one equal share which provided the funds for a £700,000 takeover. The members each had an input in major decisions including picking the team and votes on transfer targets.
After a successful first season which ended with a first trip to Wembley, with a 1-0 win over Torquay United in the final of the FA Trophy, the majority of MyFC members failed to renew their membership.
The numbers of renewals dropped to just over 9,000 in 2009 with the club previously stated that 15,000 was the minimum requirement, recent figures show that only 800 members have continued to pay membership fees.
Northfleet had played at Stonebridge Road since 1905. The marriage of the two clubs after the War saw Gravesend vacated their ground at Central Avenue and move in with their new partner.
The Main Stand was completed in 1959 replacing terracing which was used to replace the original old stand. The Stand has a single tier of red seats with white supporting pillars with a shallow terrace in front, which is mainly used for photographers and as a disabled supporters section.
There’s open terraces at each side of the Main Stand, the section nearest the Plough End is a popular part of the ground, as it’s close to the bar behind the Plough End stand. The covered terrace was replaced with seats in 2006. The roof of the stand still has vague remains of an advert for Trueman Beers and has THE FLEET painted in big red letters on the back wall.
Opposite the Main Stand is the Stonebridge Road End which had cover added in the early 1950’s and also incorporates a small club shop and TV gantry.
Away supporters use the Swanscombe End which was reconstructed with crash barriers added in 1980.
The record attendance in over 100 years stands at 12,032 for an FA Cup 4th round tie with sunderland in February 1963, the Fleet drawing 1-1, forcing a replay at Roker Park which they eventually lost 5-2.

I billed this match as a relegation cup final, but squad #51 John Young came up with a better alternative when I spoke to him prior to kick-off, labelling it “a big 9 pointer”
If Ebbsfleet failed to win they would be relegated, but victory would give them a chance of survival and at the same time put Gateshead deep into the relegation clarts, and this was exactly how it turned out.
The home side took the lead in the first minute, a mix up between Swales and keeper Farman left Vieira with an open goal from a yard out to give the Fleet a dream start.
With this game being a relegation battle and a big six, sorry!, nine pointer chances were limited, but Ashikodi could have doubled the lead in the 13th minute, his close range header flicked onto the crossbar by Farman.
Gateshead battled in the second half for an equaliser but as the game progressed it became increasingly unlikely, as Ebbsfleet relied on catching the Heed on the break. It came as no surprise when that tactic paid off two minutes from time. Vieira played the ball out wide to Shakes, who raced down the right flank before picking out the unmarked Stavrinou for a simple tap into an unguarded net.
This win increases Ebbsfleet’s chances of staying up and like visitors Gateshead the relegation dogfight goes into the final weekend, the fate of both sides still unknown until 5pm next Saturday night.

Another Saturday and another long journey, this week a 630 mile round trip from Tyneside to the Garden of England. We departed at 7am, the journey went well, our bus pulled up on Stonebridge Road just after 1pm, with a few of us staying aboard, some dressed in fancy attire requesting a detour across to Gravesend for a drink.
We intended on doing a pub crawl but settled at The Robert Pocock, the Gravesend branch of Wetherspoons which was full of Leeds United fans on route to Gillingham, who we had a friendly chat and sing-song with.
It was here that I met up with Kent based 100FgC #68 Jonathan Elton. It was good to meet up with Jon as I haven’t seen him since we went to the Don Valley Stadium in September 2008. He recently completed ’The 92’ (at Hartlepool 5th April) also another member of the 100FgC who travelled down for today’s game completed the set, Lincoln based squad#86 Jim Morris (at Bristol Rovers 13th April)
The day overall was great, obviously apart from the match, which from a Gateshead fans point of view was, and I’ll choose my words carefully and not swear - an unacceptable performance for such an important game.
Stonebridge Road is a bit of a classic non-league ground. It’s plain to see there hasn’t been any work done in recent years and could do with a bit of a spruce up, but overall I really liked it.
Looking back over this season, my biggest disappointment on a personal level is Gateshead’s away fixtures didn’t fall kindly for me and I missed out on plenty of Conference grounds, but hopefully I’ll get another crack at it next season, but at the moment, it’s looking extremely doubtful.

Matchday stats

EUFC 2(Viera 2 Stavrinou 88)GFC 0

att.1165

Admission £13

Programme £2.50

Ground no.250 Stonebridge Road - Matchday Web album(20 pictures)

My Matchday - 249 Frenchfield Park

Penrith 0v0 Spennymoor Town
Northern League Division One
Wednesday 14th April 2010
“Oh to be in England now that April’s there” is a famous opening line of Victorian poetic gubbins by Browning, or is it Tennyson? (I better google it*) Spring time means we’re moving towards the finale of the season when the pots and medals are handed out, although there’s a club close to my heart who managed to achieve their goal with still half a dozen games remaining.
Anyway the reason behind this pretentious opening link is my matchday calendar has reached the month of April and the shocking revelation is that this is my first Northern League fixture of the season. However in my defence, and just in case club secretary Mr Haworth happens to be reading this and requests the acquiesce of my membership of ‘The Northern League Club’ I have attended games involving Dunston, Whitley Bay and Shildon in this seasons in FA Vase. (* Aye. It’s Robert Browning…Eddy)

Since my previous visit to Penrith at Southend Road in November 2007, the Blues went on to win Division Two that season(as I predicted at the time) and merged with Northern Alliance club Penrith United, reverting to their original name of plain old Penrith AFC. The team went on to finish 7th in Division One last season and reached the finals of both the League and Cumberland Cups.
Last seasons league title was won in Penrith when Newcastle Benfield clinched the championship with a late winner. As football has a habit of regurgitate itself it was Spennymoor Town who headed west to Cumbria needing three more points to become this seasons champions. However it wasn’t to be, as Penrith held the runaways leaders to a feisty draw after spending nearly the whole of the second half with ten men.

Played on a bobbley pitch the game got off to a poor start, Michael Rae came closest to breaking the deadlock, his effort hitting the crossbar in the 35th minute the only decent chance in an uneventful first half.
Minutes after the restart Penrith’s big centre half Robertson was shown the red card, the linesman on the far side saw something that no one else did, drawing the referees attention and grassing up the big lad for apparently picking on Spenny’s Dixon as the players lined up in the penalty area awaiting a free kick.
The leaders should have gone on and took the required three points, Graydon twice went close with free kicks while Cogdon produced a good save from the keeper. As the game progressed Penrith grew with confidence and could have won the game themselves with their best effort coming from Torres look-a-likey Michael Brown.
In stoppage time Rea had a glorious chance to clinch it, but blasted his close range effort over the bar. His reaction to missing such a glorious chance was to push a Penrith player flat on his back in a rage of frustration. It looked like the player had took the piss out of him for missing a sitter and he reacted like a kid in a schoolyard kick about.
Penrith were delighted to hold the champions elect to a draw, while Spenny still have four games and a big lead at the top to be confirmed as Northern League champions.

Due to the current financial climate the Frenchfield project was completed later than expected but Penrith finally took possession of the new premises prior to the start of the season, kicking off with a friendly with Annan Athletic on the 3rd August.
The ground is situated on the edge of the town by the A66, the complex is huge, 30 acres including seven full size pitches, when I arrived the place was a hive of activity with plenty of football taking place.
Frenchfield Park is found in the far corner of the complex. An attractive looking main stand caters for all amenities. The clubhouse is found at the top of the stand which is a like an executive suite at a big stadium, having a glass front which looks out onto the pitch with a separate area cordoned off for club officials and hospitality.
The changing rooms are underneath, both sets of players facilities are at opposite sides of the stand with the refreshment kiosk opposite the turnstile block.
The stand has a large cantilever roof with nine rows of blue seats with a capacity of around 250. The exterior of the stand is decked with wooden cladding which blends in with the grounds perimeter fence.
At the far side there’s a three stepped standing shelter named ‘The Walter Brogden Stand’ named after the life long fan and club secretary. The rest of the ground is made up of large tarmaced standing with a pair of Perspex dugouts in front of the stand.
It’s obvious that Frenchfield Park lacks the character of the previous home of 106 years, but the ground has been well designed and isn’t a quick knock-up-job as you sometimes get with new non-league grounds. The ground’s tranquil setting with the surrounding farmland and the views of the snow covered hills at Hartside Moor make Frenchfields an inimitable new addition to the Northern League and one that, in time, will become a favourable destination amongst sNL groundhoppers.

Matchday stats
PAFC 0 STFC o

att.78

Admission £5

Programme £1

Ground no.249 Frenchfield Park - Matchday Web album (19 Pictures)

My Matchday - 248 Weston Homes Community Stadium

Colchester United 1v2 Millwall
League One
Monday 5th April 2010

We continued our Easter break in Essex with a visit to a town which claims to be the oldest in Britain, on the indication it was mentioned by author and natural philosopher Pliny the Elder, who died in AD 79.
Its Celtic name Camulodunum (named after war god Camules) was a powerful settlement for King Cunobelin, who minted coins there before the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43.
Camulodunum became an established Roman legionary fortress, a colonia and the provisional Roman capital of Britannia until the town was annihilated during Boudicca’s rebellion in AD 61.
Colchester also claims to have the UK’s oldest recorded market and its main landmarks are the 11th century Norman castle, its medieval ruins and significant Victorian architecture.

Colchester United were formed in 1937 and took over the reigns at Layer Road from amateur club Colchester Town, who had played on the ground since 1909.
The ground was originally used by the army stationed at Colchester Garrison until Town bought the site in 1919. Both clubs briefly shared the ground until the Essex FA ordered that both clubs couldn’t exist hand-in-hand, so the amateur club made way for their professional counterparts.
Colchester United progressed from the Southern League becoming a Football League club in 1950. The club played at Layer Road for 71 years, amongst the highlights and my first memory of ever seeing The U’s on TV was overcoming the one mighty Leeds United in the 5th round of the FA Cup in 1971. Don Revies’s men going down 3-2 in front of a crowd of 16,000 and the Match of the Day cameras.

Work began on the Colchester Community Stadium in July 2007, built on the northern edge of the town at Cuckoo Farm off the main A12 road to London, although direct access onto the motorway is still not completed.
The total cost of £14m was mostly financed by the local borough council who own the stadium. Revenue was also raised by the club, with grants from the Football Foundation, local government and the East of England Development Agency.
The stadium is sponsored by Weston Homes in a £2m corporative deal which covers the next ten years and has an overall capacity of just over 10,000.
The stadium was completed in July 2008 with the opening match taking place on the 8th August with Athletic Bilbao providing the opposition, beating The U’s 2-1 in a pre-season friendly.
The stadium consists of four separate stands, the North, South and East Stands are all equal in size with the Main Stand slightly larger comprising of executive boxes, sponsors suites and lounges. There’s a set of skinny floodlights in the open corners with the ground decked out in primarily blue seats and white trimmings. The North Stand is now the away end although Millwall also took up almost half of the East Stand. The South Stand also differs slightly having a large police control box in one corner.

My Essex weekend went from the bottom end of League One at Southend on Saturday to the top end of the table with play off hopefuls Colchester up against Millwall, who are timing there automatic promotion push perfectly with eleven wins out of the last fourteen matches coming into this fixture.
Both clubs seem to be heading in opposite directions as United have now gone eight games without a win as Millwall go marching on thanks to a touch of good fortune, taking the three points thanks to a late own goal by Danny Batth.

The match was finely poised throughout with both teams carving out several good chances in the opening period, but it was Millwall who took the lead just before half time when Steve Morison picked up the ball wide on the right before cutting inside and firing his low shot wide of Williams.
Colchester felt they should have gone in at the break level, however five minutes after the restart they were. Millwall ‘keeper David Forde failed to take a routine catch, allowing the ball to fall to the feet of the lurking Kevin Lisbie who was left with a simple task of knocking the ball into an unguarded net.
Millwall went close with a Morison header, a Schofield effort and a Neil Harris header was cleared off the line, while United had chances through Vincent, Lisbie and a Prutton free kick.
Then on 78 minutes the decisive goal. Substitute Sean Batt’s right wing cross was met by on loan Wolves defender Batth, whose unchallenged looping header gave his keeper no chance.
Millwall saw out the remaining ten minutes with help from the shameless Millwall fans in the East Stand, purposely keeping the ball on five occasions when going out for a throw-in. This added to the home sides frustration with an Izzet free kick the closest they came to grabbing a point.
This win stretches The Lions unbeaten run to nine games, so if this good run of form continues and if I finally get around to visiting The New Den next season, it’s looking more likely to be in the Championship than League One.

Matchday stats
CUFC 1(Lisbie 50) MFC 2(Morison 43,Batth OG78)

att.7,393
Admission £18-£26

Programme £3

Ground no.248 W.H.Community Stadium - Matchday Web album (15 pictures)

My Matchday - 247 Roots Hall

Southend United 0v0 Yeovil Town
League One
Saturday 3rd April 2010

Southend-on-Sea is a district borough and seaside resort in Essex. The borough covers the districts of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea, Shoeburyness, Southchurch, Westcliff-on-Sea, Thorpe Bay and of course Prittlewell - which is where you’ll find Roots Hall - the home of Southend United.
The town has the worlds longest pleasure pier, stretching 1.34 mile and is a popular destination for “chirpy cock-a-nees” looking for a day away from the smoke for a spot of sand, sea air and fresh jellied eels.

Southend United have played at Roots Hall since 1955, although they originally played on the same site almost 50 years earlier.
The pitch was within the grounds of an 18th century house called Roots Hall, first used by Southend Athletic until the ground was taking over by the newly formed United in 1906.
Plans for United to purchase the ground were halted by World War I, the land was used for storage to aid the war effort, so when the club reformed after the conflict they moved to a new home on the sea front beside the amusement park, known as The Kursaal.
United joined the Football League in 1920, playing at the Kursaal until 1933, leaving after the opportunity arose to move to The Southend Stadium, the town’s newly built greyhound stadium.
When the lease was due to expire at the greyhound stadium, the club looked at a return to their roots at Roots Hall, which was now a being used as a rubbish tip.

A trust fund was set up in 1950, involving the mayor, the club board and supporters club with the aim of raising £11,258 to purchase the land from the local council.
In March 1953 work finally began, mainly thanks to donations of building materials and voluntary labour from the local community. After five years of negotiations and hard work The Shrimpers finally played their first game at Roots Hall on the 20th August 1955. The Division Three South fixture against Norwich City was watched by a crowd of 17,700.
The ground once opened became a work-in-progress for a number of years. The West Stand roof became double-barrelled and extended in length in 1956, floodlights were added in 1959 and the man made 72 step South Bank kop was finally completed in 1964.
In the early days the main problem was the drainage of the pitch, which was built upon thousands of tonnes of rubbish which meant the surface became a swamp in the winter months, so prior to the 1956-57 season the pitch was re-laid with a new drainage system which is still in use today.

The Main East Stand didn’t run pitch length until 1967, the lower standing paddock was replaced with seats in 1992. The stand has a pitched roof with executive boxes along the back and two glass press boxes in the centre above the pitch entrance. There isn’t any dugouts, just a few seats with a small section of seats for subs behind a brick wall.
I sat in the West Stand which became all seated in 1992 with blue plastic flip seats with SUFC picked out in yellow. The stand has its own bar at the back and once inside you can clearly see the two sections of barrelled roofs and how it was extended in 1995 to meet the North and South Stands.
In 1988 the South Stand terrace was reduced to make way for a property development with 86 flats going up behind the terrace. The flats look over towards the North goal but I never noticed anyone taking advantage of a free view of the game. In 1994 it became all seated with a new double-decker stand. The seats are equally divided between blue and yellow with the top tier slightly overhanging the bottom section with the Frank Walton Stand clock perched centrally on the top deck roof.
The North Stand had seats bolted on to the terrace in 1995. The stand is shared between the Southend singing section (and drummer) in the yellow seats and the away fans in the blue seats, there’s also an electric scoreboard directly above the goal.
Roots Hall at its peak catered for 35,000 spectators, with over 15,000 on the old South Bank Kop, the record attendance stands at 31,090 for an FA Cup third round tie with Liverpool in January 1979.

I arrived in Southend at around noon. As I approached the ground from the south end I bumped into a club official, who let me take a short cut through a locked gate next to the neighbouring flats. I asked him if it was at all possible to gain access into the ground to take pictures. He said he’d see what he could do but I told him to tell whoever was in charge to use the “I’ve come all the way from Newcastle” line, which never fails.
Minutes later a gentleman appeared from the office who looked like he was ‘the gaffer’ saying “Are you the one from Newcastle?” before letting me into the ground to snap away at my hearts content before meeting in front of the Main Stand, taking a picture of me in the stand and walking back through the exit via the players tunnel.
My ten minutes free time inside the ground was my Roots Hall highlight as the action on the pitch a few hours later failed to live up to the big relegation six pointer.
Southend’s good scoring run of eight goals in the last three games dried up in front of your truly. The game was open with both teams trying their best to play good football, however it was in the last third where it all went wrong as both defences had a trouble free afternoon.
Southend’s biggest threat came from Johnny Herd’s long throw-ins and substitute Francis Laurent did his best to open up the Yeovil defence with his long mazy runs. The best chances fell to the visitors late in the game with efforts from Welsh and Smith producing good saves from Mildenhall.
The Shrimpers won’t be happy dropping valuable points at home with their last remaining fixtures including some tough away games, but there’s also some winnable home ties where maximum points are a must in their bid to avoid the drop.

This years Easter break was spent in a part of the country which was previously unexplored by the Smudgers. We travelled from north-east to the south-east down to the Essex coast, staying in Clacton-on-Sea. As we were in the area I thought it would be a good idea to bag the two League grounds in that part of Essex; the two United’s in Southend and Colchester. So did these two games over a family weekend away happen to be a coincidence or maybe a piece of good planning on my part? …Well what do you think? Those who know me will know. ;-)

Matchday stats

SUFC 0 YTFC 0

Att.6,854

Admission £22

Programme £3

Ground no.247 Roots Hall - Matchday Web album (23 pictures)