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 squad who accompanied me on my travels during the course of the season.
The Boring Stats
Matches Attended 79
Goals 213 (Average 2.69)
(including 18 1-0’s)
New Grounds 39
(FL 14 NL 21 Scot 3 Scot NL 1)
This season I’ve mostly been liking -
Gateshead staying up
Newcastle going up
Ian Patrick’s tireless driving
Chris Hughton
Andy Carroll’s goals and locks
Gateshead’s new ground plans
East Coast Trains
Pies at Glossop
The Football League Show
Wetherspoons tours
GBG recommended pubs
Bay in the Vase
Pies at Penrith
Torchy Travel
Dundee weekend
Reunion in Macc
Rutherford and Percy Main both promoted
The City of York
Tower Power
The rants of a Grimsby fan
Joy Division Oven Gloves (in the charts)
Press passes
100FgC - WSC award winner
This season I’ve mostly disliked -
Stewards at Ice Station Broadwood
Mansfield coin throwers
Mansfield brick thrower
Chester City’s demise
Cardiff fans in Toon
Match of the Day
H&Y fans
Dodgy pubs in Retford
Thousands of Norwich scarves at Old Trafford every week
I'm still Wembleyless!
My Matchday - 254 New Victoria Park
Newtongrange Star 2v2 Lochee United
East Region Super League
Saturday 22nd May 2010
Newtongrange, known locally as “Nitten” is a former mining village situated eight miles south of Edinburgh. In the 1890’s it was Scotland’s biggest mining village with the sinking of the Lady Victoria Colliery. In 1981 the pit closed but the former colliery is now home to the Scottish Mining Museum.
The village had a number of clubs during the l880’s until Newtongrange Star were formed in 1890 playing on the original Victoria Park. The club were successful in the Midlothian Junior League, winning the title on five occasions up until the First World War.
The pitch and pavilion had been neglected during the war, so they applied for a grant to restart the club. The War Memorial Committee provided the club with a new pitch, deciding to use the old site as an extension to the public park.
After nine months work, the ground opened for its first match in August 1924. The ten acre park had a 900 seated stand with a covered terrace enclosure, which also housed changing rooms, committee rooms and a gymnasium used by the local boxing club. The pitch was bordered by a quarter mile cinder running track which made it a multi-used ground over its 70 years, with athletics, speedway and during the 1980’s it was the country’s top Stock Car venue which regularly drew healthy crowds.
The New Victoria Park was built by the Walker Group in 1994 in exchange for the old ground which was developed as a new housing estate, with street names such as Victoria Gardens/Road, Old Star Road and New Star Bank.
The 5000-capacity stadium cost £1,25m complete with pavilion, covered enclosure and social club. The ground is found just off the main road which runs through the village, the social club is at the top of the car park with the ground’s turnstile block entrance at the top of a flight of stairs. The changing rooms with refreshment bar, and the toilet block are at each side of entrance with a hard standing behind the nearside goal.
The enclosure sits centrally about a half pitch length with blue crash barriers and a row of 40 blue flip seats at the front. The brick dugouts are opposite the stand with the rest of the ground fully enclosed with trees and shrubs and well-groomed grass banks which makes it an ideal setting to watch football on such a glorious day.(26c in Scotland, hard to believe…Eddy)
Star are one of the most successful Junior clubs in the East Region, winning numerous honours in various cup competitions, including winning the big one - the Scottish Junior Cup in 1930.
The restructuring of the SJFA prior to the 2006–07 season placed Star in the East Region South Division, and in their first season were promoted as champions to the Premier League.
Last season the club were promoted to the East Super League after finishing runners-up the Musselburgh Athletic and continue to make excellent progress, currently in second spot behind champions elect Bo’ness United.
Although there is still three weeks worth of football left in the Super League this was Stars last game of the season, where another win would help to secure the runners-up spot.
After a goalless first half which saw Hagan miss two good chances for the visitors the game came to life in the second half with Star taking the lead with a 20 yard drive from Thompson on 55 minutes.
The goal spurred Lochee into life as they began to dominate proceedings, equalising through a Blackwood header before deservingly going into the lead with a good strike from substitute Jon Voigt.
Just when it looked like United had gained a well earner away victory, a late rally from Star produced a last throw of the dice with a corner kick in the dying seconds.
The kick was met by a towering header from centre-half Woodburn, who nodded the ball into the net just before the full time whistle, which meant my long action-packed season finished with a goal.
I preserved my tradition of my last match of the campaign taking place in Bonny Scotland, with a trip to Edinburgh, which gave me the chance to meet up with Squad #83 Jamie McQueen for the first (and last) time this season.
Throughout this season I’ve travelled hundreds of miles by rail. I must commend our rail network as I’ve had no problems this season as 99% of the time they’ve ran like clockwork. So with my final trip of the season it just had to finally go wrong with my booked 1036 train arriving at 1151, which was due to a person has been hit by a train near Darlington.
I arrived at 1.25pm with the game at Newtongrange kicked off at 1.45pm so it looked like we may have had to look at a Plan B, however Jamie was waiting on Waverley Bridge fully revved up and raring to go which meant we reached the ground missing only five minutes of action.
Once entering the ground it was a nice surprise to be greeted by Squad#155 James Little who was attending the game just so he could meet your truly.(Hope it was worth it Jim) It was good to meet up with James and hopefully we’ll be able to attend games together on my future trips to northern Britain.
A day which looked set to be a disaster ended up being very enjoyable. I finishing off with a couple of pints in the Gilly Arms before catching the 1705, which was dead on time, meaning I was back home in Gallowgate View by 7pm, so ending another great day out in which has been undoubtedly a great season.
Matchday stats
East Region Super League
Saturday 22nd May 2010
Newtongrange, known locally as “Nitten” is a former mining village situated eight miles south of Edinburgh. In the 1890’s it was Scotland’s biggest mining village with the sinking of the Lady Victoria Colliery. In 1981 the pit closed but the former colliery is now home to the Scottish Mining Museum.
The village had a number of clubs during the l880’s until Newtongrange Star were formed in 1890 playing on the original Victoria Park. The club were successful in the Midlothian Junior League, winning the title on five occasions up until the First World War.
The pitch and pavilion had been neglected during the war, so they applied for a grant to restart the club. The War Memorial Committee provided the club with a new pitch, deciding to use the old site as an extension to the public park.
After nine months work, the ground opened for its first match in August 1924. The ten acre park had a 900 seated stand with a covered terrace enclosure, which also housed changing rooms, committee rooms and a gymnasium used by the local boxing club. The pitch was bordered by a quarter mile cinder running track which made it a multi-used ground over its 70 years, with athletics, speedway and during the 1980’s it was the country’s top Stock Car venue which regularly drew healthy crowds.
The New Victoria Park was built by the Walker Group in 1994 in exchange for the old ground which was developed as a new housing estate, with street names such as Victoria Gardens/Road, Old Star Road and New Star Bank.
The 5000-capacity stadium cost £1,25m complete with pavilion, covered enclosure and social club. The ground is found just off the main road which runs through the village, the social club is at the top of the car park with the ground’s turnstile block entrance at the top of a flight of stairs. The changing rooms with refreshment bar, and the toilet block are at each side of entrance with a hard standing behind the nearside goal.
The enclosure sits centrally about a half pitch length with blue crash barriers and a row of 40 blue flip seats at the front. The brick dugouts are opposite the stand with the rest of the ground fully enclosed with trees and shrubs and well-groomed grass banks which makes it an ideal setting to watch football on such a glorious day.(26c in Scotland, hard to believe…Eddy)
Star are one of the most successful Junior clubs in the East Region, winning numerous honours in various cup competitions, including winning the big one - the Scottish Junior Cup in 1930.The restructuring of the SJFA prior to the 2006–07 season placed Star in the East Region South Division, and in their first season were promoted as champions to the Premier League.
Last season the club were promoted to the East Super League after finishing runners-up the Musselburgh Athletic and continue to make excellent progress, currently in second spot behind champions elect Bo’ness United.
Although there is still three weeks worth of football left in the Super League this was Stars last game of the season, where another win would help to secure the runners-up spot.
After a goalless first half which saw Hagan miss two good chances for the visitors the game came to life in the second half with Star taking the lead with a 20 yard drive from Thompson on 55 minutes.
The goal spurred Lochee into life as they began to dominate proceedings, equalising through a Blackwood header before deservingly going into the lead with a good strike from substitute Jon Voigt.
Just when it looked like United had gained a well earner away victory, a late rally from Star produced a last throw of the dice with a corner kick in the dying seconds.
The kick was met by a towering header from centre-half Woodburn, who nodded the ball into the net just before the full time whistle, which meant my long action-packed season finished with a goal.
I preserved my tradition of my last match of the campaign taking place in Bonny Scotland, with a trip to Edinburgh, which gave me the chance to meet up with Squad #83 Jamie McQueen for the first (and last) time this season.Throughout this season I’ve travelled hundreds of miles by rail. I must commend our rail network as I’ve had no problems this season as 99% of the time they’ve ran like clockwork. So with my final trip of the season it just had to finally go wrong with my booked 1036 train arriving at 1151, which was due to a person has been hit by a train near Darlington.
I arrived at 1.25pm with the game at Newtongrange kicked off at 1.45pm so it looked like we may have had to look at a Plan B, however Jamie was waiting on Waverley Bridge fully revved up and raring to go which meant we reached the ground missing only five minutes of action.
Once entering the ground it was a nice surprise to be greeted by Squad#155 James Little who was attending the game just so he could meet your truly.(Hope it was worth it Jim) It was good to meet up with James and hopefully we’ll be able to attend games together on my future trips to northern Britain.
A day which looked set to be a disaster ended up being very enjoyable. I finishing off with a couple of pints in the Gilly Arms before catching the 1705, which was dead on time, meaning I was back home in Gallowgate View by 7pm, so ending another great day out in which has been undoubtedly a great season.
Matchday stats
NSFC 2(Thompson 55, Woodburn 90+4)LUFC 2(Blackwood 71,Voigt 82)
att. 200.est
Admission £5
Programme: none
Ground no.254 New Victoria Park - Matchday Web album (13 pictures)
Around the Alliance - part five
This seasons trip around the Alliance didn’t go as I had planned mainly due to one thing - the weather. I visited Shankhouse back in October then planned more games before Christmas, but consecutive weeks of snow meant postponements, which included visiting Carlisle City being put on hold. (‘till hopefully next season)
Shankhouse is the a small village and the oldest team in Northumberland, formed in 1883. The club joined the Northern Alliance in 1891-92, the following year becoming only the second club to win the league (after Sunderland ‘A’).
The current club emerged in the 1990’s, rejoining the Northern Alliance and progressed through the leagues to reach the Premier Division in 1998.
Shankhouse won the Alliance in 2004-05 under the guidance of current manager Gary Kirkup and finished runners-up the following year.
The club have played on many different pitches but have now settled in nearby Cramlington at the Northburn Sports Complex which is shared with Alliance 2nd Division club Cramlington Blue Star.
The pitch is enclosed with a picket fence which separates the ground from the neighbouring pitch at the far side. There’s a pair of Perspex dugouts and a set of three floodlight pylons on each side of the pitch. The facilities in the community centre are used for changing rooms and refreshments.
Shankhouse were up against newly promoted club Stocksfield, who clinched their third away win and in the process recorded a first clean sheet of the season
The winning goal arrived in the 35th minute when a corner kick from Bregstrand went through a crowd of players and fell nicely into the path of Josh Brooks, who poked the ball home from four yards.
The second half saw Pearson twice going close to doubling the lead, but Shankhouse struggled to break down a stubborn Stocksfield defence, comfortably holding on to their slender lead and gained revenge for the 4-1 reversal two weeks earlier.
Matchday stats
ShFC 0 StFC 1(Brooks 35)
Att.34(HC)
Admission and programme: none
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revisiting 216 Farnacres, Beggarswood Park
Rutherford 0v1 Percy Main Amateurs
231. Northburn Sports & Community Complex
Shankhouse 0v1 Stocksfield Northern Alliance Premier Division 31st October 2009
Shankhouse is the a small village and the oldest team in Northumberland, formed in 1883. The club joined the Northern Alliance in 1891-92, the following year becoming only the second club to win the league (after Sunderland ‘A’).
The current club emerged in the 1990’s, rejoining the Northern Alliance and progressed through the leagues to reach the Premier Division in 1998.
Shankhouse won the Alliance in 2004-05 under the guidance of current manager Gary Kirkup and finished runners-up the following year.
The club have played on many different pitches but have now settled in nearby Cramlington at the Northburn Sports Complex which is shared with Alliance 2nd Division club Cramlington Blue Star.
The pitch is enclosed with a picket fence which separates the ground from the neighbouring pitch at the far side. There’s a pair of Perspex dugouts and a set of three floodlight pylons on each side of the pitch. The facilities in the community centre are used for changing rooms and refreshments.
Shankhouse were up against newly promoted club Stocksfield, who clinched their third away win and in the process recorded a first clean sheet of the season
The winning goal arrived in the 35th minute when a corner kick from Bregstrand went through a crowd of players and fell nicely into the path of Josh Brooks, who poked the ball home from four yards.
The second half saw Pearson twice going close to doubling the lead, but Shankhouse struggled to break down a stubborn Stocksfield defence, comfortably holding on to their slender lead and gained revenge for the 4-1 reversal two weeks earlier.
Matchday statsShFC 0 StFC 1(Brooks 35)
Att.34(HC)
Admission and programme: none
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revisiting 216 Farnacres, Beggarswood Park
Rutherford 0v1 Percy Main Amateurs
Northern Alliance Division One
28th April 2010
My first new ground this season was at Beggarswood Park, where I saw Northern League side Whickham kick off the pre-season. Since my visit back in July, work on the impressive new clubhouse and changing rooms is now complete with a new adjoining car park.
I took a dip into the First Division to see leaders Rutherford up against Percy Main Amateurs in a top of the table clash. Amble United separated both teams in second place, as the three clubs were battling for the two promotion spots.
Percy leapfrogged their rivals with a well deserved win over the league leaders. The decisive goal came early in the game when a right corner was met with a strong header from Tony Browell. Percy should have put the game to bed but missed a catalogue of clear cut chances which kept the game alive, giving Rutherford a chance of snatching a point. But the Main deservingly held on to close to gap at the top to a single point with both clubs going head-to head for promotion in the season finale.
Footnote.
Since that game both clubs remained in the top two with Rutherford clinching promotion on 15th May after a 4-1 win at Berwick United. Percy Main joining them the following week winning their final game (also at Berwick) to finish runners-up.
Matchday stats
Killingworth Young Peoples Club who this year celebrate their 30th anniversary, formed a senior side in June 2007 to play in the Northern Alliance. The club have made a perfect start becoming champions of Division Two and Division One in successive seasons giving them Step 7 status going into their third season.
The club are based at Amberley Playing Fields which is a large complex with about seven full size pitches. The main pitch is in front of the pavilion which is fenced off with hard standing all round, dugouts but no floodlights, although there are lights on another fenced of pitch.
The KYPC building is fully licensed with a good choice of refreshments available and a big projector screen showing Sky Sports.
An early kick off which was originally scheduled for noon, before being brought forward to an 1130am start, saw a decent attendance with a few groundhoppers taking the opportunity of an Alliance double(rucksacks and carrier backs being the telltale sign)
A goal in each half saw the clubs share the points. Shankhouse took the lead on 19 minutes when Dortmand stayed onside before running through on goal and placing his shot wide to the keepers left.
‘House’ should have doubled the advantage when Cook hit the crossbar with a close range header, as minutes later they were punished after a defensive comedy of errors allowed Bolardo to head home Killy’s equaliser from close range.
Both sides pressed for a winner in the remaining twenty minutes but overall a draw was a fair result in a competitive match played in good spirit.
Matchday stats
28th April 2010
My first new ground this season was at Beggarswood Park, where I saw Northern League side Whickham kick off the pre-season. Since my visit back in July, work on the impressive new clubhouse and changing rooms is now complete with a new adjoining car park.I took a dip into the First Division to see leaders Rutherford up against Percy Main Amateurs in a top of the table clash. Amble United separated both teams in second place, as the three clubs were battling for the two promotion spots.
Percy leapfrogged their rivals with a well deserved win over the league leaders. The decisive goal came early in the game when a right corner was met with a strong header from Tony Browell. Percy should have put the game to bed but missed a catalogue of clear cut chances which kept the game alive, giving Rutherford a chance of snatching a point. But the Main deservingly held on to close to gap at the top to a single point with both clubs going head-to head for promotion in the season finale.
Footnote.
Since that game both clubs remained in the top two with Rutherford clinching promotion on 15th May after a 4-1 win at Berwick United. Percy Main joining them the following week winning their final game (also at Berwick) to finish runners-up.
GRAFC 0 PMAFC 1(Browell 13)
Att.41(HC)
Admission and programme: none
Att.41(HC)
Admission and programme: none
.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
253. Amberley Park
253. Amberley Park
Killingworth Sporting 1v1 Shankhouse
Northern Alliance Premier Division
15th May 2010
Killingworth Young Peoples Club who this year celebrate their 30th anniversary, formed a senior side in June 2007 to play in the Northern Alliance. The club have made a perfect start becoming champions of Division Two and Division One in successive seasons giving them Step 7 status going into their third season.The club are based at Amberley Playing Fields which is a large complex with about seven full size pitches. The main pitch is in front of the pavilion which is fenced off with hard standing all round, dugouts but no floodlights, although there are lights on another fenced of pitch.
The KYPC building is fully licensed with a good choice of refreshments available and a big projector screen showing Sky Sports.
An early kick off which was originally scheduled for noon, before being brought forward to an 1130am start, saw a decent attendance with a few groundhoppers taking the opportunity of an Alliance double(rucksacks and carrier backs being the telltale sign)
A goal in each half saw the clubs share the points. Shankhouse took the lead on 19 minutes when Dortmand stayed onside before running through on goal and placing his shot wide to the keepers left.
‘House’ should have doubled the advantage when Cook hit the crossbar with a close range header, as minutes later they were punished after a defensive comedy of errors allowed Bolardo to head home Killy’s equaliser from close range.
Both sides pressed for a winner in the remaining twenty minutes but overall a draw was a fair result in a competitive match played in good spirit.
Matchday stats
KSFC 1(Bolardo 66) ShFC 1(Dortmand 19)
att.40(HC)
Admission and programme: none
My Matchday - 252 Pirelli Stadium
Burton Albion 3v0 Grimsby Town
League Two
Saturday 8th May 2010
The trouble with this ground hopping malarkey is matches have to be planned way in advance. It takes great skill to match up fixtures, kick off times, train times and leave from work into one perfect permutation, this trip to Burton being a prime example.
Back in January I travelled to the Recreation Ground with squad #88 Graham Precious, to see his beloved Grimsby take on Aldershot. On our journey home we discussed future fixture plans and agreed that together we would take in the Mariners last game of the season at the Pirelli Stadium.
Back then even the most ardent Grimsby fan would take off his rose tinted glasses and agree that this fixture would be a nothing game, relegation already confirmed, an end of season day out and the last match as a Football League club for maybe many a year.
But who would have thought it. An unlikely late upturn in form from Town coupled with Barnet dropping down the league like a stone, has giving as a last day relegation finale. “It’s a funny old game” as one old leather faced cockney used to say with great regularity, and on this particular occasion, I have to concur.
Last Sunday I nearly fell off the sofa when I noticed on the Sky Sports news ticker that Grimsby had sold out there entire allocation for the game. I then rang Graham and he told me that he was away for the bank holiday weekend, so was unable to buy us any tickets.
On Tuesday morning I rang the Burton Albion ticket office to make enquiries about ticket availability, the conversation went something like this;
SS - Hello I’m wondering if you could help me regarding tickets for this Saturday’s game with Grimsby.
BAFC - Ring Grimsby
SS - No! I’m not a Grimsby fan. I’m coming down from Newcastle as I’m trying to complete the 92 grounds.
BAFC - If you want a ticket you’ll have to ring Grimsby.
SS - But I’m a neutral, I just want to now if I can buy a ticket in advance?
BAFC - Ring Grimsby if you want a ticket, they’ll have some.
SS - Is it not possible to buy a..
BAFC - RING GRIMSBY!
SS - Ok - bye!
Burton-on-Trent is a town in East Staffordshire which has long been associated with the brewing industry, going back to the early 18th century. The local water contains a large amount of dissolved salts which is mainly caused by the gypsum in the surrounding hills. This allowed a greater proportion of hops to be included, allowing the beer to be shipped further a field. The nearby River Trent was first used as the main source of exporting ale to the likes of London and out to the Baltic Sea and Prussia.
There were as many as 30 breweries in the town in 1880 but by the early 20th century a reduction in beer sales causing many breweries to close down, leaving only 8 still working by 1928.
Local lad William Bass(1717-1787) formed the Bass & Co Brewery in 1777, which was taking over by Coors in 2000, one of the town’s five remaining breweries along with Marstons and smaller brewers Tower Brewery, Cottage Brewery and Burton Bridge.
The town has a long tradition with Rugby Union with Burton having one of the sport’s oldest clubs, formed in 1870. The round ball game has seen an array of clubs take on the town’s name, most notably its trio of former League clubs Burton Wanderers (1894-1897) who merged with Burton Swifts (1892-1901) to form Burton United in 1901. The club played in the Second Division until 1907 before folding three years later. There was also non-league side Burton Town who played up until the Second World War.
Burton Albion formed in 1950 playing on the Lloyds Foundry ground on Wellington Street in the Birmingham & District League.
In 1958 the club moved to Eton Park which coincided with promotion to the Southern League, playing within the league’s regional divisions until a switch to the Northern Premier League in 1979.
The Brewers reaching the FA Trophy final in 1987 and the following season rejoined the Southern League, twice finishing runners at the turn of the millennium.
Conference football was achieved in 2002 via the Northern Premier League route. The club rejoining the league for one season and successfully lifted the title as well as reaching the semi-final of the FA Trophy in that year.
Burton played in the Conference for seven seasons, each year making progress finishing in a higher league position each season until a 5th place in 2008 saw the club make the play-offs, only to lose out to Cambridge United 4-3 on aggregate.
The following season Albion built an unassailable 19 points lead under the management of Nigel Clough. When the nice young man took up the managers post at Pride Park in early 2009, Roy McFarlane was installed as caretaker boss and led to the club to promotion to the Football League, but only just, staggered over the line on the final day of the season by only two points.
In 2005 the club moved across the road to unused land which was owned by the neighbouring Pirelli factory. Eton Park was sold for a new housing development and Pirelli gave the club the wasteland on the condition the new ground was named after them.
The stadium was designed by Jon Hawkeye at a cost of £6.5m, which overall capacity was increased to 6,912 in July 2009. The stadium is made up of one seated Main Stand which is fully covered with a single tier of 2,034 black seats with hospitality boxes above and a large TV gantry central.
The remaining ends are three sections of terracing each equal in height and appearance. Away supporters are giving the East Terrace which differs having a police control box in one corner and a electric scoreboard perched on the roof. Each stand has its own lounge bar with snack facilities and is completed with a set of four skinny floodlights.
The ground is smashing for a club of Burton’s size, but if I do have one criticism it’s the terraces look too grey and drab and could do with brightening up a bit. If the bland concrete back walls and the crash barriers were painted in the club colours it would certainly add a bit much needed colour.
Burton can be satisfied with their first season in League football. Never in any danger at the bottom end of the table and remote possibilities of the play-offs, highlights include doing the double over top sides Rochdale and Aldershot.
So they come into this last game of the season with nothing to play for, which must surely benefit Grimsby. The relegation finale was simple the visitors had to win and Barnet had to lose at home to Rochdale, The Bees opponents having already clinched promotion and already have their mindset on summer hols.
Oh well, so much for the great escape. The tunnel began to collapse after only ten minutes, the more Grimsby desperately tried to dig their way out the more difficult the escape route became, until they were deep in the clarts and into the darkness of relegation.
The line between success and failure can be a very very wee one. In that tenth minute Grimsby almost took the lead when a shot-come-cross from Akpa Akpro came back off the inside of the post and into the arms of keeper Poole, within seconds the ball was in the opposite net. The ball was pumped up field to Pearson who ran through on goal before unleashing a fierce shot from 20 yards which gave Colgan no chance.
The Brewers doubled their lead somewhat against the run of play when a good run and cross from Pearson found Harrad who slid in to score his 20th league goal of the season in the 37th minute.
In the second half both teams continued to create chances, Albion looked dangerous with a confident swagger to their attacking play while Town’s attacking force looked more cumbersome.
Grimsby were never going to score if they played all night. Veteran keeper Kevin Poole was always going to keep a clean sheet producing two fantastic saves to deny Coulson, Peacock and two efforts from Akpa Akpro, which earned the 46 year old the Man of the Match award.
Burton secured victory and officially ended Grimsby Town’s unbroken 99 years as a league club with a third goal. Shaun Harrad was fouled on the edge of the box, he then got up and smashed in the 25 yard free kick the cap an excellent performance from The Brewers.
As it turned out the result was academic, Barnet’s superiority was rewarded with a late goal at Underhill which produced a jubilant pitch invasion, which was sharp contrast to the scenes contrived by some followers of Grimsby, I won’t call them fans as I don’t want to tar them with the same brush as genuine supporters.
There were only a few supporters who paid on the day, about 20 odd who stood at one end of the popular Side and about the same amount who pre-bought tickets at the west side of the Main Stand, the attendance was still 1400 under capacity.
The trouble had been brewing up all afternoon, after the first goal one fan, sorry! I should say dickhead (as he looked and acted like one) ran onto the pitch and had a go at his own keeper.
It’s not as if these troublemakers are daft young lads, these were grown men, some of them look old enough to be granddads‘. As the second half progressed some watched the game on the perimeter track behind the goal with some encroaching onto the pitch. Just before full time we agreed to make a quick getaway on the full time whistle just as the trouble was about to reach boiling point. The troublemakers involved were not just annoyed about fact that Grimsby were relegated, they were probably the idiots who felt robbed after paying over £200 to watch that shower of shite!
The quick getaway meant I was back in Retford for 6pm, leaving me over 2 hours to fill so naturally I had no choice but to go on the lash!
After Graham’s disappointment of suffering relegation he said he still enjoyed the day and so did I, my last League game of an eventful season and a good one to end on.
League Two
Saturday 8th May 2010
The trouble with this ground hopping malarkey is matches have to be planned way in advance. It takes great skill to match up fixtures, kick off times, train times and leave from work into one perfect permutation, this trip to Burton being a prime example.
Back in January I travelled to the Recreation Ground with squad #88 Graham Precious, to see his beloved Grimsby take on Aldershot. On our journey home we discussed future fixture plans and agreed that together we would take in the Mariners last game of the season at the Pirelli Stadium.
Back then even the most ardent Grimsby fan would take off his rose tinted glasses and agree that this fixture would be a nothing game, relegation already confirmed, an end of season day out and the last match as a Football League club for maybe many a year.
But who would have thought it. An unlikely late upturn in form from Town coupled with Barnet dropping down the league like a stone, has giving as a last day relegation finale. “It’s a funny old game” as one old leather faced cockney used to say with great regularity, and on this particular occasion, I have to concur.
Last Sunday I nearly fell off the sofa when I noticed on the Sky Sports news ticker that Grimsby had sold out there entire allocation for the game. I then rang Graham and he told me that he was away for the bank holiday weekend, so was unable to buy us any tickets.
On Tuesday morning I rang the Burton Albion ticket office to make enquiries about ticket availability, the conversation went something like this;
SS - Hello I’m wondering if you could help me regarding tickets for this Saturday’s game with Grimsby.
BAFC - Ring Grimsby
SS - No! I’m not a Grimsby fan. I’m coming down from Newcastle as I’m trying to complete the 92 grounds.
BAFC - If you want a ticket you’ll have to ring Grimsby.
SS - But I’m a neutral, I just want to now if I can buy a ticket in advance?
BAFC - Ring Grimsby if you want a ticket, they’ll have some.
SS - Is it not possible to buy a..
BAFC - RING GRIMSBY!
SS - Ok - bye!
Graham also emailed the club to ask if he could buy tickets but received no reply. So on Wednesday morning he jumped on his motorbike and clocked up 169 miles to be told on arrival there wasn’t any stand tickets left and he would have to queue at the turnstiles, providing proof of being local and not from South Humberside. An unnecessary trip which could have been prevented if they’d answered my question or replied to Graham’s email.
Graham picked me up at Retford train station at 1110, the car journey onto Burton taking just over an hour. The turnstiles were due to open at 1.30pm, so we had time for a pint in the Great Northern, which serves the locally produced Burton Bridge Bitter, which went down a treat.
We spoke to a few Grimsby fans in the bar who had tickets for the game. After first swapping insults with each other, they told us tickets were selling on eBay for a ridiculous £275, plus Graham had earlier spoke to a friend of his on the phone who had just purchased a pair of at £100 each.
After a stressful week, panicking that a match I planned and booked three months in advance could be wasted, I needn’t have worried. We took up our place in the Popular Terrace queue with only a dozen punters in front of us, had a friendly chat with a few of the locals and within ten minutes I was happily sitting in the Vera Goode Suite with a pint of bitter and a mince & onion pie. Panic over and now I could relax, which couldn’t be said for my travel companion, who now had the stress of ninety odd minutes of football to endure, in which his beloved Mariners were on the verge of being sunk.
Burton-on-Trent is a town in East Staffordshire which has long been associated with the brewing industry, going back to the early 18th century. The local water contains a large amount of dissolved salts which is mainly caused by the gypsum in the surrounding hills. This allowed a greater proportion of hops to be included, allowing the beer to be shipped further a field. The nearby River Trent was first used as the main source of exporting ale to the likes of London and out to the Baltic Sea and Prussia.
There were as many as 30 breweries in the town in 1880 but by the early 20th century a reduction in beer sales causing many breweries to close down, leaving only 8 still working by 1928.
Local lad William Bass(1717-1787) formed the Bass & Co Brewery in 1777, which was taking over by Coors in 2000, one of the town’s five remaining breweries along with Marstons and smaller brewers Tower Brewery, Cottage Brewery and Burton Bridge.
The town has a long tradition with Rugby Union with Burton having one of the sport’s oldest clubs, formed in 1870. The round ball game has seen an array of clubs take on the town’s name, most notably its trio of former League clubs Burton Wanderers (1894-1897) who merged with Burton Swifts (1892-1901) to form Burton United in 1901. The club played in the Second Division until 1907 before folding three years later. There was also non-league side Burton Town who played up until the Second World War.
Burton Albion formed in 1950 playing on the Lloyds Foundry ground on Wellington Street in the Birmingham & District League.
In 1958 the club moved to Eton Park which coincided with promotion to the Southern League, playing within the league’s regional divisions until a switch to the Northern Premier League in 1979.
The Brewers reaching the FA Trophy final in 1987 and the following season rejoined the Southern League, twice finishing runners at the turn of the millennium.
Conference football was achieved in 2002 via the Northern Premier League route. The club rejoining the league for one season and successfully lifted the title as well as reaching the semi-final of the FA Trophy in that year.
Burton played in the Conference for seven seasons, each year making progress finishing in a higher league position each season until a 5th place in 2008 saw the club make the play-offs, only to lose out to Cambridge United 4-3 on aggregate.
The following season Albion built an unassailable 19 points lead under the management of Nigel Clough. When the nice young man took up the managers post at Pride Park in early 2009, Roy McFarlane was installed as caretaker boss and led to the club to promotion to the Football League, but only just, staggered over the line on the final day of the season by only two points.
In 2005 the club moved across the road to unused land which was owned by the neighbouring Pirelli factory. Eton Park was sold for a new housing development and Pirelli gave the club the wasteland on the condition the new ground was named after them.
The stadium was designed by Jon Hawkeye at a cost of £6.5m, which overall capacity was increased to 6,912 in July 2009. The stadium is made up of one seated Main Stand which is fully covered with a single tier of 2,034 black seats with hospitality boxes above and a large TV gantry central.
The remaining ends are three sections of terracing each equal in height and appearance. Away supporters are giving the East Terrace which differs having a police control box in one corner and a electric scoreboard perched on the roof. Each stand has its own lounge bar with snack facilities and is completed with a set of four skinny floodlights.
The ground is smashing for a club of Burton’s size, but if I do have one criticism it’s the terraces look too grey and drab and could do with brightening up a bit. If the bland concrete back walls and the crash barriers were painted in the club colours it would certainly add a bit much needed colour.
Burton can be satisfied with their first season in League football. Never in any danger at the bottom end of the table and remote possibilities of the play-offs, highlights include doing the double over top sides Rochdale and Aldershot.
So they come into this last game of the season with nothing to play for, which must surely benefit Grimsby. The relegation finale was simple the visitors had to win and Barnet had to lose at home to Rochdale, The Bees opponents having already clinched promotion and already have their mindset on summer hols.
Oh well, so much for the great escape. The tunnel began to collapse after only ten minutes, the more Grimsby desperately tried to dig their way out the more difficult the escape route became, until they were deep in the clarts and into the darkness of relegation.
The line between success and failure can be a very very wee one. In that tenth minute Grimsby almost took the lead when a shot-come-cross from Akpa Akpro came back off the inside of the post and into the arms of keeper Poole, within seconds the ball was in the opposite net. The ball was pumped up field to Pearson who ran through on goal before unleashing a fierce shot from 20 yards which gave Colgan no chance.
The Brewers doubled their lead somewhat against the run of play when a good run and cross from Pearson found Harrad who slid in to score his 20th league goal of the season in the 37th minute.
In the second half both teams continued to create chances, Albion looked dangerous with a confident swagger to their attacking play while Town’s attacking force looked more cumbersome.
Grimsby were never going to score if they played all night. Veteran keeper Kevin Poole was always going to keep a clean sheet producing two fantastic saves to deny Coulson, Peacock and two efforts from Akpa Akpro, which earned the 46 year old the Man of the Match award.
Burton secured victory and officially ended Grimsby Town’s unbroken 99 years as a league club with a third goal. Shaun Harrad was fouled on the edge of the box, he then got up and smashed in the 25 yard free kick the cap an excellent performance from The Brewers.
As it turned out the result was academic, Barnet’s superiority was rewarded with a late goal at Underhill which produced a jubilant pitch invasion, which was sharp contrast to the scenes contrived by some followers of Grimsby, I won’t call them fans as I don’t want to tar them with the same brush as genuine supporters.
There were only a few supporters who paid on the day, about 20 odd who stood at one end of the popular Side and about the same amount who pre-bought tickets at the west side of the Main Stand, the attendance was still 1400 under capacity.
The trouble had been brewing up all afternoon, after the first goal one fan, sorry! I should say dickhead (as he looked and acted like one) ran onto the pitch and had a go at his own keeper.
It’s not as if these troublemakers are daft young lads, these were grown men, some of them look old enough to be granddads‘. As the second half progressed some watched the game on the perimeter track behind the goal with some encroaching onto the pitch. Just before full time we agreed to make a quick getaway on the full time whistle just as the trouble was about to reach boiling point. The troublemakers involved were not just annoyed about fact that Grimsby were relegated, they were probably the idiots who felt robbed after paying over £200 to watch that shower of shite!
The quick getaway meant I was back in Retford for 6pm, leaving me over 2 hours to fill so naturally I had no choice but to go on the lash!
After Graham’s disappointment of suffering relegation he said he still enjoyed the day and so did I, my last League game of an eventful season and a good one to end on.
Link - The relegation finale at Underhill with EFW
Matchday stats
Matchday stats
BAFC 3(Pearson 10 Harrad 37,58)GTFC 0
att.5510
Admission £13
Ground no.252 Pirelli Stadium - Matchday Web album (15 pictures)
My Matchday - 251 Moss Rose
Macclesfield Town 0v2 Darlington
League Two
Saturday 1st May 2010
Macclesfield is a market town in the east of Cheshire on the River Bollin, located close to the county borders of Greater Manchester, Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
Macclesfield is know as the “Silk Town” as it was once the worlds biggest producer of finished silk but it is also nicknamed “Treacle Town” The treacle link is believed to come from an incident when a wagon overturned spilling a load of treacle on Hibel Road, the town folk rushed out to scoop the treacle off the cobbled street into jugs and bowls. Another treacle explanation is that mill-owners used to provide barrels of the brown sweet sticky liquid to the unemployed weavers.
I’ve always known the town as “Macc” due to the infamous local punk/rock ban
d The Macc Lads, the self acclaimed " rudest, crudest, lewdest, drunkest band in Christendom",
If your unaware of The Macc Lads music, I would describe them as rude, filthy, sexist, homophobic and politically incorrectable, but they do bang out one hell of a cracking tune! Their lyrics mainly involve around pulling crack(women) chips and gravy and drinking lots of beer, particularly Boddingtons Bitter (Boddies) as in one memorable lyric from Barrel’s Round “You've got veins in your bodies but we've got Boddies in our veins, we‘ll out drink anybody then we‘ll go and do it all again”
The beauty(or curse)of www. is the possibility to reunite with lost friends and family. So with special thanks to Pete’s ex-wife Anne I was delighted to receive an email on Friday night from Pete, arranging to meet up in Macclesfield for - as The Macc Lads would graciously express it “Give me alcohol, Give me alcohol, Don't want a pie or a cornish pasty, Give us a pint or I'll turn nasty, Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme alcohol”
After catching my train connection from Manchester I arrived in town at 12.45. I headed straight to the GBG recommended Market Green Tavern, before meeting Pete (after a bit of a mix up) in the Society Rooms Wetherspoons pub. It was great to catch up after all these years for a bevvy and hopefully we’ll meet again next time I’m in the north west. Unfortunately there was no “Boddies” to be had, but some great ales in the pubs and especially the Nags Head after the game.
Macclesfield originated from a rugby club in 1874 and began playing in The Combination league at Moss Rose from 1891. The original club went bankrupt in 1897, so Hallfield FC took over the ground, subsequently taking over the town’s name in 1904 and later joined the Lancashire Combination League.
Moss Rose first major work came in 1906 with the construction of a timber main stand with cover added on the opposite terrace and a dressing room block situated in the pub corner of the ground.
The Silkmen became founder members of the Cheshire County League in 1919, winning the first of six titles in 1932 with further honours in the League and Senior cup competitions. It was in the Cheshire Senior Cup which produced the grounds biggest attendance of 9,003 on February 4th 1948 for a 2nd Round tie with Winsford United.
The club had the Town suffix added in 1966 and one year earlier the ground’s first floodlights were installed, switched on for a fixture with Northwich Victoria which attracted a crowd of 3,200.
The old grandstand was replaced in 1968 as the club became founder members of the Northern Premier League after winning their final Cheshire League title. The club became inaugural winners of the league, then the following season they retained the title and added another first to the record books, as FA Trophy winners at Wembley in 1970. The club are currently celebrating the 40th anniversary of being the first winners of the competition, honouring which is regarded as The Silkmen’s greatest ever side.
Promotion to the Conference was achieved after winning their third NPL title in 1986-87, but further promotion to the Football League was denied when winning the league in 1994-95 due to ground grading guidelines. The only work undertaking during this period was new offices, changing rooms and in 1988 the grass banking was replaced with terracing behind one goal and around the stand, also a new Social Club was opened in 1990.
Moss Rose was deemed fit for League football only three years earlier after only minor alterations allowed Chester City (RIP) to ground share after vacating Sealand Road, while the Deva Stadium was under construction. However new tighter ground grading rules meant Macc had to wait another two years, after securing a second Conference title, following on from a second successful trip to Wembley the previous year.
Macclesfield Town hosted League Football for the first time with a 2-1 win over Torquay United in August 1997, a season which concluded with instant success as runners-up and promotion to the third tier of English football.
The Silkmen were relegated the following season but have managed to maintain their League Two status, even though it’s been an annual struggle to survive.
In February 2008 Keith Alexander replaced Ian Brightwell as boss until the end of the season, steering the club clear of the drop with four wins and three draws in the nine remaining games and was rewarded with a 2 year contract.
Keith Alexander suffered a double brain aneurysm in 2003 when manager of Lincoln City.On 2nd March 2010 Keith arriving home from the League Two match at Notts County feeling unwell, he collapsed and was taking to Lincoln Hospital where he died shortly afterwards at the age of 53.
The club and team responded positively to such tragic circumstances, winning what would have been Keith’s 100th game in charge at Hereford the following Saturday and have continued to pull together with a string of good results, which is an honour to his memory and which would have made “the gaffer” proud.
This season Town have had a stress free end of the season as far as flirtation with the bottom two is concerned, while opponents Darlington have remained as the strongest club in the Football League (as they hold the rest up…Eddy) staying rock bottom throughout the campaign, but surprisingly relegation was only just officially confirmed in their recent away fixture at Rochdale.
It was the visitors who won the game at a canter in a typical end of season game, a headed goal in each half and even a missed penalty didn’t but a dent on such a confident performance.
Darlington took the lead in the ninth minute, a free kick from the right was headed home by skipper Miller via the underside of the bar.
The best Macc-attack in the first half came just before the break, a Tipton cross was met by a powerful header from Brown who should have done better from close range.
Darlo had a chance to double their lead early in the second half after a soft foul on Mulligan gave Convery a chance from the spot. The penalty taker tried to be clever by trying the old John Aldridge hesitant shuffle trick, but the keeper got down well to save at his left post.
Macc tried in vain the grab an equaliser, the best opportunities falling to Hessey and Sinclair but Darlington sealed their fourth away win out of the last six games when Smith got on the end of a Convery cross the round off a good days work for Darlo.
I agree with the consensus that Moss Rose still has a Non-League feel about it, but that's part of its charm. As you approach the ground from the town via London Road, you can clearly see the spectators at the back of the terrace and in the Main stand.
The Silk FM Stand has 563 red and black seats. The blue frontage roof has MFC in large white letters and the clubs lion crest. The stand has glass wind shields with terracing at each side. In the corner is a police control box with an electric scoreboard perched on top.(which on this occasion wasn’t working)
The Alfred McAlpine Stand was opened in 2001 and has a single tier of 1,550 blue seats with executive boxes running full length. The stand has a suspended TV gantry and the club shop, main offices are situated within the stand.
The Silkmen End is a bit different, a mixture of seats and terrace, five rows of blue seats with the standing area at the back. The reason for the added 486 seats was to bring the ground up to the minimum seating requirement for the Football League, with a total of 2,599 amongst the total capacity of 6,335.
The Star Lane end is a basic open terrace with blue crash barriers. Even though I have no real affection for Darlington, for photography reasons I stood on the away terrace amongst the Darlo fans.
Next season Darlington will be north east derby rivals with my non league team Gateshead in the Conference. The new rivalry seems to have already got underway with Darlo fans chanting “If your going to Gateshead clap your hands” quickly followed by “We hate Geordies and we hate Geordies” Although they did make me laugh after the official attendance of 1,716 was announced responding with “Your grounds too big for you (repeat to fade)” Well I suppose it takes one to know one!
I had an enjoyable day out in Macclesfield, which was made that extra special by meeting up with a long lost friend who I hadn’t clapped eyes on for 18 years. I suppose the only disappointment of the day was the legendary Macc Lads pub ‘The Old Bears Head’ is no more and there was no sign of Hectic House Records on Sunderland Street either. But I’ll leave it to The Macc Lads to sum up my matchday
"The weekend is coming and its time for a bath We're going to sup some Boddies and we'll have a good laugh" (I'll have to stop there, as the rest is unprintable.)
Matchday stats
League Two
Saturday 1st May 2010
Macclesfield is a market town in the east of Cheshire on the River Bollin, located close to the county borders of Greater Manchester, Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
Macclesfield is know as the “Silk Town” as it was once the worlds biggest producer of finished silk but it is also nicknamed “Treacle Town” The treacle link is believed to come from an incident when a wagon overturned spilling a load of treacle on Hibel Road, the town folk rushed out to scoop the treacle off the cobbled street into jugs and bowls. Another treacle explanation is that mill-owners used to provide barrels of the brown sweet sticky liquid to the unemployed weavers.
I’ve always known the town as “Macc” due to the infamous local punk/rock ban
d The Macc Lads, the self acclaimed " rudest, crudest, lewdest, drunkest band in Christendom",If your unaware of The Macc Lads music, I would describe them as rude, filthy, sexist, homophobic and politically incorrectable, but they do bang out one hell of a cracking tune! Their lyrics mainly involve around pulling crack(women) chips and gravy and drinking lots of beer, particularly Boddingtons Bitter (Boddies) as in one memorable lyric from Barrel’s Round “You've got veins in your bodies but we've got Boddies in our veins, we‘ll out drink anybody then we‘ll go and do it all again”
.
The person responsible for getting me into such a vulgar band was Pete, a lad from Crewe who I met while on holiday in the Costa del Sol in 1989. We, as in ourselves and our female partners at the time stayed in touch, swapping visits between Cheshire and Tyneside over the next four years, before life changing events meant we lost touch with one another.The beauty(or curse)of www. is the possibility to reunite with lost friends and family. So with special thanks to Pete’s ex-wife Anne I was delighted to receive an email on Friday night from Pete, arranging to meet up in Macclesfield for - as The Macc Lads would graciously express it “Give me alcohol, Give me alcohol, Don't want a pie or a cornish pasty, Give us a pint or I'll turn nasty, Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme alcohol”
After catching my train connection from Manchester I arrived in town at 12.45. I headed straight to the GBG recommended Market Green Tavern, before meeting Pete (after a bit of a mix up) in the Society Rooms Wetherspoons pub. It was great to catch up after all these years for a bevvy and hopefully we’ll meet again next time I’m in the north west. Unfortunately there was no “Boddies” to be had, but some great ales in the pubs and especially the Nags Head after the game.
Macclesfield originated from a rugby club in 1874 and began playing in The Combination league at Moss Rose from 1891. The original club went bankrupt in 1897, so Hallfield FC took over the ground, subsequently taking over the town’s name in 1904 and later joined the Lancashire Combination League.Moss Rose first major work came in 1906 with the construction of a timber main stand with cover added on the opposite terrace and a dressing room block situated in the pub corner of the ground.
The Silkmen became founder members of the Cheshire County League in 1919, winning the first of six titles in 1932 with further honours in the League and Senior cup competitions. It was in the Cheshire Senior Cup which produced the grounds biggest attendance of 9,003 on February 4th 1948 for a 2nd Round tie with Winsford United.
The club had the Town suffix added in 1966 and one year earlier the ground’s first floodlights were installed, switched on for a fixture with Northwich Victoria which attracted a crowd of 3,200.
The old grandstand was replaced in 1968 as the club became founder members of the Northern Premier League after winning their final Cheshire League title. The club became inaugural winners of the league, then the following season they retained the title and added another first to the record books, as FA Trophy winners at Wembley in 1970. The club are currently celebrating the 40th anniversary of being the first winners of the competition, honouring which is regarded as The Silkmen’s greatest ever side.
Promotion to the Conference was achieved after winning their third NPL title in 1986-87, but further promotion to the Football League was denied when winning the league in 1994-95 due to ground grading guidelines. The only work undertaking during this period was new offices, changing rooms and in 1988 the grass banking was replaced with terracing behind one goal and around the stand, also a new Social Club was opened in 1990.
Moss Rose was deemed fit for League football only three years earlier after only minor alterations allowed Chester City (RIP) to ground share after vacating Sealand Road, while the Deva Stadium was under construction. However new tighter ground grading rules meant Macc had to wait another two years, after securing a second Conference title, following on from a second successful trip to Wembley the previous year.
Macclesfield Town hosted League Football for the first time with a 2-1 win over Torquay United in August 1997, a season which concluded with instant success as runners-up and promotion to the third tier of English football.
The Silkmen were relegated the following season but have managed to maintain their League Two status, even though it’s been an annual struggle to survive.
In February 2008 Keith Alexander replaced Ian Brightwell as boss until the end of the season, steering the club clear of the drop with four wins and three draws in the nine remaining games and was rewarded with a 2 year contract.
Keith Alexander suffered a double brain aneurysm in 2003 when manager of Lincoln City.On 2nd March 2010 Keith arriving home from the League Two match at Notts County feeling unwell, he collapsed and was taking to Lincoln Hospital where he died shortly afterwards at the age of 53.
The club and team responded positively to such tragic circumstances, winning what would have been Keith’s 100th game in charge at Hereford the following Saturday and have continued to pull together with a string of good results, which is an honour to his memory and which would have made “the gaffer” proud.
This season Town have had a stress free end of the season as far as flirtation with the bottom two is concerned, while opponents Darlington have remained as the strongest club in the Football League (as they hold the rest up…Eddy) staying rock bottom throughout the campaign, but surprisingly relegation was only just officially confirmed in their recent away fixture at Rochdale.
It was the visitors who won the game at a canter in a typical end of season game, a headed goal in each half and even a missed penalty didn’t but a dent on such a confident performance.
Darlington took the lead in the ninth minute, a free kick from the right was headed home by skipper Miller via the underside of the bar.
The best Macc-attack in the first half came just before the break, a Tipton cross was met by a powerful header from Brown who should have done better from close range.
Darlo had a chance to double their lead early in the second half after a soft foul on Mulligan gave Convery a chance from the spot. The penalty taker tried to be clever by trying the old John Aldridge hesitant shuffle trick, but the keeper got down well to save at his left post.
Macc tried in vain the grab an equaliser, the best opportunities falling to Hessey and Sinclair but Darlington sealed their fourth away win out of the last six games when Smith got on the end of a Convery cross the round off a good days work for Darlo.
I agree with the consensus that Moss Rose still has a Non-League feel about it, but that's part of its charm. As you approach the ground from the town via London Road, you can clearly see the spectators at the back of the terrace and in the Main stand.
The Silk FM Stand has 563 red and black seats. The blue frontage roof has MFC in large white letters and the clubs lion crest. The stand has glass wind shields with terracing at each side. In the corner is a police control box with an electric scoreboard perched on top.(which on this occasion wasn’t working)
The Alfred McAlpine Stand was opened in 2001 and has a single tier of 1,550 blue seats with executive boxes running full length. The stand has a suspended TV gantry and the club shop, main offices are situated within the stand.
The Silkmen End is a bit different, a mixture of seats and terrace, five rows of blue seats with the standing area at the back. The reason for the added 486 seats was to bring the ground up to the minimum seating requirement for the Football League, with a total of 2,599 amongst the total capacity of 6,335.
The Star Lane end is a basic open terrace with blue crash barriers. Even though I have no real affection for Darlington, for photography reasons I stood on the away terrace amongst the Darlo fans.
Next season Darlington will be north east derby rivals with my non league team Gateshead in the Conference. The new rivalry seems to have already got underway with Darlo fans chanting “If your going to Gateshead clap your hands” quickly followed by “We hate Geordies and we hate Geordies” Although they did make me laugh after the official attendance of 1,716 was announced responding with “Your grounds too big for you (repeat to fade)” Well I suppose it takes one to know one!
I had an enjoyable day out in Macclesfield, which was made that extra special by meeting up with a long lost friend who I hadn’t clapped eyes on for 18 years. I suppose the only disappointment of the day was the legendary Macc Lads pub ‘The Old Bears Head’ is no more and there was no sign of Hectic House Records on Sunderland Street either. But I’ll leave it to The Macc Lads to sum up my matchday
"The weekend is coming and its time for a bath We're going to sup some Boddies and we'll have a good laugh" (I'll have to stop there, as the rest is unprintable.)
Matchday stats
MTFC 0 DFC 2(Miller 9 Smith 78)
att.1716
Admission £14
Ground no.251 Moss Rose - Matchday Web Album(15 pictures)
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