My Matchday - 276 Victoria Road

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Matchday stats

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

att.3,505

Admission £18

Programme £3

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

Northern League Day

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

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

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

The Football Bog Blog

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

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


My Matchday - 275 Vale Park

My Matchday - 275 Vale Park

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

att.5,459
Admission £19.50
Programme £2.50

Football Bog Blog #22

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