Ground: Deeside College Stadium
Date: Friday 6th March 2009, 7.30 pm
Competition: Welsh Premier League
Match: Connah’s Quay 2 Airbus UK Broughton 3 HT: 0-3 Att: 215
Additional: Entrance: £6.00 Programme: £1.50 Coffee/Tea £1.00

Deeside College Stadium in pictures

Words may follow later

Sandygate Saturday 3rd January 2009;  Northern Counties East Premier Division;
Hallam 6 Lincoln Moorlands Railway 1 HT: 3-0 Att: 60;

Having picked off a rare new league venue last time out at Morecambe, it was back to grass roots football on Saturday at Hallam FC, whose grass lays claim to the oldest pitch in the world. I was privileged once again to have the company of my Uncle Don and his brother-in-law Cyril, both from Sheffield. They’re enjoying this groundhopping and have already requested a visit to Stocksbridge Park Steels some time soon. Cyril says it is a picturesque one.
It seems incredible to me that 44.6 miles from my house and just 2.9 miles from my Uncle’s house lies the oldest football ground in the world, belonging to the second oldest football club in the world (probably). If Hallam FC were in America there’d be road signs within a 100 mile radius, inviting people to divert off the free-way, for the attraction. Upon which they’d find a souvenir shop, café and some man taking photos of you by the entrance sign. I’m sure it’d be a money maker over there.
With it being over here, though, it lies in typically English understated glory behind a yorkstone wall in the affluent Crosspool area of Sheffield, only advertising itself when one gets up close to the sign.

Sign above entrance to Sandygate

I thought it was solid fact that Hallam were the second oldest football club in the world, after near neighbours Sheffield FC. They were to Sheffield what K2 is to Everest, Buzz Aldrin to Neil Armstrong. It all fitted in well with the first Sheffield Rules derby being played between Sheffield and Hallam at Sandygate in 1861. The proximity made sense, rather than the staggering conicidence of another club forming at the other side of the country at exactly the same time. This being the other claimant to the runners-up spot – Cray Wanderers; who state on their website, with as much unequivocal confidence as Hallam, that they are the second oldest football club.
Hallam give a foundation date of 4th September 1860, while Cray Wanderers is always stated as just 1860. On further probing for an exact date, responses so far have been like the alibis of a jaded felon who no longer cares for details ‘Oh…before Hallam’.
The claim for second place remains frustratingly inconclusive; like in Shrödinger’s experiment where the cat remains in a state of being both dead and alive, until the box is opened, Hallam and Cray both occupy the positions of second and third oldest club until Cray can clarify exactly when in 1860 they were founded. As they haven’t done before now with any certainty, I guess they never will, which in my view concedes second place to Hallam FC, despite Cray having a slight mathematical advantage with a chance of 248/366, with all other things being equal, of being second.
A stronger fact is that Hallam’s ground of Sandygate which they’ve used since their birth in 1860 is the oldest in the world. Though they are still those that would contest this fact; peevish disgruntlement from pedants querulously arguing for currently used pitches, whenceforth fossilised football remains were found

I drove the picturesque route to Sheffield to Uncle Don’s for dinner with him, my Auntie Mary and Cyril. It was good pre-match atmosphere. I was a bit surprised to learn that Cyril had probably been to more grounds than me, as a player and coach. He played for Doncaster Rovers reserves and Nottingham Forest reserves in the fifties before going on to coach New Mills and several teams in the Sheffield area, including Sheffield Wednesday reserves.

The opponents today were Lincoln Moorlands Railway, founded in 1989, and struggling to remain in the Premier division of the Northern Counties East, having just evaded relegation in the first season last year. Hallam are on a three win running streak and look to make it seven unbeaten at home today.

League table before game

Hallam get no bigger gates on account of their history and record breaking; only 60 turning up today, our triumvirate making up exactly 5% of the crowd (or in terms of how much we added exactly1/19th). We did, rather embarrassingly, take away 100% of the prizes though, as Uncle Don won the ‘Get the correct minute of the first goal comp’ with the number 3 which he drew from some rather smart sealed and labelled envelopes before the game; and Cyril won the raffle, winning a bottle of wine. We cleaned up!

The ground was smaller than I anticipated. The main stand is a 240 seater with good elevation and views. Apart from this the only structure was a small covered bit of terrace behind one goal, just spanning roughly a third of one end and rising to three steps at its apex.

Main Stand

A charming feature of the ground was the perimeter bar which is wonderfully crooked, as you can see in the above picture. The crookedness continues all the way round. It’s as if a once straight bar has endured 148 years of subsidence and general wear and has moulded itself into a new skewed position.

The pitch is very uneven and has a slope to rival Clitheroe’s. Looking from the Main Stand those shooting from left to right have an uphill task. The pitch also veers widthways. The other side of the pitch to the main stand is not accessible to fans; one lonely ball boy sits in the middle to collect balls from the cricket pitch. This side abuts Hallam Cricket Club’s ground, which when in use uses the football ground as part of pitch. This cricket pitch, too, has a quite spectacular slope upwards at the far side giving it the impression of a bowl.

Cricket pitch at the far side

On this bitterly cold day Hallam deservedly thrashed a Lincoln MR side, who lacked confidence and despite showing some good attacking flair looked outclassed, with Hallam’s impressive attack tearing them apart on numerous occasions. They could have had ten in the end. Hallam look good enough for a late promotion surge while Lincoln MR will have to improve to avoid the drop.

We sat in the main stand for the first half, then after picking up all the prizes on offer stood on the perishingly cold covered terrace behind the goal. A great game and historic ground, for just a fiver. Well worth the money.

Small terrace behind the goal

Uncle Don (Alexander) and Cyril (Boswell) on the bitterly cold covered terrace

Match Details
Scorers: Patterson 3 Bates 17, 55 Hunter 30 Ward 75, 77 : Garrick 79;
Entrance £5 Programme £1.00 Coffee 1.00p

Ground: Christie Park
Date: Saturday 13th December 2008, 3.00 pm
Competition: League Two
Match: Morecambe 1 Darlington 0 HT: 0-0 Att: 1,873
Howe 66
Additional: Entrance: £13.00 Programme: £3.00 Coffee/Tea £1.00

Christie Park in pictures

Two grounds backwards, two grounds forwards – finishing last season on 76/92 I am now back on 76/92, Rotherham & Morecambe replacing Rotherham and Colchester, if you know what I mean.

It was nice to be going to the game as an away fan, as I was accompanying Tom to watch his beloved Darlo team (they’re just friends now though after this performance). It was an excellent day out and fulfilled all the criteria of a great away day experience except one…the one that is often conspicuous by its absence – a good result.

I met with Tom at noon and he drove the 90 odd miles up to Morecambe which took about an hour and forty five minutes, a good amount of time to build up the atmosphere, get a bit of background on my team for the day and worry about the fixture being called off (as it was at the same time last year, after 22 minutes, in similar meteorological conditions). We drove in by the coast road which gave us a nice winter view of Morecambe Bay under a waning gibbous moon.

We arrived around 2pm which gave us time to sample a delicious Fish & Chip shop just outside the ground. The chips were piping hot and lovely – a good start. Next up was a pub for a pint of real ale which we found a short walk up from the ground in the York Hotel; left out of the chip shop and about 5 minutes up the road. The train station is not too much further up the road for those who like to go by public transport.

It was a free house selling some fine real ales, and adorned with the scarves of football clubs that had played at Christie Park. It was a friendly place with a big screen showing the early Premiership kick-off.

The early view I got of Christie Park showed that it was a fair size for a team that had spent its entire existence in non-league until two seasons ago. Ironically, the good view of the ground was only had because the near long side consisted of an Arc car wash where one would normally expect a stand. You could peer over the low wall at the rest of the ground. Beyond the car wash and dividing wall was a tiny terrace, with a dandy Heath Robsinson style structure housing the TV cameras.

The car wash terrace (That was actually its name)

Morecambe were founded in 1920 and have always played at Christie Park, although it wasn’t originally called that. This season could be the last one to see them play there as they have plans to be playing in a new stadium by the start of next season. Christie Park looked more like a traditional old league ground than those of most league teams, on the other three sides.

Main Stand

The Darlo fans (of which I was an honorary member for the day) stood on the Umbro covered terrace which rises nine steps up and houses what appears to be some kind of press box. Opposite this is the North Stand; a larger terrace where the Shrimps singing contingent stood.

North Stand for home fans seen from away end

Darlington,as Tom almost proudly asserts, have been rubbish since 1883 (10 more than today’s crowd). I couldn’t argue with him on this performance. A lacklustre first half only augured for a goalless draw, but Morecambe came out in the second half with what certainly appeared a greater desire to win. I must’ve got Darlo on a bad day, such is my jinx on teams, as before this they were lying in fourth with a good away record.

Tom was obviously disappointed but, when the cloud of defeat had blown over out towards the Irish Sea ,we could look back on an otherwise great experience of Morecambe. Their traditional ground will be missed if they move, and I will be one step backwards once again in my 92 mission.

Ground: St Georges Lane
Date: Saturday 22nd November 2008, 3.00 pm
Competition: FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round
Match: Worcester City 1 AFC Wimbledon 3 HT: 0-2 Att: 895
Wilding 62 Godfrey 5 Aiteouakrim 41, 68
Additional: Entrance: £10.00 Programme: £2.00 Coffee/Tea £0.80

St Georges Lane in pictures

St Georges Lane, home of Conference South side Worcester City, was a bonus ground for me. It wasn’t one I had earmarked for the next season or two, nor one I’d ever given much thought to before. My Dad was up for the weekend though. He is an AFC Wimbledon fan and they happened to be away at the reasonably local Worcester in the FA Trophy, a mere 70 miles away down Ms 6 and 5. It’s normally me that chooses the obscure non-league venue to go to when he comes up, normally one I’ve been casing for a while; so it was nice to be landed a totally unexpected one – like a rare guest beer in a local pub.

Worcester City have a fine non-league pedigree – they were founded in 1902 and after playing in the Birmingham & District League joined the Southern League and then the Alliance Premier in 1979. They stayed in non-league’s top flight until 1984/5. Due to their location they were moved from Conference North to Conference South this year. Their greatest moment though, was beating Liverpool in the FA Cup, 2-1, in 1959.

AFC Wimbledon’s history is quite well known by now, and they are flying high in the Conference South after promotion via the play-offs last year. They lost to Worcester in the league earlier this season, somewhat surprisingly, 3-2; having been 3 down after about 20 minutes.

St Georges Lane was a bit of a surprise to me. I had envisaged something modernish beforehand but, if you forgive the cliché, entering St George’s Lane was like stepping back in time. I was very surprised to find out afterwards that it is only 53 years old. It is a massive ground for non-league, and I got the sense that since its opening it may have been encroached on somewhat, lessening the capacity. The official capacity is 4,850, but that has got to be the biggest understatement in stadium history. It is easy to imagine their record crowd of 17, 042, against Sheffield Utd in the FA Cup in 1959 (this was the next round game after beating Liverpool), fitting into the stadium. You could fit the 4, 850 just on the side terrace alone and still do a star jump without hitting your neighbour. The bottom part, known as the Shed, has a massive roof on it and certainly looks unchanged since the 50s, when even non-league grounds were huge.

The Shed

There is a big old ornate seated stand opposite with 1,300 seats that reminds me a lot of the stand at Chesterfield’s Saltergate.

Away fans were segregated for this tie – whether that is normal or whether it was just because a large AFC Wimbledon contingent was expected, I don’t know. The Wombles all stood on a tapering terrace known as the canal end, again reminding me a bit of the away end at Saltergate. There were a few hundred Wimbledon fans that made the journey.

Away Section

The other end, the Dressing Room End looked like it was just a flat walkway behind the perimeter bar.

St Georges Lane is fairly central to Worcester, just north of the centre and the train station. Not having researched the pubs beforehand, we stopped at a pub, thinking it was probably the last one before the ground. It was uninspiring and sold no proper real ales. We were disappointed to find a much nicer looking pub right by the ground! Entrance was £10 which is about what I expected but the programme was fiendishly overpriced at £2 – it looked like something from the eighties, a slender bromidic affair entitled ‘City News’.

As I said, St Georges Lane had the air of being unchanged in a good while. One could almost imagine men in long shorts coming out, with Kenneth Wolstenholme on the tannoy in his clipped BBC tones. It did look in a state of disprepair and I have since learned that it may be set for demolition soon, in favour of a 6,000 seater new stadium on the edge of Worcester. It will be a shame in a way, because while St Georges Lane seemed a little too large for Worcester City, and had difficulty generating much atmosphere, it is a great piece of football history and deserves keeping in some respect. The memory of their giant-killing defeat of Liverpool and 17,000 souls packed in to watch a 4th round cup-tie still linger palpably in the rafters of the Shed and in the roof of the main stand, sharing a space with some pigeons now, no doubt, but there nonetheless.

The game wasn’t a classic, but obviously my Dad was pleased with the deserved win for AFC Wimbledon. They looked the better side for much of the match with Worcester unable to show much inspiration for a fight back.

AFC Wimbledon play Uxbridge away in the First Round Proper on 13th December

Ground: Silkmore Lane
Date: Saturday 15th November 2008, 3.00 pm
Competition: Midland Combination Premier
Match: Brocton 0 Loughborough University 1 HT: 0-1 Att: 42
                            Hale 37
Additional: Entrance: £4.00 Concessions £2 Programme: £1.00 Coffee/Tea £0.50

Photos of Silkmore Lane

Brocton is a small district south west of Stafford. The football team were founded in 1937 by an Arthur Mayer, who owned the Chetwynd Arms. The club played in local leagues at the Chetwynd Arms Ground until fairly recently, when promotions have forced them to upgrade their venue.

The Badgers moved to the Rowley Park Stadium in Stafford to meet the requirements for the Staffordshire Senior League (then the Midland League) and then moved again to the Cannock Sports Stadium in 2003-04, as it had the floodlights to enable them to take part in step 6 football in the Midland Combination. This was only available for a year, forcing them to find a groundshare quickly. They have shared with Heath Hayes’ rather charming Coppice Colliery Ground  until this season. (click here for report and pictures of the Brocton Heath Hayes derby new years’ day 2008).

In 2006 Brocton were granted a 30 year lease on the Old Police Sports Ground in Stafford, which were derelict and hadn’t been used by the police in a while. With the help of £50,000 from the Big Lottery fund they started the ball rolling on work to bring the ground up to Step Six standards and it was ready for use for the start of this season.

I took Dylan, my six year old, along with me on his insistence. I think he quickly regretted his eagerness to attend as the weather was grim, a steady fine rain permeating a dull afternoon, and the football was perhaps grimmer.

Slikmore Lane sits on the south side of Stafford and ends at the turnstile to the ground. It is the first ground I’ve ever been to where the car park entrance is also the turnstile, so to speak. You pay for entrance and a programme through your car window before parking up. I mean turnstile metaphorically, as the place where you pay, rather than a huge rotating turnstile that your car bumper turns around!

The reason for this set up becomes apparent when you park as the car park is directly behind the small main stand and the pitch side. It is a bit like a drive-thru stadium. You could watch the game from your car if you wanted. I almost wish I did on account of the weather.

Main Stand with car park behind

 The set up inside the ground was very similar to that at Stone Dominoes, smart but very basic. The main stand held about 110 seats by my reckoning; a nice touch was two reporters seats at the back that had flip down desks for them to write on! They were no other stands, just some smart fibreglass dugouts and level standing behind the perimeter bar.

 The changing rooms, executive suites and snack bar were all housed in green portacabins behind one goal, squelching in the recent rains. Despite this slightly makeshift arrangement, it is testament to Brocton and everyone involved that they have come so far and now have a smart floodlit ground. It always amazes me how such small clubs seem to generate such huge funding and manage to progress.

Portacabins & Dugouts

When I went to see them on New Years Day this year at the Coppice Colliery Ground for the match against their landlords, Heath Hayes, I was made to feel really welcome. I was given a complimentary coffee amongst other niceties. Again the welcome was good; the chairman introduced himself after seeing me with my camera. I was apprehensive at first. At grounds with very small gates I get very self-conscious taking photos and am very aware of the ‘e’s not from round these parts is ‘e looks from the regulars.

I probably don’t help myself much – I know it’s a lot worse if you’re furtive about it, it just makes you look guilty. (I envy those groundhoppers with the confidence to snap away with abandon, bending down with camera, their bottom sticking in some season ticket holders face in order to get the best shot of the away section, without a care). However the chairman jollily enquired of me on seeing me snapping – photos? he enquired simply and then introduced himself and made me feel very welcome, before telling me about the progress the club had made.

Todays visitors were high flying Loughborough University, sitting 2nd in the league to Brocton’s 14th. They are a brand new club, having started this year (though a team representing the university did play in the Leicestershire League between 1966-72) and share their home ground with Loughborough Dynamo.

The game was unfortunately fairly terrible, and to compound this, I missed the only goal by being distracted by the raffle ticket man trying to sell me a ticket.  The apocalyptic film-noir weather did nothing to improve matters. Dylan did very well to last until 4.20 before begging to go home. I was begging him to go home at 4.10.

The new football drive-thru

Ground: The Airfield
Date: Friday 7th November 2008, 7.30 pm
Competition: Welsh Premier Football League
Match: Airbus UK Broughton 2 Bangor City 3 HT: 2-2 Att: circa 200 tbc
McIntosh 27,33 Sharp 14, 41(p) Hoy 72
Additional: Entrance: £6.00 Programme: £1.50 Coffee £0.50 or 20p from machine in toilets.

The Airfield in pictures

There was no dancing in the streets of Airbus last night (Friday) as the Wingmakers spurned the opportunity to cause an upset against 10 man Bangor. This was my first Welsh Premier match, and after a great game at an interesting venue, I feel my addiction to grounds veering West to the Principality. There are nine Welsh Premier teams that I can get to in less than two hours by car, so I’m hoping to slope off after work on a few more Fridays before the season is out!

The history of Welsh football is quite strange and convoluted. The Welsh Premier has only been going since 1992; before that they were unique in having no national league. Historically the best teams in Wales have always played over the border in England – Cardiff and Swansea are both still in the Championship, in the recent past Wrexham and Newport County were also in the league and going back further you have Merthyr Town and Aberdare Athletic. The classic quiz question asks when was the only time the FA Cup wasn’t won by an English team, with Cardiff, 1927, being the answer.

When the League of Wales was set up, it started some lively debate about who should play in it. Some reckoned that all the league clubs playing in England should return to their home country’s league, but the bitterest disputes were between the non-league clubs playing in England and the FAW. The bigger clubs were left alone to play in England, for historical reasons, I supppose; but the FAW tried to drag back the smaller ones to its own league or face consequences. They were known as the ‘irate eight’ – Bangor City, Barry Town, Caernarfon Town, Colwyn Bay, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport County, Newtown and Rhyl.

Bangor, Newtown and Rhyl returned to Wales with the other five forced to play their home games in England! Barry Town played at Worcester and Colwyn Bay had to share with Ellesmere Port and Northwich! In 1995, though, a court ruling decreed that they could come back to Wales and remain in the English non-league pyramid. With Caernarfon and Barry also going back to Wales it left just Newport, Merthyr and Colwyn Bay the remaining Welsh clubs in the English non-league pyramid.

Most League of Wales games only attract crowds of a couple of hundred, and most of the teams are from small towns and villages, but as it is nevertheless the Premier division in Wales the winners get a chance to play in the Champions league with the runners up playing in the UEFA cup! It’s quite an incentive for these village teams to aspire to. TNS have appeared in Europe on a number of occasions despite being a team that hail from the tiny village of Llansanffraid-ym-Mechain, in mid Wales!

Airbus UK Broughton FC (with the Broughton bit having been added this season) were founded in 1946 as a works team, with their name changing over the years in line with the company. Originally Vickers-Armstrong they then took the names de Havillands, Hawker Siddeley, British Aerospace, BAE Systems and then Airbus FC, until this season. Their nickname is the Wingmakers as the factory makes the wings for the Airbus series of planes (or Airbae), before they are delicately transported by road, river and sea to Toulouse in France. They have only been in Wales’s top flight since 2004-05.

As you might guess they play in the village of Broughton in Flintshire, just west of Chester. The ground, called the Airfield, sits within the Airbus complex and due to its proximity to the actual airfield, four of its floodlights are retractable. They fold down like the legs of Thunderbird 2 onto brackets which support them. I believe they are the only ones in the country (and the UK!).

The brackets that the floodlights sit upon when retracted.

The ground lies just off the A55 next to the Broughton retail park. There is a big car park next to the ground, that is free; the ground lying on the edge of all the big factories and workplaces that comprises the Airbus site. They have a main stand that seats about 250 and opposite this is the clubhouse, a big brick building which comprises the dressing rooms and a further 100 covered seats at the front for officials and people connected with the clubs in some way. It also houses the public toilets, which incidentally have a door straight to the dressing rooms. Tom, who accompanied me, said he could smell the deep heat emanating from under the door, when he went!

The Main Stand

The clubhouse with approx. 100 seats in front

In one corner of the ground there are a few portacabins, one of which has the refreshments and an excellent club shop. The club shop sells a vast array of badges from Welsh clubs all the way down the Welsh pyramid, and a sizeable assortment of programmes from all over the uk. There are also numerous club shirts adorning the walls. You could easily spend a good ten minutes browsing there. Tom and I both had a burger and coffee, which while quite good value (£2 and 50p) were absolutely awful. At half time however, we found a vending machine in the toilets, of all places, that did hot drinks for 20p! It’d run out of sugared coffee so I had to go for a tea, which was a huge improvement on the earlier coffee!

Aside from the clubhouse/stand and the main stand the rest of the ground is flat standing behind the perimeter bar, with a grassy knoll of sorts behind one goal.

Grassy knoll on left as Bangor take a penalty

I have often wondered what the quality of football was like in the Welsh Premier and which English division you could compare it to. I was pleasantly surprised. Both teams were very fit and well organised and both played some good football. I would estimate that its standard is at least Conference level and maybe even League Two. (I am told by someone in the know that it is probably comparable to a few divisions lower than this – sort of Northern League (step 3 of non-league) for the better clubs[see comments]. The attendance I would guess at about 200, which was just enough to make a good atmosphere, enhanced by a fair view vociferous Bangor fans. [Attendances would also be comparable to Northern League (Unibond) level].

Bangor made the better start and looked like they were likely winners, but it all went pear shaped for them after Brewerton was sent off in the first 15 minutes, apparently for swearing. It must’ve been a hell of a swear word to get a straight red – not just darn or bloody. It was actually a Bangor player that told us what happened, while he was waiting to take a corner kick. He said in a thick Welsh accent that the ref had told them beforehand that as long as they kept their swearing to a minimum and kept it quiet he would turn a blind eye, but he then goes and sends James off.

The Bangor faithful behind the goal were furious, but only a minute or two later Sharp put them 1-0 up with an overhead bicycle kick from six yards, that the keeper could only parry into the net. It was a goal of incredible skill and uplifted the disgruntled visiting fans for a while. Send another off ref and we’ll score another you f*****! commented one Bangor fan. As the first half wore on Airbus started to take advantage of the extra man and penetrate the Bangor defence. The equaliser was a volley smashed in from close range after a flick-on from a Rory Delap style throw in. They made it 2-1 shortly after, this time a turn and smash from McIntosh into the corner, again from close range.

At this point there looked to be only one winner, but a penalty was awarded to Bangor on 41 minutes to even up the scores again. The second half was nowhere near as exciting as the first and Airbus looked lacklustre when I was expecting an onslaught to punish the man-short Bangor. They really should have made more of their advantage, but were made to pay even more when a cross was only palmed out by their keeper onto the foot of Hoy who volleyed in from close range to score the winner for championship chasing Bangor City. There is no doubt that the Airbus players will be kicking themselves about three points dropped there. Bangor stay fourth with Airbus in fourteenth.

Tonight was a great introduction to Welsh football, with a smart ground, cheap entrance price and good quality football. For the amount of fans present the atmosphere wasn’t bad either. I’m looking at the fixture list for my next Welsh trip!

Links: Welsh Premier website

Ground: Community Drive
Date: Saturday 18th October 2008, 3.00 pm
Competition: North West Counties League Div 1
Match: Norton Utd 3 Holker OB 2 HT: 1-2 Att: 65
Hughes 8 Bamber 18 (pen)
Own goal 59 Southwood 32
Rutter 69
Additional: Entrance: £4.00 Children £2 Programme: £1.00 Hot drinks: Coffee £0.40

I took Dylan, my six year old son, down the road on Saturday to watch our local side, Norton Utd, with a view to maybe supporting them on a regular basis. Community Drive is a great venue, comprising Norton Cricket Club and Football Club and also hosting table tennis. The views are excellent from the high sided grass bank. One has a panorama of part of the city, a view of the old Chatterley Whitfield colliery, and Mow Cop (highest point in staffordshire) in the distance. On one side the pitch is overlooked by Poplar trees making it a really pleasant setting.

Norton had made a good start to the season with their opening home match a six-nil thumping of newly-promoted Manchester side Irlam. Since then their results have been up and down, seeing them resting in mid-table. A win today would really put them back in touch with the top. The visitors, Holker Old Boys, had made the long trip from Barrow. They were residing near the foot of the table.

Norton made a good start to the game, dominating the early play and were rewarded with a eighth minute opener; a close range shot from a cross. Frustratingly they lost the edge somewhat and let Holker back in to it, first with a penalty and then with a sublime lob from twenty yards, chipping the Norton keeper, to go into the break 2-1 up.

Norton showed their passion in the second half and deservedly took all three points, equalising thanks to a massive headed own goal, forced into somewhat from some heavy attacking, and then a beautifully struck 20-yarder that flew into the top corner from Rutter – a goal fit to win any match.

These are a few of the pictures Dylan took. He has quite an eye for a pic! In total he took about 120 photos. Here are some of them.  For the full picture show click here

Ground: Nethermoor Park
Date: Saturday 27th September 2008, 3.00 pm
Competition: FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round
Match: Guiseley 2 Garforth 2 HT: 2-1 Att: 447
Merris 31              Piper 40
Hanson 37           Haywood 80
Additional: Entrance: £7.00 Programme: £1.50 Hot drinks: Coffee £0.80

PHOTOS of Nethermoor Park

Once upon a midday dreary
Whilst I travelled weak and weary
To an FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round match, in Guiseley, in the Yorkshire Moors
Suddenly there came a nagging
Doubt, as of someone gently tapping
Out the message ‘What the hell are you doing this for’
‘I must be insane’ I muttered
Tis only this and nothing more

Quoth the Groundhog ‘Nethermoor!’

In ordinary circumstances I might not have visited Guiseley at any point for the rest of my life, but ITV Yorkshire emailed me, completely out of the blue, to ask if I wanted to be involved in the coverage of this FA Cup match. My first reaction was No way , but my wife actually insisted I take up the offer. Given such an easy excuse to get a new football ground in how could I refuse? However, I was still a little concerned about the TV aspect of it. The groundhog is a creature that doesn’t like to be in the spotlight.

I emailed back to check that they weren’t mistaking me for someone who actually had a readership, and was reassured enough to book a train via Manchester and Leeds, for the fairly local derby against Garforth. I had several Naked Lunch moments on the trains, but was still excited at the prospect of Nethermoor Park, a ground that would have eluded me, otherwise.

Arriving at Guiseley station you come out onto a cobbled terrace street with the familiar yorkstone buildings around. It looked like a quiet effete little town, obviously popular with Leeds commuters. I had a large sausage and chips before walking to the ground, just six or seven minutes walk from the station. It is an impressive setup with five a side pitch, cricket club, bowling club and childrens playground all in the same complex. I was particularly enamoured of Nethermoor Park’s rustly floodlight pylons, rusted to saturation point with none of the original lacquer on show at all. It looked like my kind of olde style ground.

I waited around for ITV to show up, resisting a very strong urge to run away and be on my own for the game. ITV Local were trying out some new things with their coverage, with the idea of community involvement, where the fans become involved in the production, rather than just being the audience. The TV man, who was to film the match, seemed a little vague about what he wanted – the upshot being that I was to have a camcorder for the day to capture any footage that I thought appropriate?!

The best thing about this was getting to climb a ladder onto the roof of one of the terraces, where the official footage of the game was being filmed. The roof seemed quite fragile and I had visions of falling through like that Wolves fan at Scarborough about 20 years back. Getting down onto the ladder was very hairy.

Unfortunately the main stand at Guiseley had been the victim of an arson attack a few weeks back, causing damage to half the stand and likely to cost around £20,000 to repair. You could see the blackened sign on the front and the sheets covering the damaged seats.

The damaged main stand

On this same side was a snack bar and directors’ ‘lounge’, the word lounge to be used in its loosest sense, it being just another portacabin with some bottles of spirits on the table. Both ends were open terracing at just ground level, and the other side had two covered terraces, the slightly bigger one that I stood upon going about seven steps back. The noise levels created quite an atmosphere under both of these terraces.

The two covered terraces

Guiseley were founded in 1903 and have an FA Vase trophy under them from 1991. They are currently flying high, unbeaten in the Unibond Premier, and hoping to consolidate a good FA Cup run by beating local rivals Garforth, who play in a division below the Unibond Premier, the Unibond One South. Garforth have had a colourful last few years, with high ambitions for the club. Founded in 1964, the fourth tier of non league is the highest they’ve climbed in the pyramid. Their chairman of four years, Simon Clifford, has strong connections with Brazilian football and, bizarrely, Socrates played for them on a one month loan deal as player-coach. He came on against Tadcaster Albion at the age of 52! The same season Lee Sharpe also played for them.

Garforth brought quite a following among the 447 crowd, and were quite vocal, too. Despite a promising start they found themselves two down after 37 minutes, and it started to look like a comfortbale victory for the higher placed team. However, a messy goal shortly before half time gave them renewed hope and they payed a blinder in the second half and should really have finished Guiseley off to create one of the round’s shocks of the day. An equaliser came, but a winner eluded them thanks to the post at one point.

It was a cracking cup match, once again highlighting the excitement and quality of football at this level, and the refreshing lack of interest in money, glamour, fame and all all the other things that go to make the boring soap opera of the Premiership and to a lesser extent, the Championship. The rusty floodlight pylons stood proud and erect against the Yorkshire sky as testament to this idea, as if deigning anyone to be shallow enough to criticise them.

Another shot from the roof

Guiseley is a football ground with character and friendly staff. They seem to have a good following, too. I am grateful to ITV Local for inviting me to it; it was an interesting day, but something that I am more than happy to leave to the professionals. It has cleared one thing up form me – watching football is a hobby for me and I am happy for it to stay that way.

The other two bloggers who were there to help out for the day were Luke Beaumont, who writes a general blog: http://www.lukeb3000.blogspot.com/ and Stuart Moss, a lecturer of entertainment management at Leeds Met University, who writes http://entplanet.blogspot.com

From l-r Colin from 1000heads, Stuart Moss - blogger with student - Aidan, Jack Clothier from ITV Local, Luke Beaumont and me.

Ground: Don Valley Stadium
Date: Saturday 20th September 2008, 3.00 pm
Competition: League Two
Match: Rotherham 1 Luton 0 HT: 0-0 Att: 4,095
Rhodes 61
Additional: Entrance: £20.00 Upper Tier £18.00 Lower Programme: £2.50 Hot drinks: Coffee £1.20

PHOTOS of Don Valley Stadium

This match was a meet up of members of Shaun Smith’s 100 Football Grounds club members. Shaun started his blogsite a few years ago now, accumulating fellow groundhoppers from all around the globe who had been to more than 100 football grounds. His membership is now up to 113! Due to the massive logistical nightmare in trying to gather together people from around the world into one place at the same time, and a lot of them cancelling late on, only four of us turned up in the end, but it was a great day, nonetheless.

One of the members, Dan, turned up late, having been unable to ascertain a meeting place due to computer difficulties in the morning. It was only by luck that he bumped into us after the game, and amusingly introduced himself as number 93. It reminded me of the line in the Elvis song Jailhouse Rock ‘Number 47 said to number three, you’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see…let’s rock’ I thought of our own version Number 34 said to number 93, you’re the cutest groundhopper I ever did see, let’s hop!

The group was swelled 50 % by my Uncle Don and his brother in law Cyril, both of Sheffield, who I picked up on the way. Though not members of the 100 grounds club, they were both interested in local football, and accompanied me to Sheffield FC last year.

This season Rotherham are playing at the Don Valley Stadium in next door Sheffield, leaving their traditional Millmoor home because of excessive rent demands by the landlords and general disagreements. They are hoping to use the excellent facilities here until they can either sort out the disagreements or have a community stadium built. This move is on top of starting the season with a 17 point deduction for going into administration. It wasn’t quite as bad as their opponents today, Luton, who started the season on a soul-destroying -30 points, for administration and failing to agree terms with creditors, and and some other reasons…possibly because they are not called West Ham.

Despite the adverse conditions faced by both clubs Rotherham had made a great start to the campaign with three wins in six and Luton hadn’t done too bad with a couple of away wins already. It was a battle of the minus pointers. Rotherham were two wins away from nothingness. Luton were still a long way off and needed nothing less than promotion form to have any chance of avoiding the conference next year.

Uncle Don, Cyril and myself met up with Shaun in the Banker’s Draft in the centre of Sheffield, next to a tram stop, which would give us a tram ride to outside the ground. As well as Shaun, the founder, and me (number 34), Jonathan turned up as well (number 68). It was thus slightly disappointing that Dan was number 93 rather than 102, spoiling what would have been a nice arithmetic progression! It was a good atmosphere in the pub, talking football with a Charlton, Newcastle Sheffield Wednesday and United fan. Although with two contrasting broad accents, Shaun’s geordie and Cyril’s Yorkshire, at times understanding 20% of what was said was good going!

The Don Valley was much bigger, brightly coloured and altogether more European looking than I was expecting. I hadn’t read up on it beforehand, so had it in my head it was going to be a deluxe Withdean Stadium. However, to call it that would be an injustice. Built in 1991 to host the World Student Games, it is a proper Olympic-style stadium with a capacity of 25,000. It is also home to the Sheffield Eagles rugby league club.

The bright yellow poles that are a large feature of the ground and the canvass-looking white sails effects that form the roof reminds one of the Millenium Dome, which is a little unfortunate, as it is a nice design. For Rotherham’s home games only the big main stand is open, which is a two tiered covered structure, as compared to the rest of the ground which is open seating on one low level. The seats utilise space well and the ground space could easily swallow up a further 25,000 if it wished to expand to another tier on all sides.

The main stand with away fans in the two tiered structure in the background behind the 100m finish line and to the left overspill for the impressive Luton following.

Inside, the stadium was very spacious and airy, the views superb. As an athletics ground it was magnificent. Apparently the track is situated five metres below ground level with low seating creating a bowl effect, leading to better viewing and athletic perfomances. A nice touch were two extra tiers of seating at the start and finish of the ‘final straight’ where the 100m would have taken part. Another fine aspect were the floodlights, which looked East European. They were imposing auspicious structures, that are apparently the strongest in the country. They stand 45M above the track and really give the stadium an imposing air.

As a football ground it wasn’t great, as an atmosphere was difficult to create, being so far from the action and in such a large open space. It felt like how I imagine watching football at an Olympics would be like. Two thirds of a stadium unopen and the rest partially filled and quiet on a sunny breezy day with a backdrop of the Olympic City we were in. (In this case Grimethorpe, Wincobank and Tinsley Industrial Estate!

Don Valley and backdrop

The first half was pretty rubbish, but the second made up for it with some good action. Rotherham were deserving winners all in all, but had to win it with an either sublime or freaky 30 yard chip that sailed in to the top corner just above the keeper’s head. It was the type of goal you see on highlights of lower Scottish division games. I’m sure Rhodes said he meant it, though!

It was a good day out and a great stadium to visit with excellent transport links to the ground. Hopefully, it won’t be the last of 100 Football Ground Club meetings. Thanks to Shaun for organising it. Read his account here.

Ground: Lyme Valley Stadium (2nd visit)
Date: Saturday 30th August 2008, 3.00 pm
Competition: FA Cup Preliminary Round
Match:   Newcastle Town 0    Skelmersdale United 1 HT: 0-0 Att: 117
                                                    Houghton 58            
Additional: Entrance: £5.50 Concessions £3 Programme: £1.50 Hot drinks: Coffee £1.00

PHOTOS of Lyme Valley Stadium

Newcastle Town play in the North West Counties Premier division, a league that they have been in since 1991-2. They were only founded nine years previously. They represent the slightly lesser known Newcastle; the Under-Lyme version in Staffordshire that is contiguous to Stoke-on-Trent, and has a population of around 75,000. For many seasons they seem to have finished in the top four of the division, but promotion to the Unibond has so far eluded them.

This wasn’t my first visit to the Lyme Valley Stadium. In July 1998, long before I’d started collecting non-league grounds, Brighton played them in a friendly, winning 3-0. I had also seen them in the First round of the FA Cup in November 1996, losing 2-0 to Notts County. This was played at the Victoria Ground, Stoke. It was their best ever run in the FA Cup.

The Lyme Valley Stadium lies just off the A34 in the Stone direction. It is signposted clearly from this road. Their’s is one for collectors of unusual stadia, in that it has a velodrome round the pitch. Ordinarily, I’m not much for grounds with running tracks around them or any pitch that has large spaces between it and the stands. However, a velodrome curves very steeply at each end and, and this was news to me, it has a reasonable angle on the lengthwise sides, too. The effect of this banking is great elevated views from all parts of the ground. This seems to offset the problem of the large spaces between pitch and ground, even at the ends where the gaps are truly massive!

Behind the goal at the Lyme Valley Stadium

I took my two boys to this game, Dylan, just turned 6 and Louis, 4 (his debut) hoping that some FA Cup ‘magic’ would ignite a passion for watching football. I chose this match for Louis’ debut as the cost would be low enough for me to take them out early should he be pining to go home. I did come prepared with a satchel with some other entertainment in, however, to try to eliminate that possibility. I also knew Newcastle had a high stand which would give them great views and a seat. Dylan had recently had a camera for his birthday so he was excited at the thought of taking snaps of the ground.

There is a fair amount of parking at the stadium, just outside, and should the spaces fill up there is some fairly close by residential parking. A big bonus for those with kids is that there is a playground in front of the ground, just two minutes walk away. I arrived at about 2.15, which I though might be too early, running the risk of them baying to leave before the game had even kicked off!; so they played and wore themselves out for a good half hour beforehand.

Gate prices were £5.50 for adults and £3 for children but the kindly gentleman on the gate let us all in, with a programme thrown in for £10, which I thought was great value. Newcastle’s opponents were Skelmersdale from the Unibond North Division, one step up from them in the pyramid. Skem, as they’re known, finished third last season and have strong ambitions of making the Unibond Premier. They are an ancient club, founded in 1882, exactly a hundred years before their hosts today. They are enjoying recent success, as it was only a couple of years back they were one of Newcastle opponents in the North West Counties League.

We took our seats in the main stand, which is a steep boxy affair, with eight benches up on two sides of a middle aisle. Each bench could comfortably hold ten people, making its capacity 160, with elbow room enough to lift your coffee cup. Despite the benches having no back, they were surprisingly comfortable. To the left of this stand, above the right dugout in the picture, was a slimline stand with roof for staff and VIPs etc, it had 10 seats in it. Around the two sides was a fairly high wall and path. Walking round, the wall was so high, neither of my boys could see the pitch until we had got round the bend to the other straight side where there is a small covered  three step terrace.

View from the Main Stand of one of the ends,

If the football action isn’t up to much, you can watch Newcastle Rugby club, whose ground, with one moth-eaten skeletal terrace, abuts the Lyme Valley. And if you have binoculars to hand, just past the Rubgy Club is Newcastle’s Cricket Club! All three sports were in action simultaneously on this afternoon!

View from behind the goal - Newcastle Rugby & Cricket Clubs

The first half was brilliant from the point of view my boys being entertained. Dylan spent most of it taking some quite brilliant pictures and Louis, while not completely engrossed, was happy to play on the benches. The oranginas I bought them each at the kiosk were cheap, too. As for the football, Newcastle got off to a brilliant start, hitting the underside of the bar once, and making many a mazy run through the Skem defence. This only lasted for about 15 minutes, though, after which the Skem frustrated them with some good possession and got right back into it. There was a very impressive turnout from the Lancashire club – most of those sat down were Skem fans and I reckon maybe half the entire crowd were away fans.

The second half wasn’t great, with Newcastle playing sluggishly throughout. Skelmersdale scored a deserved winner on 57 and held on to it. It was a shame as the promise shown in the first ten minutes just seemed to disappear somewhere, after which Newcastle looked out of sorts. It wasn’t a great debut for Louis, but he did last the 90 minutes and Dylan actually said that he’d loved it, which bears well for the future!

The ground is good, with great views from all around, and has that definite unusual factor with the cycle track. Normally fans stay behind the wall enclosing the pitch, but I think for the tradition pre-season friendlies with Port Vale and Stoke City fans stand on the track, which probably makes for an excellent atmosphere.

Ground: King’s Park (2nd visit)
Date: Wednesday 20th August 2008, 7.45 pm
Competition: FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round Replay
Match:   Meir KA    4    Goodrich    4 AET FT: 3-3 5-4 on pens 2 HT: 1-1 Att: 76
              Wright 25            Hughes 35
              Maszkiel 87        Morgan 65 (Pen),80,97
                               Chin-Shaw 90, 105
Additional: Entrance: £4 Programme: £1 Hot drinks: Coffee 75p Tea 50p

This match is what the FA Cup is all about. It was an absolute classic that had everything you could wish for. End to end drama, a few scuffles, a sending off, a dramatic comeback, an injury time equaliser, extra time and penalties. This is what they mean by the ‘magic’. As one middle aged Meir fan, with a beaming face, said behind the goal that the penalties were being fired into – this is better than taking drugs -and he was right! On a small pitch in the bottom-most tip of Stoke, with about 150 covered seats and a small strip of terracing, two teams were fighting for the chance to progress to the next round of the cup – only 12 more victories and in theory either one of these tiny sides could be at Wembley facing Man Utd or Chelsea.

This wasn’t a new ground, but a chance to support one of my local clubs in the FA Cup. Meir KA had drawn 1-1 at Goodrich, in Wolverhampton on Saturday, setting up this replay.

There’s something about the FA Cup, that at no matter what round, gets everyone a bit more excited than normal and the players a bit more fired up. Tonight’s encounter was no different. Meir, in the yellow and black, got off to an impressive start, almost scoring after a minute, with a player through on goal hitting the post. Meir continued to dominate the first twenty minutes, creating loads of chances and leaving Goodrich in no doubt of their intentions to have it over by half time.

Meir did make their pressure count on 25 when the ball was crossed to the far post where Wright smacked a volley back across goal into the far corner. It was a quality finish. At last their superiority was down on paper. At this level, though, much more so than at league level, a superior spell or even total domination of the opposition for a large period, is by no means a guarantee of a result. Goodrich quietly crept back into it with some neat football of their own and just 10 minutes later had equalised when a fierce shot was only parried by Meir’s keeper to to the onrushing Hughes who belted it in.

The second half saw a Meir less fluent than the first, maybe frustrated at their inability to make the first half more profitable. It was an even tussle until the 65th minute when Goodrich were awarded a penalty and Meir KA had a man sent off. The penalty was saved superbly with the keeper diving down to his right to parry it. He couldn’t quite run out to pick it up before Morgan had pounced again, this time ricocheting off the keeper and in. It was panic stations for Meir now and a hint of desperation came into their play.

The death knell for Meir’s FA Cup run was well and truly struck in the 80th minute with a beautifully struck third for Goodrich. Morgan cut inside on the left just outside the penalty area and banged a rocket in the inside of the net. It was as game over for Meir as you could get. Some fans started walking out. The likeliest final score at this point was either 1-4 or 1-5. However a lifeline was given 10 man Meir in the 87th minute when a well struck cross was bungled over the line by Maszkiel, with a large suspicion of handball. It was a messy one that didn’t even hit the net, but they all count and suddenly there was a bit of hope around King’s Park.

After a few near misses and desperate scrambles the game was deep deep into injury time and it looked like it might not happen. One last chance presented itself with a free kick about 40 yards out. The ball was payed in dead central into Goodrich’s box. The Goodrich keeper made the appalling decision to come out to it…Chin-Saw jumped up before him, heading it in a gentle loop towards the goal. Time stood still for a couple of seconds as the crowd watched the arc of the ball…hit the net. The scenes of jubilation were immense and belied the official attendance of 76 (minus the few who left at 3-1).

Goodrich weren’t beat yet, though and scored a clever goal on 97 to restore their lead. However, it was Chin-Saw again in the last minute of first half extra time who controlled a through ball beautifully before chipping past the Goodrich keeper. Meir had a few chances to win in the second period including a rebound shot that was spectacularly cleared off the line by a flying Goodrich defender. It was Roy of the Rovers edge of you seat stuff.

And so to penalty kicks and you got the feeling that it was going to be Meir’s night, and it was. They banged in all five to get the wild celebrations started.

Meir face Nuneaton Griff from their division (Midland Combinbation step 6) in the next round on 30th August.

The final penalty to take Meir into the next round of the FA Cup

Ground: Pershall Park
Date: Saturday 9th August 2008, 3.00 pm
Competition: North West Counties Division One (first game of new season)
Match:   Eccleshall 3 Rochdale Town 2 HT: 2-1 Att: 94
              Spence 8, 30  Eastham 21 
              Dematto 56    Russell 69 (Pen)
Additional: Entrance £3 Programme £1 Hot drinks Coffee 60p Tea 50p
Pershall Park PHOTOS

Entrance to Pershall Park

It’s the first day of the new season in nearly all leagues, except the Premier. It’s an exciting day for football fans everywhere, after fasting for nearly 3 months! Despite the close season being a desert of football action, I think it is essential to have some time away from the game – it is to the football season what sleep is to the day. It is a necessary break, to build up ones appetite again, to recharge, so by August one is positively salivating for football! 

So I’m well up for today, my last live football being Stoke City’s promotion to the Premier League against Leicester in May. Today’s match is one of a full fixture list in the North West Counties League First Division (which last season was the second – they’ve succumbed to the old Prem and 1st nonsense – tssk).

It is good to see two new teams in the division who have made the big jump up from step 7 – Wigan Robin Park and Irlam. Wigan Robin Park were only founded in 2005 and play in the Robin Park Arena, adjacent to the JJB Stadium. They came up through the Manchester League and are showing a lot of ambition. Irlam, too, came up through the Manchester League – they were founded in 1969 and used to be the Mitchell Shackleton Football Club. It’s good to see fresh faces in the league.

There is another new club, formed this year -  AFC Liverpool; run and owned by fans of Liverpool, disgruntled at Premiership prices and talks of takeovers. I have no problem with this concept, and agree some action needs to be taken against the Premiership; but I find something inextricably annoying about clubs that have done this after Wimbledon. For starters, these new teams always have to share someone else’s ground, in AFC Liverpool’s case, Prescot Cables’ Valerie Park. Whether they end up being the tenants of the ground or not, the fact is that they don’t have their own home and identity. They other thing is – why do they bloody well call themselves AFC _______. Is their some rule I don’t know of that makes it mandatory? It’s excruciatingly boring and messes up A-Z lists of clubs. Soon most lower leagues will have half the clubs starting with the letter A. Why not Liverpool City or Liverpool 2008?! It is so uninspiring.

As I say, this irritation I have with breakaway clubs is difficult to explain. I can’t articulate a proper intelligent argument against. It just irks me. I get the feeling that since AFC Wimbledon took off, there’s a bunch of fans of every league club that are secretly hoping that their club do something to anger them; any old thing that would give them an excuse to flounce off and form an AFC version of their club, starting from scratch. It’s like when you play these football management games on playstation or PC, where you get bored of winning the Premier League all the time, so you start from the beginning again with some terribly minor club, in the conference, to enjoy the glory of all those promotions back up the leagues to the Premiership.

On a similar theme, there have also been two name changes in the first division and another in the ‘Premier’. Blackpool Mechanics, an enigmatic and wonderful name for a football team, that in quieter moments might inspire one to search on Wikipedia for their name derivation, are now AFC Blackpool. Well I hope they didn’t pay the marketing consultant too much money. In the Premier League, ambitious Kirkham & Wesham (a perfectly fine name), promoted last season, are now AFC Fylde! The other club to change their name are Eccleshall’s opponents today. They must be credited, however, for changing to a good solid name – Rochdale Town; from Castleton Gabriels.

Now that they don’t sound like a bunch of choirboys, they may now sing mildly provocative songs such as Will you come to Rochdale Town?  to their opponents. As Castleton Gabriels they had been struggling in the NWC League for a few years and so are hoping a name change and links to the big Rochdale club might improve their performances. They were founded as a church team in 1924 as St Gabriels FC. In 1990 they changed their name to Castleton Gabriels when they joined the NWCL. They finished second bottom last year to Daisy Hill.

The hosts today, Eccleshall FC, finished fourth bottom last term, and they too have struggled in this league, since being the last club to be promoted up from the Staffordshire Senior County League, in 2002. This was following improvements to their ground. They were founded in 1971. Eccleshall is a very well-to-do little Staffordshire town which lies between Stoke and Stafford, out in the sticks. It is the sort of town that regularly wins Britain in Bloom awards. It was actually mentioned on a recent episode of University Challenge, in a question which mentioned its biofuel power station that is fuelled by elephant grass. Paxman pronounced it incorrectly as Eccles Hall, instead of Eccle Shawl.

It really did feel in the middle of nowhere as I drove ten miles through countryside down the A519 from junction 15 of the M6. Pershall Park is actually a way out of town. Driving through the middle of town, coming from the North you take a right down High Street. In about a mile or two you come to the village of Pershall – shortly after the sign you can just make out some floodlights and a right turn. The ground is completely surrounded by fields, so it is potentially easy to miss the turning.

There is parking on the left for officials and players etc, fans being directed down a mud track to more parking behind the goal on grass. The ground is basic but smart, reminding me a bit of Market Drayton Town, a club just a bit further down the A519. It has a wooden fence that encloses it all the way round, just under 6ft high, with gates on each side to retrieve the balls from the trees and fields that lie just beyond on all four sides.

Main stand & clubhouse

View from the covered terrace

The only other structures were the two dugouts, between which was a corrugated iron bus shelter affair with a wooden bench at the back.

Dugouts & small stand

Rochdale Town's penalty for 3-2

An ambition of a lot of English football supporters is to become a member of the 92 Club, the 92 Club comprising of everyone who has visited all 92 grounds currently in the league. However, it has become like painting the Forth Bridge (or at least how painting the Forth Bridge used to be before nano paint technology). In fact, maybe the expression for never finishing a task should be changed to It’s like doing the 92.

When I started counting in the eighties it seemed like an achievable target, albeit at some point in the future; but that was before every club in the land went searching for a new ground, whether they needed one or not. It’s like pouring water into a jug with a hole in the bottom, or playing that kid’s game where you whack creatures with a mallet, only for them to pop up again a short time later. No fewer than 27 current league clubs have had new grounds in the past two decades, that’s about 30% of the league. I’d visited 20 of these club’s old grounds on the way to my target, only for the club to pop back up again, as a miss, on my 92 chart.

I got to the 70 mark about ten years ago and have made hardly any progression since, despite my best efforts at getting to three or four new grounds each year. I have seen Brighton at just on 100 grounds (give or take a couple), and have visited about 110 grounds used in the league at some point, but only have a meagre 92 tally of 76. Shortly that will be 75, thanks to Colchester moving, and then maybe 74 depending on how you view the Bristol Rovers situation.

I actually went to The Memorial Ground for the first time a few weeks back, to see the last ever match there. The tick on my list was in doubt though, come the final whistle, as the Memorial Ground will be bulldozed, only to be rebuilt with less character over the next season or two. 92 Purists would have me visit it again, especially with the pitch turning by 90º, but I’m counting it. In the meantime, if they’re sharing with Cheltenham, then surely it changes to the 91 club? It can get very messy!

Until Scunthorpe had Glanford Park built in 1988 to replace their Old Show Ground, there hadn’t been a new league ground since Vale Park in 1950. Clubs stayed where they were. Nobody even considered the possibility of a new ground. Where you played was where you played, crumbling terrace or no. When Scunthorpe first announced their plans for a new stadium, most people suspected witchcraft. The old traditional grounds were built in the days of true craftsmen and architects. Usually to be found near the train station, in very built up residential areas, where ordinary folk could walk to the game after their Saturday morning shift.

Nowadays, it seems clubs are queueing up to see their homely charming grounds razed to the ground to be replaced by models made to cheap specifications, erected in out of town business parks. It’s a sad reflection of the times. Art, craft and passion don’t come in to it when there’s budgets and cost-effectiveness to think about. If architectural flourishes don’t produce tangible income, they’re not considered nowadays. Functionality is all the rage now, and it shows in all the new builds that look as alike as so many travel taverns.

There’s not only new grounds to contend with either; there’s the two down, two up, from League two and the Conference, which often results in me instantly losing another two due to my poor non-league records. These have improved in recent years, however, largely due to the proliferation of old great league clubs that loiter about in the conference. Actually, I got lucky at the end of this season. When Torquay surprisingly lost 4-1 at home to Exeter the other night, it meant I wasn’t to lose any 92 grounds that way for next season, as I’d already done Aldershot, Burton, Exeter and Cambridge United.

So as far as I know I will only be losing one for next season – Colchester Utd. So will every completed 92 club member in the world. Between May and August there will not be one bona fide 92 club member, as has been the case in these months for the past umpteen years, and looks likely to continue for the forseable future. I will continue to try to get to the hallowed 92 mark, but like Sisyphus’s task, I fear it may be in vain.

When I get to 77 what I really want to do is be able to ’send off’ for the last 15 grounds, like you could the remaining stickers in the Panini football albums. I’ll see what the 92 Club say about that!

Ground: Memorial Stadium
Date: Saturday 26th April 2008 3.00pm
Competition: League One
Result: Bristol Rovers 0 Brighton 2 HT: 0-0 Att: 7,590
                                           Westlake 71, Murray 74
Additional: Entrance £17.00 Programme: £3.50 Hot drinks: £1.00 Cornish Pastie: £2.50 (10/10!)

My Photos

With Leeds having beaten Yeovil 1-0 on the Friday night before, Brighton’s slim hopes of making the play-offs had gone. Due to the expected high volume of away fans, I had already got my ticket. Had I not, I may have been in two minds about going. However, it was the last ever game at the Memorial Stadium, before its complete redevelopment, so I’m glad I finally got to see it. Also, it was nice to be able to see the Albion’s last away game of what I believe has been an excellent season for Dean Wilkins and the squad. I had been without my fine pair of Bristols since the Rovers moved from Bath’s Twerton Park in 1996. In 12 years, like Kenilworth Road that I visited two weeks ago, it was a ground that had managed to elude me.

Conincidentally, the distance between my house and Kenilworth Road and my house and the Memorial Stadium are exactly the same – 131miles. This time I was driving though, after my nightmare train-bus fiasco to Luton which cost a small fortune. My Punto turned out to be much more reliable, although it has developed a road safety conscience of its own, rattling alarmingly at speeds over 70.

In the 1990s my favourite football fact was that Bristol Rovers and Plymouth had spent their entire league existence in divisions two and three. I was disappointed when first Plymouth(94/5) and then Bristol Rovers(00/01) got themselves relegated to the bottom division for the first time, thus killing a cracking quiz question. Although technically, when they went down, it was still division three because the Premiership had re-numbered them.

This was the second Brighton away win I’d seen in two weeks. This was my best viewing form since 1991, when I saw back to back Brighton wins at first Swindon (3-1) and then, coincidentally, Bristol Rovers, the Saturday after, with another 3-1 win. That one was at Twerton Park. This was in my favourite Albion season ever which included 9 away wins, a play-off final, and goals galore. I liked Twerton Park in all its makeshift non-league glory. There was a good atmosphere in the tight away pen behind the goal.

The Memorial Stadium is even better, though. Nestled snugly in amongst terraced houses in Horfield, in the north of Bristol, it has a very traditional feel to it with high floodlight pylons and many different stands. It is the ground of Bristol Rugby club foremost, but the Pirates have shared it for 12 years now. They moved back into their home town after having spent 10 years sharing with Bath City at Twerton Park. Bristol Rovers were founded in 1883 as the Black Arabs. They changed their name to Eastville Rovers and then Bristol Eastville Rovers before finally settling on Bristol Rovers in 1899.

They played at the Eastville Stadium from 1897 to 1986. I’m disappointed at not having gone to the Eastville. I remember seeing it from the M32, just after they stopped playing there, and thinking that it looked like a ground with lots of character. The proximity of this ground to a large gas works is why Rovers fans are more commonly referred to as gasheads than pirates, and the team as just The Gas. Originally it was a derogatory term coined by Bristol City fans, but the Rovers fans took it on in the 80s, and it has stuck to this day.

I parked in Filton Avenue and incidentally, for the first time ever before a football match, got my hair cut! It wasn’t planned, there just happened to be an empty barbers opposite where I parked, after a journey spent looking in the rear view mirror at my huge Melvyn Bragg hair. The barber joked on finding out I supported Brighton that he was going to shave my hair into quarters like the Rovers famous kit!

Walking along the roads near the ground gives you some tantalising views of the stadium. The little bit of corner terracing you can just make out next to the big stand, is the away terrace. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just a case of walking up that road to the turnstile. One had to make a very circuitous route round the ground to find the away entrance. This didn’t turn out too bad, though, as it was a lovely sunny day and there was a great atmosphere outside the ground.

There are two big stands at the Mem, the one next to where us away fans were, which I couldn’t get a good picture of due to the close proximity and one opposite which was a really unusual stand, reminding me more of a cricket pavillion than a football stand.

Two smaller covered stands sat next to this. To the left was a tarpaulin covered seated stand, where an allocation of 290 seats were given to the Albion fans,next to the terrace. A fair-sized behind-the-goal terrace was opposite the other end, where gasheads were packed in, and where most of the home singing came from.

It is a great ground, one of the sort I really like, with disparate structures dotted about round the edge; stands and terraces that have evolved over time into a ground developed all the way round, into a whole that was both interesting architecturally, pleasing to the eye and able to create a good atmosphere. It is such a shame, in a way, that it is soon to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch with the pitch changing aspect by 90 degrees. It will be just another new stadium then; modern, smart, comfortable, great views but without character. At least it will still be nestled among terraced streets and not out of town.

The match turned out good in the end, despite an offensively bad first half, where both teams played awful, with Brighton hoofing it at every opportunity, seemingly to no-one in particular. It really did smack of neither side caring as there was nothing resting on it. But Brighton came out with purpose in the second half and scored two good goals in three minutes to get another deserved three points on the road. A final point is that the Cornish Pasties were to die for. It is very rare indeed that I partake of stadium fodder, but I hadn’t had any lunch so was forced to submit. Even at £2.50,which before eating, made me wince, it was an absolute bargain. Maybe it is the proximity to Cornwall, I don’t know, but it was the best stadium food I’ve ever had.

R.I.P. Memorial Stadium

The Final Whistle

My Photos

Ground: Kenilworth Road
Date: Saturday 12th April 2008 3.00pm
Competition: League One
Result: Luton Town 1 Brighton 2 HT: 0-0 Att: 6,652
             Parkin 49           Westlake 51, Murray 59
Additional: Entrance £21.50 Programme: £3 Hot drinks: £1.50

Kenilworth Road is a ground that has until now eluded me. Virgin trains did their best to keep this tradition up, but I did eventually make it, albeit a tad late. I can’t begin to tell you how much that irks me, to turn up late to a football match. It’s like buying a jigsaw to find there’s pieces missing. Anyway, Luton’s has hitherto been a virgin ground for me, as they managed to avoid being in the same division as Brighton for ages, and when we did finally meet recently, there were always logistical reasons such as evening kick-offs to stop me going.

Luton Town for me evoke some strong images and events; their orange kit, Raddy Antic’s goal at Maine Road in 1983 in the 86th minute to keep Luton up and send hosts Man City down. The pom-pom headed Serbian’s celebration was memorable, but overshadowed by his manager David Pleat’s, at the final whistle. In his grey suit and tan shoes, he gambolled on to the pitch in celebration, waggling his suit jacket up and down a bit with his hands, in a particularly fine display of British ecstasy. His celebration can only be successfully aped by middle aged awkward men, preferably accountants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyAUkaC6nsI - Pleaty and his Antics

Then there is the famous plastic pitch from the 80s, following QPR’s lead. This was very unpopular leading to the obvious taunt of ‘You only win on the plastic’, which as it happens wasn’t without an element of truth. Then there was the banning of away fans for 5 years after the Millwall cup tie, in which Millwall fans ripped seats out of the ground, and threw them on the pitch. The ban and membership scheme led to them being kicked out of the league cup for failing to relax admission rules, and led to Kenilworth Road being the Holy Grail to ‘92 club’ wannabes who weren’t Luton fans!

 The game against Brighton could’ve seen Luton relegated to League Two, helped by the 10 point deduction for going into administrationearlier in the season. And it did. We won 2-1, which kept alive our slim play-off pretensions at the same time as sending the Hatters down. Luton didn’t look as bad as their league position suggested and they took the lead shortly into the second half. However, very un-albion-like, we responded immediately with a header in off the bar from Westlake, and almost as quickly again with another header from a cross, this time by Murray. All this in the space of 10 minutes.

Kenilworth Road, on television, had always looked a bit dodgy to me, with the view being, predominantly, of one whole side devoted entirely to executive boxes. It always looked to me like a conservatory showroom.

From the inside the ground looks amazing! It kind of went from being about 75th best in the league in my mind to top five standard. The TV cameras really don’t do it any justice. It is a very close-to-the-pitch atmospheric ground, and in the context of the whole even the conservatories don’t look too bad. It reminds me a lot of QPR’s Loftus Road.

I love the corner stands that look like they’ve been added some time after the other stands were there. The two-tier gap-filler really adds character to the ground, but one of the great features of Kenilworth Road and surely the deal clincher for anyone on the football ground market, is the entrances for the away fans. The club must’ve bought a few terraces in the street which now comprise the turnstiles. As you go through the turnstiles metal staircases lead up to the ground, giving you a birds eye view of the washing lines in the back yards of all the terrace folk. It is quite surreal.

I hope Luton come back up straight away. I have always liked Luton, despite the away fan ban and the plastic pitch. They have a bigger pedigree than people think (actually, than I think, because I don’t know all people, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever asked anyone about their stance on Luton’s standing in the great scheme of things. I just think of them as always being lower division) - with two spells in the top flight, an FA Cup final appearance in 1959 when they lost 2-1 to Notts Forest and a League Cup in 1988, winning the final 3-2 against Arsenal.

One thing that this match has taught me (for the time being), is forget going green; I’m driving to football matchesfrom now on.

My Photos

Ground: Ashley Travel Stadium
Date: Saturday 8th March 2008, 3.00 pm
Competition: Unibond League Cup Semi-Final
Result: Skelmersdale Utd 2 Gateshead 2 HT: 1-0 Skem won 4-2 on pens Att: 259
Almond 6 Donnelly 113 Armstrong 64, Harwood 92
Additional: Entrance £7 Programme £1.50 Hot drinks £0.60
Ashley Travel Stadium photo album

The script for this league cup semi-final could’ve been written for the Roy of the Rovers comic, albeit the underground version with fighting and swearing, rather than the more traditional one with the speech bubbles coming out of the crowd saying Yessssssss and Come on Skelmersdale, you can do it, boys!

The Skem keeper turned out to be the unlikely hero as he kicked the penalty that put them in the Final against Eastwood Town. This was after having a shouting match with Gateshead fans in the first half and a full-blown fight with one such fan in the second. As it wasn’t a player he mauled, he wasn’t booked by the ref. The police might want to book him, though!

I’d never been to Skelmersdale before. I’d imagined it to be a quaint Lancashire village with a steep and twisting cobbled high street with the smell of fish & chips, lots of poky real ale houses, an unusually high preponderance of cheese shops and a jolly butcher stood outside his shop in a striped apron, shouting about his sausages. I was quite spectacularly wrong.

My doubts about my idyllic Lancashire town first surfaced after posting a question on Tony’s non-league forum about the best Real Ale pub to visit in Skelmersdale. The first two replies (bizarrely,I thought) suggested going to other towns, with the third kind of explaining the first two replies in saying he believed Skelmersdale (or Skem as the locals call it) to be the biggest town in England without a real ale pub! Setting my sights lower I asked again, this time just for a pub anywhere near the ground – the one reply suggested the town of Parbold!

I arrived in Skelmersdale off the M6 and then the M58. I only knew I was entering Skelmersdale because of a sign on the dual carriageway that said ‘Welcome to Skelmersdale’. The dual carriageways continued, interrupted regularly by award-winningly large roundabouts, one of which is known as the half-mile island, and has made a claim to be the biggest in the world. There didn’t seem to be anything else in Skem and I now understood the replies to my question on the forum.

I got to the ground very early to meet one of the Godfathers of the football blog – Shaun Smith, of 100 Football Grounds Club fame. He is a Newcastle Utd fan but also follows Gateshead and was coming with the Heed Army. He texted me to tell me the supporters coach was running late, so I set off again, to find somewhere to get some painkillers for my headache and something to eat. After a few more roundabouts and dual carriageways I stumbled on an Asda. Even better, on the way back I saw a mobile burger fan at a roundabout, a much welcome oasis in a desert. The bacon and sausage butty was good, but standing there on a Saturday afternoon with no sign of life anywhere, it felt like I was in a film-noir depicting a dystopian vision of towns of the future.

Doing a little research it turns out that Skelmersdale, while having a name recorded as far back as 1136 (as Skalmeresedel) and later becoming a small mining town, was designated a new town in 1961, designed to house the overspill from the Liverpool area. There is little evidence of the town it once was.

Skelmersdale Utd were founded in 1882 and were founder members of the Lancashire Combination. Their claim to fame was a trip to Wembley for the FA Amateur Cup final against Enfield which attracted the biggest Wembley crowd for a non-major trophy – 75,000. They drew 0-0 and lost the replay at Maine Road 3-0. They have played in the Northern Premier in the 1970s but travel costs forced them to return to the Lancashire Combination, where they stayed until joining the North West Counties League in 1982.

In recent seasons they have been making progress through the pyramid and now sit atop the Unibond Division One North (step 4), with a chance to gain promotion back to the Unibond Premier. This is only their fourth season in their new ground, which was originally the Westgate Interactive Stadium.

The Stadium lies down a lane, off one of the roundabouts on the ring road, in amongst a very low-density industrial estate, called Stanley. It has a big car park and a very big clubhouse / functions room with a bar and big screen TV. There is just one seated stand down the side, about a 250 seater, nice blue seats in four rows. It was elevated a fair bit and so you got a better than average view of the action.

In front of the clubhouse is a small covered terrace, the perspex cover attached to the clubhouse. This bit of covering was very cosy when packed with heed fans in the pouring rain and proved to provide a good atmosphere. There was a large flat step of uncovered standing a bit further down.

Heed fans behind the goal, including the mascot, the man with the Goat’s Head

The other side and end were one step standing but with plenty of room for expansion if needed, and a nice touch was the steep banks that you could climb up for a better view.

The game was a humdinger of a cup tie and was well worth the £7 entrance. I was an honorary Gateshead fan for the day, joining Shaun Smith and the ‘Heed Army’ for the day. They brought a fair number with them and I’d say comprised about half of the 259 crowd. It was a great atmosphere standing with them, and it seemed like it was a much bigger crowd.

The first half was fairly subdued with Skem taking an early lead, a nice finish from a through ball down the middle exposed a sleepy defence. Gateshead came to life in the second and looked likely to score…which they did, from a firm cross and deft glancing header from Armstrong powering into the side of the net. During this half the Heed Army had moved to the other end, and were giving the Skem keeper stick, which is nothing unusual at football games. What was unusual was that the keeper started shouting back regularly, much to the amazement and, unfortunately for the keeper, delight of the hecklers.

The game ended 1-1, which was a fair result as Skem had a few chances themselves later on, and both sides played good football. In extra-time Gateshead scored to make it 2-1 early on, a near tap-in from Harwood from a low cross. This is when action of a different sort began, as one Heed fan ran onto the pitch, presumably to gloat in front of Skem’s keeper, Ryan McMahon. McMahon took it badly, trying to contort the fan’s face into different positions with his arm round his neck.

The argy bargy was separated and the fan removed from the ground, where he stood on the front of the coach with the doors open, still watching the game above the low ground surround! Skem equalised with a penalty in the second period of extra time, setting up perfectly the ironic ending, that Shaun predicted as soon as the equaliser went in – that McMahon would turn from zero to hero by stopping a few penalties and putting Skelmersdale in the final. The fact that he actually scored the winning penalty was unforeseen and rubbing it in a little for the Heed Army.

Links: Shaun Smith’s account.

Skelmersdale Utd Gateshead FC Unibond League

Ground: London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Stadium
Date: Tuesday 12th February 2008, 7.45 pm
League: League Two
Result: Dagenham & Redbridge 6 Chester City 2 HT: 3-0 Att: 1,328
Strevens 13, 60 Uddin 15 Roberts 51, Murphy 90 (Chester scored 1st)
Rainford 23 Nurse 83 Hall 90
Additional: Entrance £15 Programme £2.50 Hot drinks £1.00

Luckily for me my work were sending me on a two-day conference in London, meaning an overnight stay. When I heard about it, I immediately started looking at the non-league fixtures in the area. I’d found that Northwood and Croydon Athletic were at home on the Tuesday night, but then it occurred to me that this could be an opportunity to pick up another one of the 92. I only had Arsenal’s Emirates, Charlton’s Valley and Dag & Red’s Glyn Hopkin Stadium to visit to complete my London league set.

It turns out I’d miss a Charlton home match by one day but as luck would have it, Dagenham & Redbridge were at home on the Tuesday, so I plumped for that one and, news to me, their newly named The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Stadium – a name so long they needed four separate panels to stick the name on the stand, and used the same sign writers as those that did Llanfairpwyllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Station. Glyn Hopkin now reduced to a website address on a faded advertising board in the ground.

I got back to my hotel, just across from the conference, near Tottenham Court Road tube station, excited at the unusual but fortunate circumstances that would lead me to another ground. Yes, I was eschewing the traditional wiles of the Big Smoke, such as the theatre, the opera, the London Eye, west end musicals, museums and boat trips on the Thames to travel east to Dagenham!; to Dagenham East in fact, on the District Line.

With the Central Line temporarily inaccessible from Tottenham Court Road, I got the Northern Line three stops southbound to Embankment (I love the Underground, especially the maps – I think it’s a nerd thing). I exited at Embankment for something to eat before the game and came out onto a bustling pedestrianised area; but despite an abundance of eateries, cafés, gastro pubs, restaurants and bistros, there, somehow, wasn’t anywhere to just ‘get something to eat’. It reminded me of the line from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner ‘Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink’. I eventually plumped for a fairly self-conscious lasagne in one of the Italians, all the while wondering why on earth I didn’t just find a chip shop in Dagenham?

21 stops along the district line from Embankment, about 50 minutes later, I arrived at Dagenham East. It was comforting coming out of the underground onto a quiet London suburb, with a down to earth look, in contrast to the Central London I’d just come from and its Emperor’s New Clothes. Taking a left out of the station, you walk about 600 yards up the main road and past a parade of shops and come to Victoria Road on your left, which I believe used to be their ground name before the invasion of sponsors.

Dagenham & Redbridge FC is much more than just a marriage of its eponymous clubs; its genealogy is rich and goes back to 1881 with the formation of amateur club Ilford. In 1979 Ilford merged with Leytonstone (1886), to become the imaginatively titled Leytonstone/Ilford. In 1988 the new team took on struggling Walthamstowe Avenue(1900) to become Redbridge Forest. The final confluence was in 1991 when Redbridge Forest merged with Dagenham (1949) to become what they are today -Dagenham & Redbridge. After all that it seems somehow fitting that they have a long team name and extraordinarily long ground name. They must be the most merged club ever.

Chester City were founded in 1885, themselves a merger of Chester Rovers and Old King’s Scholars. They entered the league in 1931 and added City to their name in 1983. I have a particular fondness for Chester as they were kind enough to let me witness my biggest Brighton win – 7-1 at the Deva Stadium; Bobby Zamora, on loan from Bristol Rovers, scoring a hat-trick.

Going in to today’s game league newcomers and Champions of the Conference Dag & Red were struggling in their first season, lying second to bottom and having scored a poultry 24 goals in 30 games. Chester were in lower mid-table, having slumped fairly badly after a flying start to the season. Both teams had better away records than home; as have the majority of teams in League Two – something that is unheard of, this far into the season, in an English division. Theories have been put forward as to this anomaly, the most popular that teams are playing better on the break and home forms unable to penetrate defences playing a safe waiting game. If this is true it seems odd that this hasn’t happened before?!

I liked the ground a lot. It certainly didn’t look out of place in the league. A really nice covered terrace spanned the whole of one side; it went about 10 steps up and had a fairly low sturdy roof which gave it great acoustics.

Opposite was a medium sized covered stand stretching most of the way along, with a smaller stand appended on to it next to the away fans called the Barking College stand.

Behind both goals was shallow terracing. It reminded me a lot of Brentford’s Griffin Park. One thing that was slightly annoying about the evening was the pernicketyness of the stewards in the long terrace. They objected to the flash of my camera before kick-off which I couldn’t understand. They also told me to stand in front of the crush barrier; I thought they were for putting your elbows on. Well it did benefit me in that I figured another way to get night shots on my camera without flashing.

The home end terrace at the end of the match with happy Daggers fans

The game was an absolute classic! The Daggers certainly broke the away tradition of the division. To everybody’s surprise Dag and Red found their form, missing since last May, scoring three goals in quick succession. On 13 minutes Strevens turned and shot in the area, finding the corner; two minutes later Uddin fired in a header from a free kick and on 23 the crowd went berserk as Rainford scored with a powerful header into the top corner, from a throw in. They could have had more in an incredible first half.

In the second half Chester got one back quickly; so the next goal, which was inevitable at one end or the other, was going to be crucial. It was Strevens again who struck next, firing it from an angle into the roof of the net at close range. Goal number five was headed in from a corner, by Nurse. In the last minute Chester got a consolation with a close range header, but there was till time for the Daggers to have the final say went a sublime through ball left Hall one on one with the keeper, and he confidently slotted in number six! In one game they’d scored a quarter of all the goals they’d scored in all their previous 30 matches!

On the way out something happened that gave me the giggles all the way back to Dagenham East. The tannoy announcer gave the night’s attendance out and when he got to One thousand three… the gent next to me in his mid-thirties, pulled a face like he’d been goosed, sucked in breath sharply and winced ‘Faarking Hell’. Yes, it was a low crowd! Hopefully this night’s performance will bring the masses back to Victoria Road.

Links: Dag & Red official site Chester City official site

My Album

L4 Dagenham & Redbridge – London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Stadium

Ground: Surrey Street
Date: Saturday 14th February 2008
League: North West Counties Division 1 (Vodkat)
Result: Glossop North End 4 Atherton Collieries 0 HT: 2-0 Att: 151
  Morris 3, 14
  Hamilton 88 Young 90
Additional: Entrance £5 Programme £1 Hot drinks 60p

Football trivia buffs will know that Glossop is the smallest town in England to have had a top-flight football team. It seems incredible now, but Glossop spent season 1899-1900 amongst England’s elite, and despite beating Aston Villa, Blackburn, Burnley and Nottingham Forest (3-0), it turned out to be their only season, as they finished bottom.

They’d been promoted in their first league season behind Manchester City as Glossop North End, but had dropped North End to become just Glossop FC for their division one campaign. This small club were bankrolled by local born business tycoon, cotton magnate and member of parliament, Samuel Hill-Wood, who was a kind of Roman Abramovich figure of his day. He later went on to Arsenal as did descendants of his after him, to this day.

They recorded their best ever crowd in the FA Cup in the 1913-14 season against their namesakes Preston, of 10, 736. They also reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup in 1908-09, losing to Bristol City. Not bad for a team from a little market town with a population of just over 30,000!

The Glossop of today is quite different. No longer a mill town it is still a prosperous place, that sits among some wonderful scenery. Though not strictly within the peak district boundaries, it is often referred to as the ‘Gateway to the Peak District’, lying on the north west tip(just up from my last hop, New Mills). The football team, who since the glory years, reinstated the suffix North End, play at step five of the non-league pyramid in the North West Counties League, a league which they were founder members of in 1982, and have remained ever since.

The ground is at the end of Surrey Street between  a quiet area of terraced yorkstone houses and a small commercial / industrial park. The picture of the entrance I took (top of page) would have you believe that it is at the end of the world! It is a great ground for views with something different on all sides. All the different panoramas on view were further enhanced by a freakishly bright and beautiful February day.

A moribund old building complete with conspicuous chimney stood loftily behind one goal, it’s smashed windows like eyes watching the pitch, casting a shadow on smaller industrial sheds below and the small covered terrace.

Opposite this building and to its right is what looks like a small industrial estate with little commercial/industrial units dotted about, punctuated behind the other goal by a boxlike KFC. Wild shots often flew over the back of the terrace into it, to be flown back on to the pitch some time after, thankfully not coated in the Colonel’s secret herbs and spices. Moving round from here is a serene and pleasant view of Glossop with a panoramic backdrop of hills in the distance.

The red strip you can see behind is the KFC.

The disparate elements of the surrounding scenery were mirrored in the ground itself, which was a gallimaufry of structures. It is fairly evident when doing a circuit of Surrey Street that all efforts in recent years have been to just keep GNE ticking along, as is the case with so many clubs at this level. This is far from a criticism of the club as I quite like my grounds erring towards the makeshift side.

The main stand in Surrey Street was this ramshackle affair, consisting of two rows of long benches, interrupted suddenly for some random red bucket seating. It holds around 200 fans.

Behind the goal this shot was taken from, is a covered terrace stetching halfway along on the main stand side and next to this is the fair sized clubhouse and bar. By the side of the clubhouse is a small portacabin with a rectangular hatch sawn out, serving refreshments. Down the other side the first thing you come just down from the turnstile down the terrace is a bizarre square of seating. I’ve never come across anything like it before in a ground – a very small wall completely enclosing some stone seats, with a capacity of about 8.

Further down was a very skeletal affair covering of some of the terrace. Like in the game of Jack Straws it looked like if you took a sliver of wood from any part of the structure, the whole thing would collapse.

Behind the other goal was just a path behind the perimeter bar, whose thick white glossy coat was peeling to expose a rusted underneath. There was a building behind this goal, of unspecified use or occupation, that looked like it had just appeared there one day, TARDIS-like, pre-antiquated.

Glossop North End vs Atherton Collieries is about as northern a sounding fixture as you can get! It should be accompanied by Dvorak’s New World Symphony (aka ‘the Hovis advert’). Atherton Collieries are a team founded, unsurprisingly, from miners from six pits around the Atherton district, in 1916 – the Atherton district lying in the metropolitan borough of Wigan. They too were founder members of the NWCL in 1982 and have made steady progress since.

Glossop were lying slightly above Atherton in mid-table before today’s game. The game was bookended by a pair of double strikes. A powerful header into the top corner from a sublime cross made it 1-0 after 3 minutes, and the same bloke, Morris, made it 2-0 after 14 with a deft chip. Glossop never looked in doubt of claiming three points as they played some good football throughout. Balls get lost very easily in Surrey Street and by 3.20 they were already reduced to the yellow balls as the latest one was lost in what looked like a sub-station behind the seated stand, within the ground. It wasn’t until two minutes from time that they added a third – a close slide in from a cross. Their fourth was only the second time ever I have seen a goal scored directly from a corner – and what a view I had of it!

I was stood directly behind the corner flag in front of the exit, as Young hoofed a banana ball over the haplessly advancing Atherton keeper straight into the net. It was a touch of class to finish a great performance from the GNE.

[The story of Glossop's league adventures from 1898/99 - 1914/15 is an interesting one. There is a chapter devoted to it in David Conn's book 'The Beautiful Game?'. As Viz would tell you it is available from all good book shops and most crap ones.]

Links
Glossop NE website
Atherton Collieries website

My Album

NL Glossop North End – Surrey Street

This fixture was something of a non-league curio for the collection, watching away side Heath Hayes playing at their own Coppice Colliery ground; which they share  with today’s opponents Brocton. It

is always a bonus when a ‘hop’ has that extra bit of uniqueness.
Brocton, from just south of Stafford, have been sharing with Heath Hayes for four years.
They moved here in order to make the jump to the Midland Combination, which comprises several divisions starting at step six with the Premier division of which today’s sides are members. The Midland Combination is very Birmingham and West Midland centred, with the odd tentacle extending out to Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire.
To me the league seems to have rarer sounding teams than other step six leagues (such as the North West Counties League). Most of them sound like Sunday League sides – Brereton Social, Continental Star, Loughborough University, Massey Ferguson, Cadbury Athletic!
Brocton hope to be moving back to nearer home for next season as they recently took lease of the derelict Old Police Sports Ground in Stafford, and having secured substantial funding, are in the process of refurbishing it and installing floodlights for next season. So that’s a new venue for hoppers to look out for next year.

Brocton FC were founded in 1937 and have had success in many minor leagues but where they are now is the highest level they have played at. The village of Brocton is tiny with a population of just 1,052 according to the 2001 census.  Their landlords and today’s opponents Heath Hayes were founded in 1965 and moved in 2006 from the West Midlands Regional League Premier division.

The ground is down Newlands Lane in Heath Hayes, just east of Cannock. One enters through a proper non-league car park – mud, gravel and grass with the odd tree for good measure. It was surprisingly full when I arrived at 2.35 and even had a man directing parking.
Next to the welcome sign (see pic above)was a locked agricultural looking gate, with a small opening to the side to walk through, where you are greeted by a very pleasant man sat outside a little structure, taking gate money and issuing programmes. Entry was very cheap at £3, with the programme making it £4. Momentarily distracted, the man gave me the wrong change, but was so pleasant and English about it that it was apparent he would have given me £9 back if I’d asked for it, purely in the name of politeness and etiquette. Good to see these old fashioned values haven’t completely disappeared from the money-ravaged game.
The agricultural gate certainly seemed apt when seeing the pitch, which looked more like a ploughed field, or at best a school pitch after sports day. It was cut up to a wonderful degree bringing back memories of old FA Cup matches such as Hereford V Newcastle, with Ronnie Radford’s shirt riding halfway up his back whilst celebrating and kids with Parka jackets running on the pitch.

Whilst marvelling at the pitch I walked up the urbanised side of the ground to find a coffee. There wasn’t a snack bar in the traditional sense open today, but taking a left after going through the tunnel inside the small main stand brings you to a room where a lovely lady made me a coffee in a proper mug, even asking me how strong I liked it, before spooning the coffee in.

When she and this other bloke wheedled out the fact that I was a groundhopper they said it was on the house! Hospitality indeed – it was like going to your Nan’s house; although I smirked afterwards at getting it free on account of being a groundhopper; that I was somehow to be taken pity on! Poor groundhopper – what they have to go through! They even ‘fixed me up’ with another groundhopper they said they’d met, by calling him back to meet me. I gave them £1 at half time for the second cup which they protested at but I insisted. It was the friendliest and cheapest club I have been to.
There were quite a few in as you’d expect from this fixture. The crowd should have been guessable by adding together both teams’ average crowds and adding on an extra 2 groundhoppers, attracted by the derby atmosphere!

The main side had two covered stands, the first long and narrow housing about 50 seats in two rows,(see above) and the second, the main stand, was a squat affair with 38 seats one side and 18 the other (which would have been 24 but one row was missing). In the middle of this was a tunnel leading off to the tea room and the hospitality room, which was definitely standing room only at half time.

The building in the middle of the picture was the changing rooms, where I incidentally wandered into looking for a coffee. My transgression was met only with amusement at a couple of officials exiting the building.
The rest of the ground, like so many at this level was just one level standing behind the perimeter bar. Surrounding two thirds of the ground were trees and woodland with the side opposite the main stand having a very attractive row of trees with varying heights to produce a curvature. I’m not sure if this is the Coppice spoken of in the grounds name.

Brocton were lying in fifth position before the game with ‘visitors’ Heath Hayes lying in fifteenth. However, the way Heath Hayes started would suggest that their manager sent them to bed before the chimes of Big Ben struck the night before. Anyone would have thought they were the home side as they scored in under a minute and made it two with an absolute belter on eight.

Home side and favourites Brocton were dumbstruck and lumbered around regretting that extra glass of champagne, after Jools Holland’s Hootenanny had finished. They did start getting into it and deservedly got one back. They missed quite a string of chances which would have got them right back in it before Heath Hayes struck again before half time.

They defended their lead very well in the second half in what was a very professional showing and made the most of an absent Brocton defence twice more, to produce the shock of the day in the Midland Combination Premier. The landlords whipped their tenants in a fashion that hasn’t been seen since the days of workhouses.

Behind the other goal.

Photo Album for Brocton here

Links: Brocton FC (blogsite)  Heath Hayes  Midland Combination

While not a true supporter but rather a keen follower of Stoke’s results, I feel duty bound to praise the Potters for a remarkable first half of the season, as it looks like nobody else outside the city is going to!

Most Stoke fans’ hearts sank when it was announced that Pulis was coming back last year, a Pulis whose previous tenure at the club showed his only merchandise to be hard-fought 0-0 and 1-0 scorelines. There was much despair and gnashing of teeth amongst the Stoke faithful. However, Pulis has proved a lot of people wrong by expanding his range of stock to include exciting six goal thrillers, occasional thrashings, dramatic comebacks and a team scoring in every half at the moment and having scored 23 goals in 13 away games.

More remarkable still, is that this is a team with no big names or multi-million pound players; unlike many Championship sides, flailing around in mid-table. This is a side with one of the lowest wage bills and transfer values, but Pulis has instilled in them a belief and team-spirit that is unrivalled in the league at the moment. It is a great advert for football that such a bunch of players is flourishing against teams comprised of whinging over-paid prima donnas.

Perplexingly, the media and other managers and fans have nothing good to say about the Stoke side. Opposing team’s managers can only say ‘Stoke are a big physical side’ and that’s about it. Bryan Robson surely wins the Pot calling the kettle black award 2007 for a laughable comment that watching Stoke was like watching Wimbledon in the eighties. Bryan, keep up, you manage Sheffield Utd now! I guess he can be forgiven his sour grapes as Stoke went 3-0 up in inside 18 minutes at Bramall Lane, comfortably beating the recent Premiership side.

After Stoke beat table topping free-scoring West Brom 3-1, with WBA’s one being a consolation, there was still only talk of Stoke’s big physical presence. No mention of Fuller’s wonder goal, where he picked the ball up on the left side, quite a distance out before effortlessly rounding about £10M of defenders before slotting the ball home – a goal of the season contender surely, if scored by any other side.

I can’t get my head round these repeated accusations of the Potters being a big physical direct side. Well I never! Hold the back page! A direct physical side in the Championship? You are joking! This is the same championship we’re talking about, isn’t it? I’ve watched a considerable amount of Championship football in recent years and this description pretty much described nearly every team I saw. And the last time I looked I don’t think it had changed into a paragon of non-contact football with exquisite passing, the ball never going above head height.

I’ve been struggling to work out why it is Stoke City get no credit for their achievements. It is because, like the City itself, the Potters are bullied. They are the geeky kid at school whom everybody called names and picked on so that they themsleves might feel better. Woe betide anyone who stick up for the kid in case they get tarred with the same brush or considered uncool by association. Stoke are like that bullied kid, and with their current success it is like this kid getting picked for the school football team.

All the other ‘cool’ team-mates look at each other in fear and confusion, not knowing how to act. So they criticise and point out all the faults, because they can’t bear the fact that someone unfashionable might be better than them, that someone unfancied might be daring to enter a place they feel is rightfully theirs.

So this is me sticking up for the Potters. I will gladly risk being uncool by association for sticking up for the small kid whose clothes may not be from some designer outlet. They deserve praise. Pulis deserves praise for showing his is not a one trick pony and has considerable nous in the transfer market. That he has done all this amidst a backdrop of pure hatred from a section of Stoke fans that he is slowly but surely managing to turn around.

That all the media and opposing team managers can think of to criticise is that Stoke are big and physical is quite frankly pathetic, sanctimonious and ultimately hypocritical. It is like accusing a premiership team of being full of foreign players. Well I think it’s brilliant to see them where they are, a team riding high on teamwork and spirit and no lack of skill, on a budget. This is in the true spirit of football and I for one wish them an automatic place in the Premiership – they deserve it.

Stone Dominoes are the southern most members of the North West Counties League, relegated from division one quite spectacularly last year, and now bouncing from their free fall bungee drop about halfway down division two. This is a special season for the Dominoes, though, as it is their first back at their true home near Yarnfield, just North of Stone. For the last four seasons they have shared with their neighbours from up the road, Meir KA, northern most members of the Midland Combination, on account of having no floodlights.

A bit like the other two Step Six clubs in North Staffordshire, Norton Utd (1989) and Meir KA (1972) Stone Dominoes are a relatively recent arrival, founded in 1987. (If you count the dots on the dominoes in the pic they do read 1-9-8-7). Actually the first team only date back to 1995, the club having a strong tradition of youth football, which started at its foundation Founded in 1987 at St. Dominics Catholic Church Scouts Group in Stone, with a team of 8 year olds, by Chairman Bob Bowers, for his youngest son Daniel and his friends from St. Dominics, Stone and St Josephs College in Trent Vale, Stoke on Trent. The name was chosen by the boys, therefore Stone St. Dominics became Stone Dominoes F.C.

Springbank Park is down Yarnfield Lane, a quiet country lane off the busy A34 trunk road. It is west of Stone towards the village of Yarnfield. It is, you could say, in the middle of nowhere, and the site occupies a huge area of land. One enters into capacious gravel car parks and thence through ‘Vinnie’s Gate’ which is the turnstile, which takes you into a whole complex of football pitches.

The close season saw impressive work done of the Springbank Park complex including floodlights, a new covered terrace, and new pitch surround. That was just to the official ground. Refurbishments had obviously been made to the whole complex as you could see from the gleaming red bins and chrome surrounding bars, which were evident round each pitch, as well as dugouts. Three pitches face you length ways to your right as you come in with a cosy clubhouse to the left.

The clubhouse reminds me more of a cricket pavilion, with its covered veranda housing about 10 armchairs amongst other, standard chairs. Inside was where you can buy traditional football food, hot drinks and cans of alcohol.

Coming out of the clubhouse brings you to a junior pitch, much shorter with smaller goals, as shown above. Obviously for the under 11s or similar. You can see the main ground’s floodlights just beyond. From here you take a left, through a newly looking walkway to the main pitch.

It was a miserable day, with relentless rain, fog and bad light forcing me to ring the club to check it was on. Even though I got the all clear the tenacity of the downpour made me wonder if the ground would end up too waterlogged. It wasn’t too bad as it happens and the pitch was billiard table perfect with just a sheen of moisture giving away the recent precipitation.

Today’s visitors were Ashton Town, lying in 14th to Stone’s 11th (out of 18). They are one of two clubs in the dicision from Ashton-in-Makerfield in Wigan, the other being Ashton Athletic, recently promoted from a step seven Manchester league. This Ashton were founded as Makerfield Mill FC in 1953, and were founder members of the NWCL in 1982, just missing one season since, when they had to play in a Manchester league while work was carried out on their ground.

Everything about Springbank Park smacks of newness. It is a one stand ground at present with a new covered terrace spanning the whole length of one side. You can still just about smell the unlacquered wooden beams for the stand and also the uprights for the surrounding bar, whose chrome glistened with water droplets hanging on to its underside. The terrace rises two steps up and has 52 seats in a quartet of 13s bang in the middle. Four suits of seats, like in a pack of cards. Cards? Dominoes? Is this a theme?

Either end has a walkway behind the new perimater bar and then a man-made mudbank. Whether these mudbanks are preparation for more stands or whether they were made to stop the ball being lost so often, I don’t know. A grass bank lies on the other long side, behind the dugouts, roughly the same height as the other two, but this one looks a bit more naturally formed.

This is the dugouts and the long side

Despite the slick pitch the quality of football was excellent early on and I was particularly taken with Stone’s passing movements. Down the left they looked a couple of divisions better than step six. Having read their program notes now I realise that it seems to be a common theme for the Dominoes to play excellent football, but not convert this into goals. It was the same story again today as they should have had Ashton done and dusted by the hour.

However, a blitz in of activity in two minutes completely turned the game to Ashton’s favour after a really soft equaliser. To be fair, Stone opener was also scrappy, but it was nevertheless symbolic of their previous superiority. They did manage to collect a point and missed a sitter on 90 to grab all three, but they will be kicking themselves. The way they played should have them up there with New Mills at the top.

Appendices 

* Coincidentally another small Ashton lays claim to not just one but two non-league teams, again of similar standard. Ashton in East Manchester has Curzon Ashton and Ashton United both in the Unibond.

**Sporting Lisbon’s Estàdio da Luz was so named because it was in an area called Luz, which also just happened to mean light. So Sunderland’s naming of their new stadium seems to me as arbitrary as calling it the Stadium of Hackney. It is like a foreign team naming a stadium the Stadium of Stone (if there was such a venue in Stone), thinking that it is so called because it is made out of stone.

More photos of Springbank Park here

Links: Stone Dominoes  Ashton Town   NWCL