Euro 2008 Semi-Final Germany 3 Turkey 2

Poor Turkey, eh? They deserved to beat Germany with their team of reserves, but as is the way with football most of the time, the favourites inevitably came through in the end.

The worst thing about the evening, which forced me to watch it with the sound down for most of the second half, was the smug, arrogant, patronising attitude of the BBC pundits, and to a slightly lesser extent, the commentary team. The way Lineker, Hansen, Shearer and O’Neill talked about Turkey was cringeworthy - haughty, patronising and superior. They were practically laughing at the notion that Turkey could give Germany a game of any sort.

Once again it needed a foreigner to inject some intelligence and realism to the debate, when Marcel Desailly  was interviewed by Stubbsy - he said that it wouldn’t be easy for Germany and to expect a few surprises - the most coherent view of the evening, which turned out to be spot on. I didn’t wait for any of the pundits’ views at the end - no doubt there were no apologies for how dismissive they’d been of Turkey, just more insidious smugness oozing out of my TV.

It was Mark Lawrenson’s constant moaning about Germany’s performance that had me resorting to the mute button, half of it mumbled under his breath (is that man EVER happy?) - why no-one was congratulating a fine performance by Turkey I don’t know. The BBC team seem to be more and more obsessed with the big teams now and seem to regard the smaller clubs with, at best, mirth.

Saying all this, when the pictures went down the BBC Radio commentary was a lot lot better.

I just feel for the Stoke and Hull fans next season. Prepare for 9 long months of derisory laughter and patronising on Match of the Day, no matter where you finish.

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 March 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 March 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 Brightonfor 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 Loftus 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

Staffordshire County Senior League

Map of League Teams in the SCSL - here. 
As I’m starting to run out of grounds close to my home at Step 6 and higher of non-league, I’ve started taking an interest in the Staffordshire League. This is three divisions running from Step seven to step nine. The reason I don’t ordinarily show an interest in Step seven or lower is that there are no FA requirements for grounds below step six. Step six is where a ground must have floodlights, hard standing round the pitch and at least 50 covered seats in one stand and able to accommodate at least 100 fans undercover in the ground. These are just a tiny few of the many requirements step six clubs must meet, and as you go up the pyramid the more rules you must adhere to as well as more seats and a greater capacity. Rules for steps 1-6 can be read here.

So for a lot of Step seven clubs a pitch will do, and in a lot of cases that’s what you get. My interest in grounds lies largely with the stands and floodlights, but even at this level some of the grounds are quite charismatic, despite the bare essentials for playing a football match. Step seven clubs still have regulations to adhere to, but these are set by each league’s governing body. In the case of the Staffordshire County Senior League they require a perimeter bar of sound construction, hard standing on at least one side of the ground and generally adequate facilities for changing and trainers’ boxes etc. Full details can be read here (see 4th post down).

The depth of quality football in England is quite astounding, given the size of the place. With 92 league clubs and a further 800+ at non-league level that require floodlights and proper stadiums, you would think they’d be no space, players or officials left for any other kind of football, but the clubs keep on coming with the number of leagues going up exponentially at step seven, and a good number of teams having respectable stadiums themselves. The Central Midlands League Supreme Division (Step seven) require floodlights for their clubs.

It is a recommendation that grounds in the SCSL have at least one stand capable of holding 100 spectators. However, from the grounds I’ve seen there’s little evidence of this accept for the reserve teams who share their 1st team’s higher spec ground.

Step 6 is quite a big jump in terms of what a team’s ground has to fulfil, which is why there are few promotions across this barrier. The last one from the Staffs CSL to the North West Counties was Eccleshall in 2002. Others that have gone up to Step six and beyond in recent years are Norton Utd (NWC2), Stone Dominoes (NWC2) and Meir KA (MidComb).

In the 2007/08 season there are 17 clubs playing in the top division. There were 18 last year but Hanford folded, Stafford ‘A’ lost their funding and Stone Dominoes Reserves disappeared as Stone Dominoes themselves struggled to stay alive. Congleton Vale and Barlaston came up from the first division. This is another aspect of step seven and below that doesn’t appeal to me - having reserve sides playing. It just seems messy, especially looking at the league tables.

In the SCSL there are five reserve teams at present - Newcastle Town, Alsager Town, Rocester, Norton and Eccleshall. They all play at their first team’s grounds, respectively The Lyme Valley Stadium, Wood Park, Hillsfield, Community Drive and Pershall Park. For pictures of Alsager, Rocester and Norton look in my A-Z list in the right column.

Ashbourne Utd are by a fair distance the furthest out of the teams in the league. They were originally founded in 1954 as Brailsford and have played in the Derbyshire and Central Midlands League. The town is actually in Derbyshire, not Staffordshire, but they share Rocester’s Hillsfield ground, which is slightly nearer. Barlaston AND Stallington share Stone Dominoes’ ground at Yarnfield, but before you worry about the disgusting state of the pitch and kick off clashes, Yarnfields is a big complex with four pitches, each with dugouts and perimeter bars. The Dominoes play on their newly floodlit pitch with 52 seater stand. Stone Old Alleynians, who did play in the Staffs County League but I believe now play in the West Midlands (Regional) League play on pitch one as you go in, Barlaston and Stallington share the use of pitch two and the smaller pitches are used for youth teams, including Port Vale’s. Stone Dominoes Reserves played there last season, too.

One of the pitches at Yarnfields - the one Barlaston and Stallington share.

Barlaston and Stallington are both well-to-do small villages south of Stoke-on-Trent right on the border of the Borough of Stafford, near Stone. Barlaston FC used to be Wedgwood Sports & Social and played in Wedgwood, but changed their name last year. Stallington FC were founded in 1960 and used to play at Stallington Hospital, before moving to the Yarnfields complex.

Congleton Vale played for many years at Back Lane on the outskirts of Congleton, but the facilities there were deemed unsuitable and they are now sharing Sandyford Cricket Club with Goldenhill Wanderers. They are busy trying to improve the facilities at Back Lane with a view to moving back (pardon the pun) in the near future.

This leaves eight teams with their own grounds. Five of these are based in Stoke-on-Trent. Hanley Town, founded 1966, play just outside Hanley (Stoke-on-Trent’s commercial centre) in Bucknall off Abbey Lane, their ground name. They were runners up to Wolstanton Utd last year and champions the year before. They have ambitions to take the club forward in the near future by installing floodlights and making their home fit for step six.

A Wintry Abbey Lane - home of Hanley FC

Abbey Hulton Utd, founded in 1947, are not far up the road going north, in Abbey Hulton - so named after an ancient abbey, the remains of which can still be seen today. Their ground lies just off the main road through the suburb, in Birches Head Road, which I believe is the name of the ground.

Birches Head Road - home of Abbey Hulton Utd

Further north still you get to the Sandyford Cricket Club, the home of Goldenhill Wanderers, founded 1887!. Sandyford and Goldenhill are in the Tunstall area, Tunstall being the northern-most of the six towns.

Going right back down to the south west of the city there are two more. Foley and Florence Colliery. Foley are so named after a district of East Fenton (Fenton being the least known of the six towns, due in large to the classic writer Arnold Bennett and his fictional ‘five towns’. *) Foley were founded in 1947. The area of Foley no longer seems to be marked on maps, but the name lives on in pub names and obviously in the football team. They play off Whitcombe Road further south east from Fenton in Meir.

Their ground is very difficult to get near when they’re not playing. The ground is surrounded by high fencing and looks in a fairly bad state. However, it does have a natural slope on the near side and what may be terracing. There is certainly room enough to make a decent non-league venue, although parking could be a problem. There is also a corrugated stand that may have seats, though no more than about 15 by the size of it.

Foley FC’s Whitcombe Road

Florence Colliery play not far away in the little area known as Florence, next to Dresden! Yes, an eclectic mix of Italianate and German influenced place names near Longton. Actually the colliery, which was first used in 1874, was named after the eldest daughter of the owner, The Duke of Sutherland. The club are the newest in the league, founded in 2001. They play at the Florence Sports & Leisure Centre, just off Lightwood Road. This is a very smart ground. A small stand houses a couple of benches and some seats. The pitch looks in good condition and it has a fine clubhouse and pub attached, providing excellent social facilities.

Florence Sports and Social Centre - home of Florence Colliery FC

This leaves three clubs remaining outside of Stoke-on-Trent. Redgate Clayton and Wolstanton Utd are Newcastle-under-Lyme teams and Ball Haye Green are based in Leek.

Redgate Clayton, founded 1969, play in Clayton, far south of Newcastle. They play at Clayton Community Centre, off Northwood Lane, at a pitch that you can easily get on to at any time. There are no stands, just dugouts and the perimeter bar. However, the pitch looks in good condition and it is a smart venue.

Entrance and Pitch of Redgate Clayton FC

Right at the other end of Newcastle are the current champions Wolstanton Utd , founded 1946, who also look destined to become champions again with their games in hand over Newcastle Reserves and Ball Haye Green. They are named after the area of Newcastle, but the team plays in the neighbouring area of Bradwell at Bradwell Community Centre.

Last up are another solid club who are usually in the top few places, Ball Haye Green. They are the oldest of the SCSL clubs, founded in 1880. They play near Leek town centre at Ball Haye Green Working Men’s Club. They apparently have fine facilities, and like Hanley Town are keen to progress to step six and beyond shortly.

One of the best grounds used in the SCSL that isn’t the ground of a first team higher up the pyramid is the Northwood Stadium, an 8 lane 400m athletics track near the centre of the city, home of the City of Stoke Athletics Club. It has floodlights and a 750 seater covered stand.  Northwood Town of Division One use it. Hanford, who folded at the end of last season, also used it and before then, while Hanford were playing at Tunstall Road, home of Biddulph Victoria, it was used by Fegg Hayes FC, who have since folded themselves. Ground sharing can get very complicated at this level with teams hopping in and out of other’s grounds. In terms of seats and facilities the Northwood Stadium is the best in the League.

The Northwood Stadium - current home of Northwood Town (Div 1) and erstwhile home of Hanford and Fegg Hayes

Ground Summary

Reserve sides shown in red font, Ground sharing teams shown in blue.
Abbey Hulton United - Birches Head Road, Alsager Reserves - Wood Park, Ashbourne United - Hillsfield, Ball Haye Green - Ball Haye Green WMC, Barlaston - Yarnfields, Congleton Vale - Sandyford Cricket Club, Eccleshall - Pershall Park, Florence Colliery - Florence Sports and Leisure Centre, Foley - Whitcombe Road, Goldenhill Wanderers - Sandyford Cricket Club, Hanley Town - Abbey Lane, Newcastle Reserves - Lyme Valley Stadium, Norton FC - Community Drive, Redgate Clayton - Clayton Community Centre, Rocester - Hillsfield, Stallington - Yarnfields, Wolstanton United - Bradwell Community Centre.

Despite the the exponential growth of the web, information on the SCSL is scarce, and it has been a struggle to find detailed information. Even the official site no longer has club information on it. However, some of the clubs do have fine websites, notably Hanley Town’s. Photos of the grounds of the SCSL clubs are perhaps even rarer. I aim to have photos of all clubs shortly. For now I am just missing Eccleshall and Newcastle, but will be attending first team games there soon. Of the others I am just missing pictures of Wolstanton Utd, Goldenhill Wanderers and Ball Haye Green. It would be good to have this page as a bit of a repository for information on the SCSL, so if anyone reading would like to contribute, either with extra information, photos, histories, corrections, updates contact me and I can add bits or make you an official contributor.

 Links

SCSL Photos   Current League Table

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 fe