VENUE #39 STOKE CITY The Britannia Stadium

BARCLAYS PREMIER

Stoke City... 1

Norwich City... 0

Saturday 27th April 2013

@ The Britannia Stadium
         Stoke-On-Trent


   
     My last game of this particular season and it's finishing on a high with the Barclays Premiership and a visit to the Britannia stadium home of Stoke City who take on Norwich City this afternoon.
     After all the travelling I have done in the past couple of months it's nice to have a relatively short trip only half hour on the train and a 10 minute bus ride to the ground.  I tried to plan a rout on Google from the train station to the ground but apparently you have to walk along the river Trent pathway for a distance as there are a lot of roads not safe for pedestrians and Google's not the best tool to use for plotting a journey alongside a river.  I wish I had of trusted my navigational instincts and walked as the journey back by bus was horrendous, I waited in a queue of over three bus loads of people and only just made it back to the station in time for my train.
     The game is a relegation battle with both sides needing a win to help secure a place in the Premiership next season.  Stoke went to Loftus road last weekend and came away with a 2-0 victory, Tony Pulis makes one change to the squad that won at QPR, Andy Wilkinson stepping in for Marc Wilson.  Norwich's boss Chris Hughton makes two changes to the side that beat Reading 2-1 at Carrow Road last Saturday, Javier Garrido sit's it out on the bench and Michael Turner is left out of the squad while Steven Whittaker and Alexander Tettey make it onto the pitch.
     The first half was a scrappy affair with both sides having chances to score but making nothing of it.  Robert Snodgrass should have given Norwich the lead early on but hoofed his shot well over the bar when really he should have scored.
     Stoke took the initiative and had a series of corners and free kicks but unfortunately for them they all came to nothing.
     Steven N'zonzi was lucky to escape a red card later in the half when he brought down Kel Kamara which led to a sour patch in the game with several players from both sides receiving yellow cards for some bad challenges.
     Three minutes after the half time break the Stoke fans had something to cheer about when Peter Crouch nodded on a long ball into the path of Charlie Adam who volleyed a shot from 12 yards into the back of the net.
     Adam tried to return the favour a couple of minutes later squaring the ball from the right to Crouch who was free in the middle of the Norwich penalty area but the lanky striker missed kicked the ball and the chance went begging.
     A few minutes later Crouch found Matthew Etherington on the left who slipped a pass to Walters inside the Norwich area, he knocked the ball back to N'zonzi who fired a shot from 25 yards which was parried by Mark Bunn and the ball dropped for Crouch in the six yard area but once again he muffed his lines and sent the ball flying over the bar in an unorthodox manner but this time his blushes were spared as the linesman had his flag up to rule him offside.

Monument to Sir Stanley Matthews

     The Britannia is a 28,383 all seated Stadium opened in 1997 at the cost of £15 million to rehouse Stoke after their old home the Victoria Ground didn't meet up with the standards set by the Taylor report in 1990.  The Victoria had been home to Stoke for 119 years and it's grass was trod by one of England's greatest footballers Sir Stanley Matthews.  Matthews died in February 2000 and his ashes were laid to rest under the centre circle of the Britannia Stadium.
     The ground is made up of four stands although the North stand or Boothen as it's better known joins the Seddon stand and sweeps round half of the ground.  The Seddon is where I watched the game from and is situated on the east side running along the touchline.  Across the other side of the pitch is the West stand which is two tiered and has two sets of executive boxes, top and mid-level.

The Boothen stand

Opposite the Boothen/North end is the South end which is allocated to away fans.
     The ground interior is very new and clean looking as you would expect from such a new build Stadium and as you take your seat and look around you can't help being impressed by the view.
     From the exterior, it stands out from afar as it's perched on a hill with very little to obscure the view but not so easy to get to if you're not travelling by car, my advise to those travelling by train such as I did DON'T TAKE THE BUS, GET A TAXI OR WALK.



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VENUE #38 QUEEN OF THE SOUTH Palmerston Road

IRN-BRU DIVISION
             TWO

Queen of the South... 2
Stranraer... 0

Saturday 13th April 2013

 @ Palmerston Road                   Stadium, Dumfries


     A month after my first visit and I'm back in Dumfries but this time to the actual town and not just the county of Dumfries and Galloway.  There are great scenes here also, walking along the white sands pathway that runs in between the river Nith and Brewery street, it was time to take my camera out again and capture some of this Scottish beauty.
   

Robbie Burns Mausoleum

 Having, once more, a little time I found myself at St. Michael's churchyard to visit the grave and mausoleum of Robbie Burns the ploughman poet and Scotland's favourite son.
     I eventually made my way to Palmerston Park for this afternoon's game between Queen of the South and Stranraer.  I have a bit of a soft spot for Stranraer and toyed with the idea of sitting with their fans but  as this is an adventure of experiencing every league ground in the top ten divisions of the UK excluding Northern Ireland I thought it only right to make it a complete experience and so opted for the home stand.

     Queen of the South's last game was last Sunday when they took on division one league leaders Partick Thistle at the Braidwood Motor Company Stadium, Livingston, in the Ramsden cup final.  The game finished 1-1 after extra time and

Plaque on Robbie Burns house

so went to penalties in which Queens beat Thistle 6-5.  The home side had already secured the league title and so manager Allan Johnston rests five players from that gruelling ordeal of last weekend, Chris Mitchell, Chris Higgins, Marc Fitzpatrick, Stephen McKenna and Derek Lyle and taking their places are Ryan McGuffie, Stephen Black, Kevin Holt, Patrick Slattery and Paul Burns.  Stranraer got a 1-1 draw with East Fife and are five points clear from the second from bottom fifers in the league and are not quite safe from the relegation play off spot yet.
     A sporting gesture from the Stranraer team as Queens came out the tunnel they formed a guard of honour as the division two champions came onto the pitch.
   

Upstream View of river Nith

 It was a very tentative start from both sides Queens finding it hard to find their feet with so many changes to the side from last weekend and a very cautious looking Stranraer as the border side had a 100 per cent record against them so far this season.  But it wasn't long though before Queens took up the pace and started to threaten the Stranraer goal with a 25 yard shot from Patrick Slattery which went wide of the visitors post.  Queens as expected now were taking control of the game and had several chances before their opening goal in the 31st minute, the ball broke for Derek Young inside the blue's penalty area and he slipped a pass through to Kevin Holt who's cross rebounded back to him off a defender and he fired the ball into the back of the net for his very first goal for QotS.

     1-0 at half time and Queens fans could complain that it should be more considering opposition

Downstream View

and the fact that they were starting to dominate the game since the goal and when the second half started things continued in the same vein but queens couldn't seem to break down a dogged Stranraer defence to put this game to bed.  In fact we had to wait until the 76th minute for them to increase their lead, Nicky Clark out paced a Stranraer defender on the left and hit a shot from 12 yards that went in off David Mitchell's near side post.
     And so it finished 2-0, it wasn't a great performance but it didn't need to be they had already won the league and the Ramsden cup which they paraded around the pitch with a lap of honour.

   

Stanraer guard of honour for Queens

 Palmerston Park has a capacity of 7,620 of which just under half of the capacity are seated.  I watched the game from the Dumfries and Galloway Standard stand which to me seemed a bit old and tired and a might uncomfortable.  The stand has a small terraced area in front and straddles the centre circle.
     On the other side of the pitch is the Galloway News stand, this is a fairly new build and runs the full length of the pitch with a small portion to the right as you look at it allocated to away fans.
     Behind the goal to the left of the Dumfries and Galloway Standard stand is the Portland Drive terrace which is a fairly big structure partially covered at the rear.
     At the other end of the ground is the Terregles Street End which is an uncovered terrace that is, at the time of writing, not in use but I am told that it will undergo some repair work and should be open again for next season.
     The club shop is situated outside the ground opposite the turnstiles of the Dumfries and Galloway Standard stand next to the ticket office.  Tickets must be bought for as at Annan money cannot be taken at the turnstiles.

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