HIVE STADIUM
Home Of: Barnet F.C.
Ground Opened: 2013
Previous Ground: Underhill Stadium
1907-2013
Other Uses: London Broncos
Rugby League
2014/15
Directions by train
The nearest London Underground station is Canons Park which is on the Jubilee Line. It is around a ten minute walk away from the away end of the stadium (or 15 minutes to the home Main Stand seating). As you come out of the station turn left and at a convenient point crossover to the other side of the road. You will come to some metal railings where there is an entrance to some playing fields which you can walk through to the ground. This also brings you out at the North Terrace End of the stadium which is reserved for away fans.
Hive Stadium
After spending 106 years at their Underhill ground, the Club moved in 2013, to a new purpose stadium at the Hive Complex. The complex which is also home to the Club's training facility, is situated in Edgware, which is just under six miles away from Underhill.
Ground Layout
A WEST (MAIN) STAND
The Main Stand on the West side of the stadium, is like the North Stand, single tiered and covered. It does though have a larger all seated capacity of just under 2,700 fans.
B EAST STAND
On the opposite side is the East Stand. This is currently a rather plain looking affair, as essentially it is an office building that has had its roof extended outwards towards the pitch, and then had six rows of seats installed in front of it, leaving a large back wall exposed of the office building. Oddly the roof doesn't extend the whole length of the stand, meaning that some of these seats are uncovered. The Club do have plans to clad the back wall with club colours and hopefully this will help improve its look. This area has 750 seats, some of which (in the wing area) are not under cover. Both sides of the stadium have small electronic scoreboards mounted at the back.
C SOUTH STAND
At the South End of the ground is a small covered terrace which is only a few rows high and has a capacity of around 800..The Hive Stadium is completed with a set of odd looking floodlights.
D NORTH STAND
The stadium has seen some investment recently with the building of a new stand at the North End of the ground. Replacing a small terrace, the stand was constructed in only four months during the Summer of 2016. The stand is covered, all seated and is of a good size, having a capacity of 1,890. Pleasingly it is of the same height as the Main Stand and has a very similar design. This end is given to away fans.
Today's Opposition GRIMSBY TOWN I have a little bit of a soft spot for this club as they were managed by one of my boyhood heroes Alan Buckley from 1988-94 and again for the last 3 years of the old millennium before returning for a third spell between 2006/08. Buckley is hailed as Grimsby's most successful manager guiding the Mariners to three promotions and two Wembley appearances.
Predominantly a lower league side the Mariners were relegated to the Conference in 2010 becoming a non-league club for the first time in nearly 100 years finally returning to the EFL this season beating Forest Green Rovers 3-1 in the play-off final at wembley in May last year and ending a six year absence.
Grimsby are currently 14th in the table directly above Barnet with a seven point advantage. Although it is still mathematically possible for the Mariners to make the play-offs, at the time of writing, it is highly unlikely with so many teams above them with a better prospect and so it has to be said that neither team has anything to play for this afternoon as both teams are safe with no chance of promotion.
The game got off to a tentative start and looked as though we were going to see two teams play out an end of season stroll in the park but then out of the blue in the 21st minute came a goal from the home side, a long ball from Michael Nelson found John Akinde in the box 14 yards out his looping header found Grimsby keeper James McKeown in no mans land and as a consequence also found the back of the net for his 26th goal of the season.
Two substitutions before half time let everyone know that Russell Slade meant business but 8 minutes after the break it was game, set and match to the Bees, Curtis Weston my Barnet man of the match struck a right foot shot from close range into the bottom left hand corner of the Grimsby net following a set piece to make the three points as good as in the bag.
The Mariners did manage to respond with a consolation 16 minutes from time a corner from Danny Andrew was poorly dealt with by Bees keeper Josh Vickers fell to 2 Grimsby players at the far post who were unmarked one of them being Craig Disley who smashed the ball home from 2 yards.
And so my final match of the season came to an end with the home side winning 3-1 in front of a good and well mannered crowd from both sides, the score didn't matter so much for this was the penultimate game of the season and time to party and there's no doubt that the party theme will be carried on next Saturday when Grimsby play host to Plymouth at Blundell park while Barnet visit Crewe's Gresty road with both teams knowing that they're safe and looking forward to next season in league 2.
Ground Opened: 2013
Previous Ground: Underhill Stadium
1907-2013
Other Uses: London Broncos
Rugby League
2014/15
Directions by train
The nearest London Underground station is Canons Park which is on the Jubilee Line. It is around a ten minute walk away from the away end of the stadium (or 15 minutes to the home Main Stand seating). As you come out of the station turn left and at a convenient point crossover to the other side of the road. You will come to some metal railings where there is an entrance to some playing fields which you can walk through to the ground. This also brings you out at the North Terrace End of the stadium which is reserved for away fans.
Hive Stadium
After spending 106 years at their Underhill ground, the Club moved in 2013, to a new purpose stadium at the Hive Complex. The complex which is also home to the Club's training facility, is situated in Edgware, which is just under six miles away from Underhill.
The Hive Stadium itself is located within a sizeable park/playing fields area, with a London Underground line running behind one side of the ground on a raised embankment. If walking down through the park towards the stadium from the direction of Canons Park Station, then you can see the Arch over Wembley Stadium in the distance.
I've marked this ground at a league 2 standard for although it has two sizeable stands, North and West, the east stand is but a block building with some seats stuck in front pitch side and the South stand is a small covered terrace as you would expect to see in the lowest division.
The ground is new looking, clean and smart, the toilets in the West stand are small but very clean and at a good standard. The only gripe I have with the West stand is that there is only one food bar at the back of the stand in the concourse. The West stand is a large construction and holds a lot of people, one food bar manned by four people is not sufficient to satisfy a vast amount of people. The staff worked very hard to serve as quick as possible but it took me over twenty minutes to get served, I think there should be at least one more food bar on the concourse to cater to demand.
I've marked this ground at a league 2 standard for although it has two sizeable stands, North and West, the east stand is but a block building with some seats stuck in front pitch side and the South stand is a small covered terrace as you would expect to see in the lowest division.
The ground is new looking, clean and smart, the toilets in the West stand are small but very clean and at a good standard. The only gripe I have with the West stand is that there is only one food bar at the back of the stand in the concourse. The West stand is a large construction and holds a lot of people, one food bar manned by four people is not sufficient to satisfy a vast amount of people. The staff worked very hard to serve as quick as possible but it took me over twenty minutes to get served, I think there should be at least one more food bar on the concourse to cater to demand.
Ground Layout
A WEST (MAIN) STAND
The Main Stand on the West side of the stadium, is like the North Stand, single tiered and covered. It does though have a larger all seated capacity of just under 2,700 fans.
B EAST STAND
On the opposite side is the East Stand. This is currently a rather plain looking affair, as essentially it is an office building that has had its roof extended outwards towards the pitch, and then had six rows of seats installed in front of it, leaving a large back wall exposed of the office building. Oddly the roof doesn't extend the whole length of the stand, meaning that some of these seats are uncovered. The Club do have plans to clad the back wall with club colours and hopefully this will help improve its look. This area has 750 seats, some of which (in the wing area) are not under cover. Both sides of the stadium have small electronic scoreboards mounted at the back.
C SOUTH STAND
At the South End of the ground is a small covered terrace which is only a few rows high and has a capacity of around 800..The Hive Stadium is completed with a set of odd looking floodlights.
D NORTH STAND
The stadium has seen some investment recently with the building of a new stand at the North End of the ground. Replacing a small terrace, the stand was constructed in only four months during the Summer of 2016. The stand is covered, all seated and is of a good size, having a capacity of 1,890. Pleasingly it is of the same height as the Main Stand and has a very similar design. This end is given to away fans.
Today's Opposition GRIMSBY TOWN I have a little bit of a soft spot for this club as they were managed by one of my boyhood heroes Alan Buckley from 1988-94 and again for the last 3 years of the old millennium before returning for a third spell between 2006/08. Buckley is hailed as Grimsby's most successful manager guiding the Mariners to three promotions and two Wembley appearances.
Grimsby are currently 14th in the table directly above Barnet with a seven point advantage. Although it is still mathematically possible for the Mariners to make the play-offs, at the time of writing, it is highly unlikely with so many teams above them with a better prospect and so it has to be said that neither team has anything to play for this afternoon as both teams are safe with no chance of promotion.
BARNET ... 3 GRIMSBY TOWN ... 1
From a personal point of view today was all about hair with my Wife going to the hairdressers after dropping me off at the station and me taking a trip to BARNET to visit another ground from the 10 UK leagues on my list. It's no use me visiting the hairdresser I've got to be able to grow some head hair first.
The game got off to a tentative start and looked as though we were going to see two teams play out an end of season stroll in the park but then out of the blue in the 21st minute came a goal from the home side, a long ball from Michael Nelson found John Akinde in the box 14 yards out his looping header found Grimsby keeper James McKeown in no mans land and as a consequence also found the back of the net for his 26th goal of the season.
One nil down but the Grimsby fans were still in party mood doing the conga in their Mexican outfits sported for their last away game of the season while on the pitch it was Barnet players doing the partying with a second goal coming just five minutes before the break and it was number 40 David Tutonda scoring in the 40th minute his one two with Curtis Weston saw the 21 year old ex Cardiff City defender strike a volley from the left side of the box into the back of the Mariners net for his first of the season.
Two substitutions before half time let everyone know that Russell Slade meant business but 8 minutes after the break it was game, set and match to the Bees, Curtis Weston my Barnet man of the match struck a right foot shot from close range into the bottom left hand corner of the Grimsby net following a set piece to make the three points as good as in the bag.
And so my final match of the season came to an end with the home side winning 3-1 in front of a good and well mannered crowd from both sides, the score didn't matter so much for this was the penultimate game of the season and time to party and there's no doubt that the party theme will be carried on next Saturday when Grimsby play host to Plymouth at Blundell park while Barnet visit Crewe's Gresty road with both teams knowing that they're safe and looking forward to next season in league 2.
MATCH DETAILS
