VENUE #51 OXFORD UNITED The Kassam Stadium

 SKY BET LEAGUE TWO

Oxford United... 3
Dagenham & Redbridge... 3

Saturday 30th August 2014

@ The Kassam Stadium
            Oxford


     After the events that took place on my last journey by train my Wife asked if she could join me on this venture to Oxford.  My confidence had taken a battering and I was not really up to facing another long period alone on a train and so was glad of her company.  It was a great excuse for her to go shopping and spend lots of cash in an unfamiliar environment, she is also a big fan of the TV programme Lewis and so it gave her a great opportunity to explore some of the places where the series was filmed while I do, what I do at my new venue.
     My game today from the Sky Bet league two takes me to the Kassam Stadium which is five miles from Oxford railway station and so I decided to take a taxi there and back which was a big mistake as it nearly cost me as much as the whole train journey..

Back of the Oxford Mail stand

     Oxford who are currently bottom of league two without a point in their first four matches take on a Dagenham & Redbridge side who are mid-table with six points.  Michael Appleton the U's head coach made three changes to the side that drew 1-1 after extra time only to lose 7-6 on penalties in the capital one cup at the Hawthorns on Tuesday night, Max Crocombe, Danny Rose and Junior Brown make way for George Long, Alex Jakubiak and Alfie Potter.  Wayne Burnett names an unchanged side to the one that beat Mansfield 2-0 at the London borough of Barking and Dagenham Stadium last Saturday.
     The game got off to a lively start with Oxford taking the lead after only three minutes with Alex Jakubiak sliding in to meet Joe Riley's right wing cross .
     After seven minutes it was 1-1 when Jamie Cureton's squared pass found Ashley Hemmings who side footed the ball past Long in the Oxford goal.
     That's how it stayed till half time but it was only the first minute after the break when Dagenham took the lead, Jamie Cureton firing home a Luke Howells pass from 14 yards.
     But this topsy- turvy affair hadn't finished yet for in the 55th minute Tom Newey's cross to the far side of the goal was met by the head of Danny Hylton who steered the ball back across O'Brien in goal for Dagenham and into the net, 2-2.
     Six minutes later and the lead returned to Oxford, Scott Doe brought down Jakubiak in the box and up stepped the home side's man of the match Hylton to strike the spot kick home for his second and the U's third of the afternoon.

View from the car park of the three stands

     You just knew that Dagenham weren't finished yet as for them to go away with nothing out of this game would have been a might unfair and it only took ten minutes for them to level the game once more, after some intense pressure from the Daggers the ball dropped kindly for Abu Ogogo just outside the Oxford 18 yard area and he fired a half volley over the top of George Long, (who was a "long" way off his line), and under the bar to give his team a well earned point.
     The Kassam Stadium is a 12,500 all seated Stadium that was built in 2001 to re-house United after they had to leave their previous home, the Manor ground, which had been their home tie venue for 76 years.
 

Picture from where I was sitting of the open car park end

 It's a wired looking place with three wonderfully sized stands on three sides of the pitch and a wooden fence behind the goal on the West side of the ground that leads directly onto the car park.  There is talk of completing the structure with a fourth stand but needs Oxford to be doing better than the league two status that they currently hold..
     I sat in the South stand to watch the game, it is a two tiered stand fully covered with a row of executive boxes and is rather impressive to look at, although seeing that it's only 13 years old you would have to say that it looks a lot older for it hasn't warn very well, the toilets are an absolute disgrace.

The North stand

     The North stand is single tiered and also fully covered and is where the away supporters watch the games from.  The Dagenham fans were down in the far corner of the stand right by the open car park end, mind, there were only 158 of them.
     At the other end to the car park is the Oxford Mail stand which is single tiered, fully covered and where the noisy, chanting home supporters congregate, they seem to have a competition between themselves to see who can out-sing the other, the right side or the left.
     I hope that after my last experience on the train to Milton Keynes that this sort of day is the norm, both me and my Wife had a lovely time and I'm looking forward to the next venue with renewed passion.

                                                         Match Details

     
         

VENUE #50 MILTON KEYNES DONS The Stadium MK

 SKY BET LEAGUE ONE

Milton Keynes Dons... 4
Gillingham... 2

Saturday 9th August 2014

@ The Stadium MK
      Milton Keynes


     First day of a new season and I'm all pumped up and ready to go for another ten months trekking around the football grounds of the UK.  It's a reasonably short trip down to Milton Keynes the team that took the place of Wimbledon in the football league moving from the tennis capital of Britain 62 miles North to the London overspill town in Buckinghamshire.
     Travelling as I do by train and on the second stage of my journey from Birmingham New street to Rugby, I find my seat and took off my coat as it's a bit on the warm side and place it in the luggage rack above my head and sit down to read the paper.  The train begins to move out of Birmingham and I think to myself, "Oh now we're moving I can go and visit the little boys room", and so i did, forgetting about my coat and , of cause, on my return to my seat I find that my coat had been taken.  I asked people in the carriage if they had seen anything to which the answer was, "no", so in a panic I start to race around trying to find it and it didn't take me long for it was on the floor between my carriage and the next with a drunken youth standing over it.  I questioned the youth about the coat and he said that it was lying there when he came past.  I promptly checked the coat to see if there was anything missing and found that my mobile phone had gone along with a couple of pounds in change.  I asked the youth for my phone back and he said that he hadn't got it and that I could search him and started to turn out his pockets.  Then his drunken girlfriend arrived on the seen and after more confrontation from me she started emptying her pockets and bag but of course they didn't reveal my mobile phone.  I had no proof that these people had anything to do with the crime and so I returned to my seat and reported it to the transport police at Milton Keynes.
     As you can imagine I didn't really fancy carrying on with my journey but was persuaded to by the Virgin train staff.  the train had CCTV cameras and they were confident that the culprit would be caught.
     Like I mentioned at the beginning that this was the first game of a new season and therefore nothing to compare with from previous weeks and so I'll just go straight into the match report.

Picture of outside view of the Stadium MK

     Gillingham took the lead after 7 minutes, Cody McDonald brushing aside the last defender rather too easily to slot the ball past the Dons keeper David Martin.
     It was 2-0 after 29 minutes when again McDonald found himself free in the Dons penalty area but this time Martin brought him down giving the referee no other option but to book him and award a penalty to Gillingham.  Danny Kedwell converted it placing the ball into Martin's right hand corner.
     Then, just one minute before half time MK found an unlikely way back into the game when a cross from the right was fumbled by Gillingham keeper Stuart Nelson and hit the post to rebound and strike Kortney Hause as he tried to make up for his keeper's mistake but the ball ended up in the back of the net which made it 1-2 at the break.
     Nelson's error proved costly for him as manager Peter Taylor substituted him for Glenn Morris at half time and as the game restarted MK Dons looked like a new team, it seemed as though the goal had sparked life into them, (or the manager's half time team talk), and in a five minute spell starting in the 68th minute they turned the game around with three goals, the first from Will Grigg when he headed home a cross from Danny Green, then Green supplied again in the 70th minute for McFadzean this time who looped his header over the stranded Gillingham keeper and the rout was complete in the 73rd minute when a Danny Green set-piece was deflected into his own net by Leon Legge which meant that Gillingham were now losing 4-2 but had scored four of the goals.

The North Stand for Away Supporters

     The Stadium MK looks very impressive from a distance a big black, rounded structure that made you think you were approaching the ground of a Premier club and then you get a little closer to it and it looks like it's been dumped on some wasteland near Asda and Ikea.
     The interior again looks fantastic, it's vast with black seats, (not very comfortable), apart from the white ones that spell out MK Dons in the Stand where I was sitting which was the East.  It has two tiers and between those tiers is an area filled with food outlets and toilets which are the best I've seen at a football ground yet.
     There was 7,595 at the ground on Saturday and yet the place looked empty, it's a 30,500 all seated Stadium built in 2007 for a bigger status team than the one that is currently playing in league one of the English football league.

     Going back to the incident on the train, when I arrived home my Wife informed me that the person who had stole my phone had took pictures of herself and tried to post them on her Facebook account using my phone but these pictures ended up on my account because my phone is logged into my account.  It was the picture of the girlfriend of the drunken youth that was standing over my coat in between the train carriages.  She was wearing a hat with the word DOPE on it, well, she got that one right.

                                                                       Match Details

   

VENUE #49 LUTON TOWN Kenilworth Road

SKRILL PREMIER

Luton Town... 2
Braintree Town... 3

Saturday 12th April 2014

@ Kenilworth Road                   Stadium, Luton


     Had a near disaster on the way to the game today, my train left Birmingham New Street from platform 7, the problem being so did two other trains and the train to Stansted, which was the one I had to catch was supposed to be the one in the middle but as I arrived on the platform there were only two trains there.  I looked at the electronic boards on the platform and the one by the first train said Stansted Airport and the board by the train at the bottom of the platform said Hereford and so I got on the Stansted one.  There was lots of confusion as people kept coming aboard the train and asking where it was going and I told them Stansted , to my knowledge.  This one chap came on  though and said is this the train to Hereford and I said no, I believe that train is at the bottom of the platform and so he took off.  He came back five minutes later and got in the same carriage to find me and said, "This is the Hereford train mate the Stansted one is down there".  I looked at the time and I had one minute to race down to the bottom train before it left the station and as I rose to leave the Hereford train so did a number of other people and we all made for the door.  Seeing I was the oldest out of all of them, and some were quite a lot younger than me I still managed to beat them all to the Stansted train which was about five minutes late leaving the station anyway.

Oak Road with gate entrances built between houses

     Going into this game Luton only need three more points to be promoted to Sky Bet league two.  Braintree on the other hand are hoping to get one of the play-off places.  Luton are ten points clear of second place Cambridge United so just one more win or a defeat for the U's will take them up.
     Luton make two changes to the starting line up that beat Tamworth 2-0 here at Kenilworth road on Tuesday night, Alex Lawless takes the place of Luke Rooney and Mark Cullen is in for Andre Gray.  Braintree make one change to the side that lost at home to Macclesfield 1-0 in mid-week, Ryan Peters in for Kenny Davis.
     The Brains are considered a bit of a bogey side by Town winning three of the previous five meetings between the clubs and they started this game as though they were going to keep their reputation.  With only sixteen minutes on the clock Dean Wells rose to meet a Daniel Sparkes cross from the left to head Braintree in front.  Five minutes later it was 2-0 when Bret Holman crossed also from the left hand side to find James Mulley who pushed the ball beyond Mark Tyler in goal for Luton and into the back of the net.
     But in the 30th minute Braintree's luck changed when Paul Benson rounded the Iron's keeper to be left with an open goal only to be scythed down by the keeper Nik Hamman.  The referee produced a straight red card even though there was a Braintree defender level with Benson at the time.  The Brains striker Dan Holman was made the sacrificial lamb being brought off for Nathan McDonald to replace the unfortunate Hamman in goal  The free kick was hit straight at the wall and came to nothing.

Main Stand entrance

     Although Luton were two down and didn't have a shot on target until the 44th minute when Matt Robinson's volley brought a comfortable save from the Iron's substitute keeper, as they left the pitch for the half time break the ten thousand plus crowd, their biggest for twenty years all stood up and applauded whilst cheering them off the field.
     After the break it seemed like Luton might get back into the game as they pushed forward and piled on the pressure to ten man Braintree and came very close to reducing the deficit in the 50th minute when Paul Benson latched on to a Matt Robinson cross but his shot was pushed onto the bar by McDonald.
     Six minutes later and things got considerably worse for the Hatters getting caught on the counter attack as they pressed forward and left themselves exposed at the back when a long ball found Chez Isaac one on one with Tyler and the Iron's midfielder slotted the ball home for Braintree's third.
   

Pillar obscuring view of Kenilworth road goal

      Luton manager John Still looked to the bench for the answer and brought on Alex Wall for Luke Rooney who himself came on for the injured Alex Lawless in the 13th minute and Pelly Ruddock came on for Cameron McGeehan and it worked, two minutes after the switch Ryan Peters handled the ball in his own penalty area and Jake Howells spot kick sent the keeper the wrong way.  Two minutes later and it was 2-3 when Howells raced on to the ball losing control but managing to find substitute Wall who saw the keeper off his line and lobbed the ball over him and into the net.
     Town had several good chances afterwards one of them hitting the post again with a shot by Cullen as Wall broke through the Braintree defence to set him up.
     In the later stages Luton started to run out of steam and although the fans were electric with their support they couldn't lift Luton enough to get anything out of the game.

     Kenilworth road is a 10,226 all seated stadium but from what I could see they desperately need re-housing.  It's as though someone has dropped a football ground at the end of a terraced housing estate and sort of intermingled it amongst the houses.  Oak Road as ground entrances built in between houses and it looks very strange indeed.

Players changing ends for kick off

     I watched the game from the main stand, the seats are old and uncomfortable and if you're taller than 5 foot 6  then you're going to have your knees stuck up under your chin for the course of the game, I was lucky, I asked for a aisle seat and sat with my legs sticking out in the aisle.  The view from the stand is not good for there are several pillars which obscure your vision pending on where you sit and where I was sitting the Kenilworth road goal was blocked by one of these pillars.
     Across the field from the main stand is the executive area which is filled with executive boxes and has netting above it to stop the ball going over and into the gardens of the houses.
     Behind the goal to the right of the main stand is the Kenilworth Road stand and is for home supporters usually but if the opposing team have a vast fan base then it has been known to be used for away fans.  At the other end is Oak road and this is the usual away fans stand, well, to the right of the goal as you look at it.

                                                         Match Details

   
   
     

VENUE #48 BURTON ALBION The Pirelli Stadium

SKY BET LEAGUE TWO

Burton Albion... 1

Plymouth Argyle... 0

Saturday 5th April 2014

@ The Pirelli Stadium

       Burton-On-Trent

     My son Ross picked out Burton's Pirelli ground for a visit last season but I'd already been to see a league two game and so decided to go the short distance into Derbyshire this time around.  They have there advantages these short trips, not costing much money is one and being home for half past six is another.

   

Front of the main stand

 It's a fare old walk to the ground from the railway station, a good twenty five minutes give or take a couple.  I passed a few pubs on route and was very tempted to pop in and try some of the famous Burton ale everyone raves about but resisted the temptation like a good little boy, I'm sure the Wife will be pleased to hear.  A female motorist pulled over and called to me as I was hurtling along my merry way, I out-stretched my arms in a manner to suggest that it's no use asking me directions as I'm new to this area also, but then she said, "Do you know the way to the railway station?" and I said, "Ah yes, I've just come from there", but whether she understood my directions of not is another thing, she did look more bewildered than before she asked me, poor sole.

Players lining up before shaking hands

     Burton go into this game lying in 5th place in the league table and looking to consolidate their play-off place with a win today.  Manager Gary Rowett makes two changes to the side that took a goalless point from York City last weekend, Jimmy Phillips steps in for Phil Edwards and Gary Alexander partners Billy Kee up front instead of Adam McGurk.

     This is Plymouth's first game in eleven days when they were defeated 2-1 at Home park by near neighbours and relegation strugglers Exeter City and that makes it three games without a win now for the Pilgrims.  Argyle are currently 9th in league two and desperately need a win today to keep any hopes alive of reaching the play-off's.  John Sheridan makes three changes to his team, Paul Wotton, Matthew Parsons and Tope Obadeyi who returned to Bury after his loan spell ended, are replaced by Durrell Berry, Ben Purrington and Enoch Showumni who makes his debut after being loaned out by Notts County for the rest of the season.

     It was a tentative start and Burton seemed obsessed with keeping the ball in the air and playing to Argyle's strengths as the Devonshire side have a number of tall players but they did get their act together after ten minutes and started to keep the ball on the floor and play some wonderful football especially in the midfield.  They almost made it pay when a shot on the turn by Billy Kee was tipped onto the top of the net by the Argyle keeper Jake Cole. 

     Cole was busy again minutes later when he finger tipped a fierce shot from Jimmy Phillips onto the post and stopped an almost certain opening goal for the home side.  Burton were starting to dominate while Plymouth were showing cracks in their armour and it was defensive frailties of the Pilgrims that gave the Brewers the opportunity to score the goal, Neal Trotman made a pass to Luke Young but the Argyle midfielder fell over and the ball was pounced upon by Matty Palmer who's shot was blocked by Trotman but rebounded outside the Argyle penalty area to Callum McFadzean to drill past Cole into the bottom corner in the 27th minute.

      Six minutes later and it was nearly 2-0 when Trotman committed a foul about 30 yards outside the Argyle penalty area and the free kick was blasted goalwards by Damien McCrory but the ball was pushed onto the bar by the busy Jake Cole who also denied Cole in the dying minutes of the half.

     In the second half Burton sat back and defended their narrow 1-0 lead, Plymouth came close a few times to levelling the game but couldn't find that golden final touch that was needed.  It's no wonder that Burton have won 1-0 so many times this season, they must have rode their luck on many occasions.

West stand.  Part of the concrete shell

     The Pirelli Stadium as a 6,912 capacity with just over 2,000 seated.  It was built in 2005 to replace their Eton Park ground which had been their home for 47 years.  The main stand looks quite impressive and is where I watched the game from, with it's black coloured plastic seats with some painted yellow to form the words Burton Albion, it looks clean and new as you would expect from a ground that's only nine years old.  The other parts of the ground are covered terracing that looks a bit like a plain concrete shell.  There is the Popular terrace that is opposite the main stand and the two ends behind the goal are the West and the East terraces.  The East terrace is to the left of the main stand as you look at it and houses the away fans as does the left quarter of the main stand. 

                                                         Match Details

 

              

VENUE #47 COWDENBEATH Central Park

       SCOTTISH                      CHAMPIONSHIP

Cowdenbeath... 2
Alloa Athletic... 2

Saturday 8th March 2014

@ Central Park, Cowdenbeath


     This will be the second time I've seen Cowdenbeath in 18 months, I saw them play at Livingston on the first of my treks to Scotland and now I'm in Fife and at Central Park, home to Cowdenbeath for the past 97 years.  This means that I can cross them off my list as I've seen them play both home and away, but you never know, I might see them again some day.
     Cowdenbeath or the Blue Brazil as they are known locally were formed when a lady named Margaret Pollock walked from Fife to Glasgow in 1880 to buy her sons a football at the cost of 13 Shillings, (65p), which must have been a small fortune in those days and on her return the ball was kicked all round the small village in Fife and the team Cowdenbeath Rangers was born.
     Apparently, people south of the Scottish border, (the English), make pilgrimages to Cowdenbeath just to stare in disbelief at their Central Park ground and yes, this I can believe for having done it myself and witnessed quite a few of my fellow countrymen in the crowd around me.

Side of the new main stand

     Both Cowdenbeath and Alloa make two changes from the game last weekend.  The Beath travelled to Livingston and lost 1-0 to the Edinburgh side, both changes come in midfield with Jon Robertson and Chris Kane making way for Sammy Stewart and Lewis Milne.  Athletic were at home to face promotion candidates Hamilton and were soundly beaten 3-0 by the team from Lanarkshire and for this game Darren Young replaces Liam Caddis and Andy Kirk comes in for Eddie Ferns.
     It's a must win for both of these teams with Cowdenbeath currently holding the play off relegation place and Alloa only two places and five points above them.
     The Beath kicked off facing a fierce wind which could have a serious effect on the outcome of this game and so it seemed when after just six minutes and some good work in the box by Alloa they took the lead when Graeme Holmes fired a shot past Thomas Flynn in the Cowdenbeath goal.
     The Blue Brazil couldn't seem to get a foot hold in a scrappy game until the 37th minute when a through ball from James Fowler found Greg Stewart on side and with time to place the ball into the back of the net.
     After the half time break Cowdenbeath should have been in front but some fine goalkeeping from Scott Bain kept the scores level
     Cowden kept using the strong wind which was now blowing in the direction of the Alloa goal but they couldn't find just the right judgement and the ball either went out of play or to the Alloa keeper.
     In the 59th minute against the run of play Alloa took the lead again when confusion in the Cowden penalty area enabled Ryan McCord to fire home a low shot into Flynns bottom right hand corner.
     The Blue Brazil kept on pressing the Alloa defence and in the 73rd minute got their just deserts when a long, wind assisted throw from Rory McKeown found Greg Stewart in the Alloa penalty area to fire home a volley and score his and Cowdenbeath's second of the afternoon and level the game once more to give both teams a point apiece which is a result not really good enough for either team.

The track and truck tyres that surround the pitch

     Before the game I had a couple of jars in the Partnership pub on the corner of Hall street and High street before making my way down under the railway bridge to Central Park.  I didn't cross the car park to the turnstiles, instead I decided to walk round the perimeter of the ground past the Indian restaurant, the Shimla Palace, that's adjoined to the football ground and up a walk way that passed through a recreation area which was an open grassy piece of land with trees and led me to a gate which had visitors written above it.  I couldn't see a way to walk right round the ground without passing through a nearby housing estate which I didn't fancy and so I turned into the cold and very powerful Fife wind and made my way back to the turnstiles.
   

Central Park doubles as a race track after the match

The Central Park capacity is 5,268 of which 1,622 are seated.  I sat in the newer main stand that faces you as you come inside the ground.  There is an older stand right next to it which was destroyed by fire back in 1992 but is still in use today and was used by the away supporters for this match, both stands are fully covered.  Behind the two goals are open terraced areas the East and the West and opposite the main stand is another open terraced area called the South terrace.
     The ground has a dual purpose it is also used to put on motor sports events and is the reason why it has an oval racing track that runs around the pitch.  There are also big black and white painted truck tyres strewn around the sides of the pitch which maybe the attraction for the pilgrims from the south as I've never seen the likes of it before at a football ground, it does look a bit of a dump.  There is a meshed safety fence which is not good for watching the game at or close to pitch level and there are pillars in the stand that restrict your viewing also.

                                                          Match Details

VENUE #46 GLASGOW RANGERS Ibrox

SCOTTISH LEAGUE ONE

Rangers... 2

Brechin City... 1

Saturday February 1st 2014

@ Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow

     Starting back to work on Monday for the first time in over two months.  My hip is still a little on the painful side but I'm hoping to work my way back to full fitness, if I can.

     Having to take an overnight bag with me for this journey, I wouldn't have to normally with such a straight forward trip to Glasgow but there are rail works in between Warrington and Carlisle during the time of my return and so I'm staying overnight in Carlisle at a Premier Inn, I'll leave the bag at Glasgow Central railway station for when I'm at the game, it'll cost me a fiver but at least I haven't got to cart it around with me.

   

The Broomloan stand

 Today's game, Rangers Verses Brechin City looks a bit of a formality with Rangers flying high at the top with a 23 point lead over the team in second place and Brechin currently in fifth place and hoping to make the play off places at least.  Both teams were at home last weekend with Rangers entertaining Arbroath who are currently bottom of the league.  Rangers had to come from behind twice before a Lee McCulloch penalty sealed the game for them in the 78th minute.  Ally McCoist makes just one change David Templeton replaces Lewis McLeod.  Brechin also won 3-2 at Glebe park and had to come from behind to do so, they were 2-0 down to Dunfermline Athletic until goals from Derek Carcary and Andy Jackson levelled the score and then Darren Petrie struck and stole all three points in the 89th minute.  Ray McKinnon makes two changes to his squad from that game, Ewan Moyes and Craig Molloy make way for Steven Robb and Allan Walker.

     As expected Rangers started the stronger dominating play with some wonderful one touch and quick passing football that saw Brechin at sixes and sevens at times.  The Hedgemen's keeper Graeme Smith was busy right from the start making saves from efforts by Templeton, Shiels and Daly, but it wasn't long before he was picking the ball up out of the net when after 14 minutes a wonderful curling shot from Dean Shiels from the right went flying past the out-stretched Smith into the top corner.

The Copland Road end

     This filled Rangers with even more confidence and you sort of had the feeling that this could be a rout as Brechin looked powerless to stop the league one runaway leaders and the task got even harder when Jon Daly leapt to glance a Lee Wallace free kick past Smith for Rangers second in the 25th minute and made up for his earlier miss when he shot straight at the keeper.

     2-0 at half time and you wondered how many it was going to end up, I was looking forward to a feast of goals in the second half with Brechin going forward and looking for a way back into the game and leaving themselves short at the back and at the mercy of a Rangers side who are on fire in all departments on the field but it wasn't to be, Brechin gathered momentum and looked a far better side in the second half and with only seven minutes gone reduced the deficit with a spectacular goal from Steven Robb who hit a thunderous shot from 25 yards past Cammy Bell and into the roof of the net.

     This unnerved the Rangers players and supporters but there was worse to come when Bilel Mohsni picked up a second yellow card in the 61st minute for purposely kicking the ball at an injured Brechin player.

     Although a man down Rangers still looked the stronger team but not as dominant as they were in the first half and were lucky in the later stages of the half not to lose a couple of points or three as Cammy Bell had to make some fine saves from Andy Jackson and Derek Carcary.

   

Fans holding banner of Ally McCoist MBE

I did some forward planning before embarking on this journey, instead of taking the subway from St. Enoch's to Ibrox station, I alighted at Cessnock which is a five minute walk from the ground and was a lot easier to get on and off the train for with a crowd of 40 thousand plus the volume of people using the subway was immense.

     When approaching the football ground up Edmiston Drive past all the fast food vans and souvenir vendors you suddenly come across a building that looks like a factory, if it hadn't have been for the fact that it had Rangers Football Club ltd. on the gates I might have walked past it. 

     Built in 1899, Ibrox is a 50, 411 all seated Stadium and is looking some what tired and dated, plans to revamp the joint have been put on hold because of money or lack of it, shall we say, at the moment.  You have the Govan stand and the Bill Struth main stand, (Where I watched the game mid-pitch)), running the touch lines and at both ends behind the goals there is the Copland Road  end and the Broomloan stand of which the right hand corner is allocated to away fans unless they play some side with vast support like Celtic and then the whole of the stand will be put aside. 

                                          Match Details

   

VENUE #45 MIDDLESBROUGH The Riverside Stadium

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP

Middlesbrough... 1

Charlton Athletic... 0

Saturday 18th January                       2014

@ The Riverside Stadium

           Middlesbrough

     It's been three weeks now since my last venture up in Sheffield and I'm still off work with, what the doctors describe as "sciatica".  All I know is that it's still very painful to walk long distances and getting about in general is not the best especially on cold, damp days such as this one.

     My first game of the new year takes me to the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough, to see them take on Charlton Athletic in a Sky Bet Championship match.  Going into this game Middlesbrough are as their name would suggest middle of the table while Charlton are only two places above the relegation zone.  This game will be a first for me for it will be the first time I've seen Middlesbrough in the flesh and not on TV, that's not the case with Charlton though I've seen them many times at Walsall's old Fellows Park ground in the 70's where their fans would come in their thousands and it was quite scary at times.  I remember on one occasion when there was so many of them that they were put in the Hillary street end which was usually reserved for home supporters and we had to go and stand on the Railway end terrace which was the away end, I'm hoping that this journey will be a tad too far for most of them to come today.

     

   

The large ship moored and marooned on the river Tees

Manager Aitor Karanka makes two changes to the Boro side that beat Blackpool 2-0 last weekend at Bloomfield Road, Albert Adomah and Lukas Jutkiewicz make way for Mustapha Carayol and Curtis Main.  Charlton managed a 2-2 draw on Tuesday night last against Oxford United of league two in the FA cup third round at the Valley and manager Chris Powell makes three changes to the team and they are Yohann Thuram-Ulien in goal instead of Ben Hamer, Dale Stephens in for Bradley Pritchard and Callum Harriott taking the place of Simon Church who drops to the bench for this one.

     If I'm entirely honest this game was the most boring I've seen on my travels to date, the only saving factor was the goal that insured that I haven't seen a 0-0 draw yet and what a goal it was coming after a quarter of a hour in the first half, Emmanuel Ledesma picked up a loose ball thirty yards out and struck a looping shot that bounced in front of the diving Charlton keeper Thuram-Ulien and went over him and into the net.

     In the second half Boro could have doubled their lead when after 61 minutes Carayaol got on the end of a knock down ball but his shot was well saved by the keeper.

     Charlton did have the ball in the net on 70 minutes when a deep ball from Danny Green looked as though it was going out for a goal kick until Yann Kermorgant hooked the ball back across the Boro box for Simon Church to barge his way through to knock the ball into the back of the net but the referee ruled it as a foul on the Boro keeper Shay Given.

     In the 84th minute Charlton were reduced to ten men when Rhoys Wiggins made a crunching tackle on Boro midfielder Dean Whitehead and the referee produced a straight red card.

     Although they were at a disadvantage in numbers Charlton could have levelled the match in injury time when Kermorgant drilled the ball across the Boro penalty area but an unmarked Simon Church couldn't make contact with the ball.

Dull, dark, dank and dismal day on the river

     What a dull,dark, damk and dismal day to watch a game of football.  As I approached the Riverside Stadium it looked like a large ship that had been moored and marooned on the river tees, you even had the cries of distant seagulls as they flocked around the impressive but forlorn looking vessel.

     It is a 35,100 all seated Stadium built in 1995 to re-house Middlesbrough after having to upgrade their former home Ayresome Park after playing there for 92 years, the gates of the old ground have been erected outside the Riverside Stadium in between the statues of two of Middlesbrough's great legends George Hardwick and Wilf Mannion to mark a piece of history.

     The inside is fully enclosed and all stands are two-tiered and fully covered but the West stand, which is where I watched the game, is slightly higher than the other three maybe because it has executive boxes running through the middle of it.  The West stand also houses the dugouts and the changing rooms with the East stand running the touch line on the other side of the pitch which as the right half of the stand as you look at it designated to away fans.  The two stands behind the goals are the North and the South.

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