VENUE #66 NOTTINGHAM FOREST The City Ground

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP

19th September 2015

City Ground, Nottingham

Ground Capacity:- 30, 576 all Seated

Kick Off:- 12:30

Entry Fee:- £28

Programme:-  £3

Ground # 66

NOTTINGHAM FOREST ... 1    MIDDLESBROUGH ... 2

       

      Sloppy defending from today's hosts Forest resulted in the two goals that sealed their fate.  After only three minutes a short back pass from Kelvin Wilson was picked up by Albert Adomah but his shot was blocked by De Vries in the Forest goal.  Seconds later a low cross from the right by George Friend was poorly dealt with by the Forest rear guard and David Nugent made the most of the gift and poked the ball home from inside the six yard box.

      The home side were back level within four minutes when Nelson Oliveira's shot was deflected wide and Henri Lansbury took the resulting corner from the left picking out Matt Mills in the six yard box who side footed a volley into the roof of the Middlesbrough net.

      Big cries of joy came from the home stands as their side were back in the game but their relief was only to last another 25 minutes when Grant Leadbitter drove in a cross from the right which Kevin Wilson again made a grave error by trying to head the ball back to his own keeper with Daniel Ayala waiting to head the ball home from close range.  At half time the score remained 1 - 2 to Boro.

 

    After the interval Forest were kicking toward the Trent End and this seemed to inspire them and it wasn't long before they had their best chance so far when, this time, uncertainty in the Boro defence saw Ryan Mendes go clear and one on one with the keeper, if he had squared the ball across the box to Nelson Oliveira he would have had an open goal to tap into but the selfish Mendes tried to beat the keeper himself and the inspired keeper palmed the ball away to safety.

      In the 77th minute the home fans are roaring with delight once more as Ben Gibson Handles the ball in the penalty area and referee Lee Mason gives the penalty after consulting his linesman.  You could feel the tension around the ground as Henri Lansbury stepped up to take the kick, the home fans were willing the midfielder to

score and snatch a point out of the game but the number 10 hit a poor shot down the centre of the goal as Dimitrios Konstantopoulos dived to his left but still managed to block the attempt with his feet and winning the Boro keeper man of the match as well as the game for his team.

      This is the second week running that my host team has lost 2 -1 I hope this isn't the start of an unwelcome trend.  I would have to say that the better side won the game although they were a bit physical though I should imagine major contenders once more for out-right promotion were as Forest may have to settle for the lottery of the play-offs once more.

  

The view of the ground coming across the bridge over the river Trent is quite impressive the two
tiered Trent end stand that rests on the banks of the river being the main focal point.  This stand is the
newest part of the ground and has a good look about it, really sets off the whole feel of the place.  It has rows of seats in a glass container running across the centre and as the Brian Clough stand the top tier looks larger than the lower giving it a real towering appearance, mind sitting in the main single tiered stand the other three stands do look a lot bigger and spacious.

   Across the pitch at the other end is a quite odd looking stand, the Bridgeford starts off two tiered and then descends down to a single tier to the right side as you look at it, the only reason I can think of for this is that the people in the flats to the rear of this corner have an un-obstructed view of the game.  On the other side the lower tier corner to the near post of the goal is allocated to away supporters.

     Built in the 1980's the Brian Clough stand is another impressive two tiered Stand that runs the

touchline, which, on it's top tier has the word FOREST painted on it's seats in between two emblems of the club crest.  There are executive boxes between the two tiers which makes the top tier look larger than the lower or maybe it is anyway.

   On the other side of the pitch is the main stand, single tiered and so neatly adjoins the off set corner of the Bridgeford end.  This stand is the oldest part of the ground and seems a bit dated in comparison to the other stands.  There are a couple of supporting girders which can obstruct your view pending on where your sitting, I was OK for I was sat right on the centre line as the girders were just blocking the corner flags.  It does let down the stadium a bit for it needs updating, maybe if Forest get promotion then this could be on the agenda.  The toilets were adequate as were the other facilities, not the best by a long chalk but they did the job.  One thing I must mention if you intend on visiting the club shop please either go after the game or come

very early as I was queuing for three quarters of a hour to get served.  There are plenty of staff but they don't seem to be the quickest, they have a sign behind them on the tills that say's "Rome wasn't built in a day but I wasn't on that particular job", for if they were it might explain why they're so slow as it was built about 2000 years ago.   

                           MATCH DETAILS

VENUE #65 NEWTOWN Latham Park

DAFABET WELSH PREMIER

12th September 2015

Latham Park, Newtown

Ground Built:-  1951  

Ground Capacity:- 3,000 (1,300 Seated)

Kick Off;- 17:15

Entry Fee:- £7

Programme:- £2

Ground:- # 65

NEWTOWN ... 1         RHYL ... 2

     Top of the table Newtown came unstuck this evening at Latham Park against a well drilled Rhyl

side who started the game second from bottom.  Newtown having won all three of their first games of the campaign without conceding a goal were expected to win this game quite comfortably but came across a dogged Rhyl side inspired by a brilliant man of the match performance by Terry McCormick in goal.
     In an evenly contested first half Newtown had the best chance to break the deadlock when Luke Boundford lobbed a ball over the Rhyl defence for Jason Oswell to find himself one on one with Terry McCormick the Rhyl goalkeeper, his first shot was blocked by the keeper and rebounded straight back to him but with the goal gaping the young striker fired the ball into the arms of the grateful goalkeeper.
   

With just four minutes left of the half the Robins got careless in defence and gave the ball away to Rhyl which resulted in Derek Taylor hitting the back of the Newtown net with a deflected shot.
     With the sun setting casting long shadows over the newly laid 3G pitch and the floodlights flickering on around the ground the second half got on the way with no bright lights showing in the Newtown side who were now striking toward their home end with their fans egging them on totally dissing the poor linesmen and referee trying to fire some response into their team but ten minutes into the half the Robins woes were doubled when a long ball found Aaron Bowen on his own to flash the ball past a motionless David Jones in the Newport goal.
     Five minutes later the deficit should have been halved when Matthew Hearsey was tripped in the

visitors six yard box and the ref awarded a penalty.  McCormick to the annoyance of the home support employed the old delaying tac tic trying to intimidate Matty Owen the Newtown penalty taker and his antics paid off as Owen placed a poor penalty to the keeper's right who went the same way and pushed the ball wide of the post.
     It seemed as though the Lilywhites keeper was keeping a charmed goal as effort after effort failed to cross the Rhyl goal line especially when McCormick fumbled the ball and Hearsey pounced but saw his chance ricochet of the post.
     The home faithful were now predicting their first defeat of the season acknowledging that there was no way this keeper was going to be beaten until the 72nd minute when Owen swung the ball into the visitor's penalty area a flicked header saw the ball drop for Luke Boundford who swept the ball with his left foot into the net via deflection
     This gave a little hope to the home support but Rhyl hung on till the final whistle and achieved their first win of the season and issued Newtown with their first defeat.

 

    What a lovely, quiet and beautiful part of the world Newtown is as soon as you step off the train you just know that you're in Wales, what a fabulous country.  It's only a ten minute walk from the station to the ground which is set out of the way although amidst a couple of housing estates and backing on to a police station.  The people are friendly especially the stewards who went out of their way to make sure that my visit was a special one.

     Latham Park lies in a most picturesque setting as most of the Welsh Premier league grounds do.  If

you enter by the Park Lane gate entrance to the left running along the touchline starting at the near side is a single tier of around 200 blue and red seats that leads on to a turnstile block and then another row of single tiered seats with a TV gantry in it's roof that straggles the half way line, the last third of this side consists of a flat standing area backed by a hedge.  This side is known as the police station side as there is a police HQ situated at the back of it.

   

 On the other side of the pitch is the main stand side which has two stands  an old and a new.  Both hold about 400 people although the new stand looks a lot bigger and is fully covered, it's situated leading on to the Park Lane end with the old stand straggling the half way line and is not so well covered for the people nearest the pitch will get wet in bad weather.  Players descend from the top of the new stand from the changing rooms.  Further on from the old stand is the clubhouse and the club offices, the toilets to the clubhouse are small but adequate as the average gate is around 200 to 300.

     At the Park lane end there is a flat standing area with a car park and a housing estate to the rear this end is for away support but segregation doesn't seem to matter much as fans just settle where they please.  At the other end of the ground there are two flat standing areas with an open seating area in between behind the goal.  This end is called the Llanidloes Road end and has a beautiful welsh hillside land drop to it's rear.

                            MATCH DETAILS

VENUE #64 WYCOMBE WANDERERS Adams Park

SKY BET LEAGUE TWO

5th September 2015

Adams Park Stadium, High Wycombe

Ground Built:-  1990

Ground Capacity:-  10, 284

Kick Off:-  15:00

Entry Fee:-  £20

Programme:-  £3
                   
Ground # 64

WYCOMBE WANDERERS ... 2       HARTLEPOOL UTD ... 1

    Done the wrong thing today, while thinking of the hour and a half journey on the train I thought "I'll buy the Sun newspaper and do the sudoku's that will kill the time", but I got so engrossed with the Japanese puzzles that I lost track of where I was and what I was doing and so as I was finishing the third puzzle, (The Torture), just entering the last number I glanced up out of the window as the train was leaving the station and saw the sign High Wycombe and realised that I had missed my stop.  I ended up travelling to London Marylebone and catching the next train back to High Wycombe.  Arriving at the station at two minutes to three and with a 45 minute walk ahead of me as the ground is 2 and a half miles from the station I decided to jump into a taxi in the hope that I wouldn't miss too much of the first half.  Going through the industrial estate I saw the sign Adams Park at the very end of the road and so alighting the taxi minus a arm and a leg made my way to the ticket office to retrieve my pre-booked tickets and managed to get inside the ground for quarter past three, not too bad considering.

     These two sides have made a good start to the season with Wycombe in third place before kick off

and Hartlepool in sixth which is a sharp contrast to the season before when the Pools narrowly avoided dropping out of the football league and into the National league that was the conference.  Wycombe are continuing challenging for a top three place as they did last season when they were odds on favourites for automatic promotion but they only managed a play-off place finishing fourth and losing to Southend in the play-off final 7-6 on penalties.

     The game was already fifteen minutes gone when I took my seat in the main stand and looked

very lively, open with the ball rapidly travelling from end to end and I only had to wait eleven minutes for the first goal when a long ball played into the Hartlepool box for Michael Harriman to drill a first time shot inside the keepers nearside post.

     Just before half time and the scores were level when Carl Magnay played a one-two with Rakish

Wycombe celebrate second goal

Bingham and blasted the ball past Matt Ingham in the Wycombe goal from twelve yards.

     Eleven minutes inside the second half and it was two for Wycombe and Michael Harriman as a long ball was intercepted on the right and the QPR loanee looped a shot over Adam Bartlet in the Hartlepool goal into the far top corner of the net from eighteen yards.

     Hartlepool had obviously come to ruffle the Wycombe players feathers with some aggressive challenges and behaviour, the referee had a poor game and tended not to see a lot of what was going on on the pitch either intentionally or maybe he needs a trip to Specsavers but however he lost control of the game with his constant overlooking of incidents, the game was stopped at least a couple of times with players taking the law into their own

Fight breaks out after aggressive antics in goalmouth scramble 

hands and ending up in a brawl with half the players on the pitch getting involved.  In the 86th minute two Wycombe players were on the floor with the referee encouraging play to continue until the linesman brought it to his attention that Carl Magnay had decked Ryan Sellers, although initially he claims not to have seen the incident he red carded the Hartlepool goal scorer who abused Wycombe players verbally has he left the pitch.

     With the drum beating on the terraces encouraging the Wycombe fans to get behind their team the home players were quite happy with what they had got and tried to see out the game in the corners which brought more frustrated late challenges from the visitors and extended the injury time period but see it out they did and now Wycombe hold second place in the league two table.

        

     The Frank Adams stand is a two tiered fully covered affair which was built in the mid 90's.  It is a
much bigger stand than the other three with a capacity of 5,000 all seated fans and has a set of executive boxes situated between an upper and lower seating area.  The stand and ground are named after a former goalkeeper who donated to Wycombe their previous ground at Loakes Park.

   

 Opposite the Frank Adams stand is the main stand (Beachdean Stand) which has a raised seating area accessed by a small flight of stairs at the front.  It is single tiered and fully covered and has a large video screen in between it and the Dreams stand.  The stand is all seated with just under 1,300 seats and houses all main facilities such as food stalls, club shop and changing rooms.  Although the seated area is elevated the lower seats view is impeded by the dug outs for about a third of the near-side of the pitch.

     To the left of the Beachdean stand as you look toward the pitch is the Panache stand or Dreams stand as it was first named.  Originally a terrace when the ground opened in 1990 was converted into a stand six years later with just over a 2, 000 fully seated capacity.  Also fully covered the Panache is allocated to away supporters with a further 350 seats designated in the Beachdean stand if fan base requires.

   At the opposite end to the Panache stand is the Bucks New Uni Terrace AKA the Greene King IPA Terrace which is also fully covered and holds just under 2, 000 standing supporters.  The terrace exits at the same place as the main stand at the corner where the two meet and as you almost reach the gates there is a toilet which is very small but clean and modern, it was the only one I saw but I didn't get much chance to look around under the circumstances.


     Adams Park is a lovely looking, quite modern ground with very friendly and helpful staff.  The supporters are friendly and welcoming also and I must say that I've quite enjoyed my day out in Buckinghamshire apart from my blunder on the train coming that is.  My only real gripe is that I wish that the railway station was a lot closer to the ground.    

       

   
                                             MATCH DETAILS

VENUE #63 OLDHAM ATHLETIC The Sports Direct.Com Park

SKY BET LEAGUE ONE

Oldham Athletic ...1     Fleetwood Town ...0

Saturday 15th August 2015

@The Sports Direct.Com Park

Kick Off 15:00

BRIEF HISTORY
     Formed as Pine Villa in 1895 the club changed it's name and colours four years later, becoming Oldham Athletic and changing from red and white stripes with blue shorts and socks to a more familiar blue and white stripes with white shorts and blue socks.
      The club joined the football league's division two in 1907-08 season replacing Burslem Port Vale

View approaching from Boundary Park Road 

and worked their way up to the first division within three seasons.  In the 1914-15 season Oldham finished second in the table by one point behind Everton, this was the latics highest ever placing in the English football league.  War broke out and football was put on hold for five years and when it returned in the 1919-20 season Oldham found it hard with most of their squad retired or killed in the war and so the latics made a return to division two in 1923.
      Oldham then found themselves fluctuating between divisions two and three until the 1959-60 season when the then new fourth division was formed and the latics were relegated into it finishing in 23rd place and having to apply for re-election to the said league which they passed for the league decided to relegate Gateshead instead who had finished above Oldham.

View from Sheepfoot Lane

     The latics fortunes changed in the 60's and 70's since that close scare of non league football and arrived back in league two in the 1973-74 season under the management of Jimmy Frizzell.  Joe Royle ex Everton and England striker took over in 1982 and after nine years in charge brought Oldham back to the top flight of English football making them a founder member of the Premier league.
     Oldham made two Wembley appearances under Royle losing 1-0 in the 1990 league cup final to Nottingham Forest and drawing 1-1 in the 1994 FA cup Semi finals to Manchester United  United won the replay 4-1 at maine Road which demoralised Oldham who didn't win another game till the end of the season and saw them relegated back into division two (Now the Championship) on the last day.
     Athletic are now in league one which is the English third flight after being relegated in the 1996-97 season under Greame Sharp the ex Everton and Scotland striker, finishing in 15th place last season.

RUN UP TO THE GAME

     As I was travelling down to Exeter last weekend the latics visited my home town Walsall where a

Teams coming onto the pitch

late goal from Jonathan Forte who came off the bench to secure a share of the spoils equalising Ronaine Sawyers 8th minute goal for the Saddlers.  Darren Kelly makes three changes to his main eleven bringing in Connor Brown for Brian Wilson, Danny Philliskirk for Carl Winchester and Dominic Poleon for Rhys Turner up front.
     Fleetwood were at home to Southend to start their campaign this season and came away with the same result as the Latics, McManus putting Town ahead in the 33rd minute with David Worrall equalising from the bench for Southend with just six minutes of normal time remaining.  Graham Alexander has named an unchanged starting eleven for this match.  

THE MATCH

Oldham preparing to shake hands with opponents 

     This was a scrappy encounter for the opening league game of the season at the newly named Sports Direct.Com Park.  Both teams had chances early on in the first half with Fleetwood slightly edging it but their finishing can only be described as abysmal.  Players had nothing to blame for their wayward attempts on goal as the pitch looked immaculate and could be compared with the green baize of a billiards table  The only saving grace of the first half in fact of the whole match was the goal coming after 36 minutes when a long ball was flicked over the Fleetwood defence by Rhys Turner and Danny Philliskirk raced into the Town penalty area to smash home his second goal of the season.
     Lee Croft had a good chance soon after to double his sides advantage but again poor finishing saw

Two teams take part in usual pre match sporting gesture  

him squander it from close range.
     Fleetwood came out early to start the second half but their enthusiasm stopped there as the game carried on in the same vein as the first with neither side looking likely to add to the scoreline and when the referee blew for full time I think that everyone was relieved that it was finally over.  Not a good advert for British football at all and I can only hope that it doesn't get any worse than this on my travels this season.






THE SPORTS DIRECT.COM EXPERIENCE
   
     Wish I had looked deeper into my preparations for this trip as I could have saved some money and some energy cutting out a lot of the walking I had to do.  Mistake number one was taking a taxi from Piccadilly station to Victoria which cost me £8 when I could have taken the tram for £1.20.  I caught the train from Victoria station to Mills Hill which is the nearest train station to the ground but is a two and a half mile walk were as I could have taken the tram again from Picadilly to freehold which is only a twenty minute walk from the ground at a cost of  around £4 return.
     Boundary Park or the Sports Direct.Com Park as it's been renamed is a 10 and a half thousand

New stand still under construction

capacity all seated stadium built in 1906 which is under-going some much needed modernisation with a new stand being built on one side of the pitch, it looks quite impressive with what looks like executive boxes at the back of the blue plastic seating area that leads down to pitch side.  On the other side is the George Hill main stand which is two tiered and covered but only stretches about two thirds of the touch line evenly straddling the half way line with a business suite to the left (looking at the pitch), and some unused terracing at the other end.  There are supporting pillars which can restrict your view pending on where you are sitting, I was lucky and could see most of the main action areas. The seats are most uncomfortable and have very little leg room all are coloured blue in each stand with some white ones to spell out initials or names related to the club.  I had a shock when I visited the toilet on the way out of the ground for it was just one lavatory cubical for use by one person at a time, I'm glad I didn't get involved in the half time rush although there may be other toilets around I didn't move too far away from where I was sitting.
     At the business suite end of the main stand behind the goal is the Zen Office (Chaddy Road end)

Zen Office (Chaddy Road End)

which is an old structure with supporting pillars running across and houses the away support, the stand is covered and has around 16 hundred seats.  The opposite end is the Rochdale Road stand (Verlin Stand), which has been recently built and is a fair sized stand and fully covered.
     No club shop which was a big surprise they used to have one but closed it down, this is the first time I've come across this on my travels and , of course, I couldn't buy my usual souvenir scarf, managed to get a match programme inside the ground.
     I was told by people who had already visited Boundary Park to try the chicken balti pies which I did and must say that it was well worth the visit just for that reason although a mite expensive with one pie and a bottle of diet coke coming to £5.
     My ticket cost me £22 which is about right for league one football but I must say that although the ground is being modernised there are parts that are old and tired and need bringing up to date very soon.  Not the most memorable of trips but another ground ticked off the list and one in Greater Manchester at that.  Very tiring day, no problems getting there or back but could have made life a little easier and less expensive for myself.

                                                                    MATCH DETAILS

      

VENUE #62 EXETER CITY St. James Park

SKY BET LEAGUE TWO
Exeter City ... 3     Yeovil Town ... 2
Saturday 8th August 2015
@ St. James Park, Exeter
Kick Off 15:00

ORIGIN AND BRIEF HISTORY

     Exeter City were formed from two local teams, Exeter United and St Sidwell's United who played

Thatchers big bank stand from outside ground

each other in 1904 and at the end of the game decided to merge and go under the name of Exeter City.  They played their home games at St. James Park which was Exeter United's ground and City still play there today although it was just an open field back in those days.  To even the merge conditions a little City kept the St. Sidwell colours of green and white that is until 1910 when they changed to the familiar red and white stripes that we know today.

     City played their matches in the East Devon league switching to the Plymouth and district league after just one season where they remained for three seasons.  In 1908 they became members of the Southern league replacing none other than Tottenham Hotspur, they spent twelve years in this division when they where invited by the football league to become founder members of the Third Division.

Site that greets you as you emerge from railway station

     Exeter were to spend 83 years fluctuating between Divisions three and four never reaching the heights of the football leagues second tear and then in 2003 and in their centenary year disaster struck as City finished 23rd in Division four and were relegated to the Conference being the first team to be relegated in the bottom two after the league restructured their rules.
     The following season the club was taken over by the Exeter City Supporters Trust after two of their directors were convicted of fraudulent trading and leaving the club millions of pounds in debt.  The supporters trust managed to keep the club afloat until January 2005 when City were drawn away to Manchester United in the third round of the FA cup and astonishingly they managed a 0-0 draw bringing the Premiership giants back to St. James Park but lost the replay 2-0.  The revenue made from the two games was a great contributor to City clearing their debts by the end of the year.
     Exeter managed to return to the football league beating Cambridge United 1-0 in the 2008 play-off final at Wembley but are still bouncing up and down between the two lower divisions.  They are now in league Two finishing 10th last season.

RUN UP TO THE MATCH

      Exeter City are in a much healthier position at the start of this season than they were last.  City

Exeter warming up before kick off

took out a £100,000 loan from the Professional Footballers Association in June last year which placed them under a transfer embargo until the loan was paid back.  The sale of Matt Grimes to Swansea for a club record of £1.75 million in January has left manager Paul Tisdale with a much happier prospect for the start of 2015/16 season.  Tisdale has bought in Peterborough goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik, Brentford midfielder Manny Oleyeke and Cheltenham's defender Troy Brown without spending any of the clubs windfall from the sale of Grimes and promises that their will be more signings to come.  Leaving St. James's Park are long serving defenders Pat Baldwin and Scott Bennett as well as strikers Graham Cummins and Clinton Morrison.  Midfielder Liam Sercombe also says goodbye to his boyhood club after signing a two year deal with league two rivals Oxford United.
     After gaining promotion to the Sky Bet championship in the 2012/13 season Yeovil have been in

Yeovil preparing for start of the game

free fall finishing bottom of the league in the following two seasons.  Manager Paul Sturrock wielded the sword and releases 12 players from the squad at the end of last season including captain Joe Edwards with another 4 being told they were surplus to requirements.  This has made Sturrock a busy man in closed season trying to rebuild his team, he's so far brought in Matt Dolan from Bradford, Jack Compton from Hartlepool, Marc Laird from Tranmere, Ben Tozer from Northampton, Jordan Gibbons from QPR, Shaun Jeffers from Newport, Omar Sowumni from Ipswich, Ryan Bird from Cambridge, Wes Fogden from Portsmouth, Alex Lacey from Luton, Mark Beck from Carlisle and winger Iffy Allen from Barnet.  In fact only four players remain from the squad of the last game of last season, Nathan Smith, Stephen Arthurworry and the two goalkeepers Chris Wheale and Artur Krysiak.

THE MATCH

     The whole stadium applauded at two set times for the same player who was idolised at both clubs.  On seven minutes everyone clapped in appreciation for Adam Stansfield who tragically died from testicular cancer 5 years ago to the day on Monday 10th August.  He wore the number seven shirt for Yeovil between 2001-04 scoring 14 times in 55 games.  The applause rang out again after nine minutes the number of the shirt he wore for his final 4 years at Exeter city 2006-10 scoring 37 goals in 142 appearances.
   

Grecian the Lion waving to the croud

On the pitch the mood was a little subdued, maybe the occasion got to the players or maybe it was the weather for it had to be at least 26 degrees pitch side.  A voice behind me in the main stand rang out "It's got 0-0 written all over this game and you feared that his prediction would come true for the first half hour as both teams prodded away without much conviction but then on 31 minutes he was proved wrong when Alex Nichols was put through on goal in the Yeovil penalty area only to be held back by Yeovil new signing Connor Roberts.  Nichols despatched the spot kick himself sending Chris Weale in the Yeovil goal the wrong way.
     This seamed to inject some life into Exeter who went for the Yeovil jugular who looked stunned and unable to respond and four minutes before half time their troubles were doubled when David Wheeler beautifully controlled a well weighted ball from David Noble and slipped it passed the on coming Yeovil keeper who clattered the Exeter goal scorer leaving him riving in agony and needing treatment.
     2-0 at half time and most of the fans hadn't even made it back to their seats after the half time

St. James Park end filling up with away support

interval when Yeovil reduced the deficit with a well crafted goal from the kick off which saw Marc Laird turn sharply in the Exeter penalty area to curl the ball past the Grecian keeper.  Seven minutes later and they were level when substitute winger Harry Cornick was brought down in the Exeter penalty area by Christian Ribeiro, the referee awarded the penalty and Matt Dolan (no relation) stepped up to even up the tie.
     It looked as though a draw was inevitable especially when Wheeler's thunderous shot from twenty yards cannoned of Weale's right hand post and away from danger but with six minutes of normal time remaining substitute Will Hoskins chased a ball knocked over the Yeovil defence by Matt Oakley and coming face to face with the Yeovil keeper somehow managed to knock the ball over Chris Weale's head and into the back of the net stealing all three points for the Grecians.  Verdict: a fair result.  

THE ST. JAMES PARK EXPERIENCE

     What a glorious day to pick for a trip to the seaside.  Arriving early at Exeter St. David's I decided to catch the train to Exmouth and take in some sunshine and sea air as well as trying a regular portion of cod, battered chips and mushy peas from the local chippy Krispies and believe me they were well worth trying.
   

Scenic view from esplanade

I took a walk along the Esplanade or Exmouth's version of a promenade with some scenic views and the sun blazing away in an almost cloud free sky with the temperature around the 22 degree mark, I was seriously thinking about sitting outside a pub on the sea front and ditching the idea of the short train journey to St. James Park.  But like a true martyr to the cause I soon come round to my senses and headed for the game.  
     The ground has a capacity of nearly 9,000 of which 3,800 are seated.  On one side is the Grandstand which is the oldest part of the ground, it is all seated and fully covered but it only covers half of the pitch just straddling the half way line which leaves the other side toward the Thatchers Big  Bank end unused by spectators.
     The other side of the ground is the WTS stand (Main Stand) which was built in 2001 and is the newest and smartest part of the stadium, it is also all seated and fully covered and is where I watched the game.
     At the end to the right of the WTS stand as you look at the pitch is the fore-mentioned Thatchers

Cramped conditions outside club shop

Big bank terrace which is fully covered with a capacity of around 4,000 which makes it the largest terrace still in existence in the English football league.  At the opposite end is the St James Road terrace which is small and open and allocated to away support as is the part of the Grandstand that leads onto the terrace.
     My ticket cost me £25 which I think is dear for a league two game, I'm off to Oldham next week who are a league higher than Exeter and the price of the ticket is £3 cheaper.
     The ground is lovely although a little cramped in places especially outside where fans congregate outside the bar with the club shop just across the road and the turnstiles in close proximity.  It was a good turn out for this match just over five and a half thousand, well it was the opening game of the season and both clubs were determined to give a fitting tribute for Adam.
     Although there was a lot of drinking going on the fans intermingled and there was not even a glimmer of any trouble.  Both sets of fans were well behaved and very friendly, a credit to their clubs

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