VENUE #92 BARNET Hive Stadium

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. 

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.  

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.

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.

     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. 

                          MATCH DETAILS

VENUE #91 STENHOUSEMUIR Ochilview Park

  OCHILVIEW PARK  

Home Of :  STENHOUSEMUIR F.C.

Ground Share:  East Stirlingshire

Ground Opened:  1890

Previous Grounds:  Tryst Park

                                  Goschen Park

Other Uses:  Greyhound Track 1926/27 

Directions From Train Station

     The nearest train station is Larbert which is about a mile away from Ochilview Park.  As you exit the station turn left and continue up the B905 on the left hand side of the road until you reach Tryst  road, turn left into Tryst road and take the first right into Gladstone road and the ground is straight in front of you.  The buildings in front of the ground have now been knocked down and so the ground is now visible as you approach Tryst road but there is a construction in process so how long for I can't be sure. 

Ochilview Park
     Stenhousemuir formed in the year 1884 when they broke away from a local team called Heather Rangers.  They moved into Ochilview six years later the ground's name came from the Ochil Hills which are visible from the ground  although there is a local saying that goes, "If you can see the Ochil hills it's going to rain, if you can't it's already raining".
     The park's record attendance was on 11th March 1950 against today's opponents East Fife in a Scottish cup quarter-final match which drew a crowd of 12,500 but sadly the Warriors lost the game 3-0 and the Fifers went on to the final against Rangers and also lost 3-0.
     One year later and Ochilview went into Scottish history by becoming the first ground in Scotland to have floodlights and Stenhousemuir played the first Scottish floodlit game on the 7th November 1951 in a friendly match against Hibernian.
     An amusing story, well it's funny as far as I'm concerned, in 1994 Stenhousemuir were considering moving to a new build ground and had agreed to sell Ochilview to a supermarket chain for 2 and a half million but the deal was flawed by planning regulations and fell through and so Ochilview should be known as the one that got away and thankfully so.  It was decided to upgrade the existing ground instead and means that I get to visit today. 

Ground Layout

  
A  MAIN STAND
On one side of Ochilview Park, is the relatively new looking Main Stand. This small all seated, covered stand, runs for about half the length of the pitch and straddles the half way line. It has a couple of floodlights perched on its roof. 




B NORTH STAND
Opposite to this stand the side of the ground is unused for spectators and just has the team dugouts and a row of small floodlights. 



C TRYST ROAD TERRACE
At the Tryst Road End of the ground is good sized terrace, that recently has had a roof put on it, giving much needed shelter for the standing fans. On one side of this terrace can be seen a Social Club which is owned by the Club. 





D EAST STAND
The opposite East End of the ground is again unused for spectators. During the Summer of 2007 a new synthetic playing surface was installed at the stadium. 





Today's Opponents  EAST FIFE  You've got to go back in time a bit for the best periods in the Fifers history, the mid to late thirties was a good time for them winning the Scottish cup in 1938 against Kilmarnock, drawing the first game 1-1 on April 23rd and winning the replay 4 days later 4-2.

     The Fifers recorded their biggest ever win in that same season, 1937/38 beating Edinburgh City 13-2 at the old Bayview and finishing 6th in the division two table of that era.  They won the Wemyss cup three years on the run 1935/ 36/ 37.
     Their most rewarding spell in their history was the period after the second world war known as the golden age when they were Scottish league cup winners in 1948, 50 and 54, runners up to Rangers in the Scottish cup in 1950 and winners of the old division two (second tier) in 1948.

     Fifers biggest defeat came on 5th October 1957 when they went down 9-0 to Hearts at Tynecastle also losing that season 9-1 to Aidrieonians away, 0-6 at home to Third Lanark and by the same score to Aidrieonians at the old Bayview.  No wonder then that East Fife were relegated out of division one that season finishing 17th out of 18 five points adrift of, you guessed it, Aidrieonians. 
     These days Fife are predominantly in the bottom two tiers of the Scottish league.  They had to relocate across town in 1998 to a stadium with the same name but with a capacity of just under 2,000.
     In the league (third tier) this season the Fifers are clinging onto a play-off spot in 4th place on goal difference from, of course "Aidrieonians". 

STENHOUSEMUIR ... 3   EAST FIFE ... 1

     What a glorious afternoon for a game of football and any idea I might of had about this game being a one way onslaught in favour of East Fife were blown out by the battling warriors.  They certainly lived up to their nickname although the football wasn't the best there was no lay back and die attitude about this side as they went about wearing their opposition down into a final submission.

     In a well contested first half where both sides had chances to take the lead it wasn't until the last but one minute when Willis Furtado with an assist from David Marsh found himself centre of the East Fife penalty area ans slotted the ball into Mark Hurst's left hand corner of the net.

     The second half continued in the same gritty tempo of the first but with Fife knocking loudly on the Warriors door and eleven minutes in they got their just rewards when following a corner Chris Kane assisted by Nicki Paterson struck a shot from the left hand side of goal beating Graham Bowman and into the keepers far side corner of the net.

     The Warriors showed real character and wasn't prepared to give up the fight and five minutes after the set back of the equaliser Justin Austin who came on for Scott Robinson at half time was adjudged to have fouled Willis Furtado in the penalty area and  the ref pointed to the spot.  Colin McMenamin stepped up to take it after a long wait as a East Fife player received treatment for an injury and he made no mistake tucking the ball into Hurst's bottom right hand corner of the goal.

     East Fife came again at Stenhousemuir looking to take at least a point back to Bayview but their attempts all came to nothing and were futile when the Warriors drew blood yet again with eleven minutes left of normal play and it was that man again Willis Furtado who found himself yet again centre of goal and unleashed a left footed shot that found the top right hand corner of Hurst and East Fife's net to finally kill off any hopes of retrieving anything from this game. 

                               MATCH DETAILS

        

     

         

VENUE #90 CARLISLE UNITED Brunton Park

BRUNTON PARK

Directions From Railway Station

     The nearest railway station is Carlisle upon exiting the station's main entrance, walk the short distance around the Crescent until reaching Warwick Road. You will be able to see the old Main Stand and the strangely-shaped roofs of the Warwick Road End after walking for about twenty minutes. There are directions to the away supporters' turnstiles above the Carlisle United club shop.

Brunton Park
     Carlisle United were formed in 1904 firstly playing their home games at Milhome bank then later at Devonshire park until Brunton park was built in 1909.  Brunton park has a capacity of 18.202 but the ground has been inspected by Cumbria county council who have deemed certain areas unsafe and so a slightly less capacity of 17,000 is in place at this time.
     In it's heyday Brunton park had a record crowd of 27,500 that was on  the 5th January 1957 when they were drawn against Birmingham City in the 3rd round of the FA cup a match that finished in a 3-3 draw, four days later Birmingham won the replay 4-0 at St. Andrews.
     If you plan to visit this stadium I would suggest you make it soon as Carlisle are planning to move to a 12,000 all seated stadium in the near future and that will be another classical old fashioned ground to bite the dust in the name of progress. 

PIONEER STAND (EAST)

     The Pioneer (East) Stand on one side of the pitch, is a covered all seated stand, which looks quite smart, this stand was opened in 1996.  An unusual aspect of the ground is that the central point of the East Stand, is located just off the half way line. This means that one side of the stand extends past the one goal line, whilst the other side falls short of this. This was due to the fact that the Club were intending to re-build the whole ground and move the pitch a few yards further north, but alas the development funds ran dry.

MAIN STAND

    The other side is an old partly covered (to the rear) Main Stand, which has seating at the back and a terraced paddock to the front. The central part of this stand was built in 1954 and the wings added at a later stage.

WARWICK ROAD END

    The Warwick Road End is a covered terrace that has a peculiar looking roof, which consists of three triangular sections.

PETTERILL END

    The other end, the Petterill End (aka The Waterworks End), is largely a small open terrace, which oddly contains a small section of seating on one side. This end is only used for the bigger games. On one side of this end is a Security Control Box, which also has a small electric scoreboard mounted below it. There is also a video screen situated at the back. The ground also has some strange looking floodlights that don’t have the normal bank of lighting on top of the pylon, but instead have the lights mounted up the side.

HUGHIE McLLMOYLE

    Outside the ground entrance is a statue of former Carlisle favourite Hughie Mcllmoyle, who over three separate spells at the club, scored 91 goals in 189 appearances.

GROUND LAYOUT

Today's Opposition CREWE ALEXANDRA

     It is no secret that I used to be an admirer of this team back in the days of Dario Gradi when the club enjoyed what has been described as the best years of the clubs history.  I can't really do justice with words what the man done for the club taking the team from applying for re-election to the football league every year to a team with promotion ambition.  He was one of the pioneers of the youth academy and has brought some brilliant young talent through the ranks at Crewe and some have gone on to be household names in Premiership football and represent their countries at the very top level. 

     When Dario took to the stands in his new roll of director of football it seemed as though they had found the perfect replacement in Steve Davis although his Crewe side were at the bottom end of the league two table at Christmas the second half of the season couldn't have gone better with the Railwaymen finishing in sixth place and beating Cheltenham 2-0 in the play-off final and earning a place in league one.                            Crewe finished just below mid table in 2012/13 season but managed to win the Johnstone's paint trophy beating Southend 2-0 at Wembley but since that game things haven't gone at all well for the  ex Crewe defender, maybe selling Nick Powell to Manchester United sparked a downslide for the Cheshire team or maybe that the Crewe academy weren't producing the talent that they were during Dario Gradi's reign.  Whatever the reason Crewe avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth for the next two seasons finally succumbing to their fate at the end of last season being relegated to league two weeks before the season's closure.                                                                                       The first season back in league two started well with Crewe reaching the heights of third place in the table in September but then came the trip to Wycombe at the end of the month when Crewe once again showed their frailty and went down 5-1 at Adams Park. Crewe only won two games since that game against Wycombe until the 7th of January when they went to Mansfield and lost 3-0 this was the final straw for Steve Davis who was sacked and another ex player was appointed in the form of David Artell.  This must have been a God send send for the long suffering Crewe fans for Artell has stopped the rot, there have been some set backs like losing 4-0 to Hartlepool and 2-1 at home to Newport but they are showing signs of staying in this league and not ending a long run of English league football history.

CARLISLE UNITED ... 0   CREWE ALEXANDRA ... 2

     On a beautiful sunny day in Cumbria Crewe Alexandra came to Carlisle with ambitions of making their place in league two safe while Carlisle had a dream of at least making the play-offs as their form of lately has deteriorated as once they was looking prime candidates for automatic promotion.

     From the kick off Carlisle came out the traps with gusty causing Crewe some early discomfort and actually had the ball in the back of the net but Jamie Proctor's goal was ruled out for offside. 

     As the half rolled on Crewe slipped out of their shell and began to make a game of it you could see their confidence grow as they pushed for an opening goal their selves as the Cumbrians started to look a little shell shocked.

     Just after the half hour the noisy Crewe supporters had something to bang their drum about as George Cooper played the ball over the Carlisle defence for Callum Cooke who looked suspiciously offside to run on to and sweep the ball past Mark Gillespie for the opening goal.

     Crewe started the second half as they finished the first looking the most likely team and frustration got the better of Snaun Miller five minutes in as he jumped two footed into a tackle with Oliver Turton, the referee took his time but then produced a straight red card to the ex Crewe striker making the Blues task a lot more harder than it was originally.

     The sending off livened Carlisle up a little and began to show the zest they had at the start and they had the ball in the net yet again for the linesman to rule for an infringement against them it really didn't look like their day at all and in the 61st minute came the final nail in their coffin for as they pushed to get the equaliser they left there selves a little thin at the back and Cooper raced passed Luke Joyce on the right and crossed the ball to the back post for Jordan Bowery to tap into an empty net from a couple of yards.

     Cooke should have made it 3-0 in the closing stages but was denied by Gillespie and so the score remained as it did the last time I saw Crewe play at Wembley 2013 in the Johnstone's paint cup final when they beat Southend 2-0. Crewe now look as though they will keep their league two status next season as the gap between them and the drop zone is now 15 points with seven games left, as for Carlisle, they slip out of the play-off places on goal difference to Exeter there is still a chance for them to grab a chance at promotion but they need to turn things around now rather than later.

                         MATCH DETAILS

  

     

        

VENUE #89 MILLWALL The Den

THE DEN

Nearest Railway Station

     South Bermondsey station is at the back of North stand designated to away supporters.  There is a path leading up from the bridge on Bolina Road that takes you directly to the station or so I'm informed.

The Den

      The Club moved the relatively short distance to then was called the New Den after leaving their original Den ground which was their home for 83 years. This was first new major football ground to be constructed in London since before the Second World War. The stadium is made up of four separate two-tiered stands that are of the same height and look fairly similar. On one side is the Barry Kitchener Stand (named after a former player) which has the players tunnel and team dugouts at its front. This simple looking stand, has the same characteristics as both ends with windshields to either side in the upper tier and with the upper tier slightly overhanging the lower tier. The Dockers Stand on the other side, is slightly different having a row of executive boxes running across its middle. Between the East & North Stands in one corner is a large video screen.

     Away fans are located at one end of the ground in the North Stand (usually in the upper tier only). Around 4,000 away fans can be accommodated in this end. Like the general improvement in football, a trip to Millwall is not as threatening as it once was. However, it is hardly a relaxing day out for most people find the Den to be quite intimidating.

Ground Layout

BARRY KITCHENER STAND

DOCKERS STAND

COLD BLOW LANE END

NORTH STAND (away)

Today's Opposition  BURY had a bit of a dodgy start to the season but picked up in the month of September winning six on the bounce but went backwards losing every game in October.

    The shakers are having a revival of form coming into this year beating Peterborough inJanuary and Swindon plus Coventry last month and on Tuesday night entertained Bristol Rovers at the JD stadium winning 3-0 all goals coming in the second half after Rovers were reduced to ten men with the sending off of Stuart Sinclair in the 39th minute.

     Bury before this game were six points clear of the league one drop zone although have played three games more than Port Vale in 21st position and will be trying to avoid defeat again against the Lions after losing 3-2 at the JD at the end of November.

MILLWALL ... 0   BURY ... 0

     Been dreading going to this ground since it was pulled out of the bag last June although I must say people were quite friendly and it wasn't what I was expecting at all.  You got the odd one or two "D" heads but you get that where ever you go in the UK.

     The ground is stunning although the setting could be a bit more pleasing to the eye with small garage work shops strung together down Bolina Road and railway lines at the back of the Dockers stand and the North stand and as you enter via Zampa Road through the railway tunnel which is littered with dismembered cars and such it does make you wonder what kind of an afternoon are you in for.

     The game was very scrappy and looking at the two teams from the heights of the Barry Kitchener stand it seemed to me that The Millwall side looked a lot older than their opponents, older but wiser maybe for they did seem to be more experienced against a quicker more agile Bury side which meant they just cancelled each other out.

     The Lions played long balls over the top of the Shakers defence in hope that Lee Gregory could latch onto one or two but with the outstanding Joe Murphy in goal playing sweeper and heading the ball wide for his defence to mop up the Millwall faithful were getting frustrated and were baying for their team to change tactics which they did trying to use the wings to cross the ball into the box but it was all bread and butter to the Bury back line and keeper.

     Bury had the best chance of the first half with Millwall pushing forward looking for the first goal they left themselves a little light handed at the back and James Vaughan broke through from his own half and was about to strike the ball past Tom King in goal for the Lions when the Millwall skipper Tony Craig made a wonderful last ditched recovery tackle to keep the scores level at half time.

     In the second half with the wind at their backs Millwall looked a much better side keeping the Shakers glued to their own half for the first ten minutes or more but lacking the much needed penetration which the home fans were crying out for.

     Jed Wallace had a fine attempt well saved by Bury's man of the match keeper in the 51st minute and seventeen minutes later Millwall had the ball in the net when a swift counter attack saw Steve Morison played through and the 33 year old striker thought that he had given his side the lead but the linesman's flag was raised ruling the goal to be off side.

     Millwall applied more pressure in the final stages of the game but there was no way that they were going to beat Murphy on this day and so the spoils were shared a point a piece leaving the Lions in seventh place a point behind Southend with two games in hand over them and Bury now in 17th place 4 points clear of the drop zone and with Lee Clark's unbeaten away record in tact.

     One last thing that has to be said WELL DONE MILLWALL for having the best pies in "English" football that I've ever had up to yet.

                          MATCH DETAILS