. . . and the Silver Lining

Our next game was away at Leicester City at their King Power stadium. I for one have always wondered about the value to the advertisers of sponsoring sporting stadiums or tournaments. The problem for me is that half the time I have no idea what the sponsor does during their working day. No peeking, but what do King Power do? After a while the name just becomes the name of the stadium and not that of the sponsor. Arsenal play at the Emirates just as they used to play at Highbury; does anyone stop to think that Emirates is an airline and not just the name of a football ground.

I had decided to visit the grounds of Coventry City and Peterborough United on this trip. Planning for my visits was completed before Coventry had a final falling out with whoever they were falling out with. Thus, when the season began, it was decided that City were going to play their 'home' games at Northampton's Sixfields Stadium which I had already visited. I stuck to my original plan, just in case Coventry move back to the Ricoh Arena in the near future.

Thus I arrived in Coventry on a gloomy Saturday morning, fortunately a bit drier than the forecasters had predicted. I had the idea that because City were not at the Ricoh that the arena would be like a ghost town. Indeed, it looked that way from the car park.

 Not so, though.  Much goes on at the Ricoh and Coventry City FC are (or were) just one part of those events. The whole place consists of one large stadium and a smaller, but still imposing, building connected by an atrium running the width of the arena. There is, as is the fashion these days, a hotel built in as well.

I put the car in the car park noting the imposing list of charges. Free for the first half an hour, I might get away with it. I wandered around the whole ground. Past the memorial garden and a very impressive Sky Blues Wall of Fame, with names of well known players of past times above more memorial plaques.

One such player is Ernie Hunt, a former England Under 23 international, who I had the pleasure of meeting in Bermuda whilst he playing for Coventry. He was in Bermuda to play in a three way tournament between Coventry City, Southampton and West Ham United. The games had actually been arranged in honour of West Ham's Clyde Best, a native Bermudan. Ernie Hunt scored one of the most well-known goals in English football whilst at Coventry. In 1970, during a game shown on Match of the Day, Willie Carr  flicked the ball up from a free kick and Ernie volleyed it in the net. The so-called donkey kick was outlawed very soon after.

As I completed my round of the arena, I noticed an open door and, ever one to explore, I entered, despite the warning about alarms and CCTV. A staircase was in front of me. Up and up I went, my old legs creaking. I got to the top and found all doors locked so had to retrace my steps. As I emerged into the fresh air some young ladies obviously connected to the stadium came out of another door. I asked if they could accompany me around inside the stadium. Sadly they had other duties, but directed me to a young man at reception who might be able to help. And help he did.

After a few minutes to organise reinforcements, he took me up and around the footballing stadium inside the Ricoh Arena. It was strange to see the stadium set out for football with the usual names and initials picked out on the sky blue seats and goal nets ready for use, but, in the middle of the season, no pitch markings.

It was an unexpected pleasure to get in to see the ground and I was truly grateful to my young guide.

On the way to the car, I passed the statue to "Mr Coventry" Jimmy Hill. As usual with these footballing statues, it looked only vaguely like the great man. The car parking system in place at the Ricoh is to collect a ticket on arrival and pay at a pay station before departure. I had run well over my free half an hour because of the visit inside the Ricoh and thought I had run well over the hour mark too, incurring an additional and much higher charge. Oh well, at least I had achieved more than I expected. To my delight, the pay station only charged me for the hour. The day was getting better and better.

To increase my feeling of well-being the sun now came out as I made my way up the M69 to Leicester. A quick stop for petrol and the loo and I set about finding my way to the planned parking spot so carefully selected from Google maps. My direction finding is usually pretty poor, but this day I knew I was heading in the right direction as I was right behind the Forest team bus! However, they soon lost me at a set of traffic lights and anyway, I had to turn off the main road to my parking spot. Then things started to get even better. The little plaques denoting parking restrictions had been taped over allowing free parking only 5 minutes walk from the ground. Obviously a move regularly used by the authorities on football days and a very welcome one for the traveller not used to local restrictions.

I made my way to the ground, noting on the way that some very enterprising individual had converted their canal boat into the "Barge Burger" and moored it close to a bridge almost next to the ground.

The King Power stadium, like the Cardiff City stadium being next to the old Ninian Park ground, is adjacent to the old Filbert Street ground which City moved out of in time for the 2002 season. It is a bowl type ground exactly like most others except for detail embellishments. In fact I might almost have been back in the Ricoh Arena when inside. As is my wont, I wandered about outside before the game. There was a great police presence outside the ground, with officers having their riot helmets attached to their belts!! I thought those days had gone, but this was a high profile East Midlands derby, so I suppose it was as well they were taking precautions. Though, it has to be said, present day Forest fans don't really see much rivalry with Leicester City. As the next day was Remembrance Sunday, it was fitting that I found the Garden of Remembrance in a quiet corner of the grounds next to the river bank. In contrast to the noisy and boisterous behaviour all around the ground as kick off grew nearer, there was an air of peace and contemplation in this quiet corner, commemorating not only our fallen in conflicts, but those of a more peaceable nature who just loved their football.

The seat rows of the King Power are sharply raked making for good viewing and there is only one tier of seating all around the ground. I found my seat in one corner of the ground, but high enough up to have a good view of the whole pitch. Not that I was to use that seat much as we spent the entire match standing. Leicester City pride themselves on being in the forefront of Remembrance celebrations and today was no different. The match ball was delivered by helicopter and there were many members of the military and other organisations taking part in a parade along side the pitch both before the game and at half time. The players wore T-shirts emblazoned with large poppies during their warm-up before the game and broke off from these exertions to pass their T-shirts to members of the crowd. There was a short ceremony on the pitch before the game when the Last Post was played, a moment when I always feel most emotional.

According to the form book, Leicester should have had the game sewn up. They were on a winning streak and were second in the League. Forest had suffered a dip in form and dropped to 6th in the table. Playing away to the form team seemed like an insurmountable hurdle. Sure enough,  City pressed hard during the opening half an hour, but, no matter how hard they tried, their efforts were thwarted, both by good defending or poor finishing. Then, on 32 minutes the Forest end went wild. An attack down our right involved some fine passing and resulted in young Paterson trying a shot on goal. This was blocked but in the resultant scrimmage,  Jamie Mackie prodded the ball out to Simon Cox who thumped it into the net.  Raucous celebrations ensued. More Leicester pressure came to nothing, then came the killer blow. More pressure down the Forest right wing, with the ball finally taken on by Lansbury whose shot brought out the best from the Leicester goalie. From the resultant corner Forest scored their second and deciding goal. Lascelles headed down, Lansbury had another shot blocked. The ball broke to Mackie who fired into the far top corner. This was  3 minutes before the interval and we kept our 2-0 advantage until the break.

After half time, Halford came on for Lascelles and it seemed certain that Billy would batten down the hatches and we would see it out. The fans were in fine voice and kept up a barrage of noise. This was silenced midway into the second half when David Vaughan challenged Drinkwater on the edge of the area and the Leicester man dropped like a stone to gain a debateable penalty. Nugent calmly stepped up and put the ball over the bar. Even greater hysteria from the Forest faithful. And that was that. A couple more efforts from Leicester, but it was really all over.

The weekend surely could not get better.

Sunday morning was a glorious, crisp and sunny,  morning. I was to drive to Peterborough United, due East straight into the low winter sun. I arrived in Peterborough with no alarums and found the ground easily enough, having visited for matches a couple of times.

London Road is an old stadium, having been built before the present incarnation of the football club which was formed in 1934. The Posh, their nickname, were in the Midland League up to 1960 when they were elected to the old Fourth Division. I remember seeing them several times at The Walks in the 50s, when they played King's Lynn.

Thus their ground is old and, quite frankly, looks it.

The two stands at either end of the ground are still terraced. The Main Stand is all-seated and houses the changing rooms and players tunnel. However, the South Stand is a grand affair with two tiers separated by executive boxes. I arrived at the ground to find the usual car boot sale going on. I also noted as I parked up, several minibuses in the car park and what appeared to be recruitment of casual labour going on. The car boot sale occupied most of the gravel area which is normally used as a car park on match days and stretched down the side of the ground entirely preventing access to the sides and end of the ground. I had a word with the chaps guarding the gate, but they insisted on charging me to enter despite my protestations that I was only photographing the ground and would be out in five minutes. Their attitude annoyed me intensely and after a few words I left them.

On previous visits to London Road I had walked around the ground and knew that there were gates down the residential roads running behind the ground. Perhaps I could peep in through those. I set off, past the hand car wash and pub and other commercial establishments shielding the ground from London Road itself. I wandered down Glebe Road and found a gate open behind the South Stand, which in turn led me right into the ground. Just the job; my perfect weekend was back on track.

A few moments spent wandering round was enough to satisfy my interest. Because the two terraced stands at each end of the pitch look almost identical, I had originally mistakenly identified the London Road terrace as the away end. I soon sorted that out, once inside the ground.

Photographs and video taken I melted quietly away after this lucky find, back through the gate to my car and home. For a keen Nottingham Forest supporter travelling around and combining visiting all 92 grounds with this season's away games, it is difficult to think how the weekend could have been bettered.