Up for the Cup, Round 4

This won't take long.

Preston North End came to the CG on a cold and very wet Friday night well organised, seemingly determined not to lose. You can't blame them. How often do a League 1 side get to the 5th Round of the FA Cup? So they were, at worst, trying to get a replay and take us back to Deepdale and dispose of us like they did Ipswich in Round 3. At best, they were hoping to keep us quiet for three quarters of the game then go for a goal. And it nearly worked.

Billy showed that he wanted to progress against his former charges by selecting a strong team. Eric Lichaj came back from injury in place of Dan Harding and Majewski came in for the suspended (the first of two games for 10 yellow cards)Lansbury.

The first half was like attack against defence on the training ground. Forest constantly scythed through the Lillywhites defence and tried to walk the ball into the net. Or simply blasted the ball at the 'keeper or wide the goal altogether. Preston did have two efforts in the first half, from one of which I thought Garner was sure to score, but he put it wide of the goal.

Second half was, at first, somewhat similar. The large crowd, over 26,000, were getting more and more frustrated as Forest continued to carve the Preston defence open without getting into a shooting position. Preston and Forest started to make changes, bringing on attacking players to try and avoid a replay, but it was to no avail. Preston had several speculative long range efforts stopped somehow by Darlow and our attackers contrived to put crosses into the box just for the fun of it as no one was there to tap the ball into the net.

At last it all ended. Preston fans, who were in good heart and voice the whole game, responded to the final whistle as if they had actually won the Cup and Forest fans rushed off to try and find excuses for probably the worst game at the CG this season. Did Preston force us into this display or did we have an off-day? I'm not that bothered one way or the other.

The replay is at Preston on Wednesday, 5 February. There were only two games drawn in the whole of the Fourth Round, so ITV will be taking one replay on Tuesday and BT Sport taking us on the Wednesday which is just as well because we have a game on the Sunday before (against Yeovil) instead of the Saturday as originally scheduled because of, again, the demands of TV, this time Sky. We originally should have played Watford on Wednesday, but Sky wanted to shift the game to Thursday which meant moving the Yeovil game back to Sunday. There is no problem the way things have panned out. The precious players and managers these days moan about fixture congestion, whereas managers of Cloughie's generation would just remark it's better to play than train (or something like that).

Anyway, which ever day it is, I just can't afford to go. We have the Blackpool game on the Saturday 8th and the re-arranged Huddersfield game on the Tuesday, both away.

Incidentally, on the subject of my 92, I didn't manage to get to Fulham when I went to London last year, so I am hoping that we beat Preston and Fulham beat Sheffield United to set up a visit to Craven Cottage. Though if the other result happens I won't be too sad as then we would meet Nigel Clough again, now manager of the Blades having moved on since he was sacked by his former club. Of course, we must beat Preston first, but before that there are two big games in the Championship.

Our first 'double' of the season?

I had hoped the first double of the season would be the Bolton game, but they held out for a draw, so next up was Blackburn Rovers, who we beat 1-0 at Ewood Park thanks to a late goal from Darius Henderson.

Our team has been decimated by injuries this season, but, thanks to a deeper squad than we have had for some years, we have managed to ride the disruptions pretty well. Most areas of the team have been hit with injuries, but the defence, in particular, has had enforced changes every match. We started the season, after the transfer window shut, with four centre halves. Danny Collins and Kelvin Wilson have been absent for much of the time. Kelvin is still out with his back injury, but no sooner did Collins come back into the squad than Jamaal Lascelles, a fine young player, and Jack Hobbs, undoubtedly the aquisition of the Summer, went out with injuries. Hobbs was forced off at Bolton with a slight hamstring strain and Lascelles did not appear for this game. So we had to field Greg Halford in yet another utility role and Danny Collins still not fully match-fit after only 15 minutes game time in a couple of months. They performed admirably.

Since our captain and inspirational player Chris Cohen got injured and forced out for the rest of the season, full back has also been a bit of a problem. However those positions have been very well filled by Gonzalo Jara on the right and Eric Lichaj on the left just lately. However Eric got a knock during the West Ham game, so Dan Harding took his place for the Bolton game and retained it here. The holding midfield position has been shared around recently and today David Vaughan took over from Guy Moussi. Vaughan, when fit, has been first choice for this position since arriving on loan, but has not been fit since Boxing Day. Simon Cox came in up front to fill the position Halford vacated in order to move back into defence.

The visitors created the first chance of the game as Gestede shot across goal in the first couple of minutes. From then on it was all Forest, playing excellent football. Vaughan had a wicked shot from distance pushed away, as did Lansbury. Then Paterson squared for Cox to knock the ball just past the post and Reid put a free kick right on to Halford's head, but the ball went wide.

Forest then were awarded two penalties in 20 minutes. 15 minutes into the game Hanley chased a long through ball with Lansbury and  pushed him in the back. Lansbury went sprawling and referee Deadman pointed to the spot. Soft? Maybe, but the ref gave it and evened up the one given (by another referee, it must be said)  against Jara earlier in the season for handball when it was ball to hand and not the other way about. Anyway, Lansbury teed the ball up and, as is his wont, gave the ball an almighty whack sending right through Eastwood for our first goal of the afternoon. Then 20 minutes later we got another!! This time a nailed on penalty and this time it was Henley and not Hanley who was the guilty party, scything down young Paterson. Lansbury took it again. Where would he put it this time? No need to worry, Eastwood just dived out of the way as the ball whistled into the net straight down the middle.

Job done? Typical Forest, sadly not. They allowed Marshall, late of the Foxes, to curl one in when a corner was not properly cleared. 2-1 at half time.

Shortly after half time Rovers were awarded a free kick on their left. The ball was swung in towards the back post, headed into the middle of the six yard box and diverted towards goal. It looked a certain goal from my seat, but a tremendous acrobatic save from Darlow clawed the ball away from goal and eventually to safety. 2-1 is a dangerous score and the Reds set about trying to increase their lead. First Jara, up with the attack, caught a clearance perfectly, but the ball fizzed just past the post, then Paterson put a short cross on to Cox's head, but he nodded the ball just past the post as well.

Blackburn continued to fashion chances, but after 72 minutes Paterson wriggled through the opposition penalty area and fired the ball back across the goalie and into the Rovers net. Pato's 5th goal in three games. After this there was the usual shuffle of the pack with both sides sending on their three substitutes and the game started to fizzle out. But Andy Reid had other ideas. In added time, the Blackburn defence retreated in front of him so he use the time and space this presented to score with a fine shot into the top corner.  4-1, perhaps a bit unfair on Blackburn, but in every game sides get chances and, if you are under pressure, you must score from these chances otherwise you are likely to get punished and that is what happened to Blackburn Rovers on this visit to the CG.

So we got our double. Because of our success in the last round of the FA Cup, the game we were due to play at Huddersfield next week has been rescheduled for February 11th. This presents a quandary for me as the away game at Blackpool is on the Saturday before. Such is the cost of travel these days (I go everywhere by car because of the need the visit so many other grounds after our league matches) that it will be cheaper to stay in a hotel for a couple of extra days than to drive home then travel up North again. So I look forward to these two games and seven visits to other grounds.

Meanwhile, there is the visit of Preston North End to the CG on Friday as well as two other home games before this trip. We haven't had much success in the Cup for some years, so all our fans will be hoping Billy puts out a strong team and they perform as well as they have been doing recently.

Heading to the Reebok

For the next game it was back to league action with a visit to Bolton Wanderers at their ground The Reebok Stadium. Like many clubs, Bolton found it difficult to transform their Burnden Park ground in the centre of town to an all-seater stadium as required by the Taylor Report, so made the decision to leave Burnden Park after being there for 102 years. They finally moved into the Reebok (named after a sponsor of the club) in Horwich in 1997. Approaching the area from the M61 Motorway, it is difficult to miss the stadium as it dominates the retail parks surrounding it. One other interesting feature to be found on the stadium approach is a striking shiny steel sculpture named the "Spirit of Sport". This tall curved feature looks to be covered with hundreds of shiny steel plates, but actually each plate is engraved with a picture of an individual who has contributed to sport in the area, for instance Sam Allardyce. Situated in the grounds of the stadium are boards detailing exactly who is to be found commemorated on the Spirit of Sport.

The exterior design of the Reebok is quite striking, using the massive steelwork needed to support the stands as a design feature, but once inside it is depressingly similar to so many other new-build stadiums.There are four stands, the lower tier being continuous around the pitch and the four upper tiers having a curious semi-circular appearance. This is a similar style, though on a different scale, to the Emirates or the City of Manchester Stadium (now called the Etihad). Between the tiers are executive boxes running right round the ground.

Away fans are housed in the Franking Sense South Stand and on our visit it quickly became apparent that in a frantic effort to get light to the pitch to allow the grass to grow properly, the architect didn't feel it necessary to extend the roof out to cover all the seats. As a result the front half of the lower tier were in the rain for a few minutes before the match started. Fortunately the rain soon stopped, but it left me wondering why spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar? The Main Stand houses the usual offices, changing rooms etc. One unusual feature of the ground is that there are two player tunnels for the teams to enter the ground. The away team, naturally, uses the south tunnel nearest their fans preceded by the referee and one linesman and the home team enter by the other preceded by the second linesman. An odd set-up and one for which I can find no sensible reason.

Opposite the Main Stand is the Nat Lofthouse Stand, remembering a fine centre forward who played his whole career for The Trotters. He played over 450 games for the club and scored more than 250 goals, a tremendous return. There is also a statue of him in front of the ground.
I remember Nat Lofthouse as one of the 'old fashioned' bustling centre forwards, who do not exist today because of the change of emphasis in the interpretation of the Laws of the Game. Incidentally, the club nickname is another whose origins have been lost in the mists of time.

The game itself was a ding-dong affair, quite open and flowing from end to end. Both sides had chances to score and in the end 1-1 was probably fair to both sides, but, again, it felt as if we had let two points slip from our grasp. The first half ended goalless, but with chances for both teams. At the start of the second half Billy sent on Simon Cox for Abdoun and within minutes he slid a fine ball forward for Jamie Paterson to run on to and lift the ball over Lonergan into the net right in front of delighted Forest fans. A fine goal. Sadly, with 15 minutes to go the Trotters were awarded yet another free kick out on their left and the resulting cross was headed cleanly into our net. I think most Forest fans would have accepted a draw at the start of the match, but having got so near a win, the eventual result was disappointing.

I am learning much about the geography of our country. I had no idea before starting out on this trip that Bolton was so near Manchester. That being so, I determined that this would be the trip that I would visit two giants of the Premier League, Manchester United and Manchester City. Judging from my experiences at other large Premier League grounds I thought the only way I could gain entry to these grounds would be to join an organised tour. However, the best laid plans etc. Owing to the position of these clubs in Manchester I thought a tour of United would be first followed by one at City. However, I could not find space in a tour of Old Trafford until late in the afternoon, no use to me. However, I did manage to reserve a space on the first tour of the day at the Etihad.

So I got up early and drove down to Old Trafford to see Manchester United on a lovely Sunday morning.
My plan was to tour the outside of the ground, then pop into the tour office and ask if they had had a cancellation or space on an official tour of the interior. No luck. But after a short chat at the desk and my usual pleading in these instances, they took pity on me and allowed me upstairs to see if I could charm the more senior tour bosses. These chaps could not have been nicer or more helpful. After I had explained that I really only wanted a quick look at the interior of the ground I was escorted to one of the ritzy executive boxes in the Alex Ferguson Stand to take my snaps and video. An offer was made to take me down to pitchside, but as they had made such an effort to help me and official tour numbers were beginning to build up, I decided that enough was enough. A great start to the day.

Old Trafford is a giant stadium, the biggest football league ground (I use the term to encompase the FL and Premier League) in Britain, but surprisingly, in these days of new-build grounds, it has been the home of Manchester United for over 100 years, since 1910.
The ground has been continuously improved over the years, especially since WWII when it was badly damaged by German bombing. The damage prevented football at the ground from 1941 until games resumed there in 1949, though none of the stands had roofs until one was added to the Main Stand in 1951. During the time the ground was closed, United played their home games at Maine Road, headquarters of their bitter rivals, Manchester City.

Manager during this time was Matt Busby, who instituted a policy of developing home-grown young players; a policy which showed such fine results that during the mid-50s the United team was christened "The Busby Babes". Sadly this fine team was devastated in February 1958, when, returning from a European game, their Airspeed Ambassador failed to take off from Munich airport (slush on the runway prevented the 'plane from reaching take-off speed and they just ran out of runway) and crashed, killing 8 players and injuring several others, including Matt Busby. Many others travelling with the team were killed also. I vividly remember the news of the crash coming through; it is said people remember where they were when JFK died. I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the news that fateful night. There is a modest, but effective memorial on the side of the East Stand, adjacent to the Munich Clock.

Running underneath the South Stand is the Munich Tunnel with a selection of plaques recreating the Busby Babes and the final tragedy. At the end of this stand, high up on the wall, is a plaque honouring Matt Busby, funded by Manchester United supporters worldwide.

Another fine manager of the club was Alex Ferguson, recently retired after being in charge since 1986, winning pretty much everything there was to win. Outside the recently renamed Sir Alex Ferguson Stand there is a statue of the great man and likewise, there is a statue of Sir Matt Busby facing out from the East Stand, looking towards yet another statue, this one of the so-called 'Holy Trinity' of Law, Best and Charlton.


Viewed from the outside, Old Trafford is clearly made up of four separate stands. But when viewed from the inside, the stands are all joined at the corners, presenting a continuous round of seating, much as in the modern day 'bowls'. Above the lower tiers of seating are executive boxes, with varying seating capacities to suit every pocket, stretching right round the pitch. The players come out of the tunnel at the corner of the South Stand and the Stretford End and walk to the dugouts which are raised above pitch level in the centre of the South Stand.

A fine stadium. In fact, Manchester has two of them and it was time for me to be on my way to the other one and take the tour I had booked. My friends at United gave me clear directions to the Etihad Stadium, consisting mainly of "Follow the signs to Sportcity". So I did, until I couldn't see the signs any more. As usual I was lost, but I soon found my way round the Ring Road and approached from a different direction.

Actually, it is no longer the Sportcity, but the Etihad Campus. However, as the City of Manchester Stadium is owned by the Council (City only have a 250 year lease on the ground) so I suppose the signs can say whatever the Council wants them to say. It is interesting that all the fire alarms in the stadium have the instruction to tell the fire service that the location is the City of Manchester Stadium and not the Etihad Stadium. I think it now is the Etihad Campus because the club are building a great training complex just behind the club superstore to the North of the ground.

The stadium was originally built as the centre-piece to the various venues required to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games. So City moved to the ground in 2003 after making changes to the layout of the stadium. As used in the Games, the running track extended out beyond where the North and South Stands are now, so one alteration was to bring those stands closer to the football pitch. Then, to increase the number of spectators that can be accommodated, the roof couldn't be raised, so the pitch was lowered 6 metres to allow another tier of spectators. The ground now holds about 48,000 fans in four stands. Though the ground is a bowl from the outside with the lower tiers of seating being continuous around the pitch, the upper tiers are to be found only in the Colin Bell Stand and the East Stand.
This is because the roof line has a distinct waving curve dipping down at each end of the ground. At each corner of the pitch, above the line of executive boxes which stretch round the entire ground, there are moveable louvres which can be regulated to allow a flow of air over the pitch to keep the grass in the best possible condition.  In common with many pitches these days the grass is combined with a small quantity of fibres to allow for optimum playing conditions throughout the season.

One oddity is that the away team coach follows a road which dips under the concourse surrounding the ground and, by way of a service tunnel, allows the staff and players to enter the stadium directly into the basement area containing the changing rooms etc.

Inside the players tunnel there is a wall of commemorative plaques on each side remembering players and fans alike, named the Walk of Pride. For instance, there is one near to the pitch to Marc-Vivien Foe who died whilst playing for Cameroon. In his honour the club also withdrew his squad number 23. It is said that when Carlos Tevez requested number 23 as his squad number, he was informed that the number was unavailable, so he switched to number 32.

Outside the players tunnel, the players and staff sit in splendidly upholstered seats starting at pitch level either side of the tunnel. Though only the home manager has a heated seat. In the tunnel and at various points throughout the changing rooms and player's preparation area (where they warm up on exercise mats and bikes etc) there are atomic clocks showing the time to the exact second, which were installed because City were once a few seconds behind the exacting schedule set by UEFA for it's European Cup games and were fined for the transgression.

After a very interesting and informative tour I left to drive home. I had intended to drive down the M6 and divert to Walsall to see if there was less of a hubbub at the Banks's Stadium than there was last time I visited (then the Christmas market was in full flow). However the weather clamped down and low cloud and rain prevented another visit.

Much has been made recently about the owner of Hull City planning to change the name of the club to Hull Tigers, mainly, I think, for business opportunities in the Far East. It did occur to me that most of the clubs I have visited so far this season have changed their name at one time or another during their history. Though, it must be said, most did so quite early during their history and not recently. The most recent I can think of is Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic changing their name to AFC Bournemouth in 1972, though in fact they are still officially registered as Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic.

One club which has never changed it's name, in it's 149 year history, is Nottingham Forest.

Up for the Cup, Round 3

When the draw for the Third Round of the FA Cup was made, it was sort of inevitable that we would draw West Ham as my son-in-law is an avid Hammer with a Season Ticket in the Bobby Moore Stand. We decided we would attend the match together.


However as the game drew nearer and West Ham suffered a few reverses in the league, his ardour decreased. Then, when Big Sam declared that he was going to field his Under 21 team, his desire completely vanished. And I don't blame him. Sam had a choice, Premier League survival, try to win their League Cup semi-final v. Man City or a third round against Forest? No contest, put out his best team against us, get a senior player seriously injured and their fans would be in an uproar.


So they arrived at the CG with a few bit part first teamers plus some promising youngsters. Billy fielded a fairly strong Forest team for the game which, for some strange reason, was being shown on ITV. We don't usually do well on TV, but this time we bossed the game from start to finish.


The first half was gentle pressure from Forest being resisted stoutly by West Ham's mostly young defence, though they were marshalled by Diarra, a French International player with 44 caps to his name. After 12 minutes a promising attack by Forest resulted in Moncur upending Jamie Paterson in the box for a nailed-on penalty. After several penalty misses earlier in the season, Lansbury had decisively scored from the spot against Brighton and so I think most Forest supporters were expecting him to take the kick. Abdoun rushed up, grabbed the ball, refused to let go and after a furious argument with both Reid, our captain, and Lansbury, it was decided he would take the kick. He took a terrific run up to the ball, then stopped and placed a cheeky dink right down the middle as Adrian in the West Ham goal threw himself to the right. You can imagine the uproar there would have been if he had failed to score with that type of kick after such a kerfuffle with his team mates. As it was he celebrated with himself and the crowd, not many of the team bothered to enthusiastically embrace him.


There were other chances to increase the lead, but it stayed at 1-0 to the interval. Afterwards, both Forest and West Ham had chances, but Forest soon doubled their lead. Jamie Paterson this time scored himself, dribbling into the area and shooting across Adrian into the corner of the goal. It was all Forest now and the youngster had his second five minutes later, knocking a deflected shot into the net after a pass by Lansbury.


West Ham were working Darlow in the Forest goal on sporadic attacks, but Paterson then scored his third goal in 14 minutes by dribbling across the area and cracking the ball into the corner of the West Ham net. A hat-trick for the youngster in front of the Trent End, it doesn't get much better. The final goal came from an attack down the left by Abdoun, who put it on a plate for Reid to pop the ball into the top corner of the net for an emphatic 5-0 score line.


I think it was worse than Big Sam had envisaged and the fact that West Ham had played so many youngsters took a bit of the shine off the win for many Forest fans. So nobody was happy. Nevertheless, Forest went into the hat for the 4th Round and came out with another home tie, against Ipswich or Preston. The replay was at Deepdale and Preston won 3-2, so we meet Billy's former team on Friday 24th January. Yes, Friday evening. Apparently Notts have a home game on Saturday so we have had to switch.

A Happy New Year?

On New Year's Day we played away at Reading at their Madejski Stadium. Reading used to play at Elm Park, but after the Hillsborough tragedy it was decided that grounds for clubs in the top divisions would have to be all-seater. Reading could not rebuild Elm Park to the new specifications, so in 1998, moved to a new stadium just off the M4 Motorway to the South of Reading on the site of an old household waste disposal dump. The ground is still surrounded by methane vents. (I have resisted all jokes).


When moving to a new location, club's often agonise long and hard about an appropriate name for their new ground. Reading avoided all these problems, John Madejski named it after himself.

The stadium is of a bowl-type construction, with three of the stands being of single tiered and the Main Stand (or West Stand) is two tiers with a row of executive boxes dividing the tiers.
This stand is also connected to the hotel/conference centre which also forms part of the Madejski. The ground is surrounded by retail and commercial premises, and is shared by a rugby union club, London Irish.


Reading had not been in good form, sliding down the table to ninth position. So it looked good for Forest to notch a third straight festive win. Reading came to the CG at the end of November, catching us cold in the first few minutes by going 2-0 up. Eventually we pegged them back to 2-2, but then, despite our domination of the second half, they snatched a breakaway third goal to win the game. Revenge would have been nice.


Forest made two changes to the side for this game. Nate Chalobah was selected ahead of Radi Majewski and Jamie Paterson came in for the 'injured' Abdoun (apparently he tweeted later that he was fatigued after a run of games!). So Greg Halford continued to deputise for our strikers and, blow me, on the 36th minute he scored again. Again with a header and again from an Andy Reid free kick. The match had been pretty poor until then and continued in that vein until the break.


In the second half, the Reds should have been out of sight. Misses from Derbyshire (twice when clear on goal), Lichaj and Lansbury were to be regretted. Because with 5 minutes of injury time nearly up, Reading scored with a header from a free kick to earn a point their general play did not deserve, but it's goals that win matches and we spurned several good chances.


The match was most notable for me because of the appalling weather both before and during the match. The country had been ravaged by a series of depressions sweeping in from the Atlantic bringing both high winds and damaging rain. There were flood alerts all over the country. Before the match the weather was so bad, for the first time this season, I had been unable to photograph the exterior of the ground before the game. Fortunately the stadium construction meant the wind was not a factor during the game and we were protected from the rain throughout.


Disappointing, that game was definitely two points dropped. Feeling slightly deflated, I made my way to see my friends who live in Reading. They had been friends of ours for years and have been most supportive since my wife died. I spent a very pleasant evening catching up with them, then in the morning set out to visit several more grounds.

First on my agenda was Adams Park, home of Wycombe Wanderers FC. This is another ground shared with a rugby union club, in this case Wasps RFC. Wycombe were founded in the 19th century, but retained amateur status for many years and it was only during the latter part of the 20th century that they embraced professionalism and began to make their way up the football pyramid. Their previous home Loakes Park was sold in 1990 to the local health authority, finance which enabled Adams Park to be built. The freehold of Loakes Park was purchased by Frank Adams, a former player for Wanderers, in 1945 and donated to the club, and Adams Park was so named in his honour. The gates at Loakes Park were transferred to Adams Park and now open out onto a beautiful verdant area of ground adjacent to the ground. In fact the whole area around the ground is fine open country, except for the approach to the ground, which is through the commercial architecture of the Sands Industrial Estate.


I sought entry to the ground by chatting to the young man in charge of the Information Desk. He could not have been more helpful, obtaining permission for me to enter the ground and then directing me to the correct gateway. There are four separate stands round the pitch.
The biggest and most impressive is the Frank Adams stand on the far side of the pitch, which almost seems built into the wooded hillside. Despite the Frank Adams stand dominating the ground, the Main Stand is actually opposite, housing the changing rooms and the dugouts. At one end of the ground is the Dreams Stand, a fine single tier all-seater stand which houses away fans. Behind the far goal is the Greene King IPA Terrace.


There have, apparently, been plans to move from Adams Park because of the insistence of the local council  on a cap on attendance figures at Adams Park, but there seems little movement on these proposals at present.


I continued on my sweep around the Thames Valley and the Cotswolds as I made my way to Oxford United FC. The team were original called Headington United, but no one knew where that was, so they changed the name to the more internationally known Oxford United in 1960. Oxford have been up and down through the leagues since being elected to the Football League in 1962. They suffered financial problems, too, and once, at the whim of Robert Maxwell, almost being merged with Reading to become the Thames Valley Royals. Possibly a sound business idea, but a no-go idea to football fans. Oxford United won the League Cup in 1986 and when they were relegated from the Football League in 2006 they were the first former winners of a major trophy to lose their league status. They have a bitter rivalry with Swindon Town.

Their ground is odd in that there are only three stands round the pitch. The West End remaining open with a fine view of the bowling alley and cinema complex also owned by the present owner of the Kassam  Stadium, Firoz Kassam. Mr Kassam was the owner and chairman of Oxford, but sold the club in 2006 whilst retaining the ownership of the ground. Thus United are only tenants at the ground. The stands look fairly uniform except that the main stand is double tiered with a row of executive boxes along the middle. The plain concrete facia above these boxes is decorated by yellow and blue plaques with dates denoting the major events in the history of Oxford United. The club colours are yellow and blue. There is a statue of an ox outside the west end of the ground.

This is another ground shared with a rugby club, in this case London Welsh. Oxford United have the walls from the dressing rooms to the pitch tunnel lined with plaques decorated with a record of every player who has ever played for the club in the Football League. I was given a personal guided tour of the ground by a member of staff, another friendly gesture which was very much appreciated. In fact, this friendly personal approach was noticeable on my tour round these grounds.


The first three grounds of my latest odyssey were relative new builds, named after an individual and shared with a rugby club. My next ground is older, has a name derived from sponsorship naming rights, but does share with a rugby club. Whaddon Road or, to give it the latest name, Abbey Business Stadium is home to Cheltenham Town FC, known as the Robins, and shared with Gloucester City RFC. It has a four separate stands, with a mixture of terracing and seating, which were built between 1963 (the Main Stand) and 2005.

The Main Stand built down one side of the pitch doesn't extend the length of the pitch, but nevertheless houses the changing rooms, the directors box and other hospitality areas. It has seating in the upper tier and terracing on the lower. There are four floodlight pylons, the two at either end of the LMI Stand being notable because they also support mobile phone aerials. The ground was first developed in 1927, but didn't play host to League football until the Robins gained promotion to the FL in 1999.


As usual, I hunted round the ground for help. No one was to be found in the main stand offices, but I chanced upon a very nice gentleman tending to the ticket office, located in a portable building next to a locked gate. He very kindly sought out the key for this gate and let me into the ground with instructions to report back when I exited the pitch area. I had a pleasant wander round the ground in the sunshine.

Like pretty much all grounds these days, Whaddon Road, though with a capacity of only about 7,000, is very neat and tidy and the pitch is very well-kept. Not at all like the grounds I knew as a youngster;  dangerous terraces covered with, if they had a roof at all, rusty corrugated iron  surrounding a thick, muddy pitch. I remember going to Carrow Road, home of Norwich City,  in the late 1950s and standing on the terracing in the area which is now the fine Jarrold/South Stand. The weather was fine at the start of the game, but when the rain began to pour down, it became obvious that there was a hole in the corrugated iron roof and I got soaked.  Today's grounds have family enclosures, decent food outlets, safety stewards and a welcoming atmosphere. I looked around Whaddon Road, took my photos and left after reporting to the kind gentleman in the ticket office.


Final stop of the trip (actually, not quite) was the County Ground, home of Swindon Town FC, also known as the Robins because for many years they have played in variations of red and white kit. One of the joys of getting to the County Ground is negotiating the Magic Roundabout. This is a roundabout consisting of five mini-roundabouts, one at each of the roads entering/leaving it. Quite off-putting until you get the hang of it all; I, of course, took time to adjust which meant I had to have three attempts to find the County Ground car park!! Mind you, it wasn't altogether clear where the car park was in relation to the rest of the ground.



The ground has been home to Swindon since 1896, when Thomas Arkell (of the brewery) financed the erection of a stand on what was then known as the Wiltshire County Ground. The ground has been modernised since then, of course, particularly since the Taylor report on the Hillsborough disaster which in fact influenced many clubs to rebuild their stadiums or to move home entirely. The Main Stand is the Arkell's Stand, built in 1971 with extra seating added in 1992, which houses club offices, changing rooms, players tunnel etc. Facing this is the Don Rogers Stand, built in 1994 and named after probably the club's most famous player. He scored two goals in the League Cup win in 1969 against the mighty Arsenal, 3-1. I had the pleasure of meeting him just after he was transferred to Crystal Palace in 1972 when we had a few memorable evenings together in Teheran, but that's another story.

The stands at either end of the pitch are small single tier stands. The Town End is notable for having one of the floodlight pylons rising through it's roof and the Stratton Bank is notable for not having a roof at all. The Stratton Bank has a small electronic message board at the rear and also a Rolex timepiece, said to be the only one at a football ground.


I wandered round the ground and was unable to find anyone to show me the pitch area. Eventually I found a couple of young ladies sorting out some kit in the club shop. I asked how I could contact someone with a view to getting a few photos of the ground. To my delight, I was ushered through a door at the rear ( a bit like Alice Through the Looking Glass) and found myself in the ground!! Oh, joy. I pottered around taking my videos and snaps whilst the young lady shivered in a corner determined not to let me out of her sight. It was a beautiful sunny day, but frosty with it. I thought it best not to prolong her agony and soon retired back into the shop. This example of kindness was outstanding. She had no need to help, but wanted me to see her club. I have come across friendly, helpful people time and again during my journey and it is uplifting to find so many willing to go that extra mile to accommodate me.


I'm truly thankful to all who make my trips so memorable.


I left the County Ground feeling happy at having fitted so much into my day, particularly as the day before in Reading the weather had been so foul. In fact, Swindon was not my last stop. I was driving home on the M4 past Reading and planned to divert to the Madejski Stadium to take the photos of the exterior the rain had prevented me from taking the day before.

This I did and then set sail for Suffolk and home. A terrific couple of days, marred only by that late, late goal preventing another away win for the Reds.

Christmas Crackers, part two.

Our second game in the days between Christmas and New Year was again at home, this time against Leeds United. There are two compelling reasons why Forest and Leeds fans might not like each other.


The miner's strike of the mid-eighties was very divisive as the union members of Nottingham and Yorkshire decided to go their separate ways, leading to wide-spread antipathy between Nottingham and Yorkshire clubs. I note this most particularly between Forest and Barnsley fans. The other big reason is the arrival and subsequent great success of Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest. Cloughie didn't think much of the team Don Revie had built at Leeds, in fact, he later wrote "Leeds had been the dirtiest and most cynical team in the country in the late Sixties and early Seventies..". Clough had been a great success as manager at Derby County (together with Peter Taylor) and Leeds wanted some of that magic to carry their team to greater heights when Revie left to manage the England team. So in July 1974 Leeds United appointed Brian Clough as their manager, despite his well-known views which he continued to make during the early days of his tenure, and forty four days later sacked him. In January 1975 he was shaking hands with the committee of Nottingham Forest as their new manager, to be joined later by his mate Peter Taylor. Just over four years later Forest were celebrating winning the European Cup, an astonishing rise.


Leeds arrived at the CG in a fine run of form, almost matching that of Forest, which had taken them to sixth place in the Championship, just one place and one point below Forest. This meant we faced another very tough game, just three days after the last one. Nevertheless, Billy Davies opted to keep the same team with just one change. On loan David Vaughan was unfit and his place was taken by Radi Majewski. Forest got the first blow in straight after the kick off, almost literally. The ball was timidly played back to Paddy Kenny in the Leeds goal. He raced out and Halford raced forward. From my position Halford appeared to reach the ball first with Kenny careering into him. However, Kenny was slightly injured and the referee decided that in fact Halford had fouled the Leeds man. The injury prevented the 'keeper from taking goal kicks for the rest of the match.


Forest dominated the first half in front of a large crowd, going ahead on 25 minutes with a header from our stop-gap centre forward. Reid crossed a free kick from the left and Halford headed across Kenny and into the net in front of an ecstatic Trent End. As usual, as the half went on we spurned numerous chances to increase the lead.


The second half was more even, but Forest had more clear cut chances which they didn't take. Most notable was a neat ball from Chalobah (on as a sub) to give Reid a clear shot at goal, which hit the post and went out. Of course, on 83 minutes the almost inevitable happened. Leeds broke down their right and the ball was squared across the six yard box to no one in particular. Lascelles, our fine young centre half, reached it first and hooked the ball away. He only succeeded in hitting the goalkeeper Darlow; the ball spun away to McCormack, lurking a few yards away and he had no problem tucking the ball into the net. Needless to say, Leeds were delighted at this unexpected present.


At times like this fans have visions of their team going straight down the field from the kick off and scoring. And, blow me, that is just what happened. Lansbury, having a wonderful season, pushed the ball forward to Chalobah. He slid the ball straight into the path of the fast-moving Derbyshire and, like a bullet, the ball was past Kenny and into the net for the winner. Delirium.  It was a goal that our lads deserved for another tremendous win, 2-1.


So the second three point haul over Christmas and another step onwards towards at least a playoff place and, possibly, fingers crossed, touch wood and all that, automatic promotion.

Christmas Crackers, part the first.

The Christmas games come thick and fast every year and this one was certainly no exception. We played at Birmingham City on Saturday 21st, then again at home to QPR on Boxing Day (an evening kick off because of TV) followed three days later by Leeds Utd (again at home). Two days after those tough games there was an away game at Reading on New Years Day quickly followed by the 3rd Round FA Cup game versus West Ham United of the Premier League. Five games in 15 days against teams either challenging for promotion to the Premier League or actually in it. I was exhausted just watching, I don't know how the players coped!!


Anyway, down to business. QPR came down from the top league with an array of talented players on very high wages, so it was inevitable that some would go in the summer. However, a good few stayed and they are pretty much everyone's team to go straight back up again this season. We did have a couple of bits of luck prior to this match; Joey Barton, somewhat surprisingly, got sent off in the previous match so was suspended and Charlie Austin, high scoring striker, came down with an injury before the game, so he, too, was out.


Henderson was sent off at Birmingham and was suspended and Simon Cox was ill. Judging we needed a tall striker, Billy sent Greg Halford, our favourite utility man, up as Hendo's replacement. Chris Cohen is a long term absentee because of his injury and Dan Harding was dropped, so we needed two full backs, as Greg had been right back for the last game. Jara and Lichaj came in, two very fine players. We started the game well and never really let up. Halford was figuring amongst most of our good moves, one outstanding solo effort resulted in him bursting past Richard Dunne and coming face to face with Rob Green. Sadly Green just managed to get a foot to the ball and keep it out. However, Halford soon managed to score the goal his play merited. Abdoun, having a fine game on either wing ( our wingers alternate) broke down the right, expertly tricked the QPR defence and centred right onto Halford's head. And Greg made no mistake, 1-0 to the famous team.


It was a lead we never looked likely to lose. Rangers tried hard, switching from one expensive forward player (Zamora) to another (Johnson) at half time, but to no avail. JJ (Jermaine Jenas, a product of our academy who left us for Spurs some time ago) was one player to test our goalkeeper with a couple of fine efforts, but Karl Darlow was equal to all that was fired at him.


It looked as if we were, once again, not going to get the second goal our fine play deserved and we would, once again, spend the last quarter of the match gnawing our finger nails down waiting for the final whistle in an agony of apprehension. Then, lo and behold, with ten minutes to go, we were the recipients of a refereeing decision which could easily have gone the other way. Abdoun, juggled the ball near his own corner flag (just because he could, I suppose, there was no one near him) and then sent a raking pass up to Halford just over the centre line on the left hand side. Halford was tousling with his marker and appeared to flick the ball on. Reid was running forward and would have been offside if Halford had connected with the ball, thus the lino on the BC Stand side put his flag up immediately. However, Halford had not touched the ball and as Reidy was onside at the time Abdoun put up the original pass, Halford immediately ran to the referee gesticulating furiously that he had indeed not touched the ball. The referee must have also seen this as he correctly waved play on.


Now, it is clearly drilled in to all players at a very young age that you must play to the referee's whistle. QPR players neglected this fine piece of advice and stopped running. Even the 'keeper Green made little effort to stop Reid's shot which rolled into the far corner of his goal in front of a delighted Trent End. Of course, such a contentious decision was going to spark all out complaints from the QPR players. The referee briefly consulted his assistant, but stuck by his original decision, 2-0 to us and game over.


The first part of a post-Christmas double-header against fellow promotion chasers successfully completed.