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.