Overall 207 Conference 16/24

Tamworth V Woking 20th April 2013

The Lamb Ground

Tamworth Football Club is an English football club based in Tamworth, Staffordshire. The club participates in the Conference National, the fifth tier of English football. The club were formed in 1933 after the previous Tamworth club, Tamworth Castle, ceased to exist. They originally played at The Jolly Sailor Ground but after a year moved into The Lamb Ground. Local rivals include Burton Albion and Nuneaton Town, and to a lesser degree Atherstone Town, Bedworth United and Bolehall Swifts. The team are currently managed by Dale Belford.

The Lamb Ground is a football stadium in the district of Kettlebrook, in Tamworth, England and the home of Tamworth F.C. It is approximately half a mile south of Tamworth railway station. The ground was named after "The Lamb Inn", which stood for many years at the entrance to what is now the ground's car park. The first known use of the site was as a pig farm at the turn of the 19th century. Before Tamworth arrived at The Lamb Ground it is believed that Kettlebrook Oakfield F.C. used the ground. In those early days, players had to change in the Lamb Inn and run down to the pitch, but facilities have been slowly built up to include changing rooms and a clubhouse, as well as 'cover' and seating for spectators.

After leaving Bolehall Swifts I arrived at the ground at 1700 and parked up in the main car park for £2 after buying a programme and a shirt from the shop I entered the ground via the home turnstiles paying the £14 for a seat in the stand.

Tamworth didn't wait for results elsewhere to go their way this afternoon, they went out and did the job they had to do at the Lamb. A 2-1 win ensured the club stayed in the Conference for next season, the second time Dale Belford had led the Lambs to last-day success in the fight against the drop. Things did not start so well for the Lambs, though, as after making a bright start, in which they could have earned a penalty when Lee Hendrie went down in the 15th minute, the Lambs went behind on 20 minutes. The goal came after a corner on the right hand side, one that Richard Tait got his head to, but only managed to divert it to Jayden Stockley who headed home from the far side of the penalty area.that lead came out of the blue. It was to only last 16 minutes as Tom Marshall pulled some magic out of the hat to relight the Lamb crowd ten minutes before the break. The defender showed all the class and calmness of a seasoned centre-forward as he pulled down the ball on the edge of the area and curled it round the last defender and in the far post past the diving Aaron Howe. They were rewarded for their efforts in the 60th minute when Hendrie, who was denied a spot-kick in the first-half, got one in the second, the Tamworth number eight brought down by Mike Cestor.

Adam Cunnington stepped up and slammed home the resulting penalty to give Tamworth a deserved lead with half hour remaining.

Tamworth sat-back after the goal, safe in the knowledge that the result was enough to keep them in the division this season. No risks were taken, no quarter was given at the other end, the Lambs players did what was needed to ensure that the result stayed a positive one. at the end of the game there was a mass pitch invasion as the Tamworth fans celebrated a win that kept them safe in the Conference for another season.

This was Probably the 3 time I have seen Tamworth play and the tall number 7 Adam Cunnington is a fantastic player add that to the former England Midfielder Lee Hendrie and with Darren Byfield and Tommy Wright there is plenty of skill there and experience too.

Division:- Conference

Ticket Price £14

Programme £2.50

Parking £2

Attendance 1509

Score 2-1

Match Day Photo Album

Overall #206

Bolehall Swifts F.C V Racing Club Warwick

Saturday 20th April 2013 Rene Road Ground

Bolehall Swifts Football Club are a football club based in Tamworth suburb of Bolehall, Staffordshire, England. They were established in 1953 and joined the Midland Combination in 1980, currently playing in that league's Premier Division, having spent two years in the Midland Football Alliance in the mid-1990s. Bolehall Swifts were founded in 1953, and took their name from its estate, and that of two local teams who were successful in the area, and the birds which by coincidence came every summer to fly high above its original headquarters "The Amington Inn".

he club plays at the Rene Road Ground, the pitch facilities boast an all-seated "WELCOME TO BOLEHALL SWIFTS STAND" and the "FOUNDED 1953 STAND" opposite the dressing rooms. Metal fencing, replaced roped off areas and season 2008/09 the Football Committee raised funds to concrete entrance and standing areas all around the ground. The Floodlights were officially opened some years ago by Mark Hughes then of Manchester United. New dressing rooms were built nearer the pitch with other social facilities enclosed. These too have been vastly improved in recent seasons by the Football Club.

After Leaving the other half and the Kids in the Hotel in Coventry I made my way up to Tamworth past the Ricoh Arena and towards the M42. Rene Road is discreetly tucked in behind a school so be careful not to miss it. At the back of the open ground is the West Coast Mainline close to Tamworth Station. I paid £4 to get in I think might have been £5.

Former Tamworth striker Troy Wallen was seeing a lot of the ball and could have had a hat trick on a better day. With 23 minutes gone, McAdams found Ball who laid the ball into the path of Wallen, who finished the move by slotting the ball past the advancing keeper A wonderful well worked goal Two minutes later, Ball worked his way up the left and somehow found a pass into the six-yard box for Wallen. However, the Swifts' striker steered the ball the wrong side of the post from a very good position.

Bolehall then killed the game off in the second half. Wallen had a golden chance to make it 2-0 but was denied by the keeper. However, he won Swifts a penalty in the 65th minute after taking the ball on his chest from a cross he lost his footing and with the help of a shove in the back fell over. Harsh on Warwick as he was already going down and understandably Warwick were fuming. Abbott stepped up and fired home from the spot for Swifts' second. McAdams then set up Danny Hales, who headed wide and Carpenter showed good skills minutes later before hitting a powerful shot that Weston did well to save. The third goal came eventually though as McAdams picked out Hales who fired low and hard passed keeper Weston.

I left just before the end to make my way down to Tamworth Fc but I needn’t of bothered as the 0.8 mile journey only took me a few minutes in the car.

Division:-   Midland Football Combination

Ticket Price £4

Programme £1

Parking £0

Attendance ? Probably around 50

Score 3-0

Match Day Photo Album

Overall #205 Blue Square North

Worcester V Oxford City 1st April 2013

St George’s lane

Worcester City Football Club is an English football club based in Worcester, Worcestershire. The club participates in the Conference North, the sixth tier of English football. Established in 1902, they have spent the majority of their history in non league football. The team plays at St George's Lane. The club was formed on 9 September 1902 following the liquidation of another local side, Berwick Rangers. They took over Berwick's fixture list in the Birmingham & District League.

The club play at St George's Lane. The ground has four main areas; the Dressing Room End and the Canal End (which can be used for away fans) located behind the goals, the Main Stand (containing all 1,121 seats) alongside one touchline, with the Brookside Terrace opposite the main stand. The current capacity is 4,523

The ground will be vacated in June 2013, as it has been sold to a housing developer. The sale of the Ground was aimed at helping to fund the building of a new 6,000-capacity ground to be built at Nunnery Way on the edge of Worcester, although due to poor negotiating by the incumbent board of directors, the sale of the ground failed to provide sufficient finances to pay for such a stadium. On 30 January 2013, it was announced that Worcester would ground-share with Kidderminster Harriers at their Aggborough ground from the 2013–14 season.On 6 January 2012, Plans for a retail park were approved Worcester City Council, which includes a scaled down football ground with a capacity of c.3,000, less than the capacity required for the football club to even play at the present level of football Although a Supporters group have launched their own plans costing £2million. The organisation want to build a community ground, which would have a capacity of 4,130, including a 500-seater stand, on land next to the leisure centre by the end of 2015. There would also be a 3G all-weather floodlit surface. It would provide Worcester City with a potential new home as the fans’ group don’t believe the proposal for a stadium at Nunnery Way, which has outline planning permission, will happen. The Blue Square Bet North club have a contract with developer St Modwen to build on the land next to the M5 in 2017.

Once again Adam Sheridan would accompany me leaving Carlisle at 0930 we made our way to Worcester Via the M6 and M5 we stopped off at the Rugby ground home of Worcester Warriors to grab a few photos which is just off the M6 as you arrive at Worcester

We arrived at St George’s Lane at around 1410 we wandered down the canal bank which runs adjacent to the ground and then into the ground for 1430 managing to walk around the ground inside grabbing some important photo’s from all angles

Walking through the turnstiles into the ground is like a throw back to the 1950/60’s the ground probably hasn’t changed much at all. Its a shame to see a ground with this much Character go but I suppose its well overdue I just hope the new stadium is built sooner rather than later as the longer they stay at Kidderminster the more harm it will do the club.

Worcester City consigned three unwanted records to history in style at St George’s Lane Mike Symons, Kieron Morris and Shabir Khan were all on target in a thrilling contest which handed City their first home win of 2013. More importantly, however, victory brought an end to nine successive defeats in Blue Square Bet North and seven games without a goal.

More than 10 hours without a goal was finally ended after just four minutes of a feisty encounter. The ball was nodded into the path of Symons and he made no mistake in slamming home his 13th goal of the season. The relief was there for all to see with the players mobbing each other and manager Carl Heeley performing a somersault down the touchline in celebration. but Darren Pond drew the sides level with a deflected effort after 29 minutes. However, Morris restored the advantage nine minutes before the break and Shabir extended it in the 64th minute with a bullet header. Substitute Nick Stanley’s goal 12 minutes from time made it a nervy finish but City held on, helped by a fine save from Matt Sargeant to deny Jamie Cook.

Division:-Blue Square North

Ticket Price £12 (Transfer to Stand £2)

Programme £2.50

Parking £0

Attendance 597

Score 3-2

Matchday Photo Album 

Worcester Warriors Rugby Photo's

Overall #204 Scottish #32/41

Forfar V Arbroath 30-3-13

Station Park

Forfar Athletic Football Club are a Scottish semi-professional football club from the town of Forfar, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Football League and currently play in the Second Division. Nicknamed the Loons (a Northern Scots word for a young man), they play their home games at Station Park, in the north end of Forfar. The club are nicknamed "the Loons" The club were founded in 1885 when the second team of the older Forfar club called Angus FC, broke away to form Forfar Athletic. Angus FC had been the town's senior club for a number of years, and on 24 September 1883, amalgamated with the Junior club Forfar West End, which became the 2nd XI, taking the name Angus Athletic. The demise of Angus in 1885 prompted the second string to go it alone and in early 1885 became independent as Forfar Athletic. One explanation for the origins of the Loons' moniker is that the second string were younger than the first team, so over time people would say "I'm off to watch the Loons" ("Loon" being a local dialect word for a young man). The club were admitted into the Scottish Football League in the 1921–22 season, entering the new Second Division.

Station Park is a football ground in Forfar, Angus, Scotland. It is home to Scottish Football League side Forfar Athletic. Station Park is one of a number of old fashioned football grounds left in the Scottish League. It has a capacity of 6,777 although this has previously been much higher. The record crowd being 10,780 against Rangers in 1970. The total has been reduced for safety reasons. The ground allows access to all four sides of the pitch. There is one large terrace behind the goal at the western end of the ground. Called the "mert end" because a cattle market is just over the wall this area is reserved for visiting supporters when occasion and numbers demand separation of fans.

A seated grandstand, opened in 1959, is on the north side of the pitch.

There is a covered terrace on the south side of the ground and further, uncovered, terracing to the east

The ground, as the name suggests, was once close to the town's railway station, situated on the Caledonian Railway's main line from Aberdeen to Glasgow and London, but this station was closed in 1968 as part of the Beeching cuts. Station Park is now one of the furthest Scottish League grounds from a railway station (Peterhead's Balmoor ground is further). The nearest train stations to Forfar are Dundee and Arbroath, both of which are approximately 14 miles away. As a result Station Park is best reached by road.

Having left Montrose at F/T we made our way along the road back over the bridge towards Arbroath and the A92 then we branched off onto the A934 towards Forfar then Across the A933 onto the B9113 past Montreatmont Forest and Rescobie Loch, coming into Forfar on Montrose Road Parking up on Carseview Road which runs long past Station Park. so we were Virtually just at the front gates.

Upon entering we made our way to the club shop to have a look before taking a walk round the ground. it was about 1430 when we arrived so we had plenty of time to take a few photo’s before kick off. The ground from the outside look’s small but inside its huge the Large terrace towards the west of the ground is fantastic and will look great when full of Rangers fans probably next season, unless they are lucky enough to gain promotion to Division 1

The game itself was great. There was a large away following from local rivals Arbroath. Arbroath took the lead when Hamilton crossed for Doris to bang home. The tide was with Arbroath but from nothing Forfar Equalized Swankie threading a threw ball to Denholm who was able to score past the keeper. In the Second half Forfar took the lead when McCulloch’s ball found Swankie inside the visitor’s half and his first timed pass into Chris Templeton path was inch perfect, the ball was fired home a goal which would have been worthy at the top end of football. The led didn’t last long Arbroath equalized shortly after when a hesitant defence allowed Hamilton to smash home. From a corner Arbroath took the lead when Travis headed home Sheerin’s corner and Sheerin wrapped up the points in the final minute when he ran past 2 defenders and curled a long range effort into the top corner.

The ground itself was fantastic and had loads of Character and will look great next season when full if Rangers Visit. Its a 3g Pitch which is still in good shape. The programme is a good read and at £1.50 is Value for Money. I can recommend the Scotch Pie too. A much better game than the first match we had visited anyway. After the game we made our way back down to Cumbria arriving home for 8pm ish

During the game we met up with Bas a Dutch Ground hopper who had travelled over to Britain for the bank holiday weekend we had a chat during the second half and I look forward to bumping into him again sometime.

 

Division :- Scottish Division 2

Ticket Price Adult £12

Programme £1.50

Attendance 770

Score 2-4

Miles from Carlisle : 188

Match Day Photo Album

Overall #203 Scottish #31/41

Montrose V Rangers 30-3-13

Links Park

Montrose Football Club is a Scottish semi-professional football team, based in the town of Montrose, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Football League and currently play in the Third Division.The club were founded in 1879 by Harvey Price and play at Links Park. They joined Scottish Football in 1923, along with near-neighbours Brechin City, in the newly founded Scottish Third Division Links Park is a football stadium in Montrose, Scotland. It has been the home ground of Montrose since 1887. Links Park was opened in 1887.  to help finance the new ground, Montrose F.C. rented the pitch out for circuses and livestock grazing. The club was eventually able to raise £150 in 1920 to buy a stand, that had been previously used by the Highland Games. A roof was built over the Wellington Street end of the ground in the 1960s. Floodlights were installed in 1971. The record attendance at the ground was 8,983, for a Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against Dundee in March 1973. Links Park was significantly improved in the 1990s, after the club was taken over by Bryan Keith.The wooden Main Stand was replaced by a cantilevered stand, seating 1,258 people. GlaxoSmithKline provided a £250,000 grant in 2006 for the club to install an all-weather surface at Links Park. The turf is a FIFA two-star artificial surface. The current stadium capacity is 4,934. The all-seated Main Stand (South) has a capacity of 1,324 with the West Stand terrace holding a maximum of 1,582 spectators. There is also uncovered standing areas on the North and East sides off the ground.

Leaving Carlisle at Around 7am we made our way up the M74, M73, M80, M9, A9 then A90 Stopping off for breakfast at Dundee. I then made our way along the A92 towards Arbroath driving past Arbroath’s Gayfield Park. then further along the A92 towards Montrose Crossing over the bridge into Montrose we made our way to the Park Hotel to collect the Match tickets from the reception after the Chairman Derek Sim had kindly arranged 2 tickets for us to collect, really kind of the chairman to take the time out to do this for us. I believe he also did this for the Dutch ground hopper Bas who I met at the Forfar game later on. The game was a 12 o clock kick off live for ESPN coverage. We had parked on a side street directly behind the Park Inn which was a 5 minute walk to the entrance.

The game itself was a dull 0-0 but Montrose had the better chances. The first shot came in the 18th Minute when Lee Wallace had a shot tipped over. Then Alan Campbell headed wide for Montrose from a free kick. Martin Boyle Came really close to heading a goal, but he could only send his header wide from a cross.

The second half started with Montrose’s David Gray blasting over from outside the box. Montrose appeared to have taken the lead in the 66th minute following a scramble in the Rangers box. Terry Masson’s half volley was parried down by Alexander, Boyle reacting fastest to poke the ball into the net. But referee Kevin Clancy ruled that Alexander had been fouled as Boyle took his shot. Towards the end Montrose’s Winter had a low free kick tipped wide of the post.
David Templeton almost snatched a late winner for Rangers, his shot deflected into Gibson’s hands, while centre back Emilson Cribari’s overhead kick was also held.

The Final whistle brought Cheers from the home crowd as they had held the side who had won 54 League titles and soon to be 55 which would be confirmed later that day when Queens Park failed to win. Rangers looked a shadow of the team I had seen play in the SPL a few years Previous, and really looked devoid of organisation and idea’s.

The ground itself was as you’d expect for the Scottish Third Division but the large main stand is Great for that Level. The Programme was £3 which was obviously inflated to cash in on the Rangers game but it was a fairly good read. A really nice sunny day even if it was a little on the chilly side. 

Division :- Scottish Division 3

Ticket Price Adult £12

Programme £3

Attendance 4,686

Score 0-0

Miles from Carlisle : 206

Matchday Photo Album

Overall Ground 202

Atherton Collieries V Rochdale Town

Thursday 28th March 2013

Atherton Collieries A.F.C. is an English football club based in Atherton in Greater Manchester. The club currently plays in the North West Counties League First Division, the tenth tier of English football, and is a full member of the Lancashire County Football Association. Between 1919 and 1965 Atherton Collieries were winners of the Bolton Combination ten times. By 1964–65 they had won the Lancashire FA Amateur Shield six times, a record which is still unsurpassed. They are nicknamed the Welfare, the Miners or Sootyand their home ground is Alder Street. Atherton Collieries' ground, Alder Street, is as old as the club. It has seen a number of changes over the years. One stand, behind the dugouts, was described in the book Dugoutsas "leaning forward as if in prayer for its continued survival".It was demolished in 2007. The stand opposite the clubhouse is made from railway sleepers, and the stand in front of the car park had basic bench seating, but this was replaced with modern tip-up seats in 2009. Floodlights were installed in 1994 and the changing rooms were renovated in 2008.

Making my way to Alder Street I parked my van up in the Car park in the Adjacent Atherton Town Hall before entering the ground. I managed to catch up with GroundhopUK Chris and the rest of the NCEL weekend groundhop un-fortunately their original game at AFC Emley was called off. The game itself was a dull 0-0 draw with both side having chances but I am not sure any of the chances were on target the decision to go to Atherton was a last minute thing and did not take my note pad to make any notes but there wasn’t much to note down to be fair. The ground itself is a small one with a club house and changing rooms, As well as a small seated stand with much of the ground open. Again it was a last minute decision so I didn’t have my camera so have had to make do with photos from my mobile.

Division:- North West Counties Premier Divisions

Ticket Price £5

Programme £1

Parking £0

Attendance 133

Score 0-0

 

Matchday Photo Album

Scottish League Cup Final

St Mirren V Hearts

Sunday 17th March 2013

The Scottish League Cup is a football competition open to all Scottish Football League and Scottish Premier League clubs. At present it is also known as the Scottish Communities League Cup owing to the sponsorship deal in place with the Scottish Government. In the past it has been sponsored by Coca-Cola, Skol Lager, Bell's whisky and Co-operative Insurance. The competition, like the Scottish Cup, is currently a straight knockout format.

The competition is open only to the 42 senior clubs who compete in the Scottish Premier League (SPL) or Scottish Football League. There are no replays, so all matches ending in a draw after 90 minutes are decided by extra time and, if necessary, penalty kicks. The four teams who, based on results of the previous season, have qualified for UEFA competitions are given a bye until the 3rd round of competition, together with the highest placed SPL finisher not in UEFA competitions. The seven teams who finished highest in the SPL/SFL without qualifying for Europe receive a bye into the 2nd round. The remaining 30 teams begin play from the 1st round. They are drawn into random pairings with the games played at the stadium of the first team drawn. The 15 teams advancing from the first round are drawn together. The teams who advance from the 2nd round are joined by the final five teams in the 3rd round, with seeding in place. The remaining rounds of competition are unseeded.

The semi-final matches are played on a neutral ground, traditionally Hampden Park, but the home ground of a third club located close to the two competing clubs is sometimes used. The final game is also traditionally played at Hampden Park in Glasgow, though due to renovations some finals in the past have been played at other venues such as Celtic Park or Ibrox.

Hampden Park (often referred to simply as Hampden) is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the home venue of the Scotland national football team and amateur Scottish Football League club Queen's Park and hosts the latter stages of the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup competitions. It is also used for music concerts and other sporting events.

There were two 19th century stadia called Hampden Park, built on different sites. A stadium on the present site was first opened on 31 October 1903. Hampden was the biggest stadium in the world when it was opened, with a capacity in excess of 100,000. This was increased further between 1927 and 1937, reaching a peak of 150,000. The record attendance of 149,415, for a Scotland v England match in 1937, is the European record for an international football match. Tighter safety regulations meant that the capacity was reduced to 81,000 in 1977. The stadium has been fully renovated since then, with the most recent work being completed in 1999.

The stadium houses the offices of the Scottish Football Association (SFA), Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League. Hampden has hosted prestigious sporting events, including three Champions League finals, two Cup Winners' Cup finals and a UEFA Cup final. Hampden is a UEFA category four stadium and it is served by the nearby Mount Florida and King's Park railway stations.

We Made our way via the West coast mainline up to Glasgow Central then from there we took the football Special to Mount Florida were the ground is a short walk from there. arriving at the ground we bought a flag and a scarf before entering at the back of the North Stand. On my 2 Previous Visits to Hampden with Queens Park and for the Scottish FA Cup final in 2010 I was in the South Stand

• Scottish Cup Final 2010 Ross County V Dundee United (0-3) 15-5-2010
• Queens Park V Annan 2012 (2-0) 21-4-2012

Click here for Photos of the Above games

St Mirren Lifted there first trophy for more than 25 years as they beat Hearts 3-2. Ryan Stevenson's deflected shot put Hearts ahead on 10 min’s and a John Sutton header and Mehdi Taouil shot should have added to their lead. Hearts were to pay for missing them chances. St Mirren’s Teale was already running at full pelt when Thompson played a killer pass down the inside-right channel. Frozen Hearts looked for offside, Teale looked for Goncalves, and his pass across the area allowed the Portuguese to side-foot home with confidence.

After the interval they moved into the lead with their first attack, Dummett crossing for Thompson who lashed the ball past MacDonald from 12 yards. On 66 Min’s On-loan Newcastle midfielder Newton worked a one-two with Goncalves on the edge of the box and smashed the return ball early from 16 yards to deny MacDonald the chance to narrow the angle. Heart’s Stevenson who rose to the challenge to try to drag Hearts level. When he won two challenges outside the St Mirren box and stung the palms of Samson with a controlled drive, then Stevenson stole in at the back post to shoot but his effort skimmed off the crossbar. He was not to be denied for long, though, as he set up a nail-biting final four minutes with an angled shot that lacked power but somehow crept past the slow-to-react Samson and into the bottom corner. The keeper redeemed himself when he denied the same player a minute from time at his near post and St Mirren hung on to spark wild celebrations among their nerve-shredded fans.

We left at full time not waiting to see the Trophy lifted and made our way back to the Station we had 5 min’s to change at Glasgow Central before catching the 1740 back to Cumbria. This was one of the best games I have seen for a while

 

Division Scottish League Cup Final

Ticket Price £20 & £10 Child

Programme £5

Train Carlisle to Glasgow £15.30 & £4.40 Glasgow to Mount Florida £1.40 & £1 (with Family Railcard)

Attendance 44,036

Score 3-2

Matchday Photo Album