My Matchday - 291 Northolme

Gainsborough Trinity 1v2 Grimsby Town

Pre-Season Friendly

Saturday 30th July 2011

The Northolme has been high on my list of “T’do” grounds for quite a while now. The once former Football League ground has an uncertain future with talk of the club looking to relocate. The favourable location is said to be a community based facility on a 20 acre site on Corringham Road. This project seems on the backburner at the moment, the value of the property has rising since the initial interest from the club and could be earmarked for a housing development, although the club are still on the look out for suitable sites.

Gainsborough is a town on the River Trent within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire and historically one of the capital cities of Mercia during the Anglo-Saxon period before the Danish rule. In 868 Alfred The Great married Ealswitha, the daughter of Ethelred and chief of the Anglo-Saxon tribe the Gaini, and it’s from this that the town gets its name.



Gainsborough Trinity formed as Trinity Recreationalists in 1873 by Reverend George Langton Hodgkinson, the vicar of the town’s Holy Trinity Church. They became founder members of the Midlands League in 1889, finishing as champions in their second season, then twice as runners-up which gained election to the Football League 2nd Division in 1896.

The club spent 16 seasons in the Second Division, peaking with a sixth place finish in 1904-05 but after years of struggle returned to the Midland League after being voted out in favour of neighbours Lincoln City.

The Holy Blues joined the newly formed Northern Premier League in 1968 until the reconstruction of the non-league pyramid saw the club placed in the Conference North in 2004.

A couple of interesting facts about Trinity for you Google wallers. They were the first club to play the renamed Manchester United when they changed their name from Newton Heath and the club have never been relegated in their 138 year history(Unlike neighbours Lincoln City and Scunthorpe United last season…Eddy)

From the 1850’s the Northolme was originally a cricket ground becoming the oldest dual purpose venues in the country with several cricket clubs in the area taking up football during the winter months from the 1860’s.

A 200 seated stand was built at the turn of the 20th century on the south side, with a covered standing area added at the opposite side. The stand was replaced in 1911 and stood until the Second World War, when the ground was vandalised with both stands a victim of arson.

The ground developed during the 1930’s with the current grandstand erected after the war. The Victory Stand as it as it was originally named is now known as the Ping Stand. The stand has a capacity of 504 blue seats split into two section with a short peaked roof and three supporting pillars at the front. The teams dugouts are kept apart on each side of the stand to keep a clear spectator view. The changing rooms and Club On The Park Social Club is also on this side of the ground.

The turnstile entrance is in the corner, where there’s a covered terrace with a snack bar at one side and opposite is the club shop and MC cabin.

The far side goal is open terracing and there’s more covered standing pitch side. The cover runs nearly pitch length with four floodlight pylons, parallel with the pylons on the Ping Stand side.

The ground is nicknamed “The Chapel” and once had a capacity of 20,000 but now houses 4,304 with the record attendance of over 9,500 for a Midlands League clash with Scunthorpe United in 1948.

After enduring a stressful journey to Crawley Town the previous night it was nice to take a leisurely drive up from my sleepy village base near Grantham.

I again met up with my travel companion from the previous evening, Precious Grimsby (squad#88) who travelled 11 miles across from his home in Kirton Lindsey, meeting in the Blues Club, which is a really good supporters club bar, where they sell a couple of real ales. I sampled Grafters ’Over The Moon’ (4%) ***+hf

The match was a typical pre-season friendly played on a glorious summers afternoon. Grimsby took the lead after half an hour when Serge Makofo latched onto a through ball, using his pace before unleashing a left foot drive into the far corner of the net.

Trinity equalised early into the second half when a lob from half time substitute Darryn Stamp caught the Mariners keeper by surprise, before the visitors claimed victory on 66 minutes. Anthony Church netted with a brave diving header, following in on a fine save from the keeper. The goal came as a cost as the striker hobbled off injured, staggering away from the pitch as if he had just drunk 10 pints of ’Over The Moon!’

I really enjoyed my long awaited visit to Northolme. The ground is a classic and if I was a Gainsborough supporter I would be gutted to be leaving such a pleasant home. Any talk about where and when the club will relocate is all rumour at the moment and I hope that’s the way it stays, as it would be a sad day if this former League ground was to disappear for good.





Matchday facts

GuTFC 1(Stamp 48)GrTFC 2(Makofo 31,Church 66)

Att.TBC

Admission £6 Programme:Free team sheet. (Also bought last issued programme for 20p)



Ground no.291 Northolme - Matchday Web album (24 pictures)

Grimsby Town (England)

This week Grimsby Town were relegated out of the English football league for the first time since they were elected to it 99 years ago. That they didn't make it to their centenary is something of a footballing tragedy for a team with such a long history and great fans. But it's not always been doom and gloom for The Mariners.

Formed in 1878 as Grimsby Pelham, they play, not in Grimsby itself, but the nearby East Lincs seaside resort of Cleethorpes, and in their beautiful old Blundell Park stadium have the closest ground in the UK to the coast. They came together back in the early days of association football when the members of Worsley Cricket Club decided they fancied taking up the new sport to keep them busy on the long Victorian winter nights.

Their first spell of league football started in 1892, when the English game first stretched to two national divisions. Indeed, they even made the top flight for two seasons in the early 20th Century, but after a couple of bad seasons found their way out of the structure for a couple of years until they found their way back in 1911. Back then only they and Hull City were officially allowed to play on Christmas Day, because of the curious demands of the fish trade. That tradition was never revoked, but neither club has called on it for a great many years now.

Thier highest ever league position was when they came fifth in their second stint in the old first division in 1935. And in 1939 they lost an FA Cup semi final to Wolves at Old Trafford in front of 76,962 - to this day still the Manchester ground's highest attendance. Since then the club has regularly yo-yo'd up and down the leagues, narrowly missing out on promotion to the top flight on more than one occasion.

Blundell Park's Main Stand, running along the north side of the ground, is said to be the oldest stand in the football league, dating back to 1901, while the more recently built Findus Stand that lays opposite, offers spectacular views of the shipping traveling up and down The Humber Estuary, if the football gets a little difficult to watch.

Noteworthy former players include Wimbledon's FA Cup hero keeper Dave Beasant, Tony Ford, the all time record holder for an outfield player in England, with a massive 931 appearances, the free-scoring Clive Mendonca, Wales international John Oster and orange-hating England manager Graham Taylor. They've also got a pretty impressive roster of former managers. Southampton's cup winning coach Lawrie McMenemy saw some early action here, Hungarian Elemér Berkessy became the first foreign manager on English soil back in 1954, but most impressively, Liverpool legend Bill Shankly put in a three year stint at the club in the early 1950s.

Grimsby Town is a great old club, in a fine part of the world and with some of the friendliest and funniest fans in the country. I hope their spell in non-league is a temporary one and they bounce right back and climb their way back up the leagues as soon as they can. 

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My Matchday - 252 Pirelli Stadium

Burton Albion 3v0 Grimsby Town

League Two

Saturday 8th May 2010

The trouble with this ground hopping malarkey is matches have to be planned way in advance. It takes great skill to match up fixtures, kick off times, train times and leave from work into one perfect permutation, this trip to Burton being a prime example.

Back in January I travelled to the Recreation Ground with squad #88 Graham Precious, to see his beloved Grimsby take on Aldershot. On our journey home we discussed future fixture plans and agreed that together we would take in the Mariners last game of the season at the Pirelli Stadium.

Back then even the most ardent Grimsby fan would take off his rose tinted glasses and agree that this fixture would be a nothing game, relegation already confirmed, an end of season day out and the last match as a Football League club for maybe many a year.

But who would have thought it. An unlikely late upturn in form from Town coupled with Barnet dropping down the league like a stone, has giving as a last day relegation finale. “It’s a funny old game” as one old leather faced cockney used to say with great regularity, and on this particular occasion, I have to concur.

　

Last Sunday I nearly fell off the sofa when I noticed on the Sky Sports news ticker that Grimsby had sold out there entire allocation for the game. I then rang Graham and he told me that he was away for the bank holiday weekend, so was unable to buy us any tickets.

On Tuesday morning I rang the Burton Albion ticket office to make enquiries about ticket availability, the conversation went something like this;

SS - Hello I’m wondering if you could help me regarding tickets for this Saturday’s game with Grimsby.

BAFC - Ring Grimsby

SS - No! I’m not a Grimsby fan. I’m coming down from Newcastle as I’m trying to complete the 92 grounds.

BAFC - If you want a ticket you’ll have to ring Grimsby.

SS - But I’m a neutral, I just want to now if I can buy a ticket in advance?

BAFC - Ring Grimsby if you want a ticket, they’ll have some.

SS - Is it not possible to buy a..

BAFC - RING GRIMSBY!

SS - Ok - bye!

Graham also emailed the club to ask if he could buy tickets but received no reply. So on Wednesday morning he jumped on his motorbike and clocked up 169 miles to be told on arrival there wasn’t any stand tickets left and he would have to queue at the turnstiles, providing proof of being local and not from South Humberside. An unnecessary trip which could have been prevented if they’d answered my question or replied to Graham’s email.

Graham picked me up at Retford train station at 1110, the car journey onto Burton taking just over an hour. The turnstiles were due to open at 1.30pm, so we had time for a pint in the Great Northern, which serves the locally produced Burton Bridge Bitter, which went down a treat.

We spoke to a few Grimsby fans in the bar who had tickets for the game. After first swapping insults with each other, they told us tickets were selling on eBay for a ridiculous £275, plus Graham had earlier spoke to a friend of his on the phone who had just purchased a pair of at £100 each.

After a stressful week, panicking that a match I planned and booked three months in advance could be wasted, I needn’t have worried. We took up our place in the Popular Terrace queue with only a dozen punters in front of us, had a friendly chat with a few of the locals and within ten minutes I was happily sitting in the Vera Goode Suite with a pint of bitter and a mince & onion pie. Panic over and now I could relax, which couldn’t be said for my travel companion, who now had the stress of ninety odd minutes of football to endure, in which his beloved Mariners were on the verge of being sunk.

Burton-on-Trent is a town in East Staffordshire which has long been associated with the brewing industry, going back to the early 18th century. The local water contains a large amount of dissolved salts which is mainly caused by the gypsum in the surrounding hills. This allowed a greater proportion of hops to be included, allowing the beer to be shipped further a field. The nearby River Trent was first used as the main source of exporting ale to the likes of London and out to the Baltic Sea and Prussia.

There were as many as 30 breweries in the town in 1880 but by the early 20th century a reduction in beer sales causing many breweries to close down, leaving only 8 still working by 1928.

Local lad William Bass(1717-1787) formed the Bass & Co Brewery in 1777, which was taking over by Coors in 2000, one of the town’s five remaining breweries along with Marstons and smaller brewers Tower Brewery, Cottage Brewery and Burton Bridge.



The town has a long tradition with Rugby Union with Burton having one of the sport’s oldest clubs, formed in 1870. The round ball game has seen an array of clubs take on the town’s name, most notably its trio of former League clubs Burton Wanderers (1894-1897) who merged with Burton Swifts (1892-1901) to form Burton United in 1901. The club played in the Second Division until 1907 before folding three years later. There was also non-league side Burton Town who played up until the Second World War.





Burton Albion formed in 1950 playing on the Lloyds Foundry ground on Wellington Street in the Birmingham & District League.

In 1958 the club moved to Eton Park which coincided with promotion to the Southern League, playing within the league’s regional divisions until a switch to the Northern Premier League in 1979.

The Brewers reaching the FA Trophy final in 1987 and the following season rejoined the Southern League, twice finishing runners at the turn of the millennium.

Conference football was achieved in 2002 via the Northern Premier League route. The club rejoining the league for one season and successfully lifted the title as well as reaching the semi-final of the FA Trophy in that year.

Burton played in the Conference for seven seasons, each year making progress finishing in a higher league position each season until a 5th place in 2008 saw the club make the play-offs, only to lose out to Cambridge United 4-3 on aggregate.

The following season Albion built an unassailable 19 points lead under the management of Nigel Clough. When the nice young man took up the managers post at Pride Park in early 2009, Roy McFarlane was installed as caretaker boss and led to the club to promotion to the Football League, but only just, staggered over the line on the final day of the season by only two points.









In 2005 the club moved across the road to unused land which was owned by the neighbouring Pirelli factory. Eton Park was sold for a new housing development and Pirelli gave the club the wasteland on the condition the new ground was named after them.

The stadium was designed by Jon Hawkeye at a cost of £6.5m, which overall capacity was increased to 6,912 in July 2009. The stadium is made up of one seated Main Stand which is fully covered with a single tier of 2,034 black seats with hospitality boxes above and a large TV gantry central.

The remaining ends are three sections of terracing each equal in height and appearance. Away supporters are giving the East Terrace which differs having a police control box in one corner and a electric scoreboard perched on the roof. Each stand has its own lounge bar with snack facilities and is completed with a set of four skinny floodlights.

The ground is smashing for a club of Burton’s size, but if I do have one criticism it’s the terraces look too grey and drab and could do with brightening up a bit. If the bland concrete back walls and the crash barriers were painted in the club colours it would certainly add a bit much needed colour.

Burton can be satisfied with their first season in League football. Never in any danger at the bottom end of the table and remote possibilities of the play-offs, highlights include doing the double over top sides Rochdale and Aldershot.

So they come into this last game of the season with nothing to play for, which must surely benefit Grimsby. The relegation finale was simple the visitors had to win and Barnet had to lose at home to Rochdale, The Bees opponents having already clinched promotion and already have their mindset on summer hols.

Oh well, so much for the great escape. The tunnel began to collapse after only ten minutes, the more Grimsby desperately tried to dig their way out the more difficult the escape route became, until they were deep in the clarts and into the darkness of relegation.

The line between success and failure can be a very very wee one. In that tenth minute Grimsby almost took the lead when a shot-come-cross from Akpa Akpro came back off the inside of the post and into the arms of keeper Poole, within seconds the ball was in the opposite net. The ball was pumped up field to Pearson who ran through on goal before unleashing a fierce shot from 20 yards which gave Colgan no chance.

The Brewers doubled their lead somewhat against the run of play when a good run and cross from Pearson found Harrad who slid in to score his 20th league goal of the season in the 37th minute.

In the second half both teams continued to create chances, Albion looked dangerous with a confident swagger to their attacking play while Town’s attacking force looked more cumbersome.

Grimsby were never going to score if they played all night. Veteran keeper Kevin Poole was always going to keep a clean sheet producing two fantastic saves to deny Coulson, Peacock and two efforts from Akpa Akpro, which earned the 46 year old the Man of the Match award.

Burton secured victory and officially ended Grimsby Town’s unbroken 99 years as a league club with a third goal. Shaun Harrad was fouled on the edge of the box, he then got up and smashed in the 25 yard free kick the cap an excellent performance from The Brewers.

As it turned out the result was academic, Barnet’s superiority was rewarded with a late goal at Underhill which produced a jubilant pitch invasion, which was sharp contrast to the scenes contrived by some followers of Grimsby, I won’t call them fans as I don’t want to tar them with the same brush as genuine supporters.

There were only a few supporters who paid on the day, about 20 odd who stood at one end of the popular Side and about the same amount who pre-bought tickets at the west side of the Main Stand, the attendance was still 1400 under capacity.

The trouble had been brewing up all afternoon, after the first goal one fan, sorry! I should say dickhead (as he looked and acted like one) ran onto the pitch and had a go at his own keeper.

It’s not as if these troublemakers are daft young lads, these were grown men, some of them look old enough to be granddads‘. As the second half progressed some watched the game on the perimeter track behind the goal with some encroaching onto the pitch. Just before full time we agreed to make a quick getaway on the full time whistle just as the trouble was about to reach boiling point. The troublemakers involved were not just annoyed about fact that Grimsby were relegated, they were probably the idiots who felt robbed after paying over £200 to watch that shower of shite!

The quick getaway meant I was back in Retford for 6pm, leaving me over 2 hours to fill so naturally I had no choice but to go on the lash!

After Graham’s disappointment of suffering relegation he said he still enjoyed the day and so did I, my last League game of an eventful season and a good one to end on.

Link - The relegation finale at Underhill with EFW

Matchday stats

BAFC 3(Pearson 10 Harrad 37,58)GTFC 0

att.5510

Admission £13

Programme £2.50

Ground no.252 Pirelli Stadium - Matchday Web album (15 pictures)

My Matchday - 240 Recreation Ground

Aldershot Town 1v1 Grimsby Town
League Two
Saturday 30th January 2009


Aldershot is a town in Hampshire, best known as the home of the British Army, the armed forces having established a base in the town in 1854, which became a permanent home for troops returning from the Crimean War.
The army camp saw the town’s population grow from 875 in 1851 to over 16,000 within ten years. Today the town has a population of 33,840 whilst the Aldershot Urban Area has a populace of almost a quarter of a million.


The original Aldershot FC formed in December 1926, setting up home on the council owned ’ Rec’ the following year. The first competitive match took place on August 27th in the Southern League, Grays Athletic their opponents in front of a healthy crowd of 3,500.
Aldershot were elected to the Football League Division Three South in 1932 after winning the Southern League title, replacing the defunct Thames AFC who gave up their place in the league.
The original Shots played in the Football League for 60 years, peaking at 8th in Division Three in 1973-74. The clubs suffered more lows than highs throughout their League career. The biggest highlight came at the end of the 1986-87, the first season of the Football League play offs. Aldershot finished 6th in Division Four and after seeing off Division Three bottom side Bolton Wanderers in the semi-finals they went on the beat Wolves 3-0 on aggregate in the final over two-legs. (sorry Tim!…Eddy)
The club’s financial plight first came to prominence in 1989, mounting debts resulted in the club being wound up in the High Court in July 1990 with debts of almost half a million pounds. However the winding-order was lifted after one week, with funds of £200,000 from a young property developer, meant the club could kick off the 1990-91 season.
Unfortunately the club’s saviour didn’t have the sufficient funds to keep the club running, which saw him eventually end up doing time for this crooking dealings while time was ultimately called on Aldershot FC.
On 25th March 1992 the club finally went out of business, resigning from the Football League with their record expunged. The final game played was a 2-0 defeat away at Cardiff City on the 20th March.
A new club was immediately born by a group of loyal supporters, rising like a phoenix from the flames, the club reformed with the Town suffix added to the name.
The new club resumed in the Isthmian League 3rd Division the following season, winning the league title as well as the 2nd Division the following year.
The Shots progressed through the four divisions of the Isthmian League over an eleven year period, winning its Premier division in 2002-03, thus gaining promotion to the Conference.
After twice missing out in the play-offs, Aldershot were promoted from the Conference after only five years. The Shots crowned champions in 2007-08, amassing 101 points, the Hampshire town returning to League football after a 16 year exile.

The Rec is set within a public park, the Main Stand is on the north side of the ground which is a small narrow all seated stand in club colours with a striped con-iron roof. The stand is overshadowed by the large office block at the rear. The forecourt at the stand entrance has a small club shop(pin badges sold out!) and office block.
The South Stand is the oldest structure, built in 1929. The cantilever roof overhangs at the front which acts as a sun visor and overall hasn’t changed much in those 70 years apart from the odd tweak here and there for safety reasons. The stand sits centrally with a mixture of red and blue seats including a section dedicated to away supporters. There’s also a pub situated underneath the stand called Wallys Bar .
The East Bank is a large terrace which is shared with the away supporters. The stand has a barrel shaped roof which was added after the war and later extended with a flat roof at the front. There’s extra terracing which extends out towards the seated stands with the unique feature of a line of trees along the side terrace.
The High Street End is unused apart from a gangway between the north and south sides and the space is filled with large sheets of advertising on scaffold supports.
The ground has a set of the classic subbuteo type floodlights which were switched on in May 1953, the highest attendance came in January 1970 - 19,138 for a FA Cup tie with Carlisle United.
For sponsorship reasons the ground is now known as The EBB Stadium at the Recreation Ground, with a current capacity of 7,100 with 2,000 seats.

Aldershot Town are currently managed by former Birmingham City, Portsmouth and Newcastle United midfield terrier Kevin Dillon, a man certain friends remind me as the footballer that cost me a fortune.
Dillon made his United debut along with fellow experienced new signings Quinn, McGhee and Burridge in a memorable 5-2 opening day win over Leeds United, with an impressive display in the heart of the Toon midfield. He almost added to the impressive score line, hitting the post early in the game which encouraged me to back him for first goalscorer in future games.
Over the following two seasons Dillon made 76 appearances scoring a grand total of zero, so he cost me about £70, that effort in his debut being the closest he came to hitting the back of the net.

Dillers has done at good job on the quiet since taking over the manager’s hot seat in November, recent good home performances against Rochdale and Bournemouth have taking the Shots into the play-off positions.
Grimsby on the other hand went into the match without a league win in 18 games, although they can count themselves unlucky, Adam Proudlock missing a penalty five minutes from time which would’ve gave the Mariners three precious points in their fight for survival.
The visitors took the lead in the 5th minute, a low cross from Michael Coulson was deflected into his own net by John Grant. That goal gave them a bit of confidence, creating a few half chances in the opening half to extend the one goal lead.
After a half time rollicking from Dill, The Shots were a different proposition in the second half, looking more dangerous and likely to score with each foray forward.
The breakthrough came on 68 minutes, substitute Danny Hylton raced on to a Morgan flicked header to shoot past Colgan at the far post.
The home side looked set to take the points but it was the visitors who almost snatched it. A Cowan-Hall cross was a handled by Sandell, the referee taking the linesman’s advice to give the spot kick.
Proudlock stepped up and sent his shot sailing high into the East Bank, blowing the chance to end Grimsby’s barren run and preserving Aldershot’s fine home record of only one defeat at The Rec this season.

Just when you thought it was safe to open the curtains, there it was at 5.20 this morning, its back and looking bad - yet more snow, a good 2-3 inches of the shit. Thankfully I was leaving the white stuff behind heading from the naughty north to the sexy south(reference to weather) safe in the knowledge that I was heading off to warmer climes.
The mouth watering prospect of a League Two fixture between Aldershot and Grimsby was arranged back in the hazy shade of July. Grimsby Town fan and 100FgC squad#88 Graham Precious emailed me with his planned fixtures for the forthcoming season with the offer of meeting up and travelling together.
So I set off on the 0635 from Newcastle Central to Kings Cross where Graham and his son Hayden were waiting to welcome me off the train at Newark Northgate. After stopping off for a McDonalds breakfast we hit the road to Hampshire just after 9am, the journey running smoothly arriving in the town by noon.
I picked out the Royal Staff pub for pre-match bevvy and a spot of lunch, which serves a selection of Fuller’s ales. The pub is quiet cosy, the landlord, bar staff and even the boxer dog Tyler made us feel most welcome.
It was a very enjoyable day, its always great when a plan comes together and the whole day went without a hitch. I arrived back in Newark at 7.50pm, which gave me a bit time to tick off another Wetherspoons pub before catching the 2147 back home. The only disappointment on the day was actually missing out on witnessing a rare Grimsby Town victory, which would have been good to see and even better for long suffering Mariners Graham and Hayden.

Matchday Stats

ATFC 1(Hylton 68) GTFC 1(GrantOG 6)

att.3195

Admission £15

Programme £3

Ground no.240 Recreation Ground - Matchday Web album (20 pictures)