My Matchday Pics -123 Welfare Park

Bedlington Terriers 0v2 Nissan Sunderland
Arngrove Northern League 1st Division
30th December 2006
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My last match of 2006 turned out to be an unplanned but welcome visit to Welfare Park,home of the Bedlington Terriers.
Due to heavy rain the ANL programme was a wash out,and of the seven surviving fixtures their was two grounds I hadn’t been to,the other being Alnwick Town,so I went for the closer option.
Welfare Park is tucked within a housing estate,I struggled to find it and arrived at the ground at 3.05,with the turnstile operator cheekily informing me that "the match had kicked off at 3 O’Clock and the score was still nowts each".
The Terriers have had a long and eventfull history,formed in 1949 the present club played in the Northern Combinations League as Bedlington Mechanics,in the early fifties they changed their name to Colliery Town and then Bedlington Colliery Welfare when they won their first title,before joining the Northern Alliance League in 1955/56.
The clubs history has had many ups and downs,including disbandment and reformation,another name change as Bedlington United,playing in minor leagues and the Tyneside Amateur League, league titles and cup honours in the Northern Alliance,including the “double” in 1966/67,before becoming founder members of the newly formed Northern League 2nd Division in 1984/85,finishing as runners-up and promotion to the 1st Division in their first season.
In 1993 the club found itself at rock bottom and with the prospect of going out of business,they sat bottom of the 2nd Division,with their fixtures suspended for a month,but a rescue package was put together from Bedlington club veteran Billy Ward with the financial help from local businessmen Dave and Keith Perry,gave birth to the “Terriers”
The club went from strength to strength,winning promotion the following season,and progressed with wins in the League Cup and winning the Northumberland Senior Cup beating Morpeth Town 2-0 at St. James Park,the hard work that had seen the club nearly disappearing was rewarded,winning the first of 5 consecutive league titles from 1997/98,sadly the club saviour Mr Ward wasn’t alive to witness the clubs resurrection.
The Terriers current ground at Dr Pit Welfare Ground is Bedlington’s third home,they originally played at West Sleekburn ‘A’ Pit,and after the reformation in 1965 they took up residence at Milnes Park,where they stayed for three seasons before the club move to their current home.
The ground is made up of a main stand with a small seated area called the Jack Carter Stand,the home team dugout is in front of this,the opposite end you have the away team dugout,which gives the away team officials the inconvenience of having to walk across the clarty pitch,the rest of this side of the ground is made up of three sheltered standing areas with five thin floodlight pylons.
Behind each goal is an open standing area,like I mentioned earlier,the ground is hidden away amongst a housing estate,where the residents behind one goal have an exclusive and free view of all Terriers matches,either from the bedroom window or if you fancy a bit of fresh air,a gap in your garden fence,where I saw two young lasses take advantage of this facility.
The players tunnel is in the corner of the ground,next to the clubhouse,beside this there is a built up office,where club officials view the game from,or maybe you could describe it as a poor mans executive box,I know if SKY ever visited Bedlington,it would be ideal for “Old hairy hands” Richard Keys to view to game from along with his studio guest.
Being my first visit to Welfare Park,my only recollections are seeing them on TV,either on the local sports news when they had success in getting to Wembley for the FA Vase or on Match of The Day when they had that fabulous 4-1 win over Colchester in the FA Cup in 1998.But it doesn’t matter what time of the year you view Welfare Park the pitch always looks a mud bath,today was obviously no exception,but I did see a good game of football with league leaders Nissan stretching there lead at the top to eight points,thanks to two second half goals from inform striker Gavin Cogden.
Match reports-
The Home view- http://www.bedlingtonterriersfc.co.uk/
The Away view-http://www.nissanfc.co.uk/fixture/21
I enjoyed my last minute trip to the home of the Terriers,and pleased to see the club survive,after another summer of discontent which almost saw the club extinct,it again needed history to repeat itself in the shape of a local businessman to come to the rescue,on top of all that there was a serious arson attack on the clubhouse,which has just recently been reopened and will provide much needed revenue to the club.
It will be a struggle to starve of relegation this season,but with a dog of a pitch,which can be a great leveller against better sides,and a barking mad loyal support,things aren’t as rough as it seems,and the club maybe will have to take a step back and paw their way back again,as they did in the past. “Woof Woof Terriers”
(sorry about the quality of the pictures,but with the trip being a last minute decision,I forgot my camera and had to use my phone)

Simple Piemans visit last season -

http://pieandmushypeas.blogspot.com/2006/04/bedlington-terriers-1-billingham.html

My Matchday Pics - 122 Central Avenue - Billingham Synthonia

Billingham Synthonia 5v2 Romulus FC
FA Carlsberg Vase 3rd round
9th December 2006
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Billingham Synthonia,(formerly Billingham Synthetic Ammonia)a great name for a football club,even though they are named after an agricultural fertiliser,one of the main products by the Teesside based company ICI,that has close connections with the club.
The “Synners” were formed in 1923,and played in the Teesside League up until the war,in 1945 they took the place of the disbanded Billingham South in the Northern League,where they have played ever since and been league champions on four occasions.
Central Avenue has been their home since September 1958 after they moved across the road from their second of two grounds based on Belasis Lane,when they made way for landowners ICI to build a new office block.
The Belasis Lane ground has a place in the annals of football history, being the first ground in the North of England, and Billingham Synthonia the first amateur club to stage a match under floodlights, when they took on an RAF side in November 1952,winning a “tight game” 8-4 in front of a crowd of 3,000.This season also marks the 50th anniversary of Northern League floodlit football,the first match being in March 1957 v Ferryhill Athletic.
The main feature of Central Avenue is the mighty 2,000 capacity Cantilever Stand,that stretches along the full length of the ground,which when originally build,was the largest in the country. It consists of two tiers of standing terraces with green crash barriers,and a small seated area on the top tier.
Surrounding the pitch is a dirt track(which I lapped several times in a bid to keep warm) the other three sides of the ground is made up of grass banked standing areas,with three tall floodlight pylons on the opposite side to the main stand.
‘Billy Synners’ opponents in this 3rd round Vase tie were Romulus,the Sutton Coldfield based club who play in the Midland Alliance,the game wasn’t as one sided as the score suggests,and for the first hour the game could have gone either way.
There’s no link to a match report,so my view of the game is…
Romulus started the better side and took an early lead when Richard Adams beat the offside trap to but the Roms a goal up,but the Synners quickly replied with an equaliser from Shaun Hope.
Both sides continued to create chances but it wasn’t until the 40th minute that Billingham gained the advantage,as Dan Hanasin latched on to a long ball,and was brought down by Roms keeper Matthew Harris on the edge of the box,I was expecting a red card for the keeper and a free-kick,the keeper came off worse in the collision,but after receiving treatment to my surprise he received only a yellow card and face a penalty,which was confidently converted by Simon Shaw.
The home side looked set to go in at half time with a slender lead,but an injury time equaliser again from Adams,made it all square at the break and set up an intriguing second half.
I went into the Synners Bar for a warm at half time and was welcomed with the news of Newcastle’s 2-0 lead at Blackburn,which wasn’t popular news amongst my Teesside hosts,especially with the Boro losing 0-1 at the Riverside to Wigan.
The second half started as the first had finished with a goal,as Romulus’s substitute keeper Craig Thomas’s first job was the pick the ball out of the net with a 46th minute strike from Craig Perry,this spurred the visitors on to try and save the tie and after missing several chances it was again ‘Man of the match’ Chris Perry who struck,with an excellent 35 yard strike to kill off any hope of the Roms making progress in this seasons Vase.
Full marks to the visitors they never gave up,and in their quest to stay in the game the home side broke away when Tony Wood beat a couple of defenders,and with a cool finish made it 5-2 in injury time and booked a place in Mondays 4th round draw.

Ground Image Of The Month

One football city divided by one street,only 100 yards seperate the 'Dark Blues' from 'The Tangerines' on either side of Tannadice Street,parts of the grounds also share Sandeman Street.
Although Dundee are the oldest club in the city it was Tannadice which first hosted football in 1879,when it was the home of East End FC,and later Dundee Wanderers,under it's previous name of Clepington Park.
In 1909 the ground was then renovated and renamed Tannadice Park and taking over by Dundee Hibernian,who later were to become Dundee United in 1924.
Dens Park opened in 1899 when Dundee FC moved from their previous residence at Carolina Port,the two grounds are the nearest rivals in football,with the only other senior clubs whose football grounds are closer being Budapest clubs MTK and BKV Elore,whose stadiums are back to back.
The current capacity of Tannadice is 14,209 while Dens Park currently houses 11,856.

My Matchday Pics - 121 Commerzbank Arena

November 30th 2006

0-0 att.47000 The artistic stadium formely known as Waldstadion,is a venue worthy of world class status,as it appeared to football fans worldwide during the summers World Cup in Germany.
The Waldstadion (Forest Stadium) was opened in 1925,and was originally used for football and athletics it later became a venue for the Nazis and renamed ‘Sportfeld’ with political rallies taken place there,towards the end of World War Two the US marched into Frankfurt and seized the site and renamed it ‘Victory Stadium’,the ground was then once again used for sporting events.
Having previously been rejuvenated for the 1974 World Cup,the current arena is now in it’s third reincarnation.Work began in 2002,in preparation for World Cup 2006 at a cost of 126M euros,and the newly named Commerzbank Arena was opened in the summer of 2005,playing host for the final of the Confederation Cup between Brazil and Argentina, and is now one of the biggest and best looking stadiums in Deutschland.
Amongst the greats to have appeared at this ground is “The Greatest” himself,Muhammed Ali who fought Karl Mildenberger for the World Heavyweight Championship in the sixties,but now it’s the turn of “The greatest football fans” the ‘Toon army’ to make there first appearance at this impressive looking arena.[sorry! tedious link alert:-) ]
On approach to the stadium you are greeting with ‘Commerzbank Arena’ in yellow neon letters,so there’s no mistaking where you are,and beneath this are the turnstiles,which are bar code readers,so this gives you a speedy access,once through this gate you find that the stadium blocks are all open,so there’s no individual turnstiles for each section of the ground.[nice one!] Each block has it’s own refreshment area,so this helps with queing, and everyone is well catered for.
The arena itself is a wonderfully looking large steep bowl,with no pillars or supporting walls and fantastic views from all areas of the ground.There’s a transparent retractable roof and I partically like the web effect grid that runs through it.The vocal point of the stadium is of course the four sided large screen that sits high above the centre of the pitch,looking at it,it’s hard to believe how England keeper Paul Robinson managed to hit this target,during the World Cup match with Paraguay.
The fans create a fantastic atmosphere with clapping and singing from all sides of the arena,for the team line ups in the match programme the supporters or ‘Fans Ruckhalt’ are giving the squad number 12,as there passionate support acts as the 12th man.The most vocal are in the lower tier behind the goal,where the fans sway and stamp their feet and it looked an awesome sight to us in the opposite end of the ground.

an example of this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znD2L3f7Nzg&mode=related&search=
Two things I must add,that I did notice while watching the game is why are the fans banners that hang over the front of the top tier upside down,and why are the first aiders all dressed in Santa suits? If any Eintracht fans happen to read this,then leave a comment with the answer please.
My overall impression is that Eintracht Frankfurt have what any ambitious club could ask for,a truly fabulous stadium and a loyal and passionate army of supporters, the only thing that’s missing is success on the pitch in the form of silverware……now doesn’t that sound familiar?

Match report @- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/6187850.stm

Commerzbank Arena info @- http://www.commerzbank-arena.com/

(click for larger images)

Planes,trains and automobiles (a European adventure)

I went to Frankfurt with my mate Ian, who I’ve been going to away games with for the past 27 years and his son Lee who is now 18 years old, or as the three of us call ourselves when we go away in Europe “The NE9 trickle” ;-)
The trip was a long one and involved a lot of travelling and connections,this is the timetable of our time on planes, trains and automobilia.
0400-0845 Travelled in Ian’s car to London Stansted airport
0845-0855 Bus shuttle from car park to terminal
1225-1430(CET) Flight to Frankfurt Hahn
1450-1625 Bus to Frankfurt city centre
1925-1935 S-Bahn to Stadium
And on returning
2305-2315 S-Bahn to Frankfurt FFM
0003-0135 Intercity train to Koblenz
0340-0445 Bus to Frankfurt Hahn Airport
0630-0640(BST) Flight to London Stansted
0720-0730 Bus shuttle to car park
0735-1150 Ian’s car back to Tyneside
1151 arrived home totally ‘cattle trucked’ having to keep awake to make sure Ian didn’t fall asleep at the wheel

Was it worth it? Of course it was! Seeing Newcastle clinch top spot in our UEFA Cup group and most of all,another new ground and one of the best!

My Matchday Pics - 120 Belle Vue

Doncaster Rovers 1v0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Football League One
November 25th 2006
att.5804
At last, a trip down to Donny and a last opportunity to visit Belle Vue,or should that be the Earth Stadium'(which i doubt any self acclaimed Rovers fan would call it unless you worked for Earth Mortgages) their home for the last 84 years before their move to pastures new in the new year.
Doncaster Rovers have played at 'The Belle' since 1922 and the old ground has survived fire,mining subsidance,conspiracy and arson and on the field been graced by the likes of amongst others the Keetley Brothers,Alick Jeffery,Sydney Bycroft,Harry Gregg(at the time the worlds most expensive player) and lest not forget "me old flower" Charlie Williams.
Anyone whose visited Belle Vue will know that the old stadium is on it's last legs but it has a certain character and an historic feel to it.It was great to stand on the terraces for a league game again with the ground being made up of two open ended terraces behind each goal,I stood on the 'Town End' terrace facing towards the Brighton fans or should i say a 'flock of seagulls' ( "well I took a photograph of you,for something to remind me") facing towards us in the 'Rossington End'.
The Main Stand has a seating capacity of just over 1500 and has a paddock standing area in front with which looks like an extended roof,adjacent is the popular side which is a covered terrace where most of the home fans vocal support comes from.

I travelled down on the train,in first clarss,thanks to my old mucker and companion for the day Jimmy,who has one of those train-season-ticket-thingys,so I had a free trip to the match(well so I thought)after a couple of pints in Central Station we boarded the 12.32 and arrived at Doncaster Station just before two o'clock.

We decided to jump a taxi to the ground to give us a bit more time in the beerbar,while travelling to the ground the taxi driver asked why we were here and Jimmy jokingly replied "We're sick of watching Newcastle so we've come to watch Doncaster instead" our taxi-driver was straight on to his radio to notify head office that unbelievably,he had two Geordies in his cab coming to watch Rovers instead of Newcastle,the lass in the taxi office then proceeded in telling all the other taxi drivers about us,so our arrival in the town of Doncaster was announced with disbelief even though Jimmy's remark was with his tongue firmly in his cheek,and of course they mustn't have known that the Toon were at home the following day and I would be at that game as well.

The taxi dropped us off at a pub next to the Dome complex,and after a few pints of Tetley Bitter(funny,it always tastes nicer when drinking it in Yorkshire)we walked along to the ground.This involved trying to walk through what can only be described as' puddle city' or maybe 'Mini-Venice' but not as picturesque.

The match wasn't a classic but was still enjoyable to watch,a tight encounter settled by a first half header scored by former Seagulls striker Mark McCammon.Overall Doncaster deserved the the victory,while having the best of the opening period Brighton pushed for an equaliser in the second half,but the home defence held firm and didn't look like letting the three points slip.

match report -

http://www.doncasterroversfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Match/Reports/0,,10329~34397,00.html

After the game we walked around to the taxi rank at the nearby ASDA store,there were no taxis there,so we went into the store and the young girl on the customer services desk was very helpfull in ordering us transport back to the train station.But the taxi didn't show up,because the traffic outside the Dome Complex was chocka-block and the taxi had no chance in reaching us,after trying to order another taxi from the nearby pub we gave up on any chance of us boarding the 17.35 to Edinburgh.

So there we were Smid and Jimmy stuck in Donny having missed our train,trekking back on foot in 'pissed off mode' back to the station and on arriving having to cough up £69 between us(so much for the free trip) we then toured the train stations of Yorkshire and finally treked back on to the East coast line back to the Toon.

My only previous recollection of Doncaster train Station was on TV,and the first ever episode of 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads' when Bob and Terry were reunited after five years, having bumping into each other on a Newcastle Bound Train.Terry had just came out of the army and after speaking to Bob on the way North decided that he didn't want to go home to Tyneside and decided that he was going to alight at Doncaster and return to London,to cut a long story short Bob got left behind in Doncaster having missed the last train,so this station has a bad history for Geordies,as another couple of likely lads would have been left there,if it wasn't for the fact Jimmy was carrying his little plastic friend.

Apart from the missed train incident,I had a very enjoyable trip to Doncaster and was pleased to finally get to view Belle Vue in there third last game at the old ground.I'll return again but next time it will be in better surroundings at the impressive looking Keepmoat Stadium,about a half a mile away from the current site and next time I'll make sure we'll get a later train home,so for now Doncaster "Ahl Sithee"

A Brighton fans view of the game @-http://thegroundhog.wordpress.com/2006/11/29/doncaster-rovers-part-2/