Thursday 25 October 2012

Treated like Royalty at the New Lawn

Well, in thirty years I have never before enjoyed a box at a football match but we did so last Saturday to celebrate my son's birthday. For one match we had a suite for ourselves. Lunch, TV, programmes and seats in the main stand - marvellous. Forest Green had done us proud. We had half dozen of his class mates with us and they all seemed to enjoyed the afternoon. Before the little man went off to join the team we all took part in a guided tour of the stadium; the gym, directors box, changing rooms, medical room, PA facilities room, timers workplace, all the other stands - a good set-up.

Sunday 14 October 2012

Burying Bury at Broadfield

Finally back on the road again. Timing was about tight because of a fuel spill on the M25 but I made to see an excellent match as Crawley Town just pipped Bury to the points. The ground does show signs of belonging to a recently promoted non-league side.  The stand I was in was a temporary looking affair but it worked and allows the locals to make some noise by stamping their feet.
I had a jumbo sausage roll and onions with some tea for four quid. Perfectly edible though I did hear other fans complaining of aggressive staff later I didn't have any such treatment.

I also just squeezed into the car park for three quid though I think I saw some free parking advertised as I drove past the ground.  Getting away wasn't too bad but the roundabout next to the ground was a long wait as most traffic wasn't going my way.  It seems most fans use a good and very close bus service.
I felt really sorry for the cheer leaders who after a brief 5 minute routine at half time got to stand as a guard of honor for ten minutes in the cold and rain. One decent scoreboard and the home fans were pretty quiet unlike the Lancashire travellers who kept up a good noise throughout and were hard done to by a very late winner after coming back from 2 down.  They didn't look like a bottom of the table side but it was entertaining.