Doing the 92 | Page 4 | Vital Football

Doing the 92

HerrLjunga said:
I think my loudest was Millwall going 2-0 up against us inside eight minutes at a sold out New Den, April 2000, a seething, jeering, rolling wall of hatred, you could feel it. The explosion of the packed away end when Hess equalised before halftime with a screamer was something to behold too.
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Our rendition of "2-0 and you f*cked it up" was glorious. The Millwall apes in the stand to our left were going mental!
 
HerrLjunga said:
Anyone else know their 92 total?
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Premier League: 13

13 (if you count the old Dean Court)
9 with Gills (see above).
10 former grounds of current Premier League sides (incl. Brighton at Gills)
6 of them with Gills

Championship: 19

19
19 with Gills
12 former grounds of current Championship sides
all of them with Gills

League 1: 19

19
all 19 with Gills
7 former grounds of current league one sides (grey area re MK Dons)
all of them with Gills

League 2: 19

19
17 of them with Gills
6 former grounds of current league two sides (grey area re AFC Wimbledon/Wimbledon- I am counting Plough Lane and Selhurst for AFC Wimbledon not MK Dons)
all of them with Gills.

So 70 of the 92.
Plus 35 former grounds of the current 92 clubs.

Plus clubs now outside the League still at the same ground: 12
Plus defunct grounds of clubs now outside the league: 8**

So 123 '92' club grounds (I think I have deducted the correct number of groundshares).**

National League: 11

11 current National League grounds that were previously in the 92.
10 of them with Gills
5 former grounds that were 92 qualifiers at some stage (the Squatters is a grey area- only counting Dartford's old ground here)
all 5 with Gills
I also saw the Squatters also play home games at (I think) Sittingbourne- back pitch, Ashford United and their original ground. Again grey area as it is a different club now to the one which was in the Football League.

National League North: 1

1 former 92 still in use. All with Gills
3 former grounds of former 92 clubs
2 of them with Gills (grey area re Darlington and Chester FC being phoenix clubs)

National League South 0

(but only because I have counted Twerton Park and Watling Street above).

Total grounds visited 372. I will never make the 92. I can't afford any groundhopping at the moment, let alone paying ridiculous amounts of money to get into Premier League games. My Chatham Town season ticket is £60. I would be lucky to see two games on Premier League grounds for that once train fares/fuel is factored in. I am much happier paying £0 to £20* to get into Non League games.

* one of the £20s was Hungerford Town whose 4 for a score deal was admission, programme, a pint and a burger for £20. Upgrade to the full on Bearpit Burger brought it up to about £22. I think York City's National League North Play Off Final last season was around £20 as well.

Most often I pay between £4 and £10 to get in to games.

I was very pleased by Brad Galinson's pay what you like vs Crawley, but it clashed with a Chatham Town game so I didn't partake. If only that other bloke (I forget his name) had tried similar when he was in charge...

Edit: I forgot Gigg Lane and Macclesfield's grounds.

**Add two to the defunct clubs that were previously 92 (both with Gills).

So 125 92 club grounds in all. I think...
 
LockdownLife said:
I wonder what my count would be for how many of the 92 have you seen play live. Reckon lots on here would be well high on that count.
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18 Premier League (all bar Liverpool and Man United) (17 with Gills)
24 Championship (all with Gills)
22 League One definitely. May have seen Morecambe. Not seen FGR (all with Gills)
21 League Two definitely. Not sure re the current Newport County but saw the original club. Not seen Barrow or Harrogate (but I have seen a game at Harrogate's ground). (17 with Gills, plus Gills = 18)

So seen 86 (possibly plus another two). 81 with Gills.

Clubs I've not seen play:

Liverpool, Man United, Forest Green Rovers, Barrow or Harrogate.

Not sure: Morecambe and Newport County AFC

Also have seen:

14 former league clubs now in the National League;
9 former league clubs now in National League North*;
roughly 4 former league clubs now lower in the pyramid or totally defunct

*includes Bradford Park Avenue, a phoenix club who were very much not in the Football League when I saw them!

There could be a few others, but I have no record of opponents of clubs like Welling, Dartford, the Squatters, Ebbsfleet/Gravesend & Northfleet that I saw play many times in the Alliance Premier/Conference/National League who may have hosted other former league clubs or their phoenix versions.

So roughly 113 current or former Football League clubs.
 
jokerman said:
45 with the net cast as broadly as possible. Park Avenue (x2) my best. Also Kilcohan Park, Waterford.
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Have you been to Park Avenue's current ground (Horsfall Athletics Track I think)? Four of us went their the day after Gills were thrashed 5-1 at Bradford City on the Friday night around that time that business collapsed causing ALL of Gills' subsequent financial problems. Can anyone remember the name of the company? Was it BBC Terrestrial or something like that?

I'd Google it but I can't remember their website address.

Good work on going to Park Avenue assuming you did. For once age is on your side!
 
Macc Gill said:
Last year I went to Brentford v Arsenal for the first game of the PL season (as part of seeing 6 footy matches and 3 cricket games in 8 days).

amazingly I found I was sat next to another gills fan who was ticking off ground number 91, and then met him again the following Tuesday when he finished his 92 with Wimbledon v Gills.
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I think I know who you are talking about. I've done a lot of grounds with him over the last 38 or so years.
 
Tarian said:
Surely not counting Tottenham goes further than the usual practice (i.e. 92 current league clubs ?)
Most people seem to disregard a new build on the same site.
Otherwise, a purist might say that a single stand rebuild - or 4 stand rebuilds over a couple of decades - made it "new".
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Tottenham's new ground is officially counted as a new ground as no part of the pitch overlaps with the old one.
Bournemouth's does not count as a new ground as part of the pitch does overlap the old one, albeit with the ground rotating 90 degrees. Apps tell me I've been there. I don't believe I have. I went to Dean Court (demolished). I have not been to the Vitality Stadium.
 
Whisky Gill said:
40 odd for me but none since 1999 unfortunately. However can I claim Buckie Thistle, Elgin and Forres Mechanics!
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Is Forres Mechanics up between Inverness and Findhorn? If so I've been past it in a car and it is on my list of grounds I'd love to go to.

Gills were at home to Blackpool the day I drove past there. I was phoned at about 3.15pm that day by people wondering where I was as it was the first competitive Gills home match I'd missed in 9 or 10 years. It was the start of the slippery slope that ended up with me not going to Gills at all...
 
jogills said:
No one has authority over this, make your own rules. All is fair as long as you declare. For my part I count White Hart Lane in either guise but not clubs that have moved grounds. I can understand why some count any ground asssociated with a club. I've been as high as 86 but currently on 79.

Be very careful where this leads. What to do when you get to 92? There is a Gills ST holder, who happens to be my son in law's brother, who has visited 493 grounds and counting
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There is another Gills fan who is on several thousand grounds some of which I have been to in the same car or coach as him...
 
Pledge said:
Have you been to Park Avenue's current ground (Horsfall Athletics Track I think)? Four of us went their the day after Gills were thrashed 5-1 at Bradford City on the Friday night around that time that business collapsed causing ALL of Gills' subsequent financial problems. Can anyone remember the name of the company? Was it BBC Terrestrial or something like that?

I'd Google it but I can't remember their website address.

Good work on going to Park Avenue assuming you did. For once age is on your side!
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Been by it, never to it. Great Uncle Tom drove trams by it on the Odsal route. Saw Avenue draw with Darlington and lose to Notts County. There were still trolleybus wires outside the ground although oil buses substituted.
 
I watched Park Avenue quite a few times for a couple of seasons when they were playing in Bramley, Leeds. Food drink was good and I have a limited edition badge with verfication letter from that period. Most envious of jokerman's visis to the original, I only stood and stared at the remains.
 
jogills said:
I watched Park Avenue quite a few times for a couple of seasons when they were playing in Bramley, Leeds. Food drink was good and I have a limited edition badge with verfication letter from that period. Most envious of jokerman's visis to the original, I only stood and stared at the remains.
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There are still some remains there now. The old covered terrace end was cleared of decades of vegetation a few years ago to see what could be found. It was treated as a semi-archaeology project, looking for artefacts from the 60s and 70s.

Quite possibly the funniest relic of theirs was found at Valley Parade, where they shared before going bust. The little Midland Road cover, opposite the stand that tragically burnt down was being tidied up during the rebuild and Bradford PA graffiti was discovered sprayed on the back of it... No-one knows how long it had been there!
 
Doing the 92 was an early ambition of mine, but ran out of steam into my early 20s. Gave up when I got to around 65 at the time. I still love groundhopping though, but it's less of an obsession. Something I always thought I'd come back to and I hope I will.

I must admit, in terms of following the Gills most of the time I'll only entertain the idea of going to an away game if it's somewhere I've not been before, unless the game itself is particularly significant.

Happy to say I'll be picking off 2 in consecutive weekends.

Reminds me that I have a spreadsheet somewhere that I kept maintained with every football game I'd ever been to, think I gave up on that in the late 2000s!
 
Pledge said:
Is Forres Mechanics up between Inverness and Findhorn? If so I've been past it in a car and it is on my list of grounds I'd love to go to.

Gills were at home to Blackpool the day I drove past there. I was phoned at about 3.15pm that day by people wondering where I was as it was the first competitive Gills home match I'd missed in 9 or 10 years. It was the start of the slippery slope that ended up with me not going to Gills at all...
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Hi. Pledge. Yes it's on the A96 between Nairn and Elgin. About 200 metres from Benromach distillery. Findhorn is a beautiful spot. I believe that David Shearer started his career up here with Inverness and Keith in the Highland league.
 
Pledge said:
There are still some remains there now. The old covered terrace end was cleared of decades of vegetation a few years ago to see what could be found. It was treated as a semi-archaeology project, looking for artefacts from the 60s and 70s.

Quite possibly the funniest relic of theirs was found at Valley Parade, where they shared before going bust. The little Midland Road cover, opposite the stand that tragically burnt down was being tidied up during the rebuild and Bradford PA graffiti was discovered sprayed on the back of it... No-one knows how long it had been there!
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For years, one of the Park Avenue walls sported “It’s a Mean Old Scene” which is the opening line to Double Crossing Time by John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.
 
Some on here will also have seen Brighton at 4 different 'home' grounds. Goldstone (Decent old ground), Our beloved Priestfield (when they squatted), Withdean (worst away view in the league?) and Falmer where (I believe we were the first or second team to actually play a game there)
 
Can’t get anywhere near some totals mentioned here. My personal tally from when I watched back in the day stands around the 30 mark. With a few of them being old disused grounds now.

Only seen football in 2 stadiums over here. Suncorp Stadium (Lang Park) in Brisbane. Olympic Stadium in Sydney.

Been to other stadiums here, but not for football. Mainly cricket, AFL and Rugby League.
 
Well this surprised me !! I checked and counted 51 grounds but I’ve included some old teams stadiums and a few that have been relegated into the National League but they were all stadiums visited watching the
mighty Gills 😃
 
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