Lost Stadiums: Your Favourite(s)/Least Favourite(s)? | Page 2 | Vital Football

Lost Stadiums: Your Favourite(s)/Least Favourite(s)?

Chesterimp said:
Gay Meadow at Shrewsbury a clear favourite, cute location by the river, lots of 'character' ( ok, it was falling down) and every time I went, the Imps won.

Least favourite? Springfield Park, Wigan - terrible old ground with a greyhound track, zero atmosphere, dire weather and we lost, narrowly.
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I was going to mention Wigan too.
A really abysmal ground, just a mud slope for away end. Plus, last time i saw us there I got severe food poisoning from the "catering" facilities there.
Was properly ill for 3 days afterwards.

Vetch Field. Half (or mostly) condemned when we went on that fateful day back in 1987. So dreadful ground for starters and a day which had already started badly with a long train journey down followed by nearly getting attacked by locals when walking to ground (because our shirt had ECHO on it at the time and so did Cardiff's and the dumbwits thought I must be a Cardiff fan!).
Then of course the game and outcome turned the rest of the day into utter misery.

So Swansea definitely get top place in most hated away grounds.
 
Sincilbanks said:
Least favourite was Alfreton, what a dump, made Telford look classy
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I might have mentioned it before, but a memory that will live long with me was here.
Went to an evening match at Alfreton on my own. Can't remember the pub name, but went in one for a pre-match pint and got talking to a bloke at the bar. Couple of things in the conversation that were quite funny.

1) After I'd told him I was in town for the game, and he'd said he wasn't bothered about football (some strange men around!), he suddenly asked me "are you one of these that go looking for trouble?". A bit taken aback, and eying up the exit route, I replied "you don't get a nose like mine by finding trouble". He came straight back "depends how good at it you are"
2) Next up, he asked how long it had taken to get there from Lincoln. I explained that I didn't live in the city and had relocated for work. He said to me "I lived in Lincoln for a few years". "Yeah, whereabouts?". "Lincoln prison" he replied.
With the previous exchange in mind, the earlier scanned exit route was quickly taken!
 
plumbob said:
I might have mentioned it before, but a memory that will live long with me was here.
Went to an evening match at Alfreton on my own. Can't remember the pub name, but went in one for a pre-match pint and got talking to a bloke at the bar. Couple of things in the conversation that were quite funny.

1) After I'd told him I was in town for the game, and he'd said he wasn't bothered about football (some strange men around!), he suddenly asked me "are you one of these that go looking for trouble?". A bit taken aback, and eying up the exit route, I replied "you don't get a nose like mine by finding trouble". He came straight back "depends how good at it you are"
2) Next up, he asked how long it had taken to get there from Lincoln. I explained that I didn't live in the city and had relocated for work. He said to me "I lived in Lincoln for a few years". "Yeah, whereabouts?". "Lincoln prison" he replied.
With the previous exchange in mind, the earlier scanned exit route was quickly taken!
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Great anecdote!
 
plumbob said:
I might have mentioned it before, but a memory that will live long with me was here.
Went to an evening match at Alfreton on my own. Can't remember the pub name, but went in one for a pre-match pint and got talking to a bloke at the bar. Couple of things in the conversation that were quite funny.

1) After I'd told him I was in town for the game, and he'd said he wasn't bothered about football (some strange men around!), he suddenly asked me "are you one of these that go looking for trouble?". A bit taken aback, and eying up the exit route, I replied "you don't get a nose like mine by finding trouble". He came straight back "depends how good at it you are"
2) Next up, he asked how long it had taken to get there from Lincoln. I explained that I didn't live in the city and had relocated for work. He said to me "I lived in Lincoln for a few years". "Yeah, whereabouts?". "Lincoln prison" he replied.
With the previous exchange in mind, the earlier scanned exit route was quickly taken!
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The away match at Alfreton will stick long in my mind for several reasons really.
  • Todd Jordan briefly looked like Johan Cruyff as he beat two players with a lovely bit of skill only a moment later to tread on the ball and fall over..
  • Every single corner of every single crossing point between the supermarket car park and the ground had a police officer with a dog on a lead
  • Being filmed by the police as we filed out of the away end across the crappy bit of grass.
  • The queue for the toilets being huge, at least you were able to watch the game while queuing I guess..
 
Sincilbanks said:
The away match at Alfreton will stick long in my mind for several reasons really.
  • Todd Jordan briefly looked like Johan Cruyff as he beat two players with a lovely bit of skill only a moment later to tread on the ball and fall over..
  • Every single corner of every single crossing point between the supermarket car park and the ground had a police officer with a dog on a lead
  • Being filmed by the police as we filed out of the away end across the crappy bit of grass.
  • The queue for the toilets being huge, at least you were able to watch the game while queuing I guess..
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As you commented at Tamworth: welcome to non-League!

And some people complain about L1... ;)
 
domski2017 said:
The Shay and old showground.

Glumford Park has to be one of the most depressing and most like a Subuttoe ground in all the country! No character or charm.
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Here is a little interesting snippet about The Shay. The cover opposite the New Main stand essentially the last bit of the old ground where the away fans are now housed. This was originally erected at Manchester City's Hyde Road ground in 1910. When Manchester City moved to Maine Road in 1923 the cover was taken down bought by Halifax Town who then re-erected it at The Shay where it still stands today

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Have to agree with a number of posters

Great ground with character, Shrewsbury

S**t grounds mainly from our time in the Conference. Agree on Alfreton and Tamworth (when we parked up at T, my grandson, who had only previously been to the Britannia Stadium, asked where the stadium was - thought we had gone to the training ground - he found it very amusing when the ball bounced off the adjacent house. He's a bit more rounded now, going regularly to Stafford Rangers)

The most despondent I think I've ever felt was our first time in the Conference and going to the New Years Day match at Northwich. Being in that ground I just kept thinking, "what have we come to"; cheered up a bit - but not a lot - when Mcginley scored the winner

As a league ground, also agree with Wigan, with grass growing out of the terrace. In fairness to them I suppose they had only recently been promoted into the league

Oldham was also cr@p for away fans (didn't go to watch Imps) with the corner of a supermarket taking up part of the terrace and obstructing the view of one goal
 
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I have been to 106 grounds in England, Scotland and Wales; for some reason, I have a list of them.

Halifax was probably the worst I remember seeing in the FL, although there were some in non-league football that were on a par. Runcorn was equally terrible, and the by then dilapidated Drill Field close behind. Albion Rovers is even worse, yet incredibly is still in use. Different standards for different countries.

Springfield Park wasn't quite that bad, although it had essentially the same infrastructure Wigan Borough were using when they folded in the early 1930s.

I had a liking for Highbury, although I never saw Lincoln play there. Burnden and Leeds Road still had hints of their former grandeur, although no longer fit for purpose even in the early 1980s.
 
Retimp said:
Cant believe I had forgot the jokily named belle view. I think it actually looked better after that bloke tried to burn it down
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It's amazing what we just took for granted as PAYING customers back in those days. Other grounds had similar but what heightened the experience at Donny was having entered the ground you then had to walk to the small holding cell built on the middle of the crumbling terrace to then be let inside. Absolutely incredible looking back now.
 
Glanford Park a destination of soul swallowing emptiness

The Baseball ground for being the complete opposite and my first away day

Uti
 
Glanford Park was one of the first of the modern, atmosphere draining grounds. Amazing that so many clubs followed suit with this style of ground ,as you could tell as soon as you walked in it was all wrong. Essentially , getting a low cost stadium was everything in those days.
 
GertLushImp said:
Glanford Park was one of the first of the modern, atmosphere draining grounds. Amazing that so many clubs followed suit with this style of ground ,as you could tell as soon as you walked in it was all wrong. Essentially , getting a low cost stadium was everything in those days.
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It's location also contributes to it's blandness.
 
Anybody know if Boston's York Street is now classed as extinct? This season was supposed to be it's last before the club move to the new Jakemans Stadium.
Last I heard, the non league levels below National League North and South have closed down, and all teams to remain in their current league come next season.
I haven't heard whether the National Leagues have made a decision as yet.
 
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