Northampton Town v Grimsby Town. Saturday, 24th November 2018

2 Northampton v Grimsby 2

Having enjoyed our selves so much at Blundell Park last season, my Grimsby supporting pal, Pete, willing accomplice Tom and me, thought it would be a good idea to join the Mariners on an away day.

Thus we ended up booking a weekend in Northampton for this league two clash. Northampton was chosen due to being a weekend we could all make more than anything else. Truth be told, I wasn't expecting much from Sixfields, or as it is now called for sponsorship purposes, the PTS Academy Stadium. From the little I knew about it - that it's a modern all seater in a retail park, I assumed it was the kind of place that suited a bland corporate name such as the PTS Acadamey Stadium. I am pleased to say however it exceeded expectations. Partly this was because being in a packed away end with the passionate Grimsby fans would make for a decent atmosphere anywhere. But on arrival at Sixfields, it was clear that the place had more character than I'd given it credit for.

The history of Northampton Football club is not without scandal, financial hardship and political skulduggery. They have been at Sixfields, their current ground, since the mid 90's. Before this they played for a hundred years or so at the County Ground, a home they shared with Northamptonshire County Cricket Club. It's funny to think that as recently as 1994, within the premier league era, there was a football league club playing on a cricket pitch. In the latter part of the twentieth century, the owners of the ground made it clear that the cricket team were their favourites. The cricketers were charged a pepper corn rent whilst the football team were not allowed to put a stand on the side of the pitch nearest the wicket, but were still expected to let the football pitch be used as a car park during the cricket season. After the Bradford fire of 1985, the football team were ordered to dismantle their main stand, the only stand of any note at the ground.

By the early 90's the club was near bankrupt. Step forward multiple saviours. First came the groundbreaking intervention of a group of supporters who would go on to form the first ever supporters trust. They had two clear objectives - to raise money to save the club and also to seek genuine involvement and representation for supporters at board level and below. They remain active and have served as the template for the multiple supporters trusts that have emerged over the last 25 years. The local council then stepped in to the breach. Flush with cash from the sale of the local bus company, Northampton Borough Council paid for the building of Sixfields as a community sports complex. It was intended to be used for football, rugby league, gridiron and athletics with a track built alongside the main stadium.

This was not a happy ever after moment however. In recent years, the club has been rocked again to it's foundations by more scandal and financial turmoil. In 2014, the council again stepped forward, this time giving the then owners a loan in excess of £10 million to redevelop the stadium. The then leader of the council, became a tory MP shortly after and was later investigated for receiving a large donation for his election campaign from a firm paid to develop the ground. He has since stood down and the council has spent most of the last 4 years trying to find out where the hell the missling millions have gone. It is clear not much of it went on the ground. As far as I understand, all the stadium has got to show for the £10 million is one stand being ripped down and replaced with a half finished one. It has the same amount of seats as the old one though lacks a proper roof. Plus, the athletics track has been closed for 4 years as a result of being used as a dumping ground for the building work.

Enough history. Having watched Coventry at the ricoh the night before, we'd checked in to our hotel in the centre of Northampton late on Friday. In an act of prudence I'd booked a cheap room consisting of a double and a sofa bed meant for under 12's. I won the game of paper, scissors, stone and took the sofa bed leaving the lads to enjoy the double. 12 year olds must be pretty big these days because I had ample room and slept like a baby. It was also pretty cold as we couldn't work out how to shut the window so being tightly packed in worked out well.

Come Saturday, after a big breakfast we spent the rest of the morning half heartedly trying to find where the Grimsby fans would be congregating pre match. Generally though, we were just ambling about and seeing what Northampton had to offer. After admiring it's very fine town hall, we stumbled across the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery but it was closed for a refurb. We had a nice coffee within the cultural quarter and then it was midday and time to look for a pub whilst Pete went shopping. Despite being in the undisputed boot and shoe capital of Britain, Pete, ever the contrarian, went in search of a pair of fingerless gloves.

The Northampton Museum and Art Gallery. FYI closed for a refurb until 2019

Our first port of call was a lovely micro pub called the St Giles Ale House. After a quick couple of beer bats, or beer tapas as they called it here, we picked up Pete and slowly made our way to the ground, stopping occasionally for a beer and to put a bet on Grimsby to win. 

Sixfields is, I think it is fair to say, on the outskirts of Northampton rather than genuinely 'out of town' and the walk there wasn't too arduous or devoid of stuff to look at. Our half hour stroll took in a couple of nice pubs, the towns rugby union stadium, a reptile shop, a big Church's shoes factory and a strange giant chimney like structure which apparently is a lift tower. Eventually arriving at the ground we approached it through a retail park and then came over the brow of a hill to look down at the ground below us. It was a lovely sight. During Coventry's unhappy spell exiled here, many of their fans watched the games from this vantage point and probably had a half decent view, minus one of the goals as the incline is pretty steep.

Before descending down to the pitch. Our eyes were drawn to the athletics track that is directly behind the new unfinished stand. It had an eerie and long forgotten feel about it. I was amazed to find out that it had been closed for only 4 and a half years. There was something quite poignant about seeing it all overgrown and fenced off, resembling something from a nuclear wasteland. The juxtaposition of the football stadium right next to it blaring out pre match music and generally full of life was quite something.

 If Chrenobyl had an athletics track, it probably looks something like this now.

We made our way down the hill and around to the away end behind the far goal. We passed the main stand which had a fully glass fronted concourse at the top making it look a bit like a giant green house. It also reminded me of the leisure centre from The Brittas Empire. The Grimsby fans had travelled in their masses and by kick off the away stand was packed. As a Bristol Rovers fan I was looking forward to seeing ex players Andy Williams and John Joe O-Toole turning out for Northampton.

It seemed like a good number of the Grimsby fans had had a drink or two and they were all in high spirits. A few friendly stewards stood in front of us including one young female with a bee hive hair cut. She showed a good sense of humour when an "Amy Winehouse - She's back from the dead" shout went up.

Meanwhile the game had kicked off and it wasn't long before Grimsby conceded an unnecessary corner. The ball came in and after a short rally of head tennis, veteran striker Andy Williams was at the back post to smash the ball home - 1-0. Grimsby's heads didn't drop and they equalised through Charles Vernam when he took down a looping cross, stepped in side a defender and finished neatly with his left, low in to the net. Just before half time, Williams almost gave Northampton the lead with a header, but long serving Town keeper James Mckeowan made an incredible save, pushing the ball on to the inside of the post before it was hacked away leaving the scores level at the break.

After a half time mince pie, the second half set off at a frantic pace with both teams creating chances. The Cobblers took the lead through a sweet free kick from Van Veen. Grimsby came back stongly though and after a scramble in the box following a free kick, Harry Cardwell was able to bundle home to bring the game to 2-2. Grimsby were now looking likely to go and win it and the excitement in the away end was ratchetting up. It all got too much for one bloke in blue at the front. After hugging the stewards and jumping the hoardings once too often, he was wrestled out of the ground in a blur of limbs and hi-vis jackets.

 On the pitch, young Akheem Rose had come on as sub for Grimsby and had a good chance with a header 5 minutes from the end, he couldn't keep it down though and it sailed harmlessly over the bar. From the resultant goal kick, Grimsby's James Collins was sent off for a foul. This killed the last few minutes as Grimsby took their foot off the gas and looked to settle for a point. It remained 2-2 at the final whistle. A strong showing from Grimsby, especially compared to the desperate performance we witnessed last season when they were in the middle of a record run of games without a win. Manager Michael Jolly has clearly got them believing in them selves and playing some nice stuff.

We slowly made our way back to town before enjoying a lovely curry at Aladdins Balti. Next we settled in for the evening in the cosiness of The Malt Shovel Tavern. What a cracking pub! It turns out that Carlsberg have a giant brewing plant in Northampton which was right outside the Malt Shovel. I've never been much of a fan of Carlsberg but drinking it at source made for a pleasant drop.

Another fine weekend following the fortunes of Grimsby Town Football Club. I recommend a trip to Northampton, the stadium and the town were not as boring as I was led to believe.

QPR v Bristol Rovers, Tuesday 28th August, 2018

QPR 3 Bristol Rovers 1

After Chelsea and Fulham in 2016 and 2017 respectively, this was Rovers third annual outing to West London in the league cup. Tonights 'glamour tie' involved a trip to Championship QPR. Hopes were high amongst us travelling fans, although Rovers had had a poor start to the season, QPR's had been even worse and included a 7-1 mauling at West Brom and a recent 3-0 defeat at home to Bristol City.

My last visit to Loftus Road had been a bit of a disaster by all accounts. It was back in 2007 for a league game against Ipswich. At the time I was working in a hostel for rough sleepers. QPR were kind enough to donate half a dozen tickets to the hostel for the game. Myself and a colleague, tempted by the free ticket offered to come in on our day off to accompany the residents accross town. I ended up spending the afternoon with a new Irish resident called Jackie. By the time we got to the ground, she'd already had a few clandestine cans of Tennants and was in high spirits. As we took our seats just before kick off it was noticeable we were surrounded a lot of young children, presumably fellow recipients of QPR's community outreach drive. As the game got underway the youngsters enthusiastically joined in on the "RANGERS, RANGERS" chant. Unfortunately this was too much for Jackie to take. An Irish catholic, she retorted, very loudly, "FUCK RANGERS - CELTIC, CELTIC" etc. My desperate attempts to shush her and explain that QPR had nothing to do with Glasgow Rangers fell on deaf ears and she carried on with her choice observations. Needless to say we were attracting a lot of looks from the children, the accompanying adults and nearby stewards. It seemed Jackie was relishing the notoriety and she showed no sign of toning things down. We left before half time. Probably just before we were asked to. Me back home with my tail between my legs and Jackie to a nearby off license.

Tonight I was in esteemed company. In the car were Harley of Gas Cast fame and my pal Tom, retired blogger and now official photographer for Bristol Manor Farm. Briony and Paul were the other knowledgeable gas heads sitting in the back. We zipped up the M4 and arrived in Shepherds Bush in plenty of time, allowing an enjoyable pint or two in The Queen Adelaide before heading to the game.

Loftus Road is a lovely old ground. It doesn't appear to have changed at all since my last visit over a decade ago and probably hasn't changed much since long before that. Tightly surrounded by terraced streets, it's made up of stands all the same height with three being two tiered and one being a steep single tiered affair. The claustrophobic concourse under the stand made this feel like a classic old ground. I also like how blue it is. I heard one Rovers fan moaning that it felt like one giant corrugated iron shed. A bit rich considering the state of the Memorial stadium. A recent visiting Millwall fan memorably quipped - 'A tent, a cricket pavillion and a cow shed - and that's just one side of the ground'!

For the home side this was very much not a glamour tie and this was borne out by the attendance of 5,000 of which Rovers accounted for almost 2,000. One side of the ground was closed but being in the packed away end in the upper tier behind a goal meant the atmosphere was pretty good anyway.

I'm writing this some time after the game so my recollection of the match action is pretty limited. I do remember us going 1-0 down, then 2-0 down very quickly in the first half. QPR were kicking towards us so at least we had a good view of the goals. James Clarke, Rovers popular utility man was tasked with doing a job at right back and had a torrid time trying to deal with Rangers left winger. Clark cut a comical figure as with chest puffed out, he ran back towards goal whilst trying to look over his shoulder at the on rushing winger who would then go past him as if he wasn't there. Adam Smith in the Rovers goal looked dodgy as well and it was a mild relief that it was only 2-0 at half time.

Rangers went 3-0 up in the second half when giant striker, Matt Smith was left unmarked and picked his spot with a header. Ed Upson scored a late consolation for Rovers to make the score line look a little more respectable. Off we trotted back to Bristol. An enjoyable summers evening in West London at a classic old ground, but not a performance that will live long in the memory.