Sunday, July 27, 2008

My Matchday - 177 Keepmoat Stadium

Doncaster Rovers 1v0 Newcastle United
Pre-Season friendly
26th July 2008

A rare treat of visiting an uncharted League ground with Newcastle, although it’s not a competitive game, I’m not a snob when it comes to attending friendlies, as it’s usually my best chance to get a new venue watching the Toon.
The Keepmoat Stadium was built in 2006 at a cost of around £32M, the naming rights are owned by a local housing company, with the stadium built and owned by Doncaster Council. The move after 83 years from Belle Vue was completed with Rovers first fixture on New Years Day 2007, a 3-0 win over rivals Huddersfield Town, the ground is also used by the towns Rugby League club, with the mini-stadium situated next to the main stand used by the reserves and Doncaster Belles.
The Keepmoat with it’s hilly surroundings and nearby lake, has a capacity of 15,231, it’s a single tier enclosed arena, decked out in red seats with cream interior walls. The East Stand has an additional row of executive boxes, and to the west the TV gantry, press box and players tunnel. Behind each goal the seats have the word Doncaster underlined(council logo) picked out in white and black seats, with the floodlights appear to be peeping inside the stadium, from their lofty position in each corner.
Rovers celebrated their first full season in the Keepmoat with promotion to ‘The Championship’ beating Yorkshire rivals dirty Leeds in the play-off final, it’s hard to believe that Donny were playing Conference football as recently as the year 2000.
On a boiling hot day (I even wore me shorts) I heading down to South Yorkshire, with the Patrick’s(squad # 2 & 79) After a brief stop off in Armthorpe, we headed to the Stadium parking opposite the ground, beside the industrial estate for free. After quenching our thirst at the nearby Lakeside pub, we headed to the ground, looking forward to what promised to be an entertaining game, unfortunately that wasn’t the case, with basically a piss poor performance from United.
An uneventful first half, saw plenty of possession but little action in the final third, while Rovers played some neat stuff and created a few half chances without testing Harper. After being at work earlier in the day and being on the go since 4am, I had trouble staying awake, with nothing to get excited about, watching the game with one eye shut, maybe the sweltering conditions was a factor in such a poor opening period.
There was one redeeming factor about the first half however, the Newcastle debut of no.46 at centre half, nobody knew who he was, as there was a lack of any public address announcements, so he was known only by his number. This was a cue to sing all songs dedicated to various players, but the names changed to forty-six, like “ There‘s only one forty six“ and “He’s here, he’s there, he’s every f**king where, forty six, forty six” at half time I got a text message from my pal Zippy, letting me know it was Sebastien Bassong on trial from French club Metz.
The second half improved, there was a bit more urgency but still a lack of quality, we were never going to score with a toothless front two of Shola and Smith, Ameobi never had one effort on target, he didn’t look interested and his mind seems to be on when (or if) WBA are going to sign him. As for Alan Smith, he never had one effort at goal all afternoon, he never scored a competitive goal at all last season, a complete waste of time, although his new hair style looks nice, he’s grew it longer with a nice side parting amongst his goldilocks.
Donny’s main threat came after the introduction of Stuart Elliott for the second half, he had two good efforts on goal before the decisive moment three minutes from time, a long ball forward was mucked up by Enrique allowing Elliott to take advantage before hitting a well struck shot from 20 yards, wide to the keeper’s right. The win for Rovers could prove a good boost going into the new season, I hope they do well next season in a higher division, they’re a smashing little club, where even the stewards are friendly, especially the Jesus look-alike, who took the banter from the Toon Army with a smile, with the other stewards joining in on the joke.
United were sporting their new all purple away kit, which is similar in style to the fictionist Sky One club Harchester United. The board need to back Keegan in the transfer market, it’s obvious to everyone there’s an apparent lack of quality and depth within the squad, if he doesn’t get the financial support that’s required, then I’m afraid, there’ll certainly be no ‘Dream Team’ at SJP this season.


Matchday stats
DRFC 1(Elliott 87) NUFC 0
att.9826
admission £15(North Stand)
Programme £3


Links-
Rovers match report
Keepmoat Stadium website
My Matchday visit to Belle Vue

MK James visit 5/5/07

Ground no.177-Keepmoat Stadium – Matchday Web album
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Saturday, July 12, 2008

My Matchday - 175 Newcastle Football Centre in Benwell

West Allotment Celtic 2v3 Gateshead
Pre-Season friendly
12th July 2008

Not the most glamorous of settings to kick off my new football season, but then again It’s just pleasing to get back amongst the action, with the added bonus of a match played at a unique venue, which isn’t usually used for club fixtures.
The Newcastle Football Centre is based in the west end of the city, on the land next to Newcastle United’s old training ground at Benwell, the Gibside Gardens ground is the office base for the Newcastle Football Development Scheme, which includes indoor, as well as outdoor facilities, it’s also the headquarters of the FA Newcastle Girls Centre of Excellence.
Newcastle United left Benwell in the early nineties, when Kevin Keegan called in the fumigators and switched the training facilities to the University Sports Ground at Durham City and then the Graham Sports Ground at Maiden Castle. The old training ground was then sold off for housing and United finally got their own hi-tech training facilities at Darsley Park in July 2003, after being based at Chester-le-Street’s Riverside during Bobby Robson’s time as manager.
Gateshead kicked off their pre-season with a 4-0 win at South Shields in midweek, while this was West Allotment’s opening fixture, they were the better side in the opening period, dominating possession and taking the lead on 13 minutes, when an in swinging corner from Douglas, was dropped by young keeper McKenzie into his own net. Gateshead grabbed an equaliser on the half hour, after an initial Southern volley hit the post, the ball came out to Harwood who shot high into the net from a wide angle. Celtic had chances to regain the lead, but McKenzie made up for his earlier mistake making four excellent saves, especially the one handed save from Keith Douglas just prior to half time.
Gateshead with the advantage of the strong breeze in the second half, took the lead for the first time after 10 minutes with a well struck free kick from Wayne Phillips, ex-Heed winger David Colvin came on as a second half sub for West Allotment, getting an equalised with a well placed left foot shot into the far corner of the net on 68. Gateshead’s improved second half display was rewarded in the 72nd minute with the winning goal, a long ball was flicked on by Thompson into the path of Graeme Armstrong, who beat the offside trap before rounding the keeper and shooting past the covering defender on the line.
And so a good competitive work out for both clubs and personally a gentle introduction to the new season, this is before the serious football and matchday reports begin over the next 10 months. I’m hoping for another eventful season with some great new venues to visit, hopefully I’ll grab about 50 new grounds, Gateshead will again win promotion and the season will finish with Newcastle winning the FA Cup at Wembley…the stuff dreams are made of, well I can only dream..can’t I?



Matchday Stats
WAC 2(o.g.13, Colvin 68) GFC 3(Harwood 27, Phillips 54, Armstrong 72)
Unofficial HC attendance. 76
Admission and programme - None.

Link-
My visit to West Allotment Celtic

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Sunday, July 6, 2008

New season, new kit!

Welcome back to the new football season, it seems just a matter of days, never mind weeks, since my last match of the 2007-08 campaign.
The 100FGC blog new season gets under way next weekend, with my first scheduled pre-season friendly, but in the customary new season mode, I’m launching the websites new look, the 100 Football Grounds Club new style kit!
The website is almost 2 years old, so it’s due a new look, the new kit keeps the traditional black and green colours, but green has become the more prominent colour. I’ve had a few comments over the black background, with people finding it difficult to read certain posts, so a new style kit was necessary, hope you like the new look, Happy New Season!!!

(previous posts and page elements may become unreadable during maintainance work)