My Matchday - 300 Priestfield Stadium

Gillingham 1v0 Oxford United

League Two

Saturday 22nd October 2011

My penultimate ground on this long journey towards the completing the 92 takes me to the only ground in the football League which is set in the Garden of England - the county of…(wait for it)..Kent!
Gillingham is a town in the unitary authority of Medway which includes the settlements of Brompton, Rainham, Hempstead, Rainham Mark and Twydall.
The name originates from the Gylla's family, followed by the Old English words; ingas (family, followers) and ham (village, homestead) and was first recorded as Gyllingeham in the 10th century.
Gyllingas was a war lord named from the old English word "gyllan" meaning "to shout". He was a famous man in Kent history as he led his fighters into battle screaming and shouting. (If a biopic was made Brian Blessed would be perfect for the role…Eddy)

New Brompton FC formed in 1893 originating from a team called Excelsior which played on the Great Lines. The new club proceeded to purchase a ground on Priestfield Road for £600, which had a wooden stand and a pavilion.
In 1899 a stand was built by a group of dockland workers on the Gordon Road side, made up of wooden benches under a thin roof that remained robust and survived until 1985, being the oldest remaining stand in senior football at that time.
The club changed their name to Gillingham FC in 1913 and the following year built a new stand which was damaged in a gale, having its roof ripped off and most of the ironwork damaged. The structure only lasted one year due to its poor design, pity the dockland workers weren’t around to build another sturdy stand in exchange for beer and tabs!
The Gills were elected to the newly formed Football League Division Three in 1920 which was followed by extensive ground work over the next decade with new terracing and cover to the Rainham End.
The club lost its league status in 1938 and as a Southern League club the renamed Priestfield Stadium witnessed a record crowd of 23,002 for an FA Cup tie with QPR in 1947. Gillingham again became Kent’s only League club in 1950 and more ground improvements followed at a cost of £28,500. The pitch was levelled with a new perimeter wall, as well as new terracing and cover added on Gordon Road.
In 1963 Priestfield became one of the last League grounds to install floodlights at a cost of £14,000, switched on for a League Cup tie with Bury, which was the last noteworthy development until the Taylor Report in 1985.
The Priestfield Stadium as we know today was developed after Paul D.P.Scally took over as chairman in 1995.
The first new stand was built in 1997 on the unused Gordon Road side. The 2,400 capacity stand cost £2m, kept as a single tier due to row of houses on the street, with only 12-15 rows of seats. Above there’s a TV gantry and electric scoreboard central with the club name on the facia in white capital letters.
The main stand at the north side is the Medway Stand opened in 2000. The two tiers are split by a row of 20 executive boxes with two rows of seats outside each box. The stand also housed the changing rooms, media centre, fitness facilities, offices, club shop and the Blue Rock Café nightspot.
The Rainham End terrace was replaced with a single tier cantilevered stand in 1999 and like the other completed stands is decked out in blue seats with white lettering.
The Town End terracing was removed in 2003 and replaced with a temporary seated stand named after the late legendary football commentator Brian Moore who was a former director and Gills supporter. The away end has 3,400 uncovered green seats and depending on the away following only one section of seating is open to spectators.
In the north-east corner is the Conference and Banqueting Centre and the players enter the pitch from here. The ground is completed by a set of four tall corner floodlights which I spotted from the train station and due to a sponsorship deal the ground has been rebranded as the MEMS Priestfield Stadium with a capacity of 11,582
Even though I attended the match as a neutral, I favoured the home side because like a vast majority of football fans on Tyneside, we have a soft spot for the Gills as they were the team that sent SAFC into Division Three in 1987.
As the game progressed my favouritism diminished in desperation to see some goalmouth action from either side, as neither keeper had a save to make in a dire opening 45 minutes. Then when least expected, just on the stroke of half time, the best effort on goal found the back of the net with a spectacular effort from 25 yards from Lewis Montrose.
The U’s dominated after Joe Martin was sent off for a second booking early in the second half with Davis, Potter and Hall all going close for the visitors.
Goal scorer Montrose was shown a late red for a rash challenge on United substitute Asa Hall, then deep into injury time James Constable missed a sitter when clean through on goal, chipping his effort well wide of the post.
The nine-men held on and the result leapfrogged Gillingham above Oxford into fifth spot as the U’s drop down to seventh after their eight-game unbeaten run came to a disappointing end.
The journey from Newcastle to Gillingham is quite a decent trip, once arriving at Kings Cross there’s no clart on with the tube, just a simple stroll around the corner to St. Pancras International to catch the South Eastern connection to Kent. So after departing on the 0630, I arrived in Gillingham bright eyed and bushy tailed by 11.15am.
As Priestfield is a short 10 minute walk from the station I decided to head straight there to take some photos plus I thought while I was on, I may as well enquire about a press pass, because like wor lasses granny use to say “shy bairns get nowt”
On arrival the on duty steward allowed me through the players entrance to the media office where I eventually met a very nice helpful club official called Ray Foord, who on my behalf tried to contact the press officer on his mobile. Unable to make contact he took me up into the players lounge to wait, telling me to help myself to a hot drink and a sit down after my long journey south.
Just then an elderly club official approached me telling me off for wearing jeans as there’s a dress code in the players lounge. He also mentioned that apparently I’ve got him into some kind of trouble, that was until Ray piped up to tell him that I’m not the man he thought I was, seemingly I have a doppelganger in Gillingham!
I decided to decline the offer of a drink and a seat and head into town instead. “Why do you want to do that” said Ray “There’s nothing there!” Of course there were some things in town that I found interesting - Medway Records which is a cracking music store and two GBG listed pubs; Will Adams and the Frog & Toad. When I returned at 2.15pm there was a press pass with my name on it at the desk, so many thanks for your help and hospitality Mr. Foord you’re a genuine gent.

I had planned to meet up with squad#68 Jonathan Elton when I eventually came to tick off Priestfield, as he lives in nearby Chatham, but unfortunately it was badly timed as he’s currently on holiday.

I received an email from squad#153 Mark Chatterton this week saying he would love to meet for a drink to celebrate my 300th ground, but he text me that morning saying he couldn’t make it due to car trouble.

Last week I had my annual bevvy with squad#31 Steve Dobson prior to his beloved Spurs playing at Newcastle, he was in the company of football blogger Richard Bysouth who said he hadn’t been to Gillingham. But guess what? I didn’t meet him either, as he was running late so we didn’t have time for a drink, although luckily I bumped into him at half time and we also had a quick word after the match.

Overall I had a great day, the only downer being engineering works between Peterborough and Doncaster which put an extra 2 hours on the journey home, so it was nearly midnight when I arrived back at 100FgC HQ. Nevertheless that couldn’t spoil my good mood after completing another expedition from The 92 tour, which leaves me with just one left to go and that final destination is a club with a brand new stadium that coincidently once used to play home games at Priestfield.

Matchday stats GFC 1(Montrose 45) OUFC 0
att.5819
Admission:Press (£21-£24)
Programme £3

Flysouth Bysouth(report to follow)

Ground no.300 Priestfield Stadium - Matchday web album (20 pictures)

299. Stark's Park

Raith Rovers 2v0 Partick Thistle

Scottish League First Division

Saturday 15th October 2011

I first clapped eyes on Stark’s Park whilst travelling on the east coast line from Edinburgh to Dundee and since then its been a ground that I’ve been looking forward to visiting, not just for its unique appearance but because it’s the only ground with a rhyming name in senior fitba.


Raith Rovers formed in 1883 in the former royal burgh of Kirkcaldy on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, the largest populated town in Fife. The town takes its name from the Pictish words Caer and Caled which translates as "place of the hard fort" or "place of Caled's fort". Kirkcaldy has long been nicknamed the Lang Toun in reference to the nigh mile long main street, which eventually stretched to four miles when the burgh boundaries were extended to the neighbouring hamlets of Gallatown, Linktown, Pathhead and Sinclairtown in 1876

Raith isn’t actually a settlement but an area of land that once stretched from south of Loch Gelly as far as Kirkcaldy. The Battle of Raith is said to have taking place here, when invading Angles forces defeated an alliance of Scots, Britons and Picts under King Áedán mac Gabráin of Dál Riata. There is also a Raith House and Raith Tower which sit on Cormie Hill to the west of the town and several parts of the town are build upon the Raith estate.


Although there were other football clubs in the shape of Kirkcaldy United and Kirkcaldy Wanderers, Rovers were the most successful team in the town, turning professional in 1892 and became the first club in Fife elected to the Scottish League in 1902/03


The club played at two previous grounds until settling at Robbie’s Park, then in 1891 were forced into a move when the land was incorporated into a new public estate called Beveridge Park, named after Provost Michael Beveridge. The team moved a short distance, transported their pavilion along Pratt Street to Stark's Park named after and run by councillor and licensee Robert Stark.
The Archibald Leitch Grandstand was built in 1922 and was partly funded by the sale of Alex James to Preston North End, replacing the original main stand which was destroyed by fire in 1918. The L-shaped structure still stands today, its main feature being the gable roof with the RRFC and club crest an the facia. The stand runs from the corner of the ground to half way which leaves the other half filled with unused terracing. The players emerge from a proper tunnel as the changing rooms are under the stand with the team dugouts pitchside. The stand is furnished with a mixture of old and new, with wooden flip seats and a section of bucket seats. The pavilion remains largely unchanged apart from remedial work and upgraded seating and a new metal roof in 1999.


Major developments were made to Stark’s Park during the 1950s after a record gate of 31,306 against Hearts in February 1953, with new concrete terracing and partial cover behind each goal, which along with the "coo shed" opposite the main stand meant there was cover to all four sides of the ground. Shortly afterwards four large floodlight pylons were added with the cost of the improvements mostly subsidised by the sale of star players like Jackie Stewart to Birmingham City, Jim Baxter to Rangers and Jimmy MacEwan to Aston Villa.


The Railway End shed was replaced with a new roof and seats in 1981 which also ran half pitch length, which was later extended in 1996. It’s now easy to see the two separate stands as there is no seats in the empty stand, which is unused apart from the TV Gantry and a large Rovers supporters flag.


Raith won their first major honour in 1994 after lifting the League Cup(Coca-Cola Cup) by causing a major upset in defeating Celtic 6-5 on penalties after the final finished in a 2-2 draw. This success meant to club qualified for the UEFA Cup and with the extra revenue two new 3,370 all seated stands were built behind each goal by Barr Construction.
The stands are decked out in dark blue with white lettering amongst the seats, with the main feature the floodlights perched in each corner of the stands. The McDermid Stand is set aside for away supporters and the overall capacity stands at 10,104.


During the clubs UEFA Cup campaign they faced eventual winners Bayern Munich at Easter Road due to their own grounds limited capacity with the Germans returning to the San Starko when the all-seated stadium was complete.
The Scottish Division One clash with Partick Thistle got off to a drab start, looking like of a potential nowts each draw which wouldn’t have pleased the three special guests in attendance. Those being myself, Squad#155 James Little and former PM Gordon Brown, who seemed to spend the game sitting in the pavilion checking his phone. (Probably checking on the Heed score as well…Eddy)


Raith took the lead on 31 minutes when a corner kick to the far post was nodded back across goal into the path of Laurence Ellis who tapped the ball home to score on his 300th appearance for the club.
The second half was much better with Rovers doubling their lead on 56 minutes through John Baird, giving plenty of time and space to nod home from six yards. The hosts won comfortably and could have expanded the score line, while Thistle depending on long range efforts, lacking a cutting edge in front of goal.


So it wasn’t exactly a vintage performance from Raith, nothing to get the Rovers fans so excited that they’ll be "dancing in the streets of Raith tonight" (in tribute to Sam Leitch)
After enduring long journeys south so far this season, it was nice to take a short trip north, leaving Newcastle on the 1144 direct train to Edinburgh. On arrival I met up with James the Hearts fan (I refuse to call him a jam tart!) for the rest of the jaunt across the Forth which took about 40 minutes.
On arrival we planned to call for a pint in the Starks Bar, but the boozer is now closed and boarded up. However we spotted three gents walking at a swift pace meaning they must surely be heading to a pub, so we followed them until the big red capital T emerged in the distance, which in these parts is a sign of a pub which sells Tenants Lager. The Estuary pub is on Links Street and had a mixture of Rovers and Thistle fans watching the football on TV.


Afterwards we were back in Edinburgh by 5.30pm which gave me an hour before my train home, so we had time for a pint in the Cask & Barrel(Swannay 'Orkney Best' 3.6%***) before James dropped me at the train station where I still had time for a drink in the Halfway House (Barneys Beer 'Pale Ale'3.8%***).


I was nice to be home early, back in 100FgC HQ by 8.15pm, but unfortunately there always has to be a fly in the ointment! I finished the ‘My Matchday’ report on the train which I was due to publish when I got home until it suddenly disappeared from my laptop and into cyberspace, which meant I had to write this whole article again from scratch. Also to make things worse and rub salt into my wounds, the breadknife was watching that effin X-Factor on TV, which all resulted in a disappointing end to the days events.
However these trivial things couldn’t spoil a great day, which was mainly due to Squad#155 for make the trip possible by picking me up at Waverley and driving across to Fife. My mission of finishing the English 92 is almost complete and I look forward to more trips north of the border in the spring when I’ll start chipping away at the Scottish 42.

Matchday stats
RRFC 2(Ellis 31, Baird 56)PTFC 0
att.1769
Admission £17
Programme £2


Ground no.299 Stark's Park - Matchday webalbum (24 pictures)

Wearside League Wanderings - part six

The sixth part of my wanderings around the Wearside League features two new clubs who were accepted into the league for the 2011-12 season, both coincidently faced north-east Non-League legends Willington.

293. Hill Top Ground

Gateshead Leam Rangers 2v0 Willington
Wearside League
Wednesday 17th August 2011

Leam Rangers formed as a youth football club in 1993, the brainchild of current Club Secretary Rob Houghton. The club secured a lease on council land at the top of the Wealcroft on Leam Lane Estate in the southern end of Gateshead. The Hill Top Ground was transformed from an overgrown grassed wasteland to a canny little ground with good facilities, which is now suitable to host Wearside League football.

The club now run 22 boys and girls teams from ages 6 to 18 as well as two senior sides. The Leam played in the Durham Alliance between 2009 and 2011 until a successful application to step up to the Wearside League last summer. The club still have a youth side in the Durham Alliance which is used as a stepping stone to the senior squad.

The redevelopment of the ground is due to the hard work and dedication of Mr Hughton with the help of willing volunteers. He even took a bricklaying course to build a dressing room, as the kids were using metal storage containers without the use of a washroom or toilet.

The ground now has a pleasant club house in between new changing rooms and refreshment bar after a successful application for funding was made to the Football Foundation. The entrance has the club name adorning the metal gates and the pitch is fully fenced off with new hard standing on the nearside. The far side has a pair of stone dugouts and the grass bank is a popular spot for spectators.

Gateshead Leam Rangers opened their first Wearside League campaign with two away defeats and I was in attendance as the Hill Top Ground hosted its very first game at level 7 of the Non-League pyramid against Willington.

The Leam produced a gritty and determined performance to mark the occasion with a first victory of the season. A goal in each half by David Lucas secured a comfortable win, the opening goal coming after only 7 minutes, the striker nodding home a peach of a cross from Liam Barnett(see pic below), then the duo again combined on the hour mark when Barnett was tripped in the box and Lucas despatched the penalty kick to chalk up the Leam’s first three points.

The Leam have a great set up and the club’s progress means that Rangers are now the closest club from my home at Gallowgate View, so I’ll be able to frequently pop down and check on the team’s progress.

The 100FgC was again in attendance on Non-League Day on the 3rd September, with both Michael (Squad #119) and Andy Hudson(squad#173) watching the game with Peterlee Town.
You can read the lads in depth reports on Leam Rangers at;
The Accidental Groundhopper (Michael)
Ganning Away (Andy)

Matchday stats
GLR 2(Lucas 9, 60pen) WFC 0
att.70approx
Admission £2
Programme 50p

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298. Ford Quarry

Sunderland West End 2v3 Willington
Wearside League
Saturday 8th October 2011

Sunderland West End formed just this year when The Jolly Potters merged with Wearside League outfit Houghton Town. The Jolly Potters were a successful side in the Wearside Combination League, winning a hat-trick of league titles and the Alan Hood memorial trophy twice, since forming in 2006.

The club play at Ford Quarry which is in the South Hylton district of Sunderland The ground is off St Lukes Road, where a road bends down the bank and leads you to the ground entrance. The junction isn’t easy to spot as I drove past it a couple of times until I noticed the pitch at the bottom of the hill.
The Ford Quarry ground was officially opened by Sunderland Council Leader Paul Watson on the 3rd August, when a charity game took place between Sunderland West End and Northern League side Sunderland RCA in aid of The Peter David Lane Trust Fund. The ground has large changing room facilities, a fully fenced off pitch with a pair of metal dugouts.

After I saw Willington lose at Leam Rangers, they suffered a heavy home defeat against Ryhope in the following match. Since then they’ve won eight league fixtures off the belt and stretched it to 9, but only just, after snatching a late winner to deny West End a point.

West End took the lead in the 9th minute when Stubbs capitalised on a defensive mix up to shoot home from a tight angle, but Willington quickly responded, seven minutes later Yorke nodded home from close range, then just before half time Lee beat the offside trap and having plenty of time to pick his spot with a neat finish.
The second half saw West End have plenty of possession with the visitors leaving their two main strikers mooching around the half way line, relying on the long ball tactic to catch the home side on the break.
There was a long stoppage after 75th minute when one of the West End players went for a 50-50 ball and fell over and banged his head against one of the stone posts on the perimeter fence. After a 5 minute delay the player got to his feet and thankfully was ok - “I’m alreet, I just knocked me’sell oot that’s aall” was his insouciant response as the game went on without him.

Just as it was looking as if we had witnessed a goalless second half, the match finished with a dramatic climax. West looked to have grabbed a well earned draw in the 90th minute when a cross shot from Coomber found the top corner off the net, then in the 6 minutes of added on time the game swung back and forth with both teams desperate for a winner.

The winning goal duly arrived in the second minute of stoppage time. The home keeper who played a blinder all afternoon produced two terrific saves from close range, until the ball was unfortunately parried into the path of Lee who was left with an open goal to simply walk the ball over the line to make it nine league wins on the bounce for the men from County Durham.

Sunderland West End are another good addition to the league and matches like this one are a credit to the Wearside League - a cracking game and well worth the two quid admission fee!

Matchday stats

SWE 2(Stubbs 9,Coomber 90) WFC 3(Yorke 16, Lee 42,90+2)
att.47(HC)
Admmission £2
programme:none

My Matchday - 297 Memorial Stadium

Bristol Rovers 1v3 Cheltenham Town
League Two
Saturday 1st October 2011

For the second week running I ventured across to the opposite side of the country, heading from the north-east to south-west for my first ever visit to Bristol Rovers.

Over the years I’ve seen The Pirates in action on numerous occasions, but I’ve never seen them play as hosts. I did intend to visit Eastville in 1980, but at the time the club were sharing at the home of their City rivals after the South Stand was destroyed by a fire.
Newcastle played at Ashton Gate in successive away matches early in the season and we decided we would rather make the 600 mile round trip to Bristol to see the landlords rather than the tenants play at Ashton Gate.

I also missed out on watching Rovers play at Twerton Park in 1992, as I was on a beer, sex and souvlaki holiday on the Greek island of Rhodes. The Magpies made a blistering start to the 1992-93 season, and a 2-1 win gave United their fifth in a sequence of eleven consecutive wins at the start of that season. On that sunny afternoon the Toon were led out by a 5 year old mascot, who at the time was visiting his 13th ground and some 15 years later became Squad#79 in the 100FgC.

The customary early start for your truly, which meant getting up in the middle of the night and walking across to the town via the High Level Bridge to Central Station. I boarded the 0645 Cross Country service to Plymouth, arriving at Bristol Temple Meads station at 1145.
Bristol is the sixth most populated city in England, built around the River Avon with a short coastline on the Severn Estuary, which flows into the Bristol Channel.
Historically the city was an important port, handling trading goods to the likes of Ireland, Iceland and Gascony and became a centre for shipbuilding and manufacturing. Bristol’s chief sea port has a long history in trade, where deals were personally struck in the former trading area around The Exchange in Corn Street over bronze trading tables, known as "The Nails". It’s said that maybe this is where the expression "cash on the nail", meaning immediate payment, may have originated from.

Bristol Rovers FC originally formed in September 1883 as Black Arabs, in association with the Arabs rugby club, initially playing friendly matches on a pitch at Purdown in Stapelton.

The following year the club were renamed Eastville Rovers playing at Ashley Hill, Horsfield Downs and also the Ridgeway in Upper Eastville. In 1897 the club joined the Birmingham & District League and finally found a settled base at the former ground of Bristol Harlequins RC in Eastville.

The renamed Bristol Eastville Rovers became a professional outfit in the 1897-98 season, dropping the middle name in February 1899, before joining the newly formed Southern League where they played until 1920, when they were accepted into the Football League.

Eastville Football & Athletic Ground was purchased for a measly sum of £150 and remained Rovers’ home for the next 89 years until 1986, when financial problems resulted in the club being forced into a temporary ground share at Twerton Park in Bath.

Bristol Rovers were tenants at Bath City for 10 years until taking up another tenancy with Bristol Rugby Club in 1996 at the Memorial Ground in the Horsley area of Bristol.The stadium was opened in September 1921 on an area of land named Buffalo Bill's Field that was previously occupied by allotments. The ground is named in honour of the Rugby Union players from the city that died during World War One.
Bristol RFC redeveloped the ground, replacing the old Shed with the Centenary Stand to mark the club's 100th anniversary in 1988 and the West Stand, which had stood since the ground was built, was demolished and replaced in 1995. The Memorial Ground was also renamed with the Stadium suffix around this time.
The rugby club suffered major financial difficulties after relegation from the Premiership in 1998, resulting in Bristol Rovers taking over the ground ownership. The roles reversed with the rugby club becoming tenants in their original home.

On one side is the striking looking West Stand, which has a unique look to it, split into three sections with 10 hospitality boxes at the top, terracing at the bottom and 710 white seats in between. There’s also a TV gantry at the top with an electric scoreboard on the gantry’s facade. Next to the stand on the other side of the players’ tunnel is the South West Stand which is a small covered terrace, which is used as the family enclosure with space for 720 spectators.

At the opposite side is the Uplands Stand which has covered seating to its rear and terracing at the front. The stand is quite high in height with a good view over Bristol, one of my colleagues in the press box mentioned it’s the coldest stand in the country, my reply being that he mustn’t have been to Gateshead Stadium! The stand is prominently blue with staircase access to the seats at the sides and the front. There is open terracing at each side and the dug outs are located in front, which means that team staff have to trail across the pitch to the changing rooms in the West Stand.

The South Stand was originally erected as a temporary stand, having just over 1,000 green seats with a gazebo type covering, decked out in blue and white patched squares. The stand runs for just over half the width of the pitch and is shared with the away supporters.

Behind the opposite goal is the Blackthorn North Terrace, which is a covered terrace for home supporters with a capacity of 3,710, which brings the overall stadium capacity for football purposes to 11,750.

The Carrot Crunchers Derby or better still; The Cider Swiggers Derby was won by the club from 40 odd miles up the road, who produced a solid and confident away performance, giving the Gashead fans a frustrating afternoon.

In the opening half Cheltenham looked dangerous when pushing forward while Rovers struggled to string two passes together, the only threat coming from Zebroski, who created a couple of half chances for himself but failed to hit the target.

Town took the lead on 34 minutes. Kaid Mohamed ran half the length of the pitch before poking the ball home, then within ten minutes the lead was doubled when Luke Summerfield thumped the ball home from the edge of the box from a corner kick.

The three points were guaranteed just after the restart. The Cheltenham players must have worked hard in training on corner kick routines this week, this time the corner was

played to the near post where James Spencer flicked the ball home for another clever goal.

Rovers pulled a goal back on 64 minutes. The ball was cleared from a corner kick, which fell nicely for Lee Brown, his first time shot from 25 yards taking a slight deflection, giving the keeper no chance.

The home side rallied to get back into the game but it never looked likely as Cheltenham had chances themselves to catch the Rovers defence on the break. Overall a good game after a slow start, maybe the injury to Danny Woodards, stretchered off in the opening minutes knocked the stuffing out of Rovers, but take nothing away from The Robins, a good performance so the cider will be flowing on the edge of the Cotswolds after this “derby” win tonight.

To be honest I wasn’t really looking forward to this trip. I’ve got nowt against Bristol, but a five hour each way journey didn’t give me a tingle in the loins or have me rubbing my hands with glee. I had problems booking decent trains with the only sensible journey home being the 1740 from Bristol Parkway, changing at Derby, so the time span from match to train station was tight.

On arriving I had time for a couple of pints in the city centre, ticking off a couple of ‘Spo

ons at The Knights Templar and Commercial Rooms, as well as the GBG listed Old Fishmarket.

I wanted to get to the ground early so I decided to head to Parkway station, then get a

taxi so I could book my return in advance, arranging to get picked up at the bus stop on the end of Filton Avenue at 5pm.

After the game the taxi arrived spot on time so I was safely back at the station for 5.15pm. Then as I waited for my train, I received a string of text messages from an irate taxi driver informing me he couldn't wait any longer and wondering why I hadn’t shown up, so his fare had been “bumped” by a rival taxi firm.

On the long journey back home I had half an hour to spare between connections in Derby, so I had time to visit the excellent Brunswick Inn on Railway Terrace. The pub has a huge choice with 16 handpulls with a selection from its own Brunswick Brewery, unfortunately I only had time for a quickie before catching the train back to Newcastle.

I’m delighted to get this ground ticked off and to finally see Bristol Rovers play a home game, I enjoyed my brief visit to Bristol and I’ll hopefully return one day for a much longer stay. I finally arrived back home at 11pm, my train crossing the Tyne via the High Level some 16 and a half hours since I walked over the same bridge in the early hours of the morning when this daytrip kicked-off.

Matchday stats

BRFC 1(Brown 65) CTFC 3(Mohamed 36,Summerfield 43, Spencer 48)

att.6,108

Admission:Press(between £16-£24)

Programme £3

Ground no.297 Memorial stadium - Matchday Web album (22 pictures)