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)

My Matchday - 296 Kassam Stadium

Oxford United 1v1 Accrington Stanley
League Two
Saturday 24th September 2011


My main objective for this season is to finish off the current 92 before the arrival of our brutal winter which looks set to force an unwanted mid-season break. So for my latest solo train journey, I boarded the 0622 Cross Country train service to Reading, alighting in the picturesque city of Oxford.
The city is renowned for its famous university, the oldest in the English speaking world. There are two rivers flowing through the city, the Cherwell and the Thames which meets at the south, this stretch of the Thames is known as the Isis. The Oxford skyline demonstrates every English architectural period since the arrival of the Saxons, with its churches and university buildings as well as the mid-18th century Radcliffe Camera.
Oxford is known as the "city of dreaming spires", which is credited to poet Matthew Arnold, however the term I would use is “city of bloody good bands” with three of my favourite groups over the last 20 years, namely Radiohead, Ride and Supergrass, formed out of Oxford

A vicar and a doctor met in a pub (no this isn’t the beginning of a joke) in 1893 and formed Headington FC, using players from the Headington Cricket Club. The club added the United bit to their name the following year and later joined the Spartan League.
In 1960 they were renamed Oxford United and within two years were in the Football League after winning the Southern League title for a third time.
The golden era for the U’s was during the 1980’s, winning consecutive league titles and promotion to win a place in the top tier of English football in 1985, then lifting the ’86 League Cup with a 3-0 win over QPR in the final at Wembley.
The club were relegated to Division Two in 1988, which started an 18 year downward spiral that ended with relegation from the Football League in 2006. This was the first time in the history of English football that a team which had won a major trophy were relegated to the Conference.
After a four years gap the club regained their League spot through the play-offs, overcoming York City 3-1 in the final at New Wembley.

Headington United started life at the Quarry Recreation Ground, before moving to Wootten’s Field in 1898. During the early part of the 20th century the club led a nomadic existence, playing on various pitches in and around Manor Park including a return to the Quarry, before securing land on Matlock's Field in 1925 which became known as the Manor Ground.

The Club announce in 1995 that by the end of the decade they were moving to a purpose built stadium at Minchery Farm in the Blackbird Leys area of the city, leaving behind Manor Ground their home for the previous 76 years.
I visited the Manor Ground twice during the 1980’s with Newcastle United. Both matches played midweek under lights in the same competition; the League (Milk)Cup, both resulted in disappointing and inept displays from the Magpies, by and large two unforgettable nights of misery.
The first tie took place in 1983, goals from Neal Whatmore and Andy Thomas gave Oxford a two goal lead at half-time with a late consolation goal from Keegan not enough to give the U’s a 3-2 aggregate win.
I was back again two years later and yet another pretty shitty night. The only highlight being we had time for a couple of pints before kick-off, which lightened our moody slightly before a 3-1 hammering as Oxford were on route to Wembley. Trevor Hebberd scored and another two from Thomas, which must have prompted Newcastle to fork out £100,000 for his services the following summer.

The new stadium meant the club left behind their spiritual home in Headington for the first time. Building work began in the summer of 1996 by Taylor Woodrow, but due to financial constraints construction ceased in December 1997.
Following the arrival of Firoz Kassam as chairman in 1999 work on the stadium recommenced in February 2000 by Birse Construction. The new owner ironed out the on-going legal problems, cleared a large percentage of the debt and squared up financially with Taylor Woodrow.
The ground is owned by the Firoka Group Company and was designed by ACP Architects with the overall construction costing £15m. The first game took place on the 4th August 2001 with a friendly against Crystal Palace, with the first competitive match the following week against Rochdale in the Third Division. United lost the game 2-1 in front of a crowd of 7,842 with Jamie Brooks scoring the Oxford goal.

The stadium has three separate all-seated cantilever stands filled with blue seats with an open end on the west side onto the car park and Vue complex.

The main stand is the South Stand, which has a capacity of 4495 over the two tiers, which are split with 28 executive boxes in between. The central façade wall is decorated with significant dates in the clubs history, similar to what they’ve done at the Emirates, but done in a more discreet way and not an arrogant in your face way like the Gunners.

Opposite is the North Stand which is similar in size and design, with just a single tier of 5026 seats, which are shared with away supporters. The stand also has floodlights mounted on the roof.
Behind the east goal is the Oxford Mail Stand which is also has a parallel appearance, but with less capacity with room for 2879. There’s also a basic electric scoreboard behind the west goal.
I do have one gripe about the stadium, which is the appearance of the walls around the turnstile areas which looks an eyesore, covered with graffiti and desperately in need of a tidy up and a good lick of paint.

The current capacity is 12,500 with the biggest attendance being just short of a full house when 12,177 witnessed the 3-2 defeat against Leyton Orient in May 2006, which sealed the clubs fate and sent them crashing into the Conference.


The spoils were shared between Oxford United and Accrington Stanley in this League Two clash, a fair result with maybe the visitors just shading it. The despondent chorus of boos from the U’s supporters on full time tells the story of a frustrating 90 minutes.
Accrington could have been three goals up before McClaren gave Oxford the lead on 35 minutes; a free kick from 20 yards took a wicked deflection to totally wrong foot the ‘keeper to give the hosts a fluke lead.
Before then, Murphy had a goal chalked off for offside after netting the rebound from a Winnard header, which came back off the post. United keeper Ryan Clarke pulled off two great saves, tipping over an effort from Fletcher, and then denying Murphy with a point blank save.
The equaliser came just after the hour mark when the ball fell into the path of Peter Murphy on the edge of the box, hitting a first time shot which nestled in the bottom left corner of the goal.
Both sides huffed and puffed for a winner but it didn’t look likely as the match fizzled out into a draw, which pushes Oxford out of the play-off positions.

Needless to say my brief previous visits to Oxford weren’t enjoyable, so I made sure I made up for it this time, by arriving early so I could have a good toby around and a good pub crawl.
I arrived just after 1030 and headed straight to Wetherspoons for breakfast. This JDW pub is inspired by the famous Two Ronnies sketch, hence the name - Four Candles. I also frequented the Swan & Castle, Royal Blenheim, Bear Inn and Far From the Madding Crowd before catching the bus to the ground at around 2pm.
The bus fare was £2.90 return and the regular service meant I was back in the town centre in good time to catch the 1807 back to Newcastle.
As soccer Saturday’s go this one was just about perfect, not only did I have an enjoyable day in Oxford, but good news from elsewhere as both my teams in black and white had good wins courtesy of hat-trick heroes.
My target to finally finish off the 92 is getting closer with just three more to go, hopefully if my plans come together then the set can be achieved before winter calls, when my footy travels grind to a temporary and impetuous halt.

Matchday stats

OUFC 1(McClaren 35) ASFC 1(Murphy 62) att.6472

Admission £20.50 Programme £3


Ground no.296 Kassam Stadium - Matchday Web album (19 pictures)