Competition - Conference North
Admission - £12
Scarf - N/A
Attendance - 460
Food - All Steak Pukka Pie 8/10
Ground No - 110
Ground Rating - 6/10
My last game of the 2012/13 season was to Corby Town's Steel Park to see there last game of the season against Harrogate Town. Neither team had yet guaranteed survival in Blue Square Bet North and so along with a number of other clubs were hoping to get the points to stay up.
I had been to Corby's old ground last season which I hated due to the fact that they played at an athletics stadium and were as such miles away from the play and there was also very little leg room when seated in the stand, but they have now moved to there new ground directly adjacent to the athletics ground.
On arriving at the ground you are met by a very smart set of turnstiles, as shown below.
Once me and my dad had entered the ground we made our way to get some food where they had a good selection of pies burgers and chips.
Steel park is made up of two stands, the main stand is along one touchline at the half way line and has around 500 seats with Corby made out in white. The other stand is a large terrace at the far end of the ground that stretches the whole width of the pitch. The other end is fully open with hard standing and is home to the snack bar with the other touchline also made up of hard standing that back on to the athletics stadium stand which is home to the teams and officials changing rooms.
The game itself started very slowly and almost nothing happened in the first half so I wont waste your time trying to come up with anything.
The second half though was a different matter altogether with Harrogate's monster centre half, Richard Pell scoring after a goal month scramble within the first 5 minutes of the half. Harrogate were playing by far the best football with Ex Football league player Lee Elam showing his experience and greater ability in pulling the strings down the left. Unlike Corby, Harrogate looked like a team trying to survive in the league and soon went two in front when a good strike from around 25 yards was dropped over the line by the Corby Town keeper who had a poor game throughout.
The third goal was scored from a corner and came from Pell again with a powerful header into the top left hand corner of the goal to end the game as any sort of contest. The game died a bit after that goal although Corby did have one chance, but with an open goal the attacker managed to put the ball at least two yards wide from only 10 yards out and summed up their whole day.
With only a few minutes left Harrogate scored goals 4 and 5. The fourth was a nice curled finish into the bottom right hand corner of the Corby goal from 15 yards but the best goal of the game was the fifth and came in time added on with Harrogate midfielder Tom Platt picking the ball up and smashing it in to the top corner from 30 yards out.
The result in the end didn't mean a lot as relegation rivals Hinckley Town lost meaning that they were the final team to be confirmed as relegated from the Blue Square Bet North.
Overall Corby's new ground can only really be described as clean and functional there was little character or atmosphere created from the small attendance.
That is my season over now but I will be updating my blog with my Olympic exploits in the summer and any other sporting events that I manage to get to. This will be difficult due to me and my wife expecting our first child at the end of May but will try none the less. I will definitely be back next football season though so keep coming back.
Thanks for reading
Fish