Doncaster Rovers - Keepmoat Stadium

Match - Doncaster Rovers 1-3 Birmingham City 30/03/12
Competition - NPower Championship
Admission - £27 (East Stand)
Scarf - £8
Attendance - 8,656
Food - Chicken Balti Pie & Pint £5 - 7/10
Ground No - 107
Ground Rating - 7/10

My apologies for this entry taking such a time to get posted I am moving house and have been without Internet and therefore not able to update.

This was the first game that I was watching this weekend where I also attended my first two games north of the border. It was also my first ever groundhopping weekend. I had been planning this trip for some time and was due to be going with my Dad and Will. Unfortunately my dad had come down with a nasty virus a couple of weeks prior and was still suffering and unable to attend. So at around 4pm me and Will set off for Doncaster, we had managed to invite another friend of ours for the weekend but he could not make the game on Friday due to work but said he would get the train and meet us in Doncaster after the game.

On arriving in Doncaster around 2 1/2 hours later after a very easy drive up the A1 we checked in to our Premier Inn to find that the ground was no more than 200m from the hotel below is the view from Wills room.

After settling in the rooms we decided to go to the pub next door to the hotel for a quick pint. The place was rammed full of Birmingham fans and were a good 3-4 deep at the bar so decided to leave it and went straight to the ground.

After a quick stroll round the ground and a visit to the club shop to buy the mandatory scarf. Will can honestly say he has one from every football ground he has ever visited (this is only his 3rd), we made our way to the correct turnstile and entered and headed straight for the food counter. We both had a pie and a pint for £5.

After eating and drinking we made our way to our seats. The ground is very similar to a lot of modern "bowl type" stadiums and is all seated with all corners filled in looks very smart but quite boring.

The ground is single tiered all the way round with the majority of seats painted red with Doncaster written in white at each end. There are also a number of boxes behind the seats on both the East and West stands which are situated on either touchline, with the West stand having the team dugouts in front of the seats which I would expect would impede some fans views.There are also two small scoreboards in the North East and South West corners at the back of the stands. Away fans are situated in the North Stand and Birmingham City fans brought along a good number of fans for this game.

The match was between two teams who were needing points for very different reasons Doncaster were sitting bottom of the championship and Birmingham were fighting to make sure they get a Play-off place come the end of the season. 

The game itself started very brightly and Donny had managed to quieten the very impressive Birmingham support down when Piquionne, On loan from West Ham nodded in a right sided cross in the first 5 minutes. Doncaster's captain the well known El Hadji Diouf, who was being booed every time he touched the ball, something I'm sure he gets at every ground that he visits, then entered into some friendly banter with the away support. Doncaster won a corner which Diouf went to take right in front of the visiting support. There were Boos from the away section and massive cheers from the home support, Diouf then hid from Birmingham's fans behind the assistant and then the corner flag and finally greeted with huge laughs and cheers from the home support bent down with his rear facing the away end.



Mr Diouf (Centre)

Although Doncaster did play some nice football at times those times were very far a few between and Birmingham started to take control of the game equalising with a scrappy goal from a corner after 15 minutes and the game remained level up until half time.

The second half was all Birmingham though and they made a number of chances before they finally scored the goal they deserved. It was a very good one too, Chris Burke was allowed to run by the Doncaster defenders and cut in from the right and curled the ball in the bottom left hand corner from around 20 yards. the away side then made it 3 with 10 minutes to go when Marlon King, who had been excellent all evening, evaded the offside trap to drill the ball home under the Doncaster keeper.

Birmingham very much deserved there win and I can see why Doncaster are likely to be relegated come the end of the season after watching the second half performance.

After the match we made our way to the Beefeater pub next to the hotel and were joined not long later by Phil, and saw the night out with a few drinks before heading back to the hotel and ready for our early morning start to go to the second game of the weekend in Glasgow 4.5 hours drive from Doncaster.

Leyton Orient - Matchroom Stadium

Match - Leyton Orient 1-3 Scunthorpe United
Competition - NPower League 1
Admission - £23 West Stand
Scarf - £8

Att - 4,055

Food - Cornish Pasty  8/10 Meat Pie 3/10

Ground No. - 106

Ground Rating - 6/10

Today's ground hop was to the Matchroom Stadium to see the League 1 game between Leyton Orient and Scunthorpe Utd. Both teams have been struggling this season with Orient sitting just inside the bottom half of the table and Scunthorpe languishing in the relegation zone.

It was back to just me and my Dad for this game today so at just before 12 my dad was outside my house picking me up and we made our way to Epping tube station. Epping Station is at the end of the central Line where the tube would take us straight to Leyton station 9 stops down the track.

On leaving Leyton Tube Station we were confronted with a view over to the London 2012 Olympic park. I am one of the lucky ones to get tickets for the event later this year all be it through the 2nd round of ticket sales and not what I originally wanted to see I also have tickets for the paralympics, I cannot wait to see this fantastic event in my home country. I will post my Olympic visits on the blog in the summer.

Olympic Park: Velodrome (r) Basketball Arena (L)

 A short walk later we were at Leyton Orients Matchroom Stadium formally Brisbane Road. The ground is named after owner Barry Hearns company but most still refer to it as Brisbane Road. To join the debate I have no issue at all with clubs renaming stadiums even the likes of Newcastle Utd's St James' Park as it brings in much needed funds and in the end everyone will continue to use the original name anyway so whats the problem.

The matchroom Stadium is an all seated stadium holding around 9,500 supporters. A lot of the ground is recently new, with the only old stand being the large East stand along one touchline, 2/3rds of this stand is for home supporters and the other third is taken by away supporters. Although apart from the away supporters area there really wasn't many fans using this stand.

At each end there is a newish single tiered stand at the South end is the Tommy Johnston Stand and the North end a similar standwhich as far as I can make out is just named the North Stand. Both are accessed from the front of the stand with the Tommy Johnston Stand raised so is accessed via a set of stairs. Both Stands are for Home supporters, something I'm not particularly keen on as I believe away supporters should be allocated one end rather than stuck away in the corner.

On the opposite touchline is the new odd looking West stand, this stand is home to all the club offices and changing rooms it has a shallow single tier of seats and above has a load of offices and hospitality suites with windows that look out on to the ground, with the roof of the stand being very high up which almost gives the seats no cover from the elements if rain is even slightly angled towards the stand, Which it was at times today. Half way up between the general seating and the roof is an odd looking gallery which seats hospitality guests. This stand like the other two new stands is accessed at the front with a large walkway between the front seats and the pitch, which makes you feel a long way from the action.

Another odd characteristic of this ground is that in all four corners there are blocks of flats many with balconies looking over the pitch and therefore perfect vantage points to watch any games played at the Matchroom Stadium.



The O's Mascot Theo

The game itself wasn't the best Orient started by trying to play some passing football whereas Scunthorpe just adopted the long ball game trying to pick out there Tank like forward Jon Parkin who is currently on loan from championship promotion hopefuls Cardiff City. The wet conditions didn't help matters either with the ball skidding off the surface. The more the first half continued the more scrappy the football became with a number of fouls being missed by the officials irritating both sets of players and supporters.
Until with around 10 minutes to go until half time Orient managed to put a few passes together which ended up with French forward Jonathon Tehoue heading in a Dean Cox cross to put the O's in the lead.

Orient decided not to turn up in the 2nd half and Scunthorpe took full advantage, they changed from there long ball tactics and got the ball to feet and started passing the ball around although not creating a massive amount. Parkin was causing the Orient defence a few problems with his strength and had a great touch for a big man.

Utd finally got the equaliser their play deserved on the hour when a cross was nodded back across the goal and Walker Volleyed in from 8 Yards. Scunthorpe carried on being the better of the two teams but looked like being held to a draw until 5 minutes from the end they made it 2-1. Andy Barcham scoring after some good hold up play by Parkin.

The 3rd goal for Scunthorpe came in very unfortunate circumstances for Orient as there keeper went to catch a ball from a corner and landed awkwardly doing so and in the process dropped the ball right at Parkins feet who made no mistake putting the ball in the back of the net. The keeper had to be stretchered off with what looked like a broken leg while receiving gas and without a substitute keeper on the bench one of the centre halves had to take that role.

The game finally finished 1-3 a result that lifted Scunthorpe out of the relegation zone. Not a great game but another four goals for me and my dad so can't complain to much. I also hope that Lee Butcher The O's keeper recovers soon from what looked like a horrible injury.

Lamex Stadium - Stevenage FC

Match - Stevenage 4 - 2 MK Dons
Competition - N Power League 1
Admission - £19 East Terrace
Scarf - £9
Att - 3,345
Food - Hot Dog, Chips 6/10
Ground No - Revisit
Ground Rating - 7/10

Originally tonight we were supposed to be going to see the Southern league Division 1 Central clash between Woodford Utd and Uxbridge but due to some light rain the game was called off because of a waterlogged pitch. What ever happened to non-league football being played on what are basically muddy fields?

So at 4pm I was online working out what other games were on that were within reasonable travelling distance. The game that was decided upon was the top of the table match between local ish rivals Stevenage FC and MK Dons.

Joining myself and my Dad this evening was my former work and fellow cricket team mate Will "Thief" Harmer who has decided that he is to join us on more hops in the future since his first at Upton Park at the end of last season. The nickname is due to Wills conviction for stealing the pen that signed the Zulu treaty from his place of work at the Cambridge University Library a fair few years ago now. the pen was returned safely after having been grassed up by an ex girlfriend.

I had been to Stevenage a number of times before so unfortunately I wasn't going to be adding another ground to my list. My previous visits though were both as an Assistant Referee back when Stevenage were in the Conference Premier, when they were also known as Stevenage Borough a name they dropped on promotion to League 2 a couple of seasons back. After having been promoted again to League 1 they have started very well and before this game found themselves fighting for a play-off place along with their opponents who were only 1 place above them in the table.

On getting to Stevenage the ground is easily found being well signposted off of the A1(M) and parking is easy with a large free car park on the opposite side of the road to the back of the North Stand. Although you take your life in your own hands when crossing the 2 lane road to get to the ground.

Stevenage's Lamex Stadium formally Broadhall Way before sponsorship is a neat and tidy small ground with a capacity of just over 7000. The main stand is the West Stand and is a fully seated single tiered stand covering the full length of one touchline. This stand is also home to the clubs offices,changing rooms and the club shop where me and Will purchased scarves for the reasonable price of £9.

Opposite is the large East Terrace again spanning the whole length of the touchline this is where we were watching this evenings game from and is also home to what seemed to be the louder of Stevenage's support including the lads with the drums who would lead the chanting throughout the 90 mins.

The far end is the fully seated South stand that houses up to 1400 away fans and an electronic scoreboard on the roof this stand was built in 2001 and is the newest stand at the Lamex stadium the other end is a small terrace stand for home fans.

The game itself started very brightly and Stevenage could have taken the lead inside the first 30 seconds but the cross from the right hand side was just out of comfortable reach for the attacker. Then with MK Dons first attack of the match they took the lead when Chris Day in the Stevenage goal parried out a cross from the right straight in to the path of former Stevenage loan player Jay O'shea to blast the ball in from 10 yards.

The goal silenced the Stevenage crowd who were creating a very good atmosphere and for the next 20 minutes the game went rather flat until from nowhere Stevenage No.24 Michael Bostwick hammered the ball in the bottom left hand corner of the dons goal from at least 30 yards a stunning goal that wouldn't have looked out of place at the top level.

The second half started slowly with nobody being able to really keep hold of the ball and the atmosphere had died down again until Stevenage right back Lawrie Wilson was upended by MK Dons Mathias Doumbe who having already been cautioned was shown his 2nd yellow and given his marching orders. It really was a ridiculous tackle to make when already on a yellow and the fact the player was going nowhere.

Not only were the Dons now down to 10 men but the resulting free kick led to Stevenages 2nd goal and not long after that went 3-1 up and that virtually ended the game as a contest. For the rest of the match the Stevenage fans were excellent singing non stop with the drums complementing the fans voices with constant noise. The best coming when they started chanting "Who needs a manager". The support produced by the Stevenage fans is a credit to the club and led to my surprise when the attendance was announced at just under 3500, as it seemed that there was at least 4500-5000 inside the stadium.

There was still time for 2 more goals in the last 10 minutes where MK Dons pulled one back but Stevenage struck straight back to reopen the 2 goal cushion when my Man of the Match Darius Charles caused a defender to put the ball into his own net.

So the match finished 4-2 to a very good looking Stevenage team although were very much helped by the sending off. Another 6 goals as well for us this season keeping our average goals per game up above 5.