Ilford FC - Cricklefields Stadium

Match - Ilford FC 0-2 Grays Athletic
Competition - Isthmian League Division 1North
Admission - £8
Attendance - 125
Scarf - N/A
Food - Cornish Pasty 3/10
Ground No. 116
Ground Rating 2/10

On Saturday I went to tick another of the Ryman League division 1 North grounds off of my to do list and went to Ilford FC's Cricklefields Stadium to watch their game against table toppers Grays Athletic, I last saw a Grays Athletic game when I was Assistant Referee for a game they played against Salisbury City back when they were plying their trade in the Blue Square Bet Premier League, but due to financial troubles they have had to leave their Recreation Ground home and have subsequently dropped down 3 divisions and are in the process of starting again.

Before Saturdays game Grays were on a winning run of 14 straight league games whereas the home side have only won one of their last 10 and were sitting second bottom in the league table. As I have had two      0-0 draws in my last two games I was hopping for a bag full in this one.

I arrived at the ground around 30 Min's prior to Kick off and entered the stadium which is an Athletics stadium therefore having a running track around the pitch. Simply put I don't like running tracks around football pitches especially at grounds this small.

On entering I looked around to find someone selling programmes with no luck and then as is customary when me and my dad go to football we went to find the snack bar, there wasn't one but when we went up to the bar for a drink we found they were selling food, where you had the choice of either a pasty or a sausage roll heated up in a microwave, that was it, we passed. Although I did go back at half time for a pasty as I was starving, although I wish I hadn't bothered.

My first impressions of the ground then were pretty poor, but at least the weather was good and I was optimistic of watching a decent game of football.

The ground then as I have already mentioned is an Athletics ground, on both sides of the ground there is open terracing, with a small covered stand at the halfway line on each side. The stand on the far side is covered terracing, this side of the ground is also home to the team dugouts. The stand on the nearside houses around 200 blue plastic flip seats. To one side of this stand is the club house building which houses the changing rooms and the bar mentioned earlier. The bar has large windows that face out onto the ground and a number of fans decided to stay in there to watch the game. 

Grays started the game brightly and took the lead within the first ten minutes when they poked the ball into an empty net after a goalmouth scramble. Some awful defending by Ilford then allowed Grays a couple of further chances which were kept out well by their keeper. Grays thought they had scored again though when the Ilford keeper looked to have stepped behind the goal line with ball in hand following an effort created by one of the visitors dangerous corner kicks but the officials waved away the appeals.The rest of the half was quite dismal to watch with both teams playing punt and run football with the rock solid pitch not helping matters.

The second half didn't improve much although Grays still looked as though they would score every time they had a set piece around Ilfords penalty area. It was from a corner kick when they did finally double their lead when more terrible Ilford defending allowed the ball to bounce in a central position 2 yards out. The Grays attacker with his back to goal managed to pull off an overhead kick that left the keeper little chance to react.

After going 2-0 down Ilford made 3 changes in quick succession which gave them more going forward and they should have got an undeserved goal on the hour when one of there substitutes was played through one on one with the keeper who made a comfortable save from the shot, the first thing he had had to do all game, the ball rebounded off of him though into the path of another attacker who managed to hit the ball straight back at the keeper who was lying on the ground. This summed up Ilfords day and showed why they are sitting second bottom in the league standings. They really did look poor.

So with neither team putting in what could be considered as decent performances the game ended 2-0 to the visitors and extended there winning run to 15 consecutive games.

A poor ground then and a dreadful game of football but I'm glad I have ticked another off the list, don't expect to see me going to another Ilford FC home game anytime soon though.

This is probably my last game for this season, so if I don't update again before the season is out have a great summer and I will speak to you all again for the 2013/14 season.

Brentwood Town - The Arena

Match - Brentwood Town 0-0 Harlow Town
Competition - Isthmian League Division 1North
Admission - £8.50 - Includes Programme
Attendance - 63
Scarf - £7
Food - Bacon Roll 6/10
Ground No. 115
Ground Rating 7/10 - Extra mark for leather sofa

On Saturday I ticked off another Ryman Division 1N ground by visiting Brentwood Town to watch their match against Harlow Town. This leaves me with just 5 more grounds to visit to complete the league although as I am unlikely to complete them this season this is likely to increase next season.

Brentwood Town play at The Arena at Brentwood Leisure Centre and is simple to get to as the leisure centre is well signposted once you enter Brentwood although traffic in the Town Centre can be a nightmare.

The Arena is set at the back of the large Car Park meaning that parking is never an issue, with the leisure centre and a number of other sports pitches in front and to one side of the enclosed ground.

On arriving at the ground myself and my dad headed straight to the turnstiles which are situated at one end of the ground and like always made our way straight to the Tea Hut, which on entering is located in a porta cabin just to the left of the turnstiles where I purchased a Bacon Roll which was ok but nothing special and a warm can of Coke which is never nice.


A hungry father racing to the turnstiles

After eating we took a stroll around the ground, The Arena consists of two stands one at the turnstile end which has three steps of terracing located directly behind the goal and is quite large in size, although a terraced stand you do have the option to sit as there is a leather sofa and two armchairs located at the back of the stand, and due to the small attendances probably wouldn't have an obstructed view although I never tested that out.


The other stand is situated on the near touchline straddling the half way line and is an old wooden stand housing a small number of plastic flip seats. There is also a club member seating area within the stand with the home club members having padded seating.

This stand also houses the changing rooms and players entrance tunnel. At the top and back of the stand there is a bar area that has 2 TVs and a projector showing football, we stopped here for a pint before the game kicked off just catching the final whistle of Wigan's shock FA Cup win against Everton.

The other two sides of the ground consist of narrow hard standing areas, with the dugouts on the far touchline either side of the halfway line with a scaffolding structure behind which I presume is used when they film the games, there was nobody up there for today's game.

At 3pm the game kicked off with the pitch only just playable and the home side started the brighter trying to play passing football despite the conditions although never really creating any clear cut chances and their No.9 up front spending more time complaining at his team mates than trying to put the ball in the net which he continued for the whole 90mins.

Harlow came back into the game as the half progressed forcing Brentwoods keeper into one decent save, they then had their captain booked harshly and their left back booked correctly before the half came to a finish with the score at 0-0.

I was disappointed before the game to find no club shop at the ground as I collect a scarf from every ground I go to if possible but thought today I would be unable to add a Brentwood Town Scarf to my rapidly growing collection. Until at Half time over the tannoy I hear "We have a collection of merchandise for purchase including Mugs, Pin Badges, Scarves............" I never heard the end before making my way into the club Bar in the seated stand to find the man with the mic who gladly went and found a scarf for me to purchase for a reasonable £7.

The second half started much the same as the first half with neither team really taking control until about 10mins in Harlow's captain committed a rash challenge about 25 yards out from his own goal and after having been booked and warned once more in the first 45 was sent off leaving his side with 10 for the remainder of the game, although this should have been 9 as minutes before their left back had committed a reckless challenge on a Brentwood attacker but escaped with a final warning.

Brentwood though were unable to make the extra man count and apart from a couple of half chances, a goal closely ruled out for offside and great display at the back from the visitors player/coach Dan Brown couldn't find a winner, not helped by the constant moaning from their No.9

The game therefore ended goalless, that's now two 0-0's in a row for me. Better luck next time.

Queens Park Rangers - Loftus Road

Match - QPR 0-0 Norwich City
Competition - Premier League
Admission - £33 - Restricted View
Attendance - 17,543
Scarf - £10
Food - Pukka Pie Chicken Balti 7/10
Ground No. 114
Ground Rating 6/10

On Saturday I travelled to West London to the home of Queens Park Rangers to see the hoops game against the Canaries of Norwich City. This game was my first Premier League game of the season and saw me complete groundhops of all the London based clubs currently playing in the English Top Tier.

QPR currently sit rock bottom of the league despite the large sums of money that have been spent on the playing staff by owner Tony Fernandes who is also the man in charge of Caterham F1 team. Norwich however are occupying a mid table table having spent far less than the Hoops, relying on players generally bought from lower league sides mainly Leeds Utd. Although there seems are reasonably large gap between the teams as far as points and table position this was probably a game that Rangers manager Harry Redknapp had earmarked as one to win.

The Journey to Loftus Road was quite straight forward as me and my dad drove to West Ruislip underground station and caught a central line train straight to White City Station and from there had a short 5 min walk down South Africa Road to the ground.

After a short stop to buy a scarf for myself and a woolly hat for my dad we walked around to the opposite side of the ground to the Ellerslie road stand where we would be watching the game from. This side of the stadium is quite hidden away behind a row of terrace housing. We went through the turnstiles around an hour before kick-off into a small, cramp open air concourse where there were a number of food outlets and only one set of men's toilets.As is the norm when we go to football we headed straight for the food which was decent, but then you can't really go wrong with a Pukka Pie can you?

We then made our way to our seats around 40mins prior to Kick Off and were met with the worst possible seats in the ground, I had foolishly taken a risk on restricted view seats and although only being four rows back from the pitch and therefore at Loftus Road very close to the action we were only able to see one goal. Note for future Never buy restricted view tickets.


My view of far end

 

Loftus Road is one of if not the smallest ground in the top flight with a capacity of just over 18,000. The largest stand in the ground is the South Africa Road Stand that runs along the touchline opposite the stand that we were in. This is a two tiered stand that is split by a row of VIP suites. The dugouts are situated centrally at the front of the South Africa Road Stand. The Two ends are identical small two tiered stand with the far end housing away fans in the top tier and home fans in the lower tier. On top of the stand at the far end there is an electronic board which shows the game as it happens, this was helpful for us when play was happening behind the post. For this game we were seated in the Ellerslie Road stand this is a single tiered stand which as I have probably already mentioned has a number of bloody great big posts at the front of.

 QPR started the game with there new £12.5 Million pound signing from Anzhi Machalakalakalakalaka and ex Blackburn Rovers Centre back Chris Samba and also Spurs loanee Andros Townsend while Rangers other big money January buy Loic Remy was out injured, the Hoops started brightly with Adel Tarabbt having a couple of decent long range efforts but neither troubled Bunn in the visitors goal. Norwich quickly picked up and had a good chance of there own which Hoolahan managed to put over the bar from 5 yards out. The rest of the half passed by with nothing to worry either keeper and was generally a scrappy affair although Norwich did look the more composed team.

The second period was a lot more exciting with both teams creating a number of chances. Firstly QPR's Brazilian International goalkeeper pulled off a couple of great saves from Hoolahan and Bradley Johnson the first of which was a one handed reaction stop down low to his right from Hoolahans flicked effort from inside the 6 yard box.

The best chance of the game though came from the Penalty Spot, after the tireless Jamie Mackie was upended by the visitors keeper. Adel Tarabbt took the penalty which was well hit low to the keepers left but Bunn guessed correctly and made a very good save to keep the game goalless.

After the penalty miss Rangers piled on the pressure and were the only team that looked like scoring especially from set pieces around the box where Samba was the main target and also a couple of long range efforts the most memorable from Townsend who hit a sweet strike from 25 yards out that was flying in the top corner but for another great save from Bunn.

The game ended then goalless and QPR can feel a bit disappointed not to have won, they remain undefeated though in the new year but unfortunately draws are not enough to keep them up.

  In the end it wasn't the worst game I had ever been to but a 0-0 scoreline doesn't help my average goals per game which has now dropped towards 3.

Loftus Road in conclusion is a half decent stadium but I think QPR may have to think about moving if they are to stay in the Premier league as I cant see them being able to increase what they have here and they need to be able to have larger crowds if they continue to pay out £100,000 per week wages.