FOOTBALL CLUB WORLD

Stevenage 3v1 Newcastle United
FA Cup 3rd Round
Saturday 8th January 2011

The FA Cup 3rd round draw worked out nicely for a second successive season, pairing Newcastle with Stevenage, another Football League ground I’ve still to visit.
I had planned to travel to Broadhall Way in February, but delayed booking trains by a week as I had a sneaky feeling that the velvet ball bag would again pair both clubs in a repeat of the infamous fourth round tie in 1998.

Stevenage is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, which was designated as the first new town on 1st August 1946, as part of the Abercrombie Plan after the War to establish a ring of new towns around London.
Stevenage Borough Football Club originally formed in 1976 following the bankruptcy and resignation from the Southern League of the town's former club Stevenage Athletic.
In 1980 Borough joined the United Counties League, winning the Division One title and League Cup in the club's first year. They joined the Isthmian League in 1984-85 and three promotions in four seasons in the early 1990s saw the club’s promotion to the Conference League in 1994.
After winning the league in 1995-96, they were denied promotion to the Football League due to ground criteria. The club missed out in the play-offs in 2005 before finally gaining promotion to the Football League last season. The club made their debut in the 92 with a new title, after dropping the 'Borough' suffix from their name.
Stevenage have also gained success in the FA Trophy, becoming the first team to win a competitive final at the new Wembley in 2007, beating Kidderminster 3–2 in front of a competition record crowd of 53,262, then again two years later beating York City 2-0.
Broadhall Way was originally home to Stevenage Town from 1961, until the club went out of business and the ground instantly taking over by Stevenage Athletic in 1968.The ground was originally farmland with the first stand built in 1964, a 450 seated structure which stood for 30 years.
After Athletics’ demise in 1976 the ground remaining empty for two years. The pitch was ripped up and the stands partly derelict until the local council re-purchased the ground in 1978, allowing Borough to move in, re-laying the pitch and renovating the existing stands.
Following Stevenage's successful title campaign in the nineties, when promotion was denied to the League due to insufficient ground capacity and facilities, the Hertfordshire club have spent the new millennium upgraded the ground to the sufficient standard in readiness to host League football.

The Main Stand is all-seated and covered, a single tier which runs pitch length with a few glass-fronted club offices and executive boxes at the rear.
Opposite is the covered East Terrace, which again runs pitch length, its main feature is a central gable which has a clock face next to the television gantry.
The North Terrace has cover running three-quarters, with an open section at the east side. The stand was opened in 2001 at a cost of £600,000, with a capacity of 700, which also has a disabled section.
The South Stand is a single tiered 1400 all seated covered stand, which was also opened in 2001 and is the away section. There is an electric scoreboard on the roof facia and similar to the main stand there is a section of white seats with Boro picked out in red.

A new set of floodlights were installed on the eve of the 2007-08 season, then in January 2009 the club signed a 7-figure sponsorship deal with the Lamex Food Group, renaming the ground The Lamex Stadium.
For some reason or another, I can’t quite recollect why, I wasn’t at the ‘98 cup tie. I do remember coming away from Goodison Park after a scrappy Ian Rush goal had booked our place in the next round, racing back to Ian’s car to catch the live 4th round draw.
Unfortunately we missed it, but all the talk on 5 Live was about Newcastle United being drawn away to Conference side Stevenage Borough, with the radio station commented on the game being switched, as it couldn’t be possible for little Broadhall Way to host such a tie.(I’m sure it was that dickwad Alan Green who was shouting the odds)
Freddie Shepherd agreed after a United party inspecting the ground, while manager Kenny Dalglish had a dig in his usual droll manner declaring "We'll play you anywhere, Hackney Marshes, anywhere" responding to jibes that the Toon were basically crapping themselves over the prospect of a potential giant killing.
The tension between both clubs built up the week prior to the match as The Sun newspaper backed Boro by sponsoring the team jerseys, giving away free plastic hats and slagging off NUFC, with negative stories every day in the run up to the game, so by kick off the hostility between both clubs had reached boiling point.
Stevenage hosted the tie after erecting a temporary stand behind the away end, which satisfied the FA, increasing the capacity to 8,100 which gave Borough their record attendance of 8,040.
I watched an uncomfortable ninety minutes at home on the sofa. The game ended all square(Dalglish blaming the bouncy ball) as Stevenage earned a trip to St James Park, before losing 2-1 in the replay, courtesy of an Alan Shearer double (one of which I admit, was a dodgy decision)
Thirteen years later and we meet again, however this time it’s a meeting of two very different clubs. Gone from Newcastle is the motor mouth chairman (now we have one that says nowt!) aloof manager and the multi-million pound squad, while Stevenage are quickly establishing themselves as a League club with a little ground to be proud of.
Just as I had a hunch that United would be drawn against Stevenage, I also had a horrible feeling that the home side would be victorious in this 3rd round tie.
The day started well, a smooth journey down the A1 with the Patrick’s (squad#2&79) with the car being filled with Graham(Squad#88)with his son Hayden, who we picked up en route.
After a brief exchange of words with Kevin Keegan, I enjoyed a 40 minute interview with the BBC outside the ground’s main reception. The interview was part of a new series on Radio 4 called 'The Completists' which is about obsessive collectors. The series features the likes of hoarders of scooters, train timetables, Peter Pan books and of course, some sad sack who collects football grounds. The interview was done by Ian Marchant with multiple Sony award winning radio producer Peter Everett. (Details of the programme will appear on the blog when it’s broadcast)

My anxiety about the Toon falling prey to a cup giant killing was confirmed earlier in the day, when I heard a very confident Boro manager Graham Westley talk up his teams chances of causing an upset on Talksport.
He had every right to be so buoyant, as his team outfought, outwitted and outclassed a lethargic United side, who badly let down the travelling supporters in the South Stand.
After a tepid first half, Boro took a deserved lead with a two goal burst early in the second half. Stacy Long's strike took a wicked deflection off the head of Mike Williamson before Michael Bostwick struck from the edge of the box via the post.
A miserable day for the Toon was complete when substitute Cheik Tiote saw red for a wild challenge before Joey Barton pulled one back from 30 yards in injury-time to half the deficit.
However it was false hope as Peter Winn restored the two goal cushion, the ex-Heed man slotting home to cap off a memorable day for the Hertfordshire club.
So after 13 years of Geordie hurt, Stevenage finally got their day of reckoning after the exploits of 1998. It’s said Revenge is a dish best served cold, well Boro got what they thoroughly deserved on a wintry January day - bitter revenge, which will haunt us Toon fans for many years to come.



Matchday stats
SFC 3(WilliamsonOG 50 Bostwick 55 Winn 90+3) NUFC 1(Barton 90+2)
att.6644
Admission £30(usually £18)
Programme £3

Internazionale 2v2 Newcastle United

UEFA Champions League Phase Two

Group A

Tuesday 11th March 2003

The euphoria and overall feel good factor amongst the Toon Army after easily winning the second division turned to a desolate mood, when the club issued a statement one week after the final game of the season.
The statement detailed that Chris Hughton will have no money to spent this summer, any influx of players will be financed by raising funds by selling, making use of the loan system and developing younger players through the club‘s Academy.
Lee Ryder from the Evening Chronicle wrote a interesting piece on the subject titled ‘Newcastle may not be a Pompey but the San Siro seems a million miles away now’ highlighting where it’s all gone wrong since that night in northern Italy in March 2003.
So for the latest in the My Back Pages series I thought I would travel a million miles away to the San Siro when United faced Inter in the second phase of the UEFA Champions League.

San Siro is the district in the western part of Milan where the "Nuovo Stadio Calcistico San Siro" was constructed in 1925, renamed the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza" in 1980 in honour of the legendary Italian striker who was born in the city and served both Milan clubs.
The first match took place on 19th September 1926, a crowd of 35,000 saw Internazionale defeat home side AC Milan 6-3, it wasn’t until 1947 that Inter became joint tenants, both sharing the stadium ever since.
In 1955 the capacity reached six figures with completion of two further tiers, the international between Italy and Brazil the following April drew a crowd of 100,000 who witnessed a 3-0 win for the Italians.
After the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985 the stadium’s capacity was reduced to 80,000, before undergoing further redevelopment for Italia ’90 with $60 million spent on bringing the stadium to UEFA 5-star standard.
The revamp included the stadium becoming all seated with an 85,700 capacity with extra tiers added to three sides. Eleven 50 metre high concrete towers were built around the stadium perimeter, the four located in each corner used to support a new roof which has distinctive protruding red girders.
Inside the stadium looks mighty impressive, seating at each side is decked out in different colours, blue and green behind the goals with a mix of red and orange at the sides.
The pitch views are first class with each section of seats having TV screens within the stand.

We flew across to Milan from Stansted, departing our homes in the middle of the night to catch our mid-morning flight, which arrived in Italy around lunch time.
Milan is the capital of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan, founded under the name of Mediolanum by the Insubres.
The city became successful under the Roman Empire after its capture in 222 BC. It was later ruled by the Visconti and Sforza dynasties, the Spanish and the Austrians.
In 1796 the city was conquered by Napoleon and during the Romantic Period became a major cultural centre, attracting artists, composers and notable literal figures.
Milan is now recognised as a major global city, a centre of fashion and design, with fashion houses in the ‘Montenapo’ and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, with a rich cultural heritage and vibrant nightlife it became a home from home for the 12,000 travelling Geordies in familiar glamorous surroundings for this big Champions League clash.
A friend of Ian’s booked us into a quite posh hotel in the outskirts of the city. Our definition of ‘posh’ being a hotel where you each get your own dressing gown with matching slippers and the bathroom has a separate bowl to wash your feet in. (That’ll be a bidet…Eddy) The hotel staff made us feel quite welcome and wished us the best of luck as they all favoured the Milanese club which wears the red and black stripes.We spent the matchday mainly sight seeing as there was a 24 hour alcoholic ban, just as there had been when we visited Juventus earlier in the season. However we did manage the odd drink in many of the city’s café bars, until we were spotted by fellow thirsty Geordies which each time resulted in the proprietor chucking us all out.
I decided our best chance of getting a pre match bevvy was to catch the metro towards the San Siro, but alight three stops beforehand so we were out of the city centre and not too close to the stadium. The plan worked a treat as we found a bar a short walk from the station, where a few Newcastle supporters were enjoying a peaceful drink on the patio terrace.
It was here where we spotted a familiar face strolling along the sidewalk with a young bird on his arm. “Ricki Lad” “Whey-hey Rick” we shouted at former Yes man and prog-rock keyboardist Rick Wakeman,who stopped for a chat and seemed a genuinely canny lad.
By the time we caught the metro to the stadium, Ian was as drunk as a fiddlers bitch and I lost both him and Lee in the melee during the long walk to the ground. When we met up again at half time I learned he had no match tickets, Ian had either lost them or had his pocket picked.
With Lee in tears outside the ground and kick-off time approaching, in an act of desperation they pushed their way through the gate in amongst the sway of Toon supporters, successfully managing to get through without getting nabbed, so they were both very lucky they didn't suffer a matchless Milan trip.

Newcastle United’s second adventure into the worlds top club competition looked a brief one, three straight defeats to Dynamo Kiev, Feyenoord and Juventus left United on the brink of elimination, but miraculously United grabbed second spot winning the reverse fixtures, culminating in an unforgettable night in Rotterdam.
The second phase again saw the Geordies make a poor start. A heavy home defeat to Inter was followed by defeat in the Nou Camp, however a win double over Bayer Leverkusen meant United could still progress as long as we could simply achieve a positive result in Milan.
The pre-match atmosphere was electric, while the travelling Toon Army were in fine voice and in buoyant mood, our Milanese hosts were less than genial. Racial abuse towards United players, stones, coins, bottles of piss and flares thrown into the away section, one of which landed close to my feet. I was lucky I wasn’t burned, but at least I had the consolation of appearing on TV as the camera focused on the incident during the live broadcast.
The local constabulary did nothing about this, apart from put on their helmets in case they got hit by a wayward One Euro coin and observe proceedings as if this was the normal ritual amongst the locals, getting showered with urine or set on fire not too serious an offence.
The match itself will live long in the memory, the Magpies pegged back by Inter after talisman Alan Shearer had twice giving United the lead.
The opening goal came just before half time. Solano played in Bellamy on the right, his ball across the face of goal was turned in by Shearer from close range. The interval was one of the most memorable in my time supporting Newcastle. 1-0 up in the San Siro, unbelievable, we just wished it was full time and we didn’t have to play another 45 minutes.
Soon after the restart the cheating, whingeing, racist thug Vieri equalised (can you tell I don’t like him) getting in between O’Brien and Speed to glance in a header from a Conceicao cross.
United regained the lead three minutes later. Tolds failed to keep hold of a Robert cross allowing Shearer to take full advantage, but again United failed to hold on to their slender lead, on the hour mark an Emre free kick from the left was met by Cordoba with a powerful header.
Newcastle pushed for a winner but in true Italian style Inter seemed content on sitting on the point. We walked away from the San Siro after the final whistle disappointed in only getting a draw. Bobby Robson, the players and fans felt we deserved to win, which showed just how far we had progressed in the competition over the season.
The point wasn’t enough, a home win over Barcelona coupled with an unlikely defeat for Inter by Leverkusen in Matchday 6 was required for United to qualify for the knock out stages, and as it turned out both results went by the form book.

The change in fortunes and difference in scale of both clubs can be summed up as Newcastle are the current Championship winners and Inter the holders of the UEFA Champions League, not quite a million miles apart but still one helluva distance.
The two days in Milan was one of my most enjoyable trips supporting NUFC. This despite of the flare incident, the Patrick’s losing their tickets and having to tolerate a set of grade one partisan fans which makes a Toon trip to the Stadium of Light seem like a day trip to Whitley Bay.
This match and occasion goes into the ‘I was there’ category. I wouldn’t have missed this one for the world and would have happily travelled a million miles just to be there.

Matchday stats

FCIM 2(Vieri 46 Cordoba 60) NUFC 2(Shearer 42,49)

att. 53,459 (liars! never 32,000 empty seats, estimate around 72,000)

Admission £25

Programme 5 euros

Swansea City 1v1 Newcastle United
Championship
Saturday 13th February 2010

Swansea is a city on the south-west coast of Wales in West Glamorgan on the banks of the River Tawe, known locally as Abertawe - “mouth of the Tawe”
Swansea geographical location saw it thrive during the industrial revolution, the port exported coal across to the south-west of England and specialised in copper smelting, as smelting works opened along the Tawe Valley.
The town expanded during the 18th and 19th centuries as the Smelters were established producing arsenic, tin and zinc to create tinplate and pottery, which made the town a big player in the world copper industry, which termed Swansea the name “Copperopolis".
Swansea Town formed in 1912 and joined the Southern League Second Division, winning promotion prior to the war which gained admission into the expansion of the Football League, becoming founder members of Division Three South.
Swansea gained city status in 1969 to mark the enthronement of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales, so the club became Swansea City in February the following year.


Having played at the Vetch Field for 93 years, Swansea City moved into a new purpose built stadium on the outskirts of the town on the west side of the River Tawe.
The stadium was built upon the site of the former Morfa Athletics Stadium and during construction went under the working name of White Rock, named of the copper works which was located on the site and opened way back in 1737.
White Rock would have been a unique and cool name for a football ground, however the stadium became available for sponsorship naming rights, which went to local developers Liberty Property, so it became “Stadiwm Liberty” on 18th October 2005.
The stadium was designed by Gateshead based TTH Architects (I’m their postman. Morning!)and built by Interserve at a total cost of £27m.
It wasn’t just the Vetch Field that needed replacing, local rugby club All Whites played at the St. Helen’s ground which was also well past its sell by date.
All Whites merged with Neath RFC to form Ospreys, and along with Swansea City the city council had the ideal site in Landore a few miles from the city centre to accommodate both clubs.
The 20,500 capacity multi-use stadium was funded by the nearby retail park built on the east side of the river. Work commenced in Autumn 2003 with the opening game played on 23rd July 2005 between Swansea and Fulham.
The stadium has four two tier stands all equal in size with a much larger top tier. The West Stand is slightly bigger having executive boxes at the back running full length of the stand. The seats are decked out in black with triangular shapes and the name of the ground and home teams picked out in white.
The stadium benefits from partial transparent roofing which produces more natural light and has electric scoreboards on top of the North and South Stands.


Outside the stadium in the south-west corner stands a statue of Ivor Allchurch MBE.
“Swansea’s Golden Boy’ wasn’t just a legend for The Jacks but was also a great favourite on Tyneside. Ivor signed for Swansea Town in 1947 scoring 124 goals in 327 appearances before a big money move to Newcastle United in 1958. In four seasons Ivor notched 51 goals in 154 starts before returning to South Wales to Cardiff City before going back home to Swansea in 1965.
Allchurch scored a club record 160 goals for Swansea and with 68 Welsh caps once held the record appearances for his country. Ivor was a true gentleman on the field and never the type of player to lose his temper, a gifted inside forward who could play with both feet and was renouned for his pinpoint passing and his ability to score from distance. A true football legend and the golden boy of Swansea and Wales.


With an unbeaten league run of 15 games coming to an abrupt end at Pride Park last Tuesday, this game took on a much greater significance for Newcastle. It was expected that the players would show a positive reaction to the gubbing off Derby County with a good performance and result at the Liberty Stadium.
Well at least the result was a good one, as the overall performance was very poor and the Toon were lucky and rather fortunate to share the points with an energetic and well organised Swansea City side.
City looked up for the game from the start, applying early pressure and going close with a well worked free kick from Orlandi. United’s best effort came after half an hour when Nolan should have done better with a close range header, but overall the Jacks were the better side and at the break I personally would have settled for a point.
In the second half the Swans went close with two efforts from Dyer but eventually took the lead on 56 minutes. A Pratley cross was dummied by Dyer which allowed Cotterill plenty of space and time to cut inside and pick his spot giving Harper no chance.
Williams then went close with a header but the best chance fell to Pintado who could have secured the points, missing his kick from close range with only six minutes remaining.
Three minutes later Newcastle levelled. Substitute Leon Best produced a great cross which was met at the back post by Andy Carroll with a powerful header. A goal which left me and the rest of the Toon Army both stunned and yet relieved to be able to make the long journey home with a point, which wasn’t deserved, but may prove to be a crucial one by the end of the season.

Following on from Cardiff and Plymouth this is the final part of my far flung Championship grounds trilogy. The final episode saw the earliest departure time yet - 3.30am, as Sky Sports decided to broadcast the game with a 12.45 k.o. to go up against ITV’s coverage of the FA Cup.
With the game kicking off early I thought I wouldn’t have much precious time in Swansea, to do the things I needed to while visiting this corner of South Wales.
I needn’t have worried as we arrived in good time at around 9.30am, giving me plenty of time to tick off a couple of pubs (your reader should know which ones..Eddy) and pay homage to the Vetch Field.
As is always the case when following NUFC away, I was with Ian Patrick and his son Lee, Ian doing his usual fantastic performance behind the wheel, even though he nearly dropped off a couple of times, myself and Lee took turns at going shotgun to keep him awake during the 700 mile round trip.
I decided we should stay well away from the M4 with the Rugby Union international in Cardiff between Wales and Scotland taking play at 2pm. So I navigated an alternative route, crossing the border at Monmouth and travelling on the A40 towards Abergavenny and through the valley’s down the A465 towards Merthyr then out at the bottom across the M4 into Swansea.
This was a much better and quicker way to South Wales, the roads were quiet and I didn’t see any other football fans on route, meaning we made good time heading back north, arriving home at quarter to nine.
We found the Swansea folk very friendly making our short stay in the city very enjoyable. I’m pleased to complete this ground trilogy and special thanks to 100FgC #2 for making the three match days enjoyable and getting us safely from A to B and back again, even though it meant getting up in the middle of the night and having to suffer sleep depravation, although overall it's been well worth it and a small sacrifice to pay to tick off these new grounds.

Matchday stats SCFC 1(Cotterill 56) NUFC 1(Carroll 87) att.15,188 Admission £30 Programme £3

Ground no.242 Liberty Stadium - Matchday Web album (22 pictures including 9 from the Vetch)

Plymouth Argyle 0v0 Newcastle United
FA Cup 3rd Round
Saturday 2nd January 2010


Plymouth is a city in Devon in the South-West of England, between the mouths of the rivers Plym and Tamar which flow into the natural harbour of Plymouth Sound.
Plymouth is renowned for its sea port. The Pilgrim Fathers set off for the New World in 1620 and established Plymouth Colony, the second English settlement in America.
The port thrived during the Industrial Revolution, building Royal Navy ships and importing goods and passengers to the States.
Famous Plymothians include nautical traders Sir John Hawkins and of course Sir Francis Drake. According to legend Drake insisted on finishing his game of bowls on the Hoe before going into battle with the Spanish Armada, in a similar way that I insist on finishing my pint before going to the match!
The city now has a population of a quarter of a million, which makes it the biggest city in the country to have never played host to the top flight of English football.

Home Park was originally home to rugby, where local clubs Plymouth Albion and later Devonport played during the 1890‘s. The latter club departed due to a rent dispute which left the ground vacant for three years.
In 1901 the lease was taking over by the long established Argyle Athletics Club, the ground at the time being an oval shaped bowl with a cinder track and the surrounding land made up of farmland and allotments. The ground had two structures, a main stand and a open corner west terrace on the Popular Side.
The new owners staged their first event, an athletics meeting in 1901, however leaseholder Clarence Spooner was keen to stage football as Devon lacked a senior football club. A series of successful trial matches followed which attracted healthy attendances and convinced Argyle A.C. to focus on professional football.
Plymouth Argyle FC made their competitive bow in the Southern League against Northampton Town on the 5th September 1903 in front of a crowd of 4,438.

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The Main Stand was originally a wooden structure with a centrally positioned gable with a capacity of 2,000. In 1930, ten years after joining the Football League the stand was replaced with a new full length grandstand costing £11,000.
The close proximity to the Plymouth naval base caused damage to the ground during the Second World War, the pitch was badly covered with bomb craters and worse still the grandstand was destroyed by explosives and inflammable materials.
The stand was replaced with temporary uncovered seating and a wooden pavilion was built in the corner of the pitch for the directors, which is nowadays used as a PA box.
The current Main Stand was built in 1952 with floodlight switched on in October the following year for a friendly with Exeter City.
The Leitch inspired stand runs pitch length with a green con-iron roof and windshields, seating is provided with the classic old wooden flip chairs.
In 1969-70 seats were added at the back of the lower tier, known as the Mayflower Stand which took the seating capacity to 4,100 and at the time the overall capacity to 40,000.

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Cover was first added to the Devonport End terrace in 1930 with funds generated from the supporters club and extended towards the Grandstand two years later. For safety reasons the roof was taking down in 1980 and replaced four years later, while the Lyndhurst Side terrace was covered in 1965
In 2001 work began on both these stands as well as the open Barn Park terrace and corners, which was completed in February the following year. The three sides form a horseshoe single tiered stand, decked out in dark green with a simple white trim behind each goal and PAFC along the Lyndhurst Stand.
The Field of Greens now has temporary seats which replaced the Main Stand terracing in 2007 which run up to a row of executive boxes. There is a small enclosure in the corner with floodlights now perched on top of the Lyndhurst Stand and thin pylon poles at each side of the Main Stand.

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Home Park was recently announced as a host stadium for England's 2018/2022 World Cup bid. The stadium will be redeveloped from 19,500 into a 40,000 capacity stadium, which will see the current grandstand replaced at the end of next season.

Matchday stats
PAFC 0 NUFC 0
att.16,451
Admission £24

Programme £3

Bevvy Almanac - 'Spoons Tour

Ground 239 Home Park - Matchday Webalbum (20 pictures)

Preston North End 0v1 Newcastle United
Championship
Monday 23rd November 2009

Preston is a city in Lancashire on the north bank of the River Ribble, becoming England’s 50th city when granted city status in The Queen’s Golden Jubilee year in 2002 .
Preston was established by the Saxons, the name deriving from Old English; Presta and Tun meaning “Priest settlement” and appears as “Prestune” in the Doomsday Book.
Preston developed during the Industrial Revolution became a large populated industrial area with the expansion of textile manufacturing, although the town has produced textiles as far back as the mid 13th century weaving locally produced wool.

Preston North End formed in 1863, becoming founder members of the Football League and the very first League champions and ‘double’ winners in 1888-89.
The club originally played on Moor Park from 1867 until moving across the road to Deepdale Farm in 1875. In its formative years it staged cricket, athletics and rugby, with association football being the last in 1879, but within two years it hosted only football. By the end of the century Deepdale had two stands with a press box on the west side with banking and fences constructed around the rest of the pitch.
The first major work came in January 1906, with the construction of The Grand Stand on the west side which proudly stood for ninety years. The stand had a distinctive barrel shaped roof with a line of thin white iron support poles. The upper seating was made up of wooden benches with an open terrace, it also housed the dressing rooms and club offices.
It’s replacement the 8,000 capacity Main Stand was constructed in 1996 at a cost of £4m. What makes Deepdale so unique are the faces of North End legends portrayed within the seats, this stand is named after Sir Tom Finney with his image seen at the south side of the stand.

The Fulwood End was originally a large Kop when extended and covered at a cost of £19,000 in 1921. It’s curved terrace met the stands to the west and east with the roof at the rear of the stand. The stand was rebuilt in 1998, named after a legend who is also renowned on another Kop - Bill Shankly. The 6,000 capacity has the former Preston and Liverpool legend’s image situated centrally amongst the steep bank of dark blue seats.

The Town End terrace was first covered in the 1930’s with a plain pitched roof and was reconstructed in 2001. The Alan Kelly Stand has the former North End ‘keeper’s centrally position and is identical in design to the Shankly Stand.

The Pavilion Stand was made up of two separate stands. The first pavilion was built in 1934, the £9,000 capital raised through a share issue, it also had new offices and stylish boardroom. The South Pavilion was completed two years later which made the appearance of one long stand.
The new look Deepdale was completed on the eve of this season, the pavilions replaced by the Invincibles Stand, named after the famous double winning side. The stand has a smaller tier with PNE FC picked out in white. The stand also has a section of seating at the front as a replacement for team dugouts. There’s DEEPDALE and PRESTON in blue neon light at each side of a wall clock, with hospitality suites at the top which aren’t completed and are likely to remain so until the club ever reach the Premier League.

The new look Deepdale is modelled on the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa, the tall floodlights in each corner forming a link between each equally proportioned stand.
Deepdale is the longest continuously used ground, 134 years and counting, the biggest attendance is 42,684 for a Division One clash with Arsenal in April 1938. Also within this time was eight years with an unpopular plastic pitch, which was laid in 1986 before being ripped up in 1994.
Newcastle leapfrogged West Brom to regain top spot in the Championship, thanks to a second half strike from top scorer Kevin Nolan.
An even and uneventful opening period sprung into life with the home side finishing the first half strongly. Parry went close with a close range header, then Chaplow capitalised on a mistake by Guthrie but his shot sailed over the crossbar.
Just before the break a good interchange of passes left Mellor with a clear effort on goal, but he managed to scuff his shot which Harper dealt with easily.
Chances were limited in the second half. Mellor again wasted a good opportunity on 67 minutes then substitute Ranger had United’s first decent effort of the game, his shot going narrowly wide of the post.
The crucial goal came on 74 minutes, Guthrie found Nolan in the box and with his back to goal, he managed to turn and shoot, his left foot effort finding the far corner of the net.
Preston substitute Eddie Nolan almost snatched an equaliser on 79 minutes, but his ferocious shot was well saved by Harper, then with time running out Guiterrez could have wrapped things up but wasted a golden chance by typically lacking composure.
Not the greatest performance by Newcastle, but in this league it’s the result which matters. I’ll happily settle for this kind of display for the remainder of the season if this ends in United finishing within the top two in the Championship table.

At long last, me and Ian have finally got to Deepdale. We’ve only waited 29 years. In October 1980 Newcastle were away to Preston in a midweek Division Two fixture. At the time we were both 15 and in our last year at school. We decided we were going to ‘knock off’ in the afternoon and get the Supporters Club coach to the match. In the end we didn’t make it, deciding to pay the extra few quid and go to Bristol City the following Saturday instead, keeping Preston for next season, but next season never came.
North End were relegated at the end of the 1980-81 season, then dropped like a stone through the divisions, within four years finding themselves in League Division Four.
We’ve willed them on in the play-offs, they’ve reaching the knock out stage of the season four times and lost in the final twice, so finally it’s taking Newcastle’s relegation to get us our much anticipated visit to Deepdale.
We - that’s myself with Ian(squad#2)Lee(squad#79) and Tom, headed off at 12.30pm. The reason we left so early is because I wanted to arrive before it got too dark. I had contacted the club last week, asking if it was possible to gain access into the ground to take some pictures for 100FGC.
I would like to thank Treve Whitford, he promptly replied to my emailed, letting me know I was welcome to come and take photographs inside Deepdale. Once we arrived we headed to the club offices and Treve was waiting to give us our very own guided tour. We walked around the perimeter of the pitch and I managed to get some quality photos of an empty (apart from the men from SKY) Deepdale stadium.
We then took the short drive to the Sumners pub, taking advantage of the car park, stopping for bait and liquid refreshment before heading back to the ground to visit the National Football Museum.
Never mind the football it’s worth visiting Preston just for the museum, there’s a large collection of football memorabilia dating back to the 19th century, including an England shirt from the very first international, the 1966 World Cup ball and the substitute Jules Rimet trophy (and yes, it was still gleaming) We spent a good hour looking around, if your yet to visit the museum it’s a must see and it’s even free admission.
And so we’ve successfully ‘ticked off’ Deepdale. The fixture we missed out on in 1980 saw a 3-2 victory for United, with a rare brace from Bobby Shinton and the unique treat of a goal by Billy Rafferty. That would have been well worth seeing but I wouldn’t have got a personal view of the ground, visited the museum and on top of that we saw a Toon away win anyway, which means after being delayed for almost 30 years, our visit to Deepdale was very much worth the long wait.
　

Matchday stats

PNE 0 NUFC 1(Nolan 74)

att.16,924

Admission £20

Programme £3



Ground no.234 Deepdale - Matchday Webalbum (21 pictures)

(more ground pictures including some inside the museum can be found on Facebook page)

Cardiff City 0v1 Newcastle United
Championship
Sunday 13th September 2009

With all the backroom shenanigans and lack of cohesion behind the scenes it’s a surprise to report that Newcastle United have made a great start to 2009/10.

As is always the case when watching Newcastle away I travelled with Ian and Lee Patrick (100FGC squad nos. 2 & 79) Ian gave me the option of setting off at midnight or 4am, I told him that 5am would be ok, but Ian always has the impression that pending disaster awaits, so 4am it was.

Matchday Facts

Dundee United 1v1 Newcastle United
Pre-season friendly
Sunday 2nd August 2009

When I booked trains and accommodation for this weekend back in early June, little did I know what a significant match this would become. The game was to mark the Tangerines 100th birthday, but the passing away of a true football legend this week overshadowed their special day, although I suppose that fact wouldn’t have been an inconvenience to the hosts.

Apart from the big two clubs in the city there are seven Junior clubs knocking about close by, so maybe Dundee hasn’t seen the last of me, so a return to the former city of “jam, jude and journalism” may be a possibility sometime in the future.