Showing posts with label Port Vale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Port Vale. Show all posts

Saturday, March 5, 2011

My Matchday - 275 Vale Park

0 comments Posted by world's most popular artists at Saturday, March 05, 2011

Port Vale 2v1 Macclesfield Town
League Two
Saturday 5th March 2011

Vale Park is a ground that should have been ticked off years ago. Newcastle visited the potteries in two consecutive seasons at the start of the 1990’s, but for one reason or another, I twice missed out seeing United win 1-0.
The explanation being… well, I honestly don’t know, because even back then without fail, I would jump at the chance to watch United at an uncharted ground. Looking back I have a vague idea why I wasn’t available circa 1990-92, but I’ll keep my ink dry on that for the time being until my autobiography is published.

Port Vale are one of a few clubs not to be named after a city or town, playing in Burslem, one of the six towns which forms the city of Stoke-on-Trent.
The Staffordshire town has the proud title of the "mother of the potteries." In the early 17th century Burslem was at the forefront of the production of the best classes of pottery made in this country. The town was the birthplace of the greatest exponent of the potters' art - Josiah Wedgwood, who was born in Burslem in July 1730.
The club name is believed to derive from Port Vale House where the club were formed and various landmarks called Port Vale around the Longford area of the Potteries.

Vale played on various grounds after their formation in 1876, including a site close to Burslem Station on Moorland Park, when they were known as Burslem Port Vale, becoming a professional outfit in 1885.
The following year they moved to Corbridge Athletics Ground, where Vale joined the Football League, only to resign, before rejoining two years later before completely going out of business in 1907.
A church team took over the ground and the Port Vale name before moving to the Old Recreation Ground in the centre of Hanley in 1913, where they settled for just over 30 years until plans to relocate in 1944 on the site of a former clay pit on Hamil Road.
The new super stadium was to be the Wembley of the North an ambitious 70,000 capacity ground built on 14 acres of land. The ground took six years to build at a cost of £50,000, a lack of funds meant only two stands were originally build with two sides of open terracing, giving a reduced capacity of 40,000.
The first match took place on 24th August 1950, a crowd of 30,042 witnessed a 1-0 victory over Newport County.
The ground developed over the next decade, a new playing surface the most expensive ever laid at the time cured the troublesome drainage system. The seating capacity was raised and floodlights erected at a cost of £17,000, switched on before a 5-3 victory over West Brom on 24th September 1958.
The capacity increased to 50,000 by 1959 as Vale Park reached its peak with a record attendance of 49,768 for an FA Cup Round tie against Aston Villa on the 20th February 1960.
The Railway Stand was originally a large open terrace when the ground opened in 1950, with 600 seats installed the following year. The stand was rebuilt in 1954 at a cost of £25,000 split between 4,500 seats with a standing paddock at the front.
The stand is now all seated, the two tiers split by a brick wall. The top tier has white seats and is reached by a long steep path with turnstile access at the back of the stand, the bottom tier has a separate entrance next to the car park.
The Bycars Road End was the other original stand, built with only 350 seats at the rear. In 1959 new terracing increased the capacity to 6,500, the traditional 'home' end stood until 1989 when declared unsafe following the Taylor report.
The present stand was built in 1992 and is a bank of seats decked out in amber with black lettering.
In between in the corner section is the Family Stand, which was fenced off and unused from 1973 until 1989. The stand has two tiers, the top blue seated section is used while the bottom section looks closed.
When built, the Hamil Road End was a vast open terrace and highest part of the ground before the top point was levelled off in 1978. An electronic scoreboard costing £20,000 was installed in 1988 and cover finally added in 1992. The stand was fully seated in 1995 and is currently known as The Sneyd Stand for away spectators.
Lorne Street Stand originally consisted of two separate terraces either side of the players tunnel with the unique feature of the Directors Box perched on top.
The new Lorne Street Stand still isn’t finished after work initially started in 1998. Building work on the £3m stand came to a halt due to lack of funds with one half of the terrace still to be filled with seats. There’s two rows of executive boxes with the directors seats central. The stand also contains sponsors lounges, club offices, dressing rooms and the club shop. One corner has a disabled stand next to the Hamil End opened in 1989, believed to be the first of its kind in the League. The current overall capacity is just short of 19,000.

Port Vale maintained their position in the play off places after making hard work of what should have been a convincing victory over struggling Macclesfield.
Vale took the lead when a Kris Taylor corner missed everyone and fell nicely to Lee Collins with a diving header at the back post.
The home side were twice denied by the woodwork, Taylor hitting the post with a free-kick and Adam Yates saw a close-range shot rattle the crossbar.
Louis Dodds curled in a wonderful shot from 20 yards to seal it three minutes from time before Tyrone Barnett pulled one back in injury time, which was too little too late for Macc.
My recent trips haven’t gone according to plan, it’s getting to the point where I’m getting really sick of rushing to catch trains. Even a fixture at York City last Tuesday night, saw yours truly so rat arsed that I got myself lost, meaning I had to run like Seb Coe in his prime, catching the train with only seconds to spare.
So for my latest venture to Port Vale I allowed myself plenty of time. I departed Newcastle on the 0733 Cross Country service to Manchester, where I met up with my old indie pal Pete - the Too-Too driver from Crewe. We did a mini Wetherspoons tour of Manc before I caught the 1315 Virgin Train to Stoke-on-Trent.
Once I arrived in the Potteries it was a case of simply catching the 21 bus, just around the corner from the station, which according to FGG takes around 15 minutes. But as my travel luck would have it, my bus journey took nigh on three quarters of an hour, crawling through the lowlights and low points of which must be the scruffiest city within our green and pleasant land. I alighted the bus just as the players were lined up awaiting the referee’s whistle to kick off the League Two fixture, so yet again, I had to run like buggery to the ground only missing the first two minutes of the action.
There was no problems returning, the 21 bus seemed to be waiting for me after I took some photos and visited the club shop after the match.
I was back in the city which has so much to answer for at 6.30pm, which gave a good hour to return to The Manchester & County on Piccadilly to use up the remainder of my Wetherspoons vouchers before my 1942 rattler back to the Toon.
A good day out was spoilt with football news from elsewhere. Newcastle lost at home which wasn’t a surprise as we haven’t won a 3pm game in the Prem at SJP since August 2008. The Heed only drew at Alty, but my biggest disappointment was Dunston going out of the Vase, so my dream of a Wembley double is now diminished.
On the whole a pleasant day, good to see Peter the Engine again and finally ticking off Vale Park (be it 20 years late) which has been redeveloped into a smashing little stadium.

PVFC 2(Colins 28, Dodds 87) MTFC 1(Barnett 90+1)
att.5,459
Admission £19.50
Programme £2.50

 

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Saturday, February 5, 2011

My Matchday - 273 Adams Park

0 comments Posted by world's most popular artists at Saturday, February 05, 2011

Wycombe Wanderers 1v1 Port Vale
League Two
Saturday 5th February 2011

After taking a break from train travel for a few months, it was time to hit the tracks again with a trip to Whickham, but not the one situated 5 mile due west of the 100FgC HQ, the other which is spelt with a ‘Y’ and another 280 miles south in Buckinghamshire.
High Wycombe is a large market town set in the heart of the Chilterns, well known for furniture making and design. The name Wycombe comes from the River Wye and the old English word for a wooded valley - combe. The valley’s line of beech trees were felled and used to make furniture, the town once renowned as ‘the furniture capital of England’.

It is believed that Wycombe Wanderers were formed in 1887, although there’s been much debate about the club’s origins, with matches played in the town from 1884.
Wycombe joined the Southern League in 1896, but the majority of their non-league days were spent in the Isthmian League from 1921, winning the league title twice in the 1950’s and four times during the ‘70’s.
The club were again champions in 1982-83, then two years later won promotion to the Alliance. Although they were relegated in their first season, an eighth and final Isthmian League title the following season saw Conference status achieved.
In 1991 Wanderers enjoyed their first success at Wembley since winning the FA Amateur Cup in 1931, beating Kidderminster Harriers in the FA Trophy final.
The club narrowly missed out on promotion to the Football League to Colchester United on goal difference in 1991-92, but the following year they went one better, winning the title and a second FA Trophy success, with a 4-1 win over Runcorn.


Adams Park was built in 1990 at a cost of £3.5m following the sale of the club’s former ground at Loakes Park, their home since 1895.
The stadium was named in honour of benefactor and former captain Frank Adams, who purchased the freehold of the former ground and donated it to the club. Loakes Park was sold to the health authorities to facilitate the expansion of Wycombe General Hospital, the sale financing the move to the new stadium.
Situated west of the town centre on the edge of the Sands Industrial Estate, the stadium originally had a capacity of 6,000 with 1,267 seats in the Main Stand.
The Main Stand has a raised single tier with access to the seats from staircases via a gangway at the front, which is also used as a standing paddock accommodating 232 standing spaces for fans who have already purchased seat tickets.
The stand also accommodates the club offices, Vere Suite, press area, with the players tunnel situated left of the dugouts.
In the summer of 1996 the 4,990-seater Frank Adams Stand was built. The roof was removed from the old Woodlands Terrace, with the extra tier built on the hill behind.
The stand is quite impressive, the two tiers split by 20 executive boxes with the seats decked out in the two blues with WWFC and the swan crest on the top tier.
Access to the stand is from behind the west and east stands, then up a long flight of stairs which leads onto the back of the hill. The stand also houses the TV gantry, has disabled space for 50 wheelchair spaces and further hospitality in the Woodlands Suite.
Away supporters are giving the Dream Stand behind the east goal. Originally a standing terrace it was reduced in capacity from well over 2,000 standing spaces to 1,049 seats when built in 1996. In the summer of 2001 the end was extended by an extra 977 to take the capacity to 2,026, decked out in dark blue seats.
The only remaining terrace is behind the east goal. The Greene King Terrace has a capacity of just under 2,000 which is fully covered.
The ground has scoreboards and clocks in three of the corners, including a video screen in the north-east corner, so overall the ground has a nice appeal with its valley setting and surrounding woodlands.

In 2002, rugby union side London Wasps became joint tenants after a similar ground sharing agreement at Loftus Road came to an end. The following year the stadium was renamed The Causeway Stadium in a £100,000 sponsorship deal, which didn’t go down to well with the fans, however the sponsorship expired at the end of the 2005–06 season and the ground name has reverted back to Adams Park.
The capacity of the stadium was fixed at 10,000 to comply with council regulations, as the positioning of the stadium on a dead-end road was leading to problems when large crowds left the ground, particularly with parking cars in the streets of the nearby residents. The crowd reached fully capacity on the 13th July 2005, when Premier League champions Chelsea played Wycombe in a pre-season friendly.
Wycombe went into this League Two fixture with Port Vale looking to make it six straight home league wins in a row, but the Chairboys can count themselves lucky as Wanderers ‘keeper Nikki Bull saved Tom Pope's late penalty to deny Vale victory.
The game opened with enterprising play from both sides, created good openings with Vale closest to taking the lead in the early stages. However the match fell a bit flat as the half progressed as both teams failed to get a stranglehold on the game.
Two minutes after the restart the visitors took the lead, a good interchange of passing from Vale ended with a dangerous Kris Taylor cross which was sliced into his own net by Leon Johnson.
Scott Donnelly, on loan from Swansea, equalised with his first goal for Wycombe on 57 minutes, when he burst through the middle and fired low past Chris Martin from just inside the box.
Both sides pushed for a winner and it was Vale that had a golden chance to win the match when Johnson handled Doug Loft's cross on 82 minutes, but Pope's spot-kick was blasted down the middle as Bull pulled off a terrific save to earn his side a draw.
An email from East Coast trains just before Christmas meant I could book some £8 single fares to Kings Cross. From here it was a simple five stop tube ride, followed by a 35 minute train from London Marylebone to High Wycombe.
So after leaving Newcastle on the 0730, I was confident that I’d arrive in the other Wycombe just before noon, but yet again my strategic plans went tits up!
I arrived at Marylebone with the news that the train line to Harlow-on-the-Hill was suspended and told to go back to Baker Street and take the Metropolitan Line to Amersham. Those of you who are unaware where Amersham is, it’s in the top left hand corner of the tube map, so far north it’s hanging on for dear life and nearly falling off the edge of the page.
I finally arrived in this far flung corner of that there London to be then told those three little words that any train traveller fears as much as anything else; “Replacement bus service”
Not really knowing my exact location and how far away from High Wycombe I actually was, it was a relieve to discover I was only 6 miles away, the bus journey taking only a quarter of an hour so I finally arrived in the furniture town just before 1pm, however this meant the pub crawl I plotted and the record stores I wanted to browse was limited to just the two JDW pubs and one vinyl shop in the town.
The journey to the ground is a canny hike, a good 45 minute walk, so I set off in good time as I was on press duty and didn’t want to arrive too late, finally arriving at Adams Park at 2.30pm
The talk throughout the match in the press area and amongst the Wycombe players not on playing duty sitting near to us was what was happening at St James Park. When Arsenal went 3-0 up after only 10 minutes I told my colleague next to me to be quite and to stop telling me the score, he then profusely apologised, but felt confident enough to update me in the second half as the Toon fought back from four down at half time to snatch a 4-4 draw. This coupled with Gateshead reaching the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy after beating Dartford 3-0, meant it was a very happy Shaunee Boy who rapidly ran all the way back to the train station to catch the 1730 BRS to Amersham.
The reverse journey back to Kings Cross went ok, I even had time for a drink at the Lincoln Lounge before boarding the 2000 back to Newcastle, finally crossing the threshold of 100FgC HQ just after midnight.
So another long and exhausting day out, but in the end well worth it, Wycombe Wanderers’ Adams Park ticked off and another off the 92, where I’m now beginning to see a bit of light at the end of a long tunnel in my pursuit of finally completing the set.

WWFC 1(Donnelly 57)PVFC 1(JohnsonOG 57)
att.4,173
Admission:PP (from £15-£21)
Programme £3

 

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