Hoppers Do It Together
Back to Scotland It’s been a while now since we visited Scotland. In fact, it was back on the 12th of November when we visited Celtic Park. With my ambition being to visit all forty-two league grounds (and a few extras), it was time to head back north again. With train strikes announced for the…
Entering Enemy Territory For anyone raised in Uttoxeter, a market town situated on the border between Staffordshire and Derbyshire, an important life decision must be made… Derby County or Stoke City? Pride Park is 20.6 miles from St. Mary’s Church in the centre of Uttoxeter and the Bet365 Stadium is 15.4 miles away. As someone…
Nearly Thirty-Seven Years Nearly thirty-seven years… that’s how long ago it’s been since my first and only previous visit to Brunton Park. It was a wet and windy day for a clash between Carlisle United and Stoke City, in front of a paltry crowd of 2,813. The previous year had seen Stoke City relegated from…
Back Where It All Began While I have visited many grounds over the years, Victoria Park, Hartlepool, is where my groundhopping adventures officially began at the beginning of last year. Ironically, it was for the visit of Blackpool in the FA Cup 3rd Round in January and it would also be a Championship side visiting…
Let There Be Light Just nine miles away from our town lies one of the northeast’s biggest clubs, Sunderland. During the holiday season, travel can be difficult on public transport, or even non-existent. If you combine this negative thinking with the ongoing strikes and chaos surrounding transport, it seems obvious to stay local and that’s…
Options Narrowed This week, we had been planning to visit Seaham Red Star but with the weather all but wiping out football in the northeast, we decided it would be a good time to go and check out St. James’ Park, home of Newcastle United. Although we have been to Newcastle United before, we had…
We Got Lucky With Lincoln, we got lucky. Frosty, frozen pitches were the order of the day for many groundhoppers and their plans were sadly up in smoke, particularly for fans in Scotland and non-league clubs around the UK. Our game at Lincoln City‘s LNER Stadium was still on despite a 10:00 am pitch inspection….
Back to Berwick This is another return journey to a ground we visited last season but never got around to writing about it. We had an absolute blast last time we visited, thanks to a chance meeting in the Brewers Arms pub. We had been chatting with the owner, a lovely lady called Margaret, and…
Another Change of Plans Another Saturday, another rail strike and another change of plans. It’s becoming a familiar pattern for groundhoppers to lay down their plans only to find they must completely change them due to rail strikes. I have gotten to the stage where I no longer plan to attend games where tickets are…
The Best Laid Plans… In these days of public transport strikes and unreliability, it’s always wise to have a backup plan when travelling to games. This week, we intended to visit Partick Thistle’s Firhill, but it wasn’t to be. This time, it wasn’t a rail strike or shortage of staff that caused our train to…