WINCHESTER CITY (The City Ground)

SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION ONE SOUTH & WEST, WINCHESTER CITY 1-3 SWINDON SUPERMARINE, ATTENDANCE: 79

Today was one of those days that a hopper dreads as the Great British weather played havoc with ones plans. Not for the first time this season, a planned double header of Darlington versus Bishop Auckland followed by Crook Town bit the dust after a overnight dumping of snow.

After a lengthy consultation between the 4 hoppers in the car it was decided to head to Herne Bay but within minutes this was changed to Soham Town, then Harrow, then Carshalton. Reports came via twitter of snow falling in that there London so we quickly diverted onto the A34 and headed towards Winchester.

When you think of Winchester, you immediately think of the Cathedral. Dig deeper and you find it provided inspiration for the likes of Jane Austin's 'Sense and Sensibilty' and John Yeats' ode 'To Autunm' The city is also on the edge of the downs, which were the setting for Watership Down. With all this running around in your head, you maybe expect a quaint old football ground with classic old stands to reflect what is in your minds eye.

Sadly, The City Ground failed to live up to my, perhaps unrealistic, expectations. The main stand is an "atcost" seated effort and behind the goal there is an "atcost" terrace, which is not very big at all. The ground could also use a bit of TLC. Speaking to another hopper, who went to Winchester when they were on their victorious FA Vase run in 2004, he seemed to recall an old wooden stand down one side of the pitch. Clearly this has now been replaced.

Going back to Watership Down, I could have done with only paying a "Fiver" to enter the ground instead of the £9 I had to pay, which I thought was a little steep for a Step 4 game. On a positive note though the catering was tremendous and, at 50p a chunk, the homemade Bread Pudding was an absolutely delicious bargain!

The game was a routine away win for Supermarine as they comfortably saw off the challenge of the Citizens. Despite taking the lead when a dreadful backpass gifted Pat Nolan a goal after 7 minutes, Winchester were always second best to the visitors from Wiltshire.

Ashley Edenborough equalised after 28 minutes and Josh Parsons put Swindon in the lead after 39 minutes with a neat lob over the 'keeper. This goal did come moments after Winchester had a great shout for a penalty waved away. I was stood level with the incident and it looked a stonewall penalty to me.

Edenborough added his second goal on 70 minutes, when he couldn't really miss after a fantastic cross, to effectively finish the game off. Supermarine substitute Harry Etheridge was shown a straight red card late on, when he retaliated to a late tackle by punching the player as they both lay on the ground.

Winchester have had their problems on and off the field so far this season and from what I seen today I can only predict one outcome at the season's end. The club were the champions of the Wessex League in 2011/12 and, having played at least 6 games more than the teams around them, in 2013 that is where I think they will be returning. I stand to be corrected.

After a couple of dreadful pints of Arkells on the way down to the game (I left most of both) my faith was restored with a visit to the Peyton Arms, with it's legendary landlord 'Mick the Hat' and a decent pint of Old Hooky. An interesting day all round considering we ended up 400 miles from our original destination, that's why there's never a dull moment with this hobby!

Match highlights can be found on this link....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx7dzOng_Gc

CORBY TOWN (Steel Park)

CONFERENCE NORTH, CORBY TOWN 1-2 CHESTER FC, ATTENDANCE: 768

Today was a trip to "little Scotland" for the completion of a little milestone in my groundhopping journey.

A visit to Corby Town's Steel Park today meant I have now visited all the grounds of the Conference Premier, North and South.

Corby is known as "little Scotland" due to the influx of Scots coming South to find work in the Steelworks. Stewarts and Lloyd's set up the steelworks in the 1930's and it was the main source of employment until the early 1980's when steel making in Corby was phased out.

The references to the steel industry though run deep throughout Corby Town Football Club. The steelworks had their own football team, Stewarts and Lloyd's (who are still playing today in the United Counties Premier) which effectively represented Corby but in 1948 it was decided the town could sustain another team, hence Corby Town were born. They adopted the nickname The Steelmen in honour of their roots.

Years were spent in the various divisions of the Southern League before reaching the Conference South in 2009.

After playing at Occupation Road, they moved to the Rockingham Triangle sports ground in 1985 before moving to Steel Park in 2011. Steel Park is actually adjacent to their old ground and the main stand of Rockingham Triangle backs onto Steel Park to enclose the ground. The changing rooms underneath the old stand are still used and it is from here the players emerge.



View of Main Stand at Corby's old Rockingham Triangle
Ground.This stand now forms part of the new ground.



View of stand, behind which the new ground is located. The players still emerge from this stand.



The is a covered terrace behind one goal and a 500+ seated main stand on one side of pitch. The main bonus though, in comparison to the old ground, is there is no bloody athletics track! For a new build, I was quite impressed.

One thing that hasn't changed is the Wetherspoons across the road from the ground, where a pre-match Grainstore 'Rutland Beast' and a Hopping Mad 'Cor Blimey' went down a treat. Time was also spent in 'Wethers' talking to a local Corby chap, who indeed had a strong Scottish accent.

The game was a comfortable win for Chester as they continued their relentless march towards the Conference North title.

Dave Hankin headed home after 13 minutes to give Chester the lead before Nathan Jarman doubled the lead after 17 minutes. Chester were always in control but Corby kept plugging away, but to no avail.

On the hour mark a Josh Moreman effort was deflected onto the underside of the crossbar by Chester Skipper George Horan, if that had gone in then maybe the remaining minutes could have been interesting. Corby did eventually get themselves a goal when Paul Malone headed home in stoppage time, but it was too little too late

As the Chester fans filtered out, news came through that Vauxhall Motors had beaten Guiseley 2-0, which meant the Blues were now 16 points clear at the top of the league. Surely this is now an unassailable lead....

BROCTON (Silkmore Lane)

MIDLAND COMBINATION PREMIER LEAGUE, BROCTON 1-1 STAFFORD TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 96

I was working until midday so today's options were rather limited. After first choice of Walsall Wood v Hanworth Villa bit the dust yet again, I headed, after getting the thumbs up via twitter, to Silkmore Lane, the home of Brocton FC, where the pitch was immaculate and the game was never in doubt.

The Badgers were founded in 1937 and this is their 75th anniversary season if you can't be bothered doing the maths!

After vacating their original Chetwynd Arms Ground, Brocton played at Rowley Park, Cannock Sports Ground and Heath Hayes FC before taking over the lease of the derelict Old Police Sports Ground on Silkmore Lane in 2006, but it wasn't until 2008 that the ground was deemed fit for football.

This was the second installment of the Stafford derby as Brocton ran out 3-1 winners last Saturday. Stafford seemed determined not to let that happen today as they got stuck into their hosts from the off. This meant the majority off the opening period was quite tetchy as both teams traded tackles and insults.

Stafford had a goal ruled out for offside, however Brocton just about shaded the play and went into the break with the lead, given to them through a fine Gary Fife effort.



Gary Fife gives Brocton the lead after 36 minutes



 

The second half saw Stafford begin to play football and they started to create chances. They were deservedly level through a Joe Woodward header (58). The game could have gone either way, though Stafford's cause was not helped by playing the last 10 minutes with 10 men, James Cresswall receiving a second yellow card.

A good, lively encounter and overall a draw was a fair result.

FC SANKT PAULI (Millerntor Stadion)

2.BUNDESLIGA, FC St PAULI 0-0 ENERGIE COTTBUS, ATTENDANCE: 26,578

It was with a banging head and tired limbs that I awoke from my slumber on this cold Sunday morning. Luckily the hotel I was staying in was only 10 minutes walk from the Millerntor Stadion, home of FC Sankt Pauli. Today The Buccaneers of the League were taking on Energie Cottbus in a Bundesliga 2 clash.

A chance to visit both Hamburg clubs in one weekend was the prime reason for choosing this weekend, but a visit to St Pauli has been long anticipated.  

It's very hard to summarise what has been said about St Pauli a thousand times before but  the club is famous for it's unique culture, it's stance against fascism, racism, sexism, homophobia is well renowned and has many left-leaning fans attracted to it's values.

Formed in 1910, the club led an undistinguished existence, though they were founder members of the Bundesliga 2 in 1974, until the mid 1980's when their transition began. The ground is in the shadow of the Reeperbahn, Hamburg's notorious red-light district, and also the centre of the city's nightlife (hence my head this morning) and a fan scene built around this. Unfortunately I never got a chance to have a drink in the Jolly Roger.

With it's "cult" status the club began to rise up the leagues and spent the next decade or so flitting between the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. The club were virtually bankrupt around the turn of the millennium though and ended up back in the Regionalliga. However, after fund raising efforts they rose again and returned to the Bundesliga for season 2010/11, though went straight back down. They are now currently mid-table in Bundesliga 2.

The Millerntor ground has been the home of St Pauli since 1961 and has been more or less re-built in recent years as redevelopment has taken place. Any character the ground had once upon a time has certainly disappeared these days. The latest stand to be redeveloped was actually fully open for the first time at today's game, the new die Gegengerade, which has now brought capacity up to around 29,000.



The new die Gegengerade, open fully for the first time today



One thing the re-building has not done though has affected any of the atmosphere as the noise was superb today. From the teams walking out to the chimes of AC/DC's Hell's Bell's to the final whistle the crowd got behind their side.
This was despite the fact the game was a pretty grim spectacle, as after a decent opening when both sides looked like they were going to score, the game petered out into a drab affair which ended goalless. A bit of anti-climax in all honesty.

Nonetheless, another fantastic weekend in Germany and roll on March when I will be doing it once again!

HAMBURGER SV (Volksparkstadion)

BUNDESLIGA, HAMBURGER SV 0-2 EINTRACT FRANKFURT, ATTENDANCE: 52,523

Saturday morning began, slightly worse for wear, with a 2 hour train journey from Berlin to Hamburg. When the trip was initially booked the plan was for a double header today, but sadly the weather put paid to a visit to SC Victoria Hamburg as their game with Hamburg stiffs was called off in the week.

A possible alternative of SV Henstedt-Ulzburg was mooted, but quickly dismissed in favour of some "sightseeing" (luckily we did dismiss this option,  as we subsequently found out this too was postponed).

The, ahem, sightseeing began in the afternoon when we met up some Hamburg supporters in the London Pub in the centre of the (in)famous Reeperbahn. This is the place where the fab five (as they were then) honed their skills in dingy clubs before going on to conquer the world. There is a sculpture to commemorate this and the street Beatles-Platz is named in their honour.

I had previously met the Hamburg fans in Freiburg and they said if I needed tickets for a match, they would sort me out and they were as good as their word and they also took me and my mate under their wings for the day, as we went from bar to bar, and up to the ground.

The Volksparkstadion (currently known as the Imtech Arena for sponsorship reasons) is well out of town and required a trip via S-bahn and bus. The ground was not the original home of HSV, but they did partake in it's inaugural match in 1925, losing 2-3 to FC Altona.

HSV moved into the Volksparkstadion in 1963 when they became founder members of the Bundesliga and in 1998 the ground was completely demolished and re-built, partly for safety reasons, partly for in readiness for the World Cup in 2006. The current capacity is 57,000 and in 2010 it hosted the Europa League final when Fulham lost 2-1 to Athletico Madrid.

Hamburg are one of the most famous names in German football having been continuously in the top level of the country's various league systems since the end of World War One. They have won the Bundesliga on 6 occasions and were European Champions in 1983, led by Rothosen legend Felix Magath.

In 1977 HSV hit the headlines by signing Kevin Keegan and he was named European footballer of the year twice (but to me he will always be remembered for his rant) and helped the club to the European Cup final in 1980. This signing is still remembered in Hamburg and when we were having our pre-match drinks there was a stag party all wearing Keegan wigs in homage to the permed one.

This season has been indifferent for HSV losing as many games as they have won, but the majority of victories have been at home. However today they were second best to a lively Frankfurt side. Srdjan Lakic (22 & 36) scored twice in the first half, his first goals for the club. Despite the influence of ex-Spurs man Rafael van der Vaart, HSV could not find a way back into the game.

The result never affected the post match atmosphere and the beer kept flowing well into the early hours and a good time was had by all, but I did end up losing my beloved hat!!!

With thanks to Markus & Julia, I hope to return the favour one day soon!