TT No.119: Mike Latham - Saturday 17 November 2007: League Two.  Shrewsbury Town 1-0 Barnet.  Attendance: 5,197; Admission: £19; 68pp programme: £2.50.  FGIF Match Rating: 2* 

 

I had heard so may bad stories of trying to get to Shrewsbury Town’s new ground that it was with a heavy heart I set off down the A49 on a dismally dull Saturday with rain in the air.

 

The club’s official website hardly gives one confidence with its onerous-looking TravelPlan and the best tip from those in the know seems to be to park in Whitchurch and walk.  Even the Park & Ride facility had been taken over largely by Christmas shoppers.  Basically a new ground appears to have been built on the edge of town next to a large retail shopping area without thought for the motorist.  All the car-parking spaces at the stadium have been taken up and parking in the vicinity is extremely limited. Looks like a hassle afternoon in other words.

 

In the event it was all remarkably easy- after by-passing the town centre on the A49 and briefly joining the A5 the ground comes into view on the right just behind the Meole Brace Retail Park by the junction of the A49 down to Ludlow.  If you come off here, passing the retail outlet on your right you pick up signs for car-parking at Pritchards, a car sales and rental business behind the BP garage.  Alright, it’s a fiver, but at least the old boy takes your money with a smile and it’s secure parking just five minutes walk from the ground.  And it was surprisingly easy to get away afterwards.

 

A brisk walk down the Oteley Road later and the entrance to the new ground is reached via a large car-park (for corporates and other privileged people).  The new stadium, which doesn’t appear to have a name (over the afternoon I hear it called ‘New Stadium’, Oteley Road Stadium and The New Meadow) is like several of its type- four stands with gaps in the corners with blue seats and gold letterings to denote the STFC legend and the floodlights, unusually on four pylon towers on both east and west stand roves.  It looks neat, spic and span, but you could easily be in Livingston, Chester or Doncaster.  It’s sanitised football for the 21st century- a world away from the Gay Meadow ground by the banks of the Severn Town left last season.

 

There’s no such thing of paying at the turnstile here- a lengthy queue has formed at the ticket office windows and it’s ten minutes later before you hand over £19 (ridiculously expensive for this level of football) for a seat in the west stand near the back (row Q) on the halfway line.  At least they don’t take your address and postcode- I’m still being bombarded with ticket offers from Scottish clubs I frequented just once while completing the 42 several years ago.  My postman is convinced I’m a closet Dundee and Hibs fan.

 

The main stand, unusually seems to be the east stand where the entrance is sited and the hospitality areas are located so it’s a walk round to the far (west) stand chunnering at the expense. Once inside the mood darkens as the concourses are small and tightly spaced- huge queues have formed at the refreshment bars and it’s hard to brush past to reach your seat or visit the toilet. At least the pies, though dear, are decent quality- £2.50 for a hot cottage pie, another £1.50 for a coffee though even at 2-20pm you have to queue for a good 15 minutes to be served. 

 

At least the seat gives a decent view, the people around are friendly and civilised and the ground- though utilitarian and lacking in distinctive features- looks clean and modern.  The playing pitch is in good nick and the programme, all 68 pages of it, is a decent effort with some very honest and uncensored articles, rare for a Football League club.  A great deal of effort has obviously gone into its compilation and there are lots of different contributors. With the programme thrown in, the cost of the day out, travel costs apart, has now risen to £30.50 which is a lot for the dire spectacle we are about to witness.

 

Shewsbury have gone ten games without a win and look desperately short of confidence as a result.  Their play, though, is desperately one-dimensional- why doesn’t their manager take a trip a few miles westwards to Oswestry to watch TNS and see how to play football because this isn’t going to please anyone.  Barnet are little better and their players have the annoying habit of falling over and writhing about after innocuous challenges.  The tensions grows and the tetchiness increases with the bookings count- it’s a horrible game to watch and has 0-0 written all over it.

 

We are in the fifth minute of the four minutes of added-on time (49 minutes 7 seconds to be precise) when the Town sub Symes scrambles the winning goal.  Joy is unconfined among the home faithful but in reality this result merely papers over the cracks. And it doesn’t fool the people around me who are proper football supporters and very much aware of the shortcomings of their own team.

 

Back to the car park and the traffic is flowing freely- so freely in fact that by 7pm I am supping a pint of Holts Bitter close to home and watching the Israel-Russia game on tv. In truth the day had been far more enjoyable than other travellers had led me to believe – the ground is OK as new stadiums go and it’s a civilised place to watch football as the locals are friendly while car-parking was far better than I had imagined.  But there are better ways to spend £30 and I won’t be rushing back to watch League Two football- it’s not a patch on the Welsh Premier League or even the Westmorland League for entertainment in my experience.  But at least it was a tick with just one left for me to re-complete the 92.

 

Oh, and you won’t see any photos accompanying my article- I took my camera but after seeing a lady accosted by a steward for trying to take a ground shot in the kick-in and given a stern lecture I decided not to bother.  Not that I was bothered- it’s hardly a ground worth capturing for posterity. 

contributed on 18/11/07