New Meadow: Shrewsbury Town 0-1 Port Vale

Sunday 11 October 2009

Shrewsbury Town 0-1 Port Vale

Aerial shot of Greenhous Meadow (Bing Maps)

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 8/10

Ease of getting there : 9/10

Atmosphere : 9/10

Programme : 8/10

View of Action : 6/10

Quality of the game : 8/10

The "football" feeling : 7/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 4/10

Legroom : 8/10

Surrounding area : 7/10

Overall : 74/100

Programme (£2.50)

All that's left of their former ground, Gay Meadow

North Stand

West Stand

South Stand

Roland Wycherley Stand

West Stand

South Stand

North Stand

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Shrewsbury Town 0-1 Bradford City

Thank goodness Black Friday is over, now it's the turn of Soccer Saturday...and no not the Sky Sports programme!

With Adrian finding a free weekend, we decided to make the most of the situation by making the weekend a feast of football. Our original plan was to go to Hamilton v Hibernian on the Saturday before visiting Hampden for Motherwell v Celtic in the Scottish League Cup Final on the Sunday. However due to the short timings and the lack of online ticketing facilities, we chose to stay on the English side of Hadrian's Wall and choose a game nearer to home.

One of our nearer matches (and one that really stood out) was League One leaders, Shrewsbury Town, who we're at home to Bradford City who before the match were in 5th.

Our Sunday football fix would see us visit the world famous City Ground for Nottingham Forest against 2nd place Cardiff City managed by footballing veteran Neil Warnock who celebrates 50 years in the game this weekend.

Onto our trip to deepest Shropshire and Adrian picked me (Ross) up from my house at 10.30am and after a fairly short trip down the M42 to Tamworth we followed the A5 and M54 before reaching Meole Brace Retail Park just after 12.00pm for our pre-match meal of Big Macs and Fries!

After that, we made the short journey past the stadium to Sutton Road parking on the drive of someone Adrian knows through work. From his house, we walked to the stadium which only took us around 15 minutes.

The New Meadow has a capacity of just under 10,000 seats consisting of four separate stands. The ground is comparable to similar looking ‘flat-pack stadiums’ such as Colchester United’s Weston Homes Community Stadium and Chesterfield’s Proact Stadium. The New Meadow has now been the home of the Shrews for over 10 years.

League One leaders Shrewsbury have endured a bad week, losing at bottom club Bury on Tuesday and then today against promotion rivals Bradford in the bitter cold of late November.

No winning celebration then for manager Paul Hurst in his 50th game in charge and a first home defeat of the season at what is bizarrely now called the Montgomery Waters Meadow.

Town were unlucky not to get something from the game and their inability to take a chance cost them dear.

In the first half they were much the better side, their best player Shaun Whalley was causing real problems on the right and combining well with right back James Bolton. Youngster Bryn Morris also showed good vision in centre midfield.

Stefan Payne should have scored from close range in the first few minutes but hesitation saw an opportunity lost.

Ben Godfrey headed over from a Whalley freekick and Whalley himself fired a low shot just wide.

As the match drifted on you felt these chances and half chances would come back to haunt Shrewsbury and that's exactly what happened.

A breakaway by Newcastle loanee Alex Gilliead down the right initially looked no danger, but his low cross was unfortunately diverted into his own net by Toto Nsiala and the visitors were suddenly calling the tune.

For the next 10 to 15 minutes, Town looked flat and Bradford looked as if another goal pending, but fair play to the home side they stormed back into the game in the last quarter and really should have equalised.

Hurst made a couple of substitutions to freshen things up and clearly this had a positive effect.

But despite efforts from Whalley and sub Carlton Morris on loan from Norwich, rookie German keeper Sattelmier was not to be denied and he pulled off two good saves.

With about 15 minutes to go, I decided to get a few final photos of our afternoon out at the New Meadow. After a few photos, I put my camera away and continued to watch the action. Two stewards made their way up the steps to the row we were sat in and asked me to stop taking photos. To the bemusement of Adrian, I and other Shrew's supporters, I asked the steward to explain why with the response of "you wouldn't want your photo in a newspaper" which bemused us even more. I continued to press for a proper reason with him scrabbling for ideas telling me "its Football League regulations, don't take anymore photos". A complete jobsworth!

The game went in to over 6 minutes of added time, not helped by a spectator running on to the pitch and laying down on the half way line and then appearing to remonstrate with home players and visiting manager Stuart McCall.

The eagle eyed stewards more concerned with a bloke taking a few pictures on his mobile phone than actually doing what they are supposed to be there for.

Readers on our web site will be aware of my low opinion of these pathetic people.

(fans coming on to the field and overweight people, with very limited people skills in high viz jackets)

The game finished with a complete free for all in the Bradford penalty area. Nobody knew where the ball was as it ricocheted around like a pin ball machine. Somehow City survived more by luck than judgement and not surprisingly they were ecstatic at the end which shows the progress made by Shrewsbury Town.

Whether they can continue in the divisions top 2 or even top 6 will be interesting.They certainly try and play good football but the squad you feel needs adding to and in my personal opinion they need an out and out goalscorer .

After the match, we ran back to the car parked off Sutton Road before making our way back. We got back to my house at around 6.30pm.

Following our return home, Adrian wrote an email to the club asking for them to explain their policy of taking photographs. There prompt response included an apology explaining that it was fine for us to take photos in accordance to section 16 of the Ground Regulations published for all Premier League and Football League grounds across the country. Ross and Adrian 1-0 Stewards!

Shrewsbury Town 0-1 Port Vale

A neutral game for Ross and myself, and a decent one at that, a local derby in League 2, at the then named Prostar Stadium, the new home of Shrewsbury Town.
Ross stayed overnight in Tamworth and we made the short journey across to Shropshire mid morning heading westbound on the A5.
Only the one stop before the town of Shrewsbury, that being the second biggest town in Shropshire, Telford.
We visited the New Bucks Head, the impressive ground of non-league outfits, AFC Telford United. We managed to get into the stadium to take photos before continuing our journey.
From then, M54 west for the 10 minutes journey to Shrewsbury.
We collected our tickets first from the Prostar Stadium and then a quick bite to eat at the Meole Brace Retail Park.
As there is no car parking at the stadium or in the neighbouring estates, a park and ride system operates from various points around the town.
On the way to the Shirehall Park and Ride site, we stopped to view Shrewsbury’s former home, the now crumbling Gay Meadow, taking several photos.
Shirehall is literally half a mile up the road. We parked there and for a small fee we were then transported by bus straight to the stadium, the journey, with traffic takes no more than 10 minutes.
The then Prostar Stadium has a capacity of just under 10,000 consisting of four separate stands. The ground is comparable to similar looking ‘flat-pack stadiums’ like Colchester United’s Weston Homes Community Stadium and Chesterfield’s Proact Stadium.
The game verses Port Vale was played in front of an above crowd of just over 7,000, but not particularly a good game for Shrewsbury as they were beaten in a fiercely competitive game 1-0 to their Staffordshire rivals. John McCombe’s 45th minute goal was to be the only goal of the game, but the home side was not helped by the experienced Graham Coughlan being sent off for two bookable offences.
The game also witnessed some strange refereeing decisions as well, which left both sides unimpressed.
At full time we quickly got on one of several coaches parked up, ready to take fans back to the various points within the town. We left Shirehall and headed eastbound on the M54 at just gone 5pm, and then onto the A5.
Ross was dropped off at approx 6:15pm in Coalville, having thoroughly enjoying the day.
Telford United’s ground is very impressive and Shrewsbury Town’s new home is very much like Colchester United, perfect for the size of the football club.
It was nice to see it, with a healthy crowd and a good atmosphere created by the Vale fans that came across from the Potteries. It was also nice to see a smile on the face of Vale boss Micky Adams, a popular ex-Leicester City boss.

Sunday 11 October 2009

Shrewsbury Town 0-1 Port Vale

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