Away Day.....Stanley 2 Bnatams 0

First up, the game. Last week was THE worst game of football I have ever seen, so this week was bound to be an improvement, at least that's what myself, Shotgun and Crespo hoped for as we set off across the snowy Pennines. And it was.....just. The early promising skirmishes soon gave way to the usual wayward passing, and the first half descended into a mild form of torture, made worse by the lack of pies. Yes the pitch was not the greatest, but it was a bright crisp day, perfect for football, and you would have thought at least a little bit of effort would have been shown to give the nearly 2,000 travelling fans to cheer about. The second half was not much better, and sections of the City crowd started to taunt each other. In fact things looked as though they might get a bit tasty, when Stanley strolled through the heart of our defense and scored. This was a feat they manged again shortly after, and the game was up. As bad as the Grimsby game? Not quite, but I don't envy Peter Taylor his task. The lack of cohesion is probably something that can be addressed, but the lack of effort or urgency shown through out the team will prove harder to shake, I fear. Rochdale away, who ripped us a new a-hole earlier in the year are next, although City have a tendency to pull out unlikely victories when playing teams who who are flying high. I won't, however be placing a brass penny on them to do so.

So what about the ground? As regular readers will be aware, I am a bit of an old romantic, with a soft spot for old lower league stadia from a bygone era. But this was just plain crap. Queueing up in a sea of mud in my suede pulling trainers, put me in a black mood, and when I spied through the fencing that there were no pies on the menu, I nearly turned tail for the nearest pub. Combine this with very sweet, but very geriatric turnstile attendants who took an age to grant you access to the ground, and the score plummeted. Inside the ground (You couldn't mistake this place for a stadium in a million years) the view wasn't that bad, and yes, it did have a certain quaintness. The home fans were also good value, even having the cheek to sing "What's it like to see a crowd?" to the visiting fans, who in fact outnumbered them. Not a bad day out, although thanks to Crespo we got there too late for a pint.

I have uploaded a samall gallery here.

Statistics

• Capacity-5,057
  
• Concessions- No Pies!!! Deep in Lancashire, acknowledged as pie country, and there was not one hot, filling, tasty, lovely savoury pastry to be seen anywhere. There was the usual assortment of e-coli in a bun, but no pies!! They even taunted the crowd with a big advertising hoarding for Clayton Pies, with the slogan "Pietastic at Stanley!" If I wasn't such a lazy old toad, I would be taking legal advice for false advertising. Rubbish doesn't quite do justice to the awfulness. Saying that, the chips looked nice.
  
• Built- 1968, with piss and vinegar by the looks of it.
  
• Did You Know?-That wearing ultra cool, suede pulling trainers is a massive no-no? Well let me tell you it is. The area surrounding the ground is a mire of mud. Not any kind of mud, but the diarrhea texture variety that gets everywhere.
  
• Visited By- Euro Bri, Shotgun, Helmet and Crespo
  
• Rating- Allotment- I hate to harp on about it, but my trainers are still recovering. Apart from that, it is hard to find, doesn't sell pies, the away end is basically a breeze block pen, and the sun shone in your eyes. For this reason, a new category has been created, as we all came to the conclusion that it was below even the rating of Garden Shed. A more worthy tag was felt be that of "Allotment." And before you ask, Crespo and Shotgun were also sporting their pulling trainers.