County Ground: Swindon Town 1-2 Notts County

Sunday, 24 April 2011

Swindon Town 1-2 Notts County

Aerial shot of the County Ground and the Magic roundabout (Bing Maps)

Programme - £3.00

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 7/10

Ease of getting there : 6/10

Atmosphere : 8/10

Programme : 10/10 (Awarded the best in League 1, well deserved!)

View of Action : 8/10

Quality of the game : 6/10

The "football" feeling : 5/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 2/10

Legroom : 10/10

Surrounding area : 7/10

Overall : 69/100

The Adkins Family Stand

The Arkell's Stand

The Town End

Some well designed Swindon Town graffiti

The Don Rogers Stand

The Magic roundabout (5 mini roundabouts around 1 big roundabout)

Swindon Town vs.....the wrong fixture!

The Magic roundabout

The Town End

The Arkell's Stand

The Adkins Family Stand

The Arkell's Stand

The Town End

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Swindon Town 1-2 Notts County

This was my (Ross) third day of football after seeing Ipswich Town take on rivals Norwich City on Thursday, Dagenham and Redbridge v Plymouth Argyle of Friday and now today’s fixture, Swindon Town v Notts County.

I (Ross) set off at 9:30am and reaching my first stop of the day at Bedworth United who play at The Oval.
My next stop was in Leamington at 11:05 who play at the New Windmill. The New Windmill has a capacity of 2,300 and was built in 2000. The ground got its name due to the Chesterton Windmill which overlooks the ground. The ground is fully owned by the club and has a practice pitch, car park, licensed clubhouse and changing rooms, a snack bar, club shop and a tuck shop, and an electronic scoreboard. There is covered terracing on the South side which is called The Harbury Lane End, covered seating on the East side which is called The Sheepside, terracing on the North side which is ironically called The North Bank and a new small covered stand on the West side.
Not long later, I found myself at Stratford Town who play at the newly built DCS Stadium. The DCS Stadium is situated off Knight Lane in Tiddington and opened in 2008 replacing the old Mason Road ground. The ground can hold 1,400 people and also hosts Birmingham City Ladies home games.
After a long journey from previous stop not helped with tourist traffic, my final stop before Swindon Town was their local team, Swindon Supermarine. Swindon Supermarine play at the Webb's Wood Stadium which holds 3,000 spectators. Recent developments included the building of a new 225-seater stand, taking the total covered capacity to 300, as well as new perimeter fencing and toilets and the addition of floodlights in order for them to step up to the Southern League.

I reached the County Ground at 1:30pm and parked the car on Briar Fields which is a new housing estate off the Shrivenham Road which is a 15 minute walk.

After I purchased my match ticket and programme, I took pictures of the exterior of the ground before going in.

Wikipedia states that the County Ground holds 14,700. In 1932, the current roof of the Town End was constructed costing around £4,300 and in 1971, the Arkell’s Stand was constructed. The County Ground was converted to an all-seater stadium beginning with the addition of extra seating in front of the Arkell’s Stand and the building of the Don Rogers Stand in the early 90s. The Don Rogers Stand replaced the Shrivenham Road enclosure, a two-tiered terrace. During the stand's history, a fire broke out on the top tier making the upper area unsafe. During its later years of use, the upper tier was used by Television Cameras and Crowd monitoring only.

The County Ground is also the only football stadium in the world with the most prestigious name in watch making acting as its timekeeper - Rolex, whose famous logo adorns the clock on the Adkins Family Stand.

The game saw Swindon Town throw away a 1-0 lead losing 2-1 to fellow relegation battlers Notts County on a hot April afternoon. The winning goal was a silly mess up between the Swindon ‘keeper and defender gifting Lee Hughes with the ball and easily run towards the goal and shooting. Following the goal, the Swindon Town faithful erupted with anger towards manager Paul Hart with police and stewards surrounding the Home Dugout from furious fans who dislike the defensive style of play Hart has instilled into his side rather than attacking each game hoping to get a few more points.