Posts Tagged ‘The 92’

Crewe Alexandra v Swindon Town, Saturday 30th August 2025, 3pm

September 6, 2025

I should really have been at the Boro watching our fourth win from the first four league games, but I had to drive down to Portland in Dorset to pick up a couple of antique fires. It’s a seven-hundred-and-fifty-mile round trip which, despite being within the tank range of my diesel Passat, is too far for me to want to drive in a day.

I chose to stay overnight in Weymouth, which is a classic seaside town. I didn’t arrive until close to 8pm but still had time for a stroll along the seafront and some fish and chips.

Part of the reason for my late arrival was that I broke my journey at Crewe to tick off another of the ninety-two grounds in the English top four divisions.

As I approached the Mornflake Stadium I passed the Crewe Arms hotel which presumably is the temporary home of some refugees. There was a small group of protesters with Union Jacks and St George flags, soliciting honks from passing cars. If their protest was against the use of hotels then it would have been better directed at the actions of the previous Tory governments that as a matter of policy allowed to backlog of asylum cases to rise to the extent that the regular housing was no longer sufficient. If the protest was against those seeking asylum, foreigners in general or simply people with a different coloured skin, then they should fuck right off.

Pleasingly, a larger group stood alongside them holding Refugees Welcome placards. Three police officers were whiling away their day keeping the peace at what seemed to be a non-violent protest from both sides. Perhaps the opposing attendees knew each other. Maybe they had even shared cars to get there.

I’d bought a ticket online for the main stand, which dwarfs the other three. The away fans were opposite and there were some vocal Crewe fans in the stand to my right. My seat was next to a wall for the access steps and whilst it didn’t really impact my view, there was a small kid in the seat in front of me who wasn’t tall enough to see more than a third of the pitch.

I had a meat and potato pie before the game which tasted as if it had been held over from last season and at half-time bought a Bakewell tart from a stall at the back of the concourse. That went down much easier.

It was a pleasant surprise to see Conor Ripley turning out for Swindon. It’s fifteen seasons since he made his Boro debut as a teenager and it’s good to see that he has now clocked up more than three hundred senior appearances. I last saw him playing for Morecambe against the Boro in a pre-season friendly where he reacted with a bit more humour than I might have done to some stick from the fans of his former team.

He did well, making some decent saves and, as a senior member of his team, frequently popping over to the dugout to offer advice to the coaches.

Neither side look good, but Crewe were the worst of the two and went in at the break three-nil behind. Swindon eased off in the second half but still controlled the game. There were no more goals and the visitors took the points.

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Accrington Stanley v Oldham Athletic, Tuesday 5th August 2025, 7.45pm

August 18, 2025

One of the things that I thought I’d try and do this season is get around a few more of the ninety-two league stadiums. Whilst I’ve been to more than two hundred grounds in England, I’ve not completed any of the top four divisions and among them there are still thirty-five grounds I’ve yet to visit.

I made a start by driving across country to Accrington. It was a pleasant enough journey via Skipton, a route that I rarely seem to take when heading West.

The fixture was a preliminary tie in the Carabao Cup between Accrington Stanley and Oldham Athletic. I’d bought my ticket online in advance and parked up with at least half an hour to spare before kick-off.

I followed the crowd towards the Wham Stadium but found myself in the section of the ground reserved for the away fans. Oldham had been given the open terracing behind one goal and most of the covered seating along one side. My ticket was for the main stand opposite and when I pointed this out to a steward, she very kindly escorted me most of the way to my seat.

Once in position I was able to listen in to a Geordie bloke a couple of seats along from me. He was explaining that a visit to the Wham Stadium had been on his bucket list for years. However, he had been thwarted by fixtures being cancelled for reasons including a waterlogged pitch, snow and international call-ups.

His previous attempt at the weekend just gone had failed when his wife insisted upon them going shopping instead. With luck like that I fully expected a locust plague to rock up as the teams walked out.

It was an action packed first half, with Accrington taking a three-goal lead. The third goal resulted in an injury to the Oldham keeper when he punched the crossbar rather than the ball. The fella to my left thought that he was feigning injury out of embarrassment at being beaten three times in half an hour, but when the lad removed his glove, his pinky finger stuck out to the side at a forty-five-degree angle. Ouch.

At the break I tried to buy a butter pie, for no other reason than I’d never heard of them before, never mind had one, but they were sold out. Next time in Lancashire, perhaps.

In the second half I watched from behind the goal. Oldham pegged a goal back, but it turned out to be no more than a consolation. The cross-country drive was less enjoyable in the dark and it was knocking on for midnight by the time I arrived home, albeit with just thirty-four of the ninety-two remaining.

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