Match: v Crawley Town - Blue Square Premier

Date: Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Result: Crawley 1 Cambridge United 0

The Journey

Departure Time: 10.30am

Arrival at Ground: It was quite misty in places on the way. In fact motorway signs warned of fog patches - useful things, apparently, if you're trying to give up fog. But the weather bucked its ideas up as we got closer, and by the time we arrived at the ground, the sun was breaking through.

Arriving sometime around 12.40pm, we were a little surprised to see a small pile of recalcitrant snow lurking in a corner of the car park, like a message from winter saying 'I'm not quite finished yet.'

At The Ground

The Ground: The ground is easy enough to find. If the floodlights aren't enough of a clue the big red and white 'football' on the roundabout beside the stadium gives the game away.

The car park faces the only real construction of note at the ground - the main stand. From the outside you see a confection of breezeblock and corrugated metal with the latter forming the lower storey. In the centre of this, darkened glass windows suggest a ground floor main reception with office or corporate areas above. Single-storey turnstile blocks segue out at either end like the wings of a giant bird, although no bird I've ever seen has a large grey metal fence tucked under its wing to allow people out after the match. Towering above all, like the superstructure of an Arabian tent, metal stanchions with sturdy wires give the building a final Bedouin flourish.

Once inside the ground, you can see that the main stand is a single-tiered structure that consists of nine rows of comfortable red seats behind a low, red fence. Front loading, via strategically placed metal stairways, the front row of seats is about eight or ten feet above pitch level. Either side of the halfway line, the dugouts have been folded around a pair of staircases, making them L-shaped. Interestingly, given the colourful reputation of the Crawley management team, the home dugout carries a plaque bearing the message 'There's no F in Swearing' - a sign, I think, that points to a certain sense of humour.

To the right of the stand there's a short run of terracing, covered by a low grey turning. This stretch of low terrace then continues behind the goal at that end of the ground. The pattern is repeated to the left of the stand and United fans were allocated the section of terrace along the side and a third of the terrace behind the goal. Actually, they weren't allowed immediately behind the goal - and neither were the Crawley fans that stood at this end of the ground in the first half. The terrace was split neatly into three; U's fans were at one end, Crawley fans at the other and central third was left completely empty except for the Yorkshire U's flag.

The remaining side of the ground - opposite the main stand - consists of a four-step, uncovered terrace. A vast fence has been erected above the breezeblock back wall to prevent too many footballs joining the traffic on the A23 that runs behind the ground. The only alleviation from the breezeblock, mesh and traffic is provided by a utilitarian scoreboard placed in the centre of this side of the ground.

United Fans: Collectively supportive, individually less so.

View from Away End: Plenty of room in which to find a decent vantage point.

Home Fans: Although some tried to antagonise the United fans in the first half, they were thwarted by the empty section of terrace between the two sets of supporters and by the fact that the U's fans took absolutely no notice of them.

Stewards: Previous visits to Crawley had been notable for a frustratingly long wait to collect press passes and, as a result, an unseemly rush to get the broadcast kit set up in time to go on air. This year however, a very helpful steward found someone who could open the requisite doors for us so the usual mild air of panic was avoided.

In fact all the stewards we encountered were excellent. A couple of them even provided pre-match entertainment, dancing and miming along to a couple of tunes over the tannoy before the turnstiles were opened.

Mascot: Those dancing stewards didn't quite have the same allure as Pan's People (ask your Dad if you're too young to remember!), and they weren't the only ones dancing to the music before the match. The Crawley club mascot had a good old shimmy to the hits of the 80s - although it was somewhat incongruous to see someone dressed as a red devil getting their groove on to Katrina and the Waves' 'Walking on Sunshine'!

Tannoy: Not everyone was happy with the music though. It wasn't immediately apparent where the music emanated from, so shortly after the turnstiles opened a Crawley fan in the main stand wandered along to the press area demanding to hear some 'Garage' or 'R&B'. As he mistook Aaron from the Cambridge News as someone who could either do something about the play list or actually gave a damn, the complaint fell on deaf ears.

As the teams emerged onto the pitch, the tannoy operator conjured up the theme from 'The Long Good Friday'. Unfortunately, just as you thought he'd made the effort to presage the match with something not played before a game anywhere else; he then let himself down rather with 'Let Me Entertain You' immediately before kick off.

Programme: 48 pages for £3. Steve Evans' article is always worth a read - even if he does sign it 'The Special One'! There was plenty of praise for United players and a warm welcome to Gareth and Lisa Baldwin. There was a reasonable amount of other articles to read too, but also a lot of adverts.

Food/Drink: Service was slow, so long queues built up. Some of those with patience found a £3 burger so anaemic it almost mooed.

State of Toilets: Very spacious with working hand driers - clean enough too.

Afterwards

The Journey Home: One of the last occasions this season where a stop on the way back wasn't required, the journey home was straightforward enough, with the obligatory roadworks not causing too much of a problem.

Mileage: 190.4 miles

Total Distance for Season: 2,898 miles

Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by David Gray, Paul Johnson, Ryan Johnson and Gordon McMillan.

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