Mark Johnson reports:
Match: v Stevenage Borough - Blue Square Premier
Date: Friday, January 1st, 2010
Result: Stevenage 4 Cambridge United 1
The Journey
Departure Time: Midday
Arrival at Ground: Although some of the side roads were a little icy, it was a lovely sunny winter morning, the roads were virtually traffic free and the trip was a nice short one. All in all not a bad start to the year … at least in terms of travelling.
While other members of the Travellers' Tales reporting cabal made their own way to the match, I arrived about 12.20pm. With heavy broadcasting kit to carry, I was very pleased when a helpful steward let me park close to the ground - so close, in fact, that I actually parked under the concrete steps of a terrace.
With so many United connections at Stevenage, it was perhaps not surprising that one of the first people I saw when collecting my press pass was an ex-Abbey employee - that cultured midfielder and all-round good chap, David Bridges. Later, ex U's goalkeeping coach Ali Uzunhasanoglu then Lee Boylan's dad would both come over for a chat about old times; old acquaintances who wished us all the best and had the good grace not to crow about the result.
At The Ground
The Ground: When I got in the ground, the match officials were having a good look at the playing surface, particularly the end closest to the away fans as the shadow of this stand rarely gives the pitch a chance to thaw. As it turned out, I only spotted one player slip on the frosty surface, so the decision for the game to go ahead seemed to be the correct one. In fact, looking from the sidelines, the playing surface looked to have suffered more from rain than frost, with the centre of both goalmouths badly chewed up and notably deficient in the grass department - something we haven't often seen in recent years.
The stadium itself consists of four separate stands with plenty space in each corner to allow in a more than ample supply of fresh January air. With nothing to get in its way, the temperature in the ground hovered around that at which even the hardiest penguin would reach for an extra overcoat.
Half of the stadium consists of areas of seating - the main stand and the away end. The former runs the length of one side of the pitch and consists ten rows of red and white seats in front of a red and white striped corrugated metal back wall. Towards the centre of this wall, the windows of assorted entertainment areas and offices look out over the leafless trees that line much of the immediate area beyond the stadium. An optimistic expectation of the number of away fans meant that the final block of seats at the right of this stand was allocated to United supporters.
To the right of this stand, beyond the smoke emanating from a tea bar in the corner, the away stand is more steeply raked than the main stand, so probably has a similar capacity. Here, white seats had the letters 'SBFC' picked out in red amongst their number. After the shenanigans of last season, when some of the seats in the back two rows and an advertising hoarding met an unfortunate fate, access to the rear couple of rows of seats was prevented.
Opposite the main stand, a Habbinesque covered terrace runs the length of the pitch. A triangular clock tower is in the centre of the roof, above the liveliest section of Stevenage fans.
The remaining end of the ground also consists of covered terracing.
Clusters of lights atop spindly floodlight poles sit in each corner and on the day we were there an electrical fault meant these lights flickered on and off like slow motion Christmas decorations. While the problem with the floodlights was solved before they were really needed to illuminate proceedings, the scoreboard above the away end was not so fortunate. It all started out just fine, but the match time display got stuck after only two minutes had been played then all the information gradually vanished from the screen.
As the teams prepared to run out before the match, four flag wavers lined themselves up on either side of the pitch at the point at which the players would emerge. Maybe the term 'trainee flag wavers' would be more accurate though, as moments before the players appeared Stevenage's reserve keeper gave a couple of them a quick refresher course in the art of effective flag waving.
The other item of note was the music played as the teams appeared. Clubs have tried all sorts of tunes to crank up the atmosphere at this juncture - from Emerson, Lake and Palmer's 'Fanfare for the Common Man', to the latest racket played on a Saturday night at your local discotheque. On one memorable occasion Halifax aired 'The March of the Gladiators' before the match - you might know it better as the lifting tune they play at the circus when the clowns appear. Unlike the Shaymen, Stevenage managed to find something innovative with the theme from 'Pirates of the Caribbean' … stirring stuff indeed.
United Fans: Not a happy day for the travelling faithful. Some decided to try to make the best of things after Stevenage scored their fourth, celebrating phantom goals for United. This eventually caught on until the chorus became '5-4 to the Cambridge', which was probably the most entertaining the afternoon got for the Amber Nation.
As often happens at a heavy defeat, there was a split in the ranks towards the end between those backing the manager and those in another camp.
View from Away End: With no pillars in the way, the view was excellent … although under the circumstances this may not have entirely been a good thing. Fewer United fans had made the trip than in recent years, so there were not so many people standing in the aisles and there were actually enough seats.
Home Fans: the song 'you only sing when you're winning' was very fitting; trouble is for most of the game they were winning.
Police/Stewards: All seemed friendly, very polite and sensible - particularly in the away end where they quickly realised that tying to get people to sit down would be a futile and possibly counterproductive exercise.
Programme: £3 for 56 pages. A decent amount to read with a reasonable amount about United. Unusually, the 'We've Met Before' didn't just feature matches won by the club producing the programme. Producing programmes in quick succession for the festive period seemed to have taken its toll on the programme editor though as the archive section included a large heading announcing that 'The Dons and Stevenage have met before', information that probably had more relevance to those attending the previous match at Broadhall Way when AFC Wimbledon were the visitors.
Food/Drink: Interminable queues in the away end meant many simply gave up on the idea of refreshment at the ground. Those that persisted were reasonably well catered for, particularly those that couldn't decide whether to have tea or coffee … the offering I got in a polystyrene cup tasted of both and I never did work out which it was meant to be.
State of Toilets: Unlike previous seasons, the facilities for visiting supporters weren't fogged up by half-time smokers, so you could actually see in there. This wasn't necessarily much of an improvement!
Afterwards
The Journey Home: Mercifully short! Many left long before the final whistle blew, so those that stayed to the bitter end found getting out of the car park much quicker than on previous visits.
Mileage: 51.7 miles
Total Distance for Season: 2,453 miles
Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by Paul Johnson, Ryan Johnson, Jahnavi Howard, Gordon McMillan, Steve Line and Sharon Line
[Match report] [Fixture list] [League table]
Make Your Click Count For The U's - talk about it on the Message Board!
The views expressed on this page are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cambridge United Football Club or the webmaster.
