Match: v Salisbury City - FA Trophy Third Round Replay
Date: Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Result: Salisbury 2 Cambridge United 1
THE JOURNEY
Departure Time: 2.15pm
Arrival at Ground: It was a spectacular journey; not because of the extensive roadworks on the A1, M25 and M3 of course - an ocean of cones can be described as many things, 'spectacular' is not one of them though - but because of the back-lit clouds that gave the westward part of the journey an almost Biblical air.
Anyway, after a brief stop for a cuppa, we reached the ground at about 5.15pm.
AT THE GROUND
The Ground: Salisbury, I understand, is a lovely city, full of historical, architectural and archaeological interest. The Ray McEnhill Stadium, however, isn't. On the very edge of the city, at the end of a new-build estate, from the outside the ground can at best be described as 'functional'.
With a large, gravelled car park on one side, the exterior of the one building on the site is in keeping with the estate by which it will be eventually swallowed. As full of features as an empty shoebox, a red brick lower storey is topped by a corrugated metal upper storey that makes it look like a mustering point for green shipping containers on their way to the docks. A low, corrugated metal fence stands to either side of this building and in each corner is a painfully thin floodlight pylon with its top nodding slightly towards the pitch like a deferential, anorexic giant angle-poise lamp.
If the outside is functional, the inside of the main stand has some delightful quirks. After a warm welcome from friendly club staff, we climbed the stairs to the upper floor without needing to avail ourselves of the handy stair lift. Behind what could easily be mistaken for regular office doors, are a series of balconies that jut out from the side of the stand. These contain seats for directors, corporate guests and the press, and while they aren't as precarious as they feel when you first step out onto them, a balcony view does make you feel rather like Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show.
Other delights on the press balcony include an owl that has become a target rather than a deterrent for birds and, as listeners to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire probably know, a telephone line that started out by working sporadically and got steadily worse.
Beneath the balconies, the lower tier of the stand is made up of four rows of seats. These are separated into a series of interconnecting bays, giving this part of the ground the impression of a bus station.
Terracing stands to either side of these seats; uncovered to the right and covered to the left. Covered terrace also runs behind the goal to the left of the main stand. While a breezeblock wall forms the back of this terrace, the rear boundary of the uncovered terrace behind the opposite goal is made up of what looks rather like a garden fence. A five-bar farm gate leads from the terrace at the uncovered end of the ground not into a field of cows but into what looked like a corral for a couple of shipping containers, presumably waiting to be painted green before joining their friends on those red bricks at the front of the main stand.
The remaining side of the ground is comprised of more uncovered terrace, backed by that garden fence and split neatly into two by a small area of covered seats … or, to be more accurate, two areas of covered seats separated by a large scoreboard.
View from Away End: Shortly after kick-off an announcement was made that the match was no longer segregated. This meant that supporters could stand where they liked - within reason of course. But although fans could change ends should they so desire, no one seemed to bother.
United Fans: Cowered into near silent submission by the team's performance.
Home Fans: Some reasonable vocal encouragement for their side that grew once they started to believe that all was not lost once their team was reduced to ten men.
Police/Stewards: No police seemed to be around, while the stewards, who had been a little too enthusiastic for some fans' liking on previous visits, were friendly and low-key.
Programme: £2.50 for 24 pages was on the precipitous side of steep. Behind a snappily designed front cover, once you'd taken out the United pen pictures and club history, there wasn't much room for too much in the way of articles.
AFTERWARDS
The Journey Home: If the drive to the match had been notable for sunshine and cones, the journey home brought more cones and the added delight of road closures and diversions - more than I think I've seen on an away match for some considerable time.
Mileage: 274.4 miles
Total Distance for Season: 3,172.4 miles
Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by David Gray
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