Travellers' Tales

Match: v Altrincham - Blue Square Premier

Date: Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Result: Altrincham 0 Cambridge United 2

The Journey

Departure Time: 9am

Arrival at Ground: All went well on the first part of journey to the final away game of the season. Traffic was light, the sun was shining and the ducks were in ebullient form on the little lake at Stafford Services where I stopped for a mid-morning caffeine break. Alas, the journey took a bit of a downturn once we were back on the road. Traffic ground to a crawl between junctions 15 and 18 on the M6 for no apparent reason other than perhaps drivers slowing down to look at an advert in the form of a very lifelike dummy 'riding' a quad bike on a barn roof beside the motorway. Having been held up for rather longer than I would have liked, the advert didn't exactly encourage the occupants of my car to spend an afternoon bumping along uneven roads … we have more than enough of them in Cambridgeshire thank you!

Fortunately, the traffic sorted itself out in time for the final section of the journey to be nice and relaxed and we arrived at the ground at about 12.45pm.

At The Ground

The Ground: We parked in the shadow of a giant mobile phone mast - which doesn't really narrow it down too much; the mast is so tall it seems to overshadow the whole town. The myriad aerials attached to it meant that even I could get a decent signal … much to the surprise of my phone! The small car park I used was between immaculately tended allotments and the considerably more scruffy rear wall of the ground.

Although the ground is one of the more modest in the Conference, the welcome we received was as warm as the late spring sunshine that bathed the Moss Lane pitch; a pitch whose sprinklers were being carefully positioned by Altrincham Manager Graham Heathcote when we arrived.

On the main road side of the ground, one small stand fills about a quarter of the length of the area alongside the pitch. Positioned symmetrically on half way, wide wooden steps lead from metal stairways at the foot of the stand to a rickety old press box at the back. Seemingly held together by the leftover gaffer tape used by visiting BBC reporters to affix effects microphones, the floor was littered with the detritus of a season's worth of old pie cases and chip trays. It was, however, as good a place as any from which to watch from the main stand as supporting roof pillars and floodlight posts seemed to obscure at least part of the view irrespective of where you sat.

To the right of the main stand, a conservatory style dining area leads out onto an extended veranda-like small covered stand, while a wide area of open hard-standing is to the left of the main stand.

Opposite, under the shade of the phone mast in one corner, covered terracing runs the length of the pitch. A strange, unexplainable roof configuration sees the centre section raised considerably above the roof level to either side.

To the right of this stand, slightly curved-fronted terracing is covered by a low rood while, behind the other goal, the away end is open to the elements … something that turned out to be a good thing on a lovely sunny afternoon. A bank of terracing, the standing area for away fans fills about two thirds of the area at this end of the ground, with the remaining section home to catering and necessary facilities.

United Fans: After a gentle, end of season feel about the first half, U's fans came to life in the second half and enjoyed good banter with the Altrincham fans that moved closer to the away end after the break. United fans had done their calculations and enjoyed a moment or two of glee at the expense of our friends on the other side of the A14 when Eastbourne scored a late goal against Oxford, until a flurry of late goals at assorted matches took the villagers back above the relegation zone.

View from Away End: The view from the away end is probably one of the best in the ground as there are no pesky pillars to get in the way.

Home Fans: Enjoying the end of a relatively stress free season, Altrincham fans gave retiring hero Colin Little a good send off. After the delight for United fans at Histon's expense, it was Altrincham fans who enjoyed last laugh when they were able to enjoy the demise of Forest Green … perhaps not the most obvious of rivals, but certainly one with some feeling - at least in this part of Cheshire.

Police/Stewards: The stewards were good natured and relaxed and even fetched programmes for U's fans who had missed the sellers on entry to the ground. No police in the ground.

Programme: £2 for 48 unnumbered pages. Production costs had been kept to a minimum with an A5 rather than the usual, larger, B5 format while the adverts had been pre-printed in sections and there was very little colour used throughout the articles. Those articles, though, were plentiful and well worth a read.

Food/Drink: The first port of call for many at Altrincham is Barneys Fish & Chips just over the road from the ground where, according to my researchers, you could get the best pre-match grub of the season. Surprisingly - or not, as the case may be - they still had room to report that the pies inside the ground were as tasty as they were popular and that the vanilla slices proved a great hit.

State of Toilets: Not really capacious or numerous enough to cope with the number of fans that had been taking on liquid before and during the match.

Afterwards

The Journey Home: A pleasant journey back, with only some subdued Southend fans to see at the services as they digested relegation along with their evening meal.

Mileage: 349.6 miles

Final Distance for Season: 6,111.5 miles

So that's that then for another season and all that remains is to thank everyone who has contributed to Travellers' Tales throughout the 2009/10 campaign … and, of course, to thank you for reading the articles. Have a great summer.

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

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