I went to my first match at Ewood Park the day after visiting Carlisle United’s Brunton Park. Comparing the two grounds, you really get a sense of how dramatically English football was transformed around 1990 in the aftermath of Hillsborough.…
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Ewood Park, Blackburn
Tagged with: Alan Shearer, Away support, Carlisle United, Ewood Park, FA Cup, Jack Walker, Memorial garden, Michael Knighton, Payet, West Ham United
Posted in Football grounds, Uncategorized
Posted in Football grounds, Uncategorized
Brunton Park, Carlisle
In his book on English football grounds, Simon Inglis describes Brunton Park in Carlisle as “A frontier post guarded only by sheep”. From the main stand, I can, indeed, to my left see sheep grassing on the other side of…
Tagged with: Brunton Park, Carlisle United, flooding, floodlight pylons, Michael Knighton, Standing terrace, wooden seats
Posted in Football grounds, Uncategorized
Posted in Football grounds, Uncategorized
How the Danish-Swedish football rivalry arose from WW1
When Denmark travel to Stockholm in Sweden, it is almost exactly 100 years to the date since Denmark travelled to Stockholm for a football match, taking 1.000 travelling supporters with them. Just under five months earlier, Sweden had played in…
Posted in Uncategorized
St. James Park, Exeter
Having visited Bristol Rovers, a “homeless” team on the Tuesday, I moved on to something almost just as extraordinary. Exeter City, a club saved, owned and run by a supporters’ trust. The story of the supporters’ take-over is quite remarkable.…
Tagged with: ExEC club, Exeter City, George Best, Kiera Gould, Manchester United, Michael Jackson, Pele, St. James Park, Stagecoach Stand, Supporters Trust, Uri Geller
Posted in Football grounds, Uncategorized
Posted in Football grounds, Uncategorized
Memorial Stadium – Bristol
I had several good reasons to make the Memorial Stadium in Bristol my next destination. First of all, I do work in a WW1 museum, and the Memorial Stadium was – as the name indicates – built as a memorial…
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The DW stadium, Wigan
I must admit that the DW stadium in Wigan wasn’t on my top 10 of stadiums to visit. It is one the stadiums of the 1990’s and there is no immediate danger of it being demolished. There is, though, a…
Posted in Uncategorized
The City Ground, Nottingham
If football had been invented today, Nottingham wouldn’t have happened. Two top football grounds only separated by the River Trent. And – on the Notts County side admittedly also a carpark. Today, they would have gone for one club and…
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The County Ground, Swindon
The magic roundabout. One roundabout consisting of five roundabouts. That was what swayed me to prefer the longer trip to Swindon rather than the shorter one to Reading on a dark November evening. And to get the roundabout out of…
Tagged with: Bob Menham, Charlie Henry, County Ground, Don Rogers, John Menham, Lou Macari, Swindon Town
Posted in Football grounds, Uncategorized
Posted in Football grounds, Uncategorized
Griffin Park, Brentford
In the match programme for the night’s game against Norwich, the Brentford chairman Mark Devlin wrote: “Most teams we face have not been to Griffin Park for a number of years. The throwback to an old, traditional stadium, with its…
‘Proper museum’ or branding platform? Club museums in England.
Here is a chance to read my article on English club museums in Soccer and Society. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/kHRSJBF5sYMqnbzxX2Rb/full#.VGYXX8lRwtU Be aware that only the first 50 readers will have access!
 | Zara on Loftus Road, London |
 | Lawrence on Fratton Park – an iconic… |
 | Dale Hong on The Arsenal Museum |
 | Roy Andrews on Looking for Archie part 3… |
 | David Hutton on Tannadice – what gives a… |
Football and material culture 