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My excuses for going are A: we didn’t have a game B: my mate is a big Scunny supporter C: I wanted to glorify in their current plight.
I met my buddy at the Sands Venue stadium and was duly charged £5 to enter the car park. We proceeded to walk to the front of the ground which was waterlogged in many places (probably needed the drainage sorting out …. but that would cost money)
We went to the ticket office and there was a bloke in there who hadn’t been for a while (there are plenty like that at Scunny) and was buying a 2022 calendar. ‘most of the players in it aren’t here anymore’ said the woman behind the counter. The bloke said he wouldn’t know many of them anyway. ‘maybe these two gents would know some of them’ she replied … pointing to me and my mate. ‘I haven’t got a clue’ I said. I so wanted to ask if John McAtee played for them, I really did….. but I was in a hornet’s nest.
Anyway, we walked into the ground ………… and what a depressing sight greeted me. We think Blundell Park is bad, but by jaysus, this place looks tired and neglected ……. it really does. A lick of paint would most definitely make a difference (but that costs money). The scoreboard doesn’t work and hasn’t done all season (it would cost money to replace … 14 grand apparently). No programmes available (they cost money to print so its digital versions only).
The pitch look in a half decent shape but the stretch where the linos run was waterlogged. The referee was Bobby Madley and he was a little concerned and mentioned it to a groundsman with a pitch fork who did absolutely nothing about it.
FIRST HALF: Rochdale came out wearing Black & White striped shirts, black shorts and socks….. I really couldnt believe it. Match kicked off and within two minutes the lino on the other side of the pitch slipped and went down on his ar$e but was okay after a few minutes.
I wasn’t very impressed with Rochdale, in fact I was totally disappointed with them. They were so bad in the first half that they made Scunthorpe look good and it was no surprise when the home side took the lead (I remained on my seat when they did btw). Some of the home support were thinking that their team were playing well …. they weren’t, it was because Rochdale were offering absolutely nothing.
SECOND HALF: I didn’t realise that former Town player Robbie Stockdale was the manager of Rochdale. Whatever he had said at half time certainly worked as they were totally the opposite of the team that had struggled so badly in the first half. Scunthorpe couldn’t handle this rejuvenated ‘Dale’ and had no answers whatsoever.
When the equaliser came, I actually kind of cheered but then (realising where I was) disguised it by berating the home defence for not putting a challenge in. There was only going to be one winner after this and it was never in a million years going to be the iron. When the winning goal came I managed to nullify myself for safety reasons (I really wanted to let myself go and strip off to my Town shirt). Rochdale fans spewed onto the pitch, danced about and then casually went back into their end …. the stewards were poor at crowd control in my opinion.
Scunthorpe were very poor in the second half, they seemed to accept the inevitable when Rochdale got the equaliser and it was as though they expected to lose the game.
They are going down without a doubt. Most of their players wont be there next season and most of them probably don’t want to be. Keith Hill can talk about committing himself for next season, but I am not convinced that he will be or if the fans want him to be.
What will Mr Swann do when it happens. The Sands Venue Stadium (which he owns) needs money spending on it. He states that the club can only spend what it generates ……. my mate is looking at the National League as a short stay … and he is not talking about getting promoted.MY VERDICT: They are in for another season of struggle and we will fill their away end next season.
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A bit of schadenfreude but you cannot argue with it. The state of the ground is a perfect reflection of its owner.
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Well he said he tried, that’s different to actually trying.
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Buck’s latest post didn’t last long, the Kremlin were soon onto it.
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No Awaywego Swann was let down by his failure to plan and his own incompetence as per usual.
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Buck’s latest post didn’t last long, the Kremlin were soon onto it.
I got to read it before the ‘broom’ was applied, Bucks has become the ex-smoker that rails against smokers. 🤬😊
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Buck’s latest post didn’t last long, the Kremlin were soon onto it.
The NKVD and the Bolsheviks always made a greater example of the ‘traitors’ who turned against them than the never believers. :-)
Though, it would be somewhat ironic if the next legal action against a Scunny fan would be Bucks, after years telling us how right it was for Swann to threaten others. X-)
Though, I must state that I am on Bucks’s side here and he has my sympathy for this.
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Hard to argue with any of it.
Id argue the ground’s current state is not just the fault of the Swann’s though, but a collective neglect from past regimes.
Should’ve been modernised 15 years ago.
It’s not so much it needs modernising, it just needs proper upkeep. Repairing or upgrading the scoreboard, a lick of fresh paint (remember the tatty flags at the first game of the season?), putting some more drains in in the car park, upgrading the catering points: all of these are things which could and should have been done in recent years, rather than signing yet another striker who never gets a game.
A new ground was never needed – a bit of TLC for GP was more important.
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