30 November 2019 –
Walsall 0 Oxford United 1 (3,224)
You'd think you would
be on safe ground when you allow two and a half hours to get to a
match one and a half hours away. Oh no, not this time. We were
thwarted by sporadic thick fog patches then several accidents around
Birmingham, which meant we only found the turnstiles with fifteen
minutes to spare. Some people love this last minute jeopardy but not
Sam and me, oh no no no. It meant that, as with the Lincoln game,
there was no time for food before kick-off. We didn't fancy the half
time scrum either, so we've awarded a median 2.5 for this category.
On a blooming freezing
day it was two pairs of socks and full thermals under normal clothes.
Plenty of grumbles about being cold around us but we were just fine.
The Banks Stadium,
sponsored by a brewery, is easy to find, just off the M6, but get
there early to bag a place in the away fans (Blue Zone) car park.
When we eventually got there it was full. No worries, back up plan is
parking across the road in Bescot railway station car park. That was
also full. We ended up parking on a grass verge. A “friendly”
Walsall fan tried to fool us that we would get a ticket but we didn't
fall for his lame prank, and sure enough didn't get a ticket. The
stadium has three sides that match, with maybe 16 rows of seats in
each, so it's small. But at one end there's a bizarre, huge stand
that looks completely out of place. The food and loos are situated in
the corners, as at Sunny Scunny, which causes congestion. Also there
are supporting pillars across the front of the small stands which do
hamper your view of the game.
We were at this match
as away fans, and the University Of Wolverhampton stand was pretty
much full. Sadly the same cannot be said for the rest of the ground,
with many more empty seats than supporters. Oxford had 1375 fans
present, out of a total attendance of 3224. There is always more
atmosphere in the away end and the noise level rumbled along
throughout. There was even an occasion of two different songs
simultaneously from the Oxford fans, which is to be applauded. The
U's scored the winning goal seven minutes from the end which sparked
a rumbustious celebration (or “limbs” as they say these days).
And sent them into the FA Cup third round where they may be drawn
against one of the country's best teams. Or even Man U.
So, back into the
(unticketed, up yours Walsall fan) car for a quick getaway, or so we
thought. But no. For such a tiny crowd the traffic was gridlocked,
they need to sort this out. It took us 35 minutes to reach the
motorway, not good enough Walsall. Overall a stressful journey to,
and departure from an otherwise enjoyable match.
And so to the scoring:
Atmosphere 3.5 Mainly
due to vibrant away following
Food & Drink 2.5 No
chance to try it so average score awarded
Stadium 3 Bit weird and
unbalanced, but functional for this level
Value For Money 4 Cheap
tickets, free parking, total £21 including programme
Bonus point for the
mascot, singing at least three different songs and having a big old
bad-ass scoreboard.
Half a point for flag waving kids before
kick-off.
Final score 16.5 fun
day out as an away fan and Walsall into third place!
Current table:
1 Rotherham United 19.0
2 Chesterfield Town
18.5
3 Walsall 16.5
4 Doncaster Rovers 15.5
5 Boston United 15.0
6 Lincoln City 13.5
7 Falkirk 13.0
8 Sleaford Town 12.5
9 Mansfield Town 12.0
Total goals so far =
26. Average goals = 2.89. Global average 2.75.
No comments:
Post a Comment