Thetownend.com

Worst ground that I have ever been to was the old wigan stadium (springfield park) my memories are from the 1987 play off semi final where it poured with rain all of the way up the M6 and we were put on a muddy grass bank behing the goal with a small cowshed type stand at the top of the bank and to make it worse we were 2-0 down after 15 miniutes but scored three second half goals to win 3-2 then drawing 0-0 in the second leg to set-up the mamouth games against Gillingahm. As a second choice I would have to say that the Aldeshots ground with the netting behind one of the goals to stop the ball going onto the main road and having to walk through a park to get to the away end
Im sure there are worst grounds that I have not visited

Kenilworth Road.

/thread

Luton, southend. Shitholes. Quite like aldershots

Layer Road for me......wooden planks on a Friday night,and my memory is of always conceding late winners there.
Crawley pushes it very close.

yes I agree Layer Road was really bad I went there in the mid 70's on a Friday night, I think we got beat 4-0 and had the coach window smashed and had to drive all of the way back to Heston services without a window until we were able swap coaches.
I agree there is something quirky about Aldershots ground especially with trains running along the side of the main stand

How about new Wembley?

only went to the old stadium and admit it was a dump outside the ground and surrounding areas

Cambridge United where you have to walk across a field to the away end.

Existing grounds...
Agree with Kenilworth Road and Roots Hall

Grounds that are not around any more...
Somerton Park
Fellows Park
Layer Road
Springfield Park
Vetch Field
The Manor Ground
The County Ground (Northampton)

Can't disagree with any of those, as stated above Aldershot and Cambridge were/are dire grounds too.

I don't recognise some of those OST.

Doncaster's old ground was awful as was Chesterfield - wooden terracing in 2005(?)

Check this out young man...

http://www.footballgroundguide.com/old-grounds-and-stands/index.htm

Newport, Walsall, Col U, Wigan, Swansea and the little club up the road.

went to somerton park in the seventies for a FA Cup game and I think it had the speedway stadium around the pitch. Also went to Fellow park when we got beat 4-1 and Town fans were getting chucked out for baiting the wallsall fans over an outbreak of chicken pox within the Brum area

I'm 27 tomorrow.

Now who feels old?  :)

Eastville looks charming.

Newport and Wigan for me, I remember going up to the league game in Wigan on the grass bank, and somebody turned up with the largest town flag I had seen, it was I think a navy one (?) or something it was huge (but I was young then)

Corrected :D

Newport was a shit hole and Eastville was horrible but not the horriblest!

You're virtually a pensioner ???

Many happy returns for tomorrow.
(I never really figured out what the hell that meant)

Highfield Road looked great, no wonder the Cov fans miss it

Millwall's old ground.

Eastville looked really charming whilst looking down from my car on the M32. I also seem to remember that it was badly burnt in the 80's

Before the built the Ikea and Tesco on top of it which are eyesores.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/EastvilleFire.jpg

The fire in 1980....it did £100,000 of ground improvements.

Boston or Chesterfield for crapness.  I quite liked the canteen at Southend.

Grimsby for parking

Great photo of the old eastville stadium it never fails to amaze me how may town fans there are out there with such great memories and to also have the interest after so many years when football has entered a new modern era.
The old grounds had so much more character for me

Agree with some already mentioned, also add the Withdean.

Quite possibly the worst of the lot.

I'd like to add Filbert Street to this list - a fucking awful view for away fans ( like The Den ) with a pretty high percentage of getting slapped afterwards ( like the Den). Torquays was a shitheap in the 70s / 80s. as was Blackpools.  

went to the old Filbert Street in the late 70's to see Man utd play but there were so may reds fans there they put them at both ends of the ground behind the goals and needless to say leicester fans were very quiet before and after the game

And the Don Valley last year

Here is an interesting/relevant article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2004/oct/10/newsstory.sport2

Of more recent grounds, Colchester is awful. Completely soulless and in the middle of nowhere.

I'd go as far as saying the majority of all new grounds built within the last 20 years or so. Exceptions being those of an original design I.e Amex, The Reebok, Mcalphine, City of Manchester, etc

I think they are putting in the next 10,000 seats in at Stadium MK this Summer.

The Withdean (although, to be fair, it was never really a football ground anyway) and the Manor Ground (for all round general dilapidation, rust, crumbling concrete, decay and awfulness).  Kenilworth Road comes close, but the fact you have to walk through a tunnel between two terraced houses to get to the away end redeems it for me.

I remember that Walsall game well. Got banged up and only let out after the coaches had left to go back to Swindon.

Luckily with the number of Town fans also banged up managed to get a lift back.

It got very lively that evening

I was only young at walsall but do remember lots of fans being chucked out and the ellisons & rimes coaches parked up in an industrial estate a right dump

haha, springfield park was a great ground! never went in the away there, but was in the home end a few times with my dad - the terracing was great, you could walk round half the ground with one ticket.

Ha im 30 tomorrow

Think yourself lucky!

Hereford for me.

was just thinking the same

Your life's as good as over :no:

Wimbledon for me....you cant fucking see....although the robert peel is a positive.

Barne and Hereford are dogs hit.

Colchester is overall worst.

The Withdean.........just hated it.
The worst of the lot.

#1 Three sided plastic shit tip in hotel carpark, obviously.

#2 Darlington/Saints/Leicester/Swansea/any new identikit concrete bowl


Much prefer the Aldershot, Torquay old skool type grounds with a bit of character :toocool:

I must be in a minority as I like Hereford's ground. In fact I don't really think there's an actual ground I don't like, it's more the way they're stewarded. Take Coventry for example. The atmosphere was amazing, due in no small measure to the fact that you were allowed to go where you wanted. All those who wanted to sing naturally congregated at the back, or the sides and those who preferred to sit were not inconvenienced or obstructed regards their view. Compare that to say Wembley,  where the singers are thinly spread. Unrestricted seating = great atmosphere = equals good stadium.

I think Ashton Gate was one of the scariest if you went by train as there were city fans all along the river and side streets which is about 1.5 miles from the railway station

Millmoor(Rotherham) also was a hole with a nasty little alley to negotiate before getting to the ground.

sounds like the old manor ground as there was also an alley way behind the away end

Yeovil

I love Edgar Street, one of my favourite grounds. It's so shit that it's good.

I liked Burnden Park in the league cup semi. A real gritty feel. I miss the days of bouncing around and climbing fences when you score, but then again I'm probably a bit old for that now.  :(

Plough Lane, thought i was going to be trampled to death there after a FA cup game. Millmoor, the old Chester City Ground,  old Bloomfield rd. can remember smashing the gates in 79-80 season after they beat us 4-0 , scuppered our chances of promotion. The old Stoke ground on the side terrace terrible view plus a good chance of being slapped as well , Ahhhhhhhhh memories

Plough Lane - FA Cup Game ? - Was that when the wall collapsed ?
Jimmy Allen helping fans.

I've always had a dislike of Selhurst Park.

Apart from that I appreciate the quirkiness or the history of a lot of older grounds - Aldershot, Portsmouth...

Manor Ground was possible the most bizarre of the lot.

Used to like the away end at Watford especially the allotment walk.

The Manor ground was a bit odd, the little seating area to the left of the away terrace, and a kind of raised row of seats to the right.... A proper non league ground.

Crewe's old ground was a real old kip.

The floodlights were wooden telegraph poles

I remember the wimbledon game in 1979 it was a midweek league cup game and swindon packed the stratton bank type stand which was really steep and if you looked over the back you were greeted with a huge schweppes factory.Town must have had around 3 thousand there even though the attendance was only 7,400. How times have changed as both teams were only allowed one sub

Especially after a 4-0 win!

moodiest grounds pre segregation. fratton park and old den. not unusual for no visible away fans at these places. changed about 1976 . became safer.

Not so sure if things were much safer after 1976 as I remember town fans getting attacked near fratton park and there are numerous stories of normal fans getting attacked along the route to the old den in the 8o's

in the ground it got safer. dont think there would be any groups of swindon at these grounds pre 76. i didnt see any. though to be fair it probably wasnt till early eighties that there was proper isolated segregation.

yeah I agree it was probably mid 80's that the grounds were made safe inside as I can sadly remember when groups of away fans would quietly meet up in the town end before kick off then the fighting would start scaring the living daylights out of normal supporters who were there just to watch a footbal match

The allotment walk was classic.  The low tin roof helped the away support generate a fair amount of noise too.

I like most fantastically bad grounds(like Layer Road,The Den etc) but never really enjoyed Kenilworth Road.

For feeling a bit uneasy in and around it,Ayresome Park has got to be up there imo.

Boothferry Park 1995.  The supermarket as probably not quite so bad as the one Bolton had (that one actually cut your view from the other corner) but it combined with pretty much an entire side stand (bar about 25 yards worth) being sectioned off as too dangerous to use anymore.  Think Hull were on the brink at this point and couldn't afford to fix the ground.  It just all combined to create a very sad place to be, along with it being in Hull as well.

Went there once when we won 3-2. Went on a minibus and this was not the cleverest mode of transport. I had my Pampers on that day. Middelsborough itself is like an episode of the Walking Dead.

Sorrry  Duke,Getting games mixed up, was the league cup midweek game , as we get older all the games you have been to sort of merge together, :suicide: i remember that i was being carried along by the crowd , my feet not even on the ground, and im a very large bloke, i just thought to my self "i have to stay upright", anyway im still here :D