Thursday 19 October 2017

Swindon Town

Swindon Town v Peterborough United
Sky Bet League One
The County Ground
Saturday 11th April 2015
3pm

Journey Time to the ground: 30 minutes.  We left the house just after 2pm and a straight forward journey saw us parked up in the Carlton Car Park which cost £1 for the afternoon.

The ground was around a 10 minute walk from the car park.
 
Ticket Price: £19

Programme Price: £3

This was my third visit to the County Ground.  We were sat in the Town End, a small, single-tiered covered, all-seated stand behind the goal, where the majority of the vocal home support sat.  The leg room was adequate and the view from the seats was good although there were a couple of pillars that partly obscured some of the pitch.  

The County Ground is a good sized, all-seated ground.  To the left of the Town End is the Arkells Stand, a single tiered main stand which had the dug-outs situated at the front of it.  This stand is shared with away fans.  Opposite the Arkells Stand is the Don Rogers stand, another single tiered stand which runs the length of the pitch.  Opposite the Town End is the all-seated, uncovered Stratton Bank Stand which is largely unused unless there is a particularly large away following.  This end also has the only Rolex clock found at any football ground in the world.   
 
Both sides had a realistic chance of making the play-offs with Swindon sat in third and Peterborough six points outside the top six, so both sides were pushing for a win.  The best chance of the first-half went to Swindon who were awarded a penalty in the 28th minute when Jonathan Obika went down under pressure from Michael Smith.  Andy Williams smashed his spot-kick against the bar and the half ended 0-0.
 
The second half was a fairly even contest with both sides restricted to long range efforts.  The home fans were growing frustrated but finally had something to cheer about in the 71st minute when substitute Jermaine Hylton grabbed the only goal of the game slotting in from just inside the box with one of his first touches of the game.  

Attendance: 7,126 with 285 Peterborough fans.

Atmosphere:  The atmosphere was pretty good.  There was a lot at stake for both teams and the Swindon fans in the Town End certainly kept singing for the whole 90 minutes.

Journey Time home: 45 minutes.  After a short 10 minute walk back to the car, we were on our way.  There was very little traffic and we were home before 6pm.

I enjoyed my trip to Swindon.  The weather was pleasant and the atmosphere in the Town End was very good.   With both teams evenly matched and pushing for a win, the game was entertaining and a Swindon win was probably the right result on the balance of play.

No comments:

Post a Comment