Rex
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Post by Rex on Nov 10, 2019 16:29:17 GMT
A proper groundhopper would have just gone to Weymouth instead. Consider yourself kicked out of nerd club  Rex - just a quick observation as I've read through a lot of forum in the last day or so as have been away. On that Rugby thread you said that you prefer Rugby as a sport and struggle to watch football as a neutral. Yet as a committed groundhopper you must go to a lot of games as a neutral! I'm just a bit concerned - you realise this isn't a mandatory of life right? You don't have to go and watch Heybridge Swifts on a cold Tuesday night in January.....I don't have to, but the voice of the inner nerd makes me... |
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warehamgas
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Post by warehamgas on Nov 10, 2019 21:46:20 GMT
Perhaps not!! So much rain down here last night put the mockers on that. UTG! A proper groundhopper would have just gone to Weymouth instead. Consider yourself kicked out of nerd club Yes you’re right, would have been easy esp as I was around Dorchester when I found out. But tbh it had poured down Fri/Sat night in Dorset I wasn’t sure it would be on and I don’t have a fancy phone! UTG! |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2019 10:29:19 GMT
So, got back from Spain yesterday. A nice little trip but on the whole two incredibly boring games. Arrived on Saturday and caught the train up to Cordoba, a lovely city with plenty of Moors architecture taken in on the walk from the trainstation to the ground. Took a detour via The Mezquita and had a brief look around, it was very impressive. As I got to the ground (the beautifully named Estadio Nuevo Arcángel) there was congregation of protesters at the VIP entrance of the ground. Cordoba's owner had been arrested on fraud charges in the previous week and with the historic club languishing in the third tier supporters had taken action. For a bit more information on the plight search #SOSCCF on twitter. I decided to make a move when their Ultras decided to try and storm the VIP entrance. Anyway, game was s**t, Cordoba won 2-0 but the sky was lovely...
Sunday saw a bit of a pub crawl through Malaga with my friend who works as a teacher over there and heading to La Rosaleda with the Guiri Army (Malaga fans basically from the UK that live over there). Lots of lovely beers and chats before what can only be described as an appalling match. Another tick though and another brilliant sky.
A decent enough weekend and a good warm up for Italy next month. |
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Rex
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Post by Rex on Nov 12, 2019 22:25:09 GMT
A bit of an obvious one really, but off to Bromley for my 175th( I think) ground with Rovers.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2019 11:02:22 GMT
It's Cymru - Magyarország for me tonight, winner takes all. Should be a fantastic atmosphere in Cardiff.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2019 12:38:01 GMT
Euro fixtures confirmed for me (well, kind of);
Austria vs Playoff Winner D or A, Bucharest
Playoff Winner A or D vs Portugal, Budapest
Italy vs Wales, Rome
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Rex
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Post by Rex on Dec 2, 2019 19:42:05 GMT
I'm at Celtic Rangers on the 29th , so plan to do Airdrie v Falkirk the day before. Airdrie is one of several Scottish grounds I have arrived at only to find the game called off, I was particularly disappointed on this occasion that it was called off due to a frozen pitch as Airdrie play on artificial turf!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2019 0:09:28 GMT
I'm at Celtic Rangers on the 29th , so plan to do Airdrie v Falkirk the day before. Airdrie is one of several Scottish grounds I have arrived at only to find the game called off, I was particularly disappointed on this occasion that it was called off due to a frozen pitch as Airdrie play on artificial turf! Boring ground. Boring town. Unlucky. |
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Rex
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Post by Rex on Dec 3, 2019 6:49:12 GMT
I'm at Celtic Rangers on the 29th , so plan to do Airdrie v Falkirk the day before. Airdrie is one of several Scottish grounds I have arrived at only to find the game called off, I was particularly disappointed on this occasion that it was called off due to a frozen pitch as Airdrie play on artificial turf! Boring ground. Boring town. Unlucky. Have to agree with you there, I'm hoping this will be my second and final visit to the place! Mind you, I would have loved to have gone to the ground of the original club, it looked an absolute beauty. |
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Dec 3, 2019 14:38:09 GMT
Boring ground. Boring town. Unlucky. Have to agree with you there, I'm hoping this will be my second and final visit to the place! Mind you, I would have loved to have gone to the ground of the original club, it looked an absolute beauty. Yes I looked it up after that original post. That pavilion looked ace! Shame the new ground looks so featureless.
I also went down an Wikipedia rabbit hole and looked at the history of Clyde FC - genuinely strange. A football club that literally lost its community when the housing estates they lived in were knocked down.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2019 16:23:46 GMT
Have to agree with you there, I'm hoping this will be my second and final visit to the place! Mind you, I would have loved to have gone to the ground of the original club, it looked an absolute beauty. Yes I looked it up after that original post. That pavilion looked ace! Shame the new ground looks so featureless.
I also went down an Wikipedia rabbit hole and looked at the history of Clyde FC - genuinely strange. A football club that literally lost its community when the housing estates they lived in were knocked down.
There was a fantastic article in one issue of Nutmeg about Clyde, a great periodical btw. Similar to Blizzard but around Scottish football. |
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Rex
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Post by Rex on Dec 3, 2019 18:36:20 GMT
Yes I looked it up after that original post. That pavilion looked ace! Shame the new ground looks so featureless.
I also went down an Wikipedia rabbit hole and looked at the history of Clyde FC - genuinely strange. A football club that literally lost its community when the housing estates they lived in were knocked down.
There was a fantastic article in one issue of Nutmeg about Clyde, a great periodical btw. Similar to Blizzard but around Scottish football. I saw Nutmeg advertised once and thought it would be right up my street, but it was something like £12 an issue! Never heard of Blizzard. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2019 19:46:48 GMT
There was a fantastic article in one issue of Nutmeg about Clyde, a great periodical btw. Similar to Blizzard but around Scottish football. I saw Nutmeg advertised once and thought it would be right up my street, but it was something like £12 an issue! Never heard of Blizzard. £35 for four issues a year at the moment. Nutmeg is full of long reads you don’t get in the likes of Four Four Two. Basically follows the blueprint of Blizzard which, was set up by Jonathan Wilson. Both absolutely brilliant and incredibly interesting. If you’re a football supporter interested in the stories behind football and I can’t recommend both enough. |
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Dec 3, 2019 23:06:55 GMT
I saw Nutmeg advertised once and thought it would be right up my street, but it was something like £12 an issue! Never heard of Blizzard. £35 for four issues a year at the moment. Nutmeg is full of long reads you don’t get in the likes of Four Four Two. Basically follows the blueprint of Blizzard which, was set up by Jonathan Wilson. Both absolutely brilliant and incredibly interesting. If you’re a football supporter interested in the stories behind football and I can’t recommend both enough. Agreed - I've never read Nutmeg directly but if you want a flavour of it I think the Guardian has a few sample articles freely available online and I've read some of those and they always seem excellent.
The photo essay around various Scottish football grounds should appeal to groundhoppers particularly - it's just below halfway down the list.
I do subscribe to the Blizzard, which is the gold standard in British football writing right now I think - though I don't read it as much as I should. I have an online subscription which is a fair bit cheaper and you get the whole back catalogue.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2019 10:25:02 GMT
Derby della Lanterna tickets sourced for Saturday which, is delightful.
Also I've booked a quick trip to Scotland for Dunfermline vs Alloa and Hearts vs Aberdeen between Christmas and New Year.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2019 12:41:21 GMT
Good weekend, Derby della Lanterna first. The away team Samp won 0-1 in a bloody awful game. Was worth it for the pre-match nonsense...   Saturday was an early start for the train to Bologna via Milan for Bologna - Atalanta, a pretty good game dominated by the visitors actually saw the hosts win 2-1. Lovely old ground, can't recommend it enough...  After a stroll back to the station it was the onto Florence for Fiorentina against top of the league Inter. Inter took an early lead but were pegged back by a late Fiorentina goal, 1-1...  Monday was a train back to Milan and then a little mooch around San Siro.  Another good trip, Scotland in 10 days! |
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Dec 18, 2019 13:34:37 GMT
Looks like decent attendances at all the games you went to - Serie A on TV doesn't always give that impression. I've always thought that Stadium in Genoa would have a great atmosphere given how tight to the pitch and sharply raked the stands are - is that right?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2019 13:48:28 GMT
Looks like decent attendances at all the games you went to - Serie A on TV doesn't always give that impression. I've always thought that Stadium in Genoa would have a great atmosphere given how tight to the pitch and sharply raked the stands are - is that right? Was decent, reminded me of Ibrox (sorry Rex). Many Serie A games "look" poorly attended but that on the whole is due to not being able to see from the first dozen rows of most stands. You can see with the Fiorentina photo the first set of rows up to the height of the Perspex panels aren't used. That's especially the case with multipurpose stadiums. Napoli for instance rarely open their bottom tier due to this. |
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Dec 18, 2019 14:01:39 GMT
Looks like decent attendances at all the games you went to - Serie A on TV doesn't always give that impression. I've always thought that Stadium in Genoa would have a great atmosphere given how tight to the pitch and sharply raked the stands are - is that right? Was decent, reminded me of Ibrox (sorry Rex). Many Serie A games "look" poorly attended but that on the whole is due to not being able to see from the first dozen rows of most stands. You can see with the Fiorentina photo the first set of rows up to the height of the Perspex panels aren't used. That's especially the case with multipurpose stadiums. Napoli for instance rarely open their bottom tier due to this. OK interesting - that makes sense. I've always wondered why it looks quite sparse. |
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2019 14:11:33 GMT
Was decent, reminded me of Ibrox (sorry Rex). Many Serie A games "look" poorly attended but that on the whole is due to not being able to see from the first dozen rows of most stands. You can see with the Fiorentina photo the first set of rows up to the height of the Perspex panels aren't used. That's especially the case with multipurpose stadiums. Napoli for instance rarely open their bottom tier due to this. OK interesting - that makes sense. I've always wondered why it looks quite sparse. Most grounds are bloody huge as well, the building of Juventus's new home has seen clubs look towards reducing capacity and making the fan experience better. Oh, and building more corporate facilities. |
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