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| The view from behind where one of the goals should be at Gloucester City's Meadow Park |
If Twitter has seen me produce #WestCountryLIVE, this is
like the extended highlights, with a bit of punditry thrown in.
The first day started well, with the promise of a roast
dinner waiting for us, and even though we managed a trip to Greggs, and the
fabled Burger King, there was still plenty of room for it when we arrived
shortly after 9pm.
Despite tempers threatening to boil over as Grant saw that a
train heading to Manchester might cause our connection at Reading to be
delayed, the journey was largely uneventful.
There was of course standard shoddy use of escalators, and
platform based chaos, but that’s par for the course on any train journey. (I
apologise for Grant’s language – I have quoted him faithfully)
Once I found out there were televisions on the back of the
seats in some First Great Western carriages I was sold that the West Country wasn’t
as backward as the rumours suggest.
Day one was largely about the travelling, and the only
sights I saw were Gloucester’s plethora of fast-food outlets, the gridlocked
station car park and the church featured in Grant’s sister’s wedding album.
As day two began I found out that not only were food
provisions ample and immaculately prepared, there was a suitable choice of mug
available for my tea too.
The roast awaiting us on arrival was superb, and after an
equally satisfying breakfast, the real task at hand began – A trip to
Gloucester City’s Meadow Park ground.
Meadow Park has been a wasteland ever since the floods of
2007, causing Gloucester City to ground-share with rivals and make-do with
temporary homes.
You can find out more about the chaos by reading Grant’s
article
here.
However much I’d read in the build-up would not have
prepared me for what I saw when we arrived. I knew they hadn’t played there for
more than six years, and I had seen the picture of water up to the crossbar,
but it really was a horrible sight.
Windows smashed, chairs broken, no sign of a pitch, and with
wheelie-bins strewn across what should have been a goalmouth, it really does
take a picture to tell this story of 1000 words.
Grant’s video project won’t lack for emotive images, and
Gloucester City manager Tim Harris also came along to give us an interview
about the situation, then and now.
Many people with links to the area and the club used the
phrase ‘when the rains came’ at one point or another this weekend. It sounds
biblical or apocalyptic and I would usually jump on the chance to comment on
that straight away, but looking at the state of the football ground, it was
eerily appropriate.
Explaining to a football manager why he had to hold up a
blank sheet of A4 to the camera, and Grant subsequently chasing him to get our
microphone clip back, provided as much merriment as we could manage at the
ghost town of a ground.
Grant warned me beforehand he wasn’t entirely sure we had
permission to be there so I went half expecting to end the night in a police
cell, but even though the owners were aware of our presence we still had to
scale a small wall to get out. However I can confirm we weren’t arrested and escaped
to live another day!
After capturing as much of the horror as we could, we then
headed across to Cheltenham where Gloucester City currently ground-share with
their biggest rivals, to watch the match and grab some more interviews.
I’m making my way through the non-leagues at the moment,
apparently acting as a lucky charm. Having seen Emma’s beloved Billericay Town
win last week I managed to conjure up another 2-0 win for Grant’s side.
Being the league above Billericay, the standard was always
likely to be slightly higher, but it was no less frenetic, as Stockport
struggled to show any sign of their recent Football League status.
Goals either side of halftime made the difference as
Gloucester moved out of the relegation zone on goal difference – I’ve been told
if it gets tight at the end of the season I may have to go back.
After the game Grant managed to grab a word with
long-serving player Tom Webb, who echoed the sentiments of everyone else
concerned, about how vital moving back to Gloucester is for the future of the
club.
Our course-mate Dito is often heard saying the phrase: “I
didn’t cross the Atlantic to be a tourist.” If you saw how much output he manages
for the various sites he writes for, along with his presenting duties for NTN24
you’d see what he means. I on the other hand have always been a bit of a
tourist…
So having made the trip to help Grant, I managed to grab
some souvenirs, enjoy the surroundings, not upset too many of the locals (one
exception being where my humour on Twitter wasn’t appreciated) and I left
recommending the trip to anyone and everyone.
NB – You probably can’t all go and stay at the Yardley’s…
Grant’s parents were very welcoming but I suspect I was only fed and housed
because I was there with him.
