Away Days - Yeovil Town
First Impressions -- Around the ground -- The Game -- The Stand -- Overall -- Pictures
Fixture: Yeovil vs PNE
Competition: NPower League One
Ground: Huish Park
Date: Saturday 28th January 2012
Kick off: 3pm
Final Result: 2-1 Carlisle
One of the longest away trips of the season but one I felt I had to do, plus it was probably best to get it ticked off now rather than a few years down the line!
Anyway, after the long trip
down my first glimpses of the ground were of the main stand.
It looked a fairly decent affair but nothing particularly
spectacular. The away terrace itself looked unusual, not
because of the lack of a roof, but the steel girders sticking
out of the back.
I wonder what the point of this was - the obvious answer
is for any future expansion, but surely it just would've
been better to have built 'on them' anyway.
Thankfully our long journey down was problem-free so we arrived at the ground in plenty of time. We did our usual routine of having a walk around the ground, although in this case just part of it.
First stop was the club shop where my Dad was trying to find his obligatory fridge magnet! The shop seemed ok and looked a better affair than the like's of Walsall's, but still could've been better. Afterwards, I took a few photos outside and then bought a programme - we decided not to bother walking right round the ground as there wasn't a great deal to see or do. It has to be said though that from the outside it does look like a tidy ground if a little 'unspectacular'.
We soon made our way to the away turnstiles only to see that our tickets stated they were for the seats! Not what we wanted so we made our way round to the ticket office to swap them for terrace tickets (I certainly didn't want to miss out on the rare opportunity to stand on a terrace!). After that messing round, we finally made our way in. We bought a couple of hot dogs and then made our way to take a place on the terrace.
The appearance of the ground from the inside was pretty decent. Whilst the three other stands looked similar, I didn't think it was necessarily a 'bad thing'. As I said with the outside of the ground, they looked smart and tidy but a little unspectacular.
Yet again, it was another shocker of a North End performance and we came away with precisely what we deserved - absolutely nothing. It was another turgid performance we had to witness which wasn't helped my Morgan's early sending off (which was very harsh, in my opinion).
After Yeovil bagged their first goal, it was largely all them for the rest of the game and they deservedly bagged a second goal in the second half. North End, however, didn't make much of an effort until the last 20 minutes. We grabbed a consolation goal,but the level of performance just wasn't good enough - poor all over the pitch.
Quite often a roofless stand/terrace would be a bit of a problem to say the least with the unpredictable British weather! However, on this occasion we got lucky - it stayed dry but just a little chilly.
As mentioned earlier, the outside of this stand is a little weird with the supporting girders 'strutting' out and it didn't look the most smart-looking either. Despite that, I was just grateful to have the opportunity of standing on a terrace and I wasn't disappointed either despite the lack of a roof.
The view from the terrace was completely unobstructed, just how it should be! Another plus point is that its close to the pitch too.
What I would also add is that the facilities in the terrace were a tad odd with the toilets being at the opposite end to were we were stood and the catering bar being at our end (I don't know if this was the only one though). I think they could do with extending the terrace outwards and making more use of the space they have available.
It was particularly depressing to travel all that way to witness a turgid performance like that! Would've been better if the players had made more of an effort though. Still, I was glad to get another ground ticked off towards the 92.
Overall, whilst it was unspectacular, it was a decent ground and very well suited to a club of Yeovil's size. However, I think they could get more out of it such as making more of the space they have available.
Ratings
Appearance: 7/10
Game: 6/10
Enjoyment: 6/10
Fans: 7/10
Away Stand: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
