Wednesday 3 September 2014

309 priestfield stadium gillingham

(Ground number 309)
Date of First Visit: 26th August 2014
Priestfield Stadium, Gillingham

Gillingham 0
Newcastle United 1 (Egan og)

Capital One Cup (League Cup) 2nd round

Attendance: 10,204 (1,295 Toon fans)


"GARDEN OF ENGLAND???---YOUR HAVIN' A LAFF!!!"


"WELCOME TO 'THE GARDEN OF ENGLAND'!"




PRIESTFIELD ROAD, GILLINGHAM
THE 'AWAY END' IZ AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STREET
We set off @ '10 bells' from HQ in Barrack Road in a 22 seater mini bus with just 13 saddos on board az we heeded doon to deepest Kent ower the Redheugh Bridge!

Seven hours later we arrived exhausted and ready to down several liquid refreshments in 'The Dog' az kick off waz still nearly three hours away!

A'v never ever been to Gillingham before and for some reason (unbeknown to man nor beast!) aa half expected rows of neat semi detached hooses with manicured lawns and immaculate flower beds, az Kent, after aall, is known az 'The Garden of England'

And wot did we get???---Row upon row of shabby and run doon terraced hooses with paint peelin' from the doors and wood wormed windows, alang with old mattresses, broken bedsteads, discarded three piece suites and various amoonts of rubbish adornin' the tiny front gardens, with a sprinklin' of weeds, split bin bags, barkin' dogs, scruffy cats and empty tin cans owerflowin' into the main thoroughfare to the groond!
"Welcome to Gillingham!"
"PART OF 'THE SCENIC ROUTE' TO THE PRIESTFIELD STADIUM!"
On enterin' the away section of the groond the 'scene' waz ne better az we were greeted by a 'golf stand', complete with scaffoldin' poles to hold the whole contraption up!  There waz ne roof of course and it started to drizzle to complete the picture!

The Toon fielded a fairly strong line up (see below) but struggled from 'the off' against a p*ss poor Gills outfit az we attacked 'The Rainham End' of the groond at the opposite end from us! (very appropriately named considerin' the drizzle!)
YOO CAN'T READ IT IN THE PICTURE, BUT THE BLUE SCOREBOARD
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 'BUS SHELTER STAND' ACTUALLY SAYS:
'THE GILLS 0   THE TOON 1' !

The breakthrough did come however in the 25th minute, courtesy of an own goal at 'The Rainham End', when Obertan ran doon the right and beat two of their players before crossin' towards Riviere in the box.
Ex mackem player John Egan got there forst and tried to chest the baall towards hiz keeper, but he missed it and the baall rolled into the net to give us the lead!

There waz nowt else to taalk aboot til the break and the best move waz when aa heeded for 'the manky tool-shed' at the bottom of 'the golf stand'!

The 2nd period wasn't much better az 'The Gills' pressed for the equaliser but thankfully the dreaded extra 30 minutes didn't materialise <(we naa aall the big words!) and we managed to hang on for the victory and a place in the next roond of the competition!

A'd now completed 'the set' of domestic groonds that still exist, where 'The Toon' have played a competitive game, since aa started gannin in the 1960s (Aa wasn't at Layer Road, Colchester in 1982, my only 'blemish', but they have now moved onto pastures new!) 

It waz then the waalk back doon 'the scenic route' on Priestfield Road towards where the busses were parked and the lang jorney back yem! (we eventually arrived back on Tyneside at '5 bells' the next mornin'!)

Toon team: Krul, Janmaat, Haidera, Abeid, Coloccini, Steve Taylor, Obertan, Sissoko, Aarons (Cabella 60), Riviere (Gouffran 86), De Jong (Perez 68)


1 comment:

  1. Nice blog. Kent isn't really the garden of England, it's a linguistic/marketing error. It's really the 'Guardroom' of England, ie the bit that protects the south of England from French invasion. Draw your own conclusions!

    ReplyDelete

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