Ground #180 - Fetcham Grove

Date: 31st August 2015
Ground: Fetcham Grove
Location: Leatherhead, Surrey

My fifteenth new ground of 2015 was on Monday 31st August at Fetcham Grove in Leatherhead, Surrey. The match was Leatherhead vs. Merstham in the Isthmian League Premier Division.

Fetcham Grove is located within a sports complex which includes a cricket club and leisure centre. The ground is half a mile south of Leatherhead railway station. The current incarnation of the club was formed in 1946 and they have played at Fetcham Grove since then - prior to this the venue was home to Leatherhead United.

The south-west side of the ground is a mixture of seating and terracing but is all under cover. The seated area is placed in the middle with concrete terracing either side of it taking up most of this side of Fetcham Grove. There is a food outlet positioned in between the seating and the terracing towards the northern end of the ground and there is a club bar behind the terracing towards the southern end of the ground.

The north-west side is taken up by uncovered hard standing with a grass bank behind it. The hard standing extends round to the south-eastern area which is the narrowest part of the ground. Behind the goal at this end is a covered standing area. There is a large grass bank behind the northern goal with concrete terracing towards the bottom of this. Part of the terracing is covered and this is known as the Bernard Edwards Stand.

There was an energetic start to proceedings but the first real chance didn't come until the 27th minute when a Merstham header hit the crossbar. Five minutes after this Merstham did take the lead when a ball to the back post was pulled back for Wes Daly who drilled the ball in from 20 yards. In the 54th minute the visitors hit the woodwork again when a defence error saw Tommy Hutchings pick up the ball and try a terrific chip which came back off the inside of the post. Hutchings continued to cause the home defence problems and in the 63rd minute he managed to burst through the defence before squaring for Fabio Saraiva to tap into an empty net. The closing stages were end-to-end and the home side almost made it a nervy finish for Merstham when a 40-yard lob came back off the crossbar with 10 minutes still to play. The away side survived the scare and saw out the rest of the game out to pick up a good win.

Result: Leatherhead 0-2 Merstham
Division: Isthmian League Premier Division
Attendance: 275

Ground #73 - Emirates Stadium

Date: 20th September 2011
Ground: Emirates Stadium
Location: Holloway, London

My sixtieth new ground of 2011 was on Tuesday 20th September at the Emirates Stadium in Holloway, London. The match was Arsenal vs. Shrewsbury Town in the Carling Cup 3rd Round.

The Emirates Stadium is around 350 yards from Holloway Road tube station on the Piccadilly Line although there are several other tube stations in the vicinity of the ground. The stadium has been home to Arsenal since 2006 when they moved out of their Highbury which they had played at for the previous 93 years.

This wasn't my first visit to the Emirates having been on a stadium tour in April 2008, though this was my first experience of a game at the venue. The ground is a four-tiered bowl with the majority of this taken by the standard seating of the lowest and highest tiers. The lower tier of the bowl holds around 24,400 fans with the upper tier holding around 26,600. The non-standard areas consist of two premium tiers - the 7,100 capacity 'club level' tier and above this a 2,200 capacity tier of boxes which cost around £80,000 a year to hire.

Despite being a bowl structure, the stadium is divided into four quadrants - the East Stand, West Stand, North Bank and Clock End. These four stands are named after the four stands at Arsenal's previous ground Highbury and in recent years a replica of the original clock has been added to the Clock End. For the game I was sitting in the lower tier of the West Stand alongside my sister who is an Arsenal fan.

The game was a League Cup 3rd Round tie between Premier League side Arsenal and League Two side Shrewsbury Town. The hosts started brightly and almost opened the scoring in the first five minutes but Shrewsbury quickly got into the game and almost took the lead after 13 minutes when they struck the post. A couple of minutes later though the visitors made their chance count with James Collins nodding in a cross to give them the lead. They then continued to attack Arsenal and very nearly doubled their lead. Eventually the Premier League side got into gear and headed an equaliser ten minutes before the break through Kieran Gibbs. In the second half Arsenal got on top of the game and took the lead when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain shot into the bottom corner from 25 yards just before the hour mark. Shrewsbury continued to threaten but the Gunners looked the more likely to grab another which they did though Yossi Benayoun with 10 minutes remaining to seal a 3-1 win.

Result: Arsenal 3-1 Shrewsbury Town
Competition: League Cup
Attendance: 46,539