Grounds for improvement?

As Christmas time is a time for reflection (and as this season has been so toe-curlingly awful so far) I often find myself drifting off, thinking back to days gone by. New books delivered by Santa meant a bit of re-organisation of the shelving, during this task I was waylaid by my elderly copy of Simon Inglis's Football Grounds of Britain (my edition dated 1996) and as I flicked through more and more I was transported back by the excellent descriptions of grounds and the pictures of the lost grounds I visited in my formative years of supporting the Shakers.

Many games jumped out of the pictures, Rotherham's Millmoor ground, scene of Baichung Bhutia's fine goal - maybe his best moment in a Bury shirt - flashed by, I regressed further to David Lee's 1990(?) team when I was lucky to escape on the train with my life as some local hoolie wannabees spotted me as they got off a couple of stops before my return to college. Millmoor was a tidy ground with a narrow alley at the back of the away end by a scrap yard. It had a big social club (the Tivoli) on the front that sold stones or wards bitter and was probably the warmest place on the ground. Millmoor was a lucky ground in recent times, I don't remember losing too many there and it was generally a good trip.

Wigan's Springfield Park fell open before me, an unlovable bowl with a grassy away end, and a small stand plonked on the terracing down one side. I recall laying out on my flag sunbathing during one end of season game, and slithering down it celebrating goals during wet Tuesday nights in the middle of winter. It was rarely a pleasure to visit Springfield Park with its big empty wide open spaces and big fence, strangely when they moved to the JJB Stadium it remained difficult but I do happily recall a Steve Redmond header salvaging a Boxing Day point a few years ago.

Simon Inglis describes Scunthorpe and Walsall as 'tin shacks' as he registers his dismay at the modernisation of grounds 'off the shelf'. The Walsall chapter had me waxing nostalgic as I returned to Fellows Park, one of my first away visits on the coach. Fellows Park is a supermarket now but was surrounded by decent pubs and had a good chippy and was a club in the heart of its community, unlike its replacement down by the motorway which isn't exactly supporting local business, and like many pubs and shops left behind those excellent services struggled once the clubs moved away.

I enjoyed skimming through Oxford's manor ground chapter, calling in at David Adekola's hat trick day at Scarborough (which deserves a blog entry all of it's own) and recalling visits to Leeds Road Huddersfield, Northampton's county ground, Roker Park and Stoke's Victoria ground where Reginald T Roofer once scored twice to stun the locals.

Of course I paused to re read the most read entry of all. Inglis perceptively describes Gigg Lane as 'the corner shop we all desperately want someone else to fraternise to ensure its survival'. This certainly continues and the ground he presents to his readers is more or less still the Gigg we know and love. I got to thinking about how supporters of other teams view Gigg? Would they mourn it's passing if the club upped sticks to a new fancy purpose built multi use community stadium?

I suppose the away games and grounds I remember are the ones where the best things happened for the Shakers, so by the same thinking the games I most want to forget at Gigg are where similar things happened for the opposition. I can think of (memorably) Swansea and Sunderland getting promoted at Gigg, also Walsall and their celebrating fans on the social club roof. Plymouth fans who were there probably recall fondly the 5-0 victory that cost Mike Walsh his job in September 1995 (I recall it as WWYATS? sponsored the game) but would they feel sad at the passing of our ground? I somehow doubt it.

The thing that struck me most during my nostalgic skim through Inglis's book was the ariel shots. Grounds are moving away from their communities, and heartlands. Those shots provide evidence of the evolution of the stadia and how their localities fit in around them (look at a picture of Goodison park if you don't believe me). Granted the new grounds are better appointed, more comfortable and fitted with all the fancy kit required to cover the game in the 21st century.

But are they an improvement? Not always in my book.

Do you ever have one of those days?

If you are amongst the 95 souls who follow me on twitter you'll be aware I'm not in good form.

I'm at a fairly low ebb with football, like many Shakers you could say I'm reeling from a combination of blows that would make, if not Sugar Ray Leonard but maybe Darren Bullock, very proud indeed.

It all started on Saturday, which was grim. Attendance wise it was grim, performance wise it was grim, Mum was bleating about her favourite wind up Andy Bishop, which darkened my mood and by the end of the game it was freezing and raining which meant it was a grim ride back over the pennines.
I sulked and planned a blog post which I quickly abandoned as too miserable and unnecessarily negative. I put it down to one of those days.

Sunday by mid afternoon was suddenly another one of those days. I felt like I'd stepped back in time 10 years. Transfer embargoes, financial peril, bucket collections and clamour for information screamed from the places where virtual shakers hang out. Had the curse of Brian Fenton's holidays had struck again (surely the answer is to confiscate the man's passport?) It's easy to say 'let the board deal with these situations' but when news is leaked out by the local paper, and fans have been so instrumental in the efforts to keep the club going not so long ago it's not surprising there is a panicked reaction. Particularly when it coincides with the quickest turn around in players I can remember.
Martin Dobson's promotion team used just 15 players (thanks James Bentley) yet I reckon KB has already signed more than that in his brief tenure at the top, I had already mused to myself it must be impacting on finances somewhere.
So I shared the information I had with the people who asked it, and went to bed with a heavy heart fearing the worst but hoping for the best from the official announcement as to what exactly was going on.

Monday's announcement allayed the fears somewhat, a quick PFA loan, being paid back in a month to ease the pain caused by called off games was the diagnosis of the embargo. The team set off to Southend mid morning with it's full complement of loanees still intact, and proceeded to get stuck in a huge accident on the M6. Having had 2 days from hell the club must've felt like someone was sticking pins into them.

Tuesday's cup tie and subsequent penalty shoot out loss was horribly depressing listening. The importance of the revenue from the cup overtook everyone, and the pressure was too severe. What made it worse was the juxtaposition of the Bradford v Arsenal shoot out happening virtually simultaneously, with the miraculous giant killing and £1 million pay out. For a brief moment it seemed like the Shakers had got it under control but the lead lasted a subliminal advertisers target time and the prize pot disappeared.

Surely Wednesday would be better?
Being awoken by my radio alarm singing the praise of Bradford's miracle by a lady DJ who doesn't quite have the terminology at her finger tips set me off in a bad mood. From twitter I gauged that several Shakers were having equally poor starts to their days. It wasn't until the FA's announcement of Bradford's reinstatement into the FA Cup that my blood began to boil again, the exact same circumstances had resulted in our explusion from the cup in 2006 yet City were off with a fine. The cynic in me can see that City were feeding at the FA's top table as recently as 1999, and as such still be part of that club. Only yesterday they got everyone talking about football in a positive way causing a huge cup upset. It wouldn't do to spoil the feel good by kicking them out would it?
Local radio tried to make a difference where there wasn't one - Bradford had spotted the problem and alerted the FA, other clubs had waited to be found out. Not true of course, Bury had flagged it up in 2006 as soon as the oversight was discovered but why let the truth hide a story. I hope Bury take legal advice based on what happened with this case, as there is now clear difference in treatment of the same case. It may solve the short term financial issues if the 2006 prize money for reaching round 3 is correctly reallocated (minus the fine of course).

So I remained cross, having had 5 days in a row. Let down by the governing body who had failed to keep to their own precedent, unsure about the financial stability of my beloved club, amazed at the never ceasing bad luck that seems to have enveloped the club like a blanket again and desperate for those players pulling on the shirt to feel it like we do. Maybe just once?