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.