Being last here, I get to park furthest away. This has potential to recur all day long...last away, furthest to park from the ground...unless I leave a game early, which I never do. I double back to Garstang’s ground, The Riverside, which is charmingly situated beside...a river. Charming, as long as it doesn’t flood. The 1st turnstiles are for ticket holders only, but a helpful steward points me towards the other end, towards the river. Even better, unlike Longridge, there’s still programmes to be had.
The editorial in the programme is full of zest about being part of the Groundhop. ‘It’ll be nice to play in front of a crowd’ opines the writer, honestly. Garstang, normal crowds in two figures, get 388 today. The power of the Groundhop! Their next best is 122. Today, The Stang play host to Ashton United. Surely not ANOTHER team from Ashton-Under-Lyne? No, a cursory Google search finds they’re from Ashton-in-Makerfield (where?) Somewhere near Wigan, apparently. They’re right in the play-off mix and start as favourites against a Garstang side near the relegation spots.
Resolutely unsuccessful since 1885, The Stang don’t even have a stand to speak of. Don’t they have ground standards in the North West Counties? Turns out they had a small stand up till 2006, when it was taken down due to vandalism. Why do people do this kind of thing? At the river end there’s a small wooden structure with a corrugated plastic roof, containing a couple of rows of benches. There you go, covered seating for maybe 30 people. There’s another similar structure towards the other river end corner flag, the only other covering in the ground, save for the dugouts. A disappointed trickle of groundhoppers walk this far and find the 4th side is inaccessible. A perimeter fence divides the football and cricket pitches.
Opposite the cricket pitch side is some small banking which oddly curves around the dugouts and gives the place some uniqueness. Behind the far goal is the social club, which I never go into cos there’s a food and drink stall nearby where I can keep an eye on the game whilst ordering. It is packed early doors though as those groundhoppers have become hungry again as breakfast subsides. I walk around the curve, which is well populated, to the far end and take a perch and get chatting to groundhoppers who’re ostensibly Sheffield Wednesday and Hearts fans. One of the latter has only come down for this game ‘cos I’ve been to the other 3’ (groundhop grounds today). A long way to come for 10th tier action, but the appeal of a crowd isn’t solely the jurisdiction of the programme editor.
It’s a cracking game and, like Longridge, finishes 3-2. This time it’s the hosts who win, racing 3-0 up by the 50th minute before a couple of goals midway through the second half brings a siege of The Stang goal, not helped when a home player is also sent off. Somehow, they hang on. There’s no rush to leave this time though. An announcement during the game ‘to all the groundhoppers’. The match at Squires Gate is off. That means the 4th match, a 7:45pm kick-off at AFC Blackpool, gives me 4 hours to hang around for a game which will take me over an hour to get home from. I decide to give it a miss and earn brownie points off my partner for going home and watching Gladiators. Good job too – AFC Blackpool was postponed as well!
The Damage:
£7 ent (£6 but he didn’t have enough change)
£3 programme
£4.50 burger
= £14.50
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