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A Day Trip To Blyth

There are some games you look forward to and some you don’t, this was one of those that I personally couldn’t wait for.

It was my 130^th new ground and made my collection of Unibond Premier grounds complete and, by the end of the match I started counting my chickens and started to look at how many new ones there would be in Conference North next season!

What a great day, a brilliant 4-1 win that could easily have been 9-1, an excellent trip and a super little ground with a crowd that were actually quite passionate about their football.

It was another early start for me with the promise of calling in at a few new grounds on the journey up being just too much to miss. We actually only visited three grounds, Crook Town, Tow Law and Whitley Bay which were all ones I had never been to before. A few more had been planned but we took a little detour on the way up via High Force Waterfalls and this spectacular sight was well worth the £1 entry fee and well worth the hour we spent there-Highly Recommended as the brochures say.

The journey into Blyth was interesting. Having missed the turning for the ground we ended up on Blyth seafront but then had a few problems finding Croft Park.

It was Martin’s bright idea that I should jump out of the car and ask for directions. Having experienced a few language problems in the pub we had stopped at for lunch in Consett it was with a little trepidation that I asked a very pleasant lady in the local Bargain Booze store where the ground was. After a blank look I said Blyth Spartans football ground?… well I got the why aye lad but after that she may well have been speaking Swahili to me for all I understood. I politely thanked her and left!

Having got the drift that it was back in the direction we had come from we finally peeked the floodlights in the distance and arrived with time to spare. We parked outside the superbly named Blyth Smartens hairdressers which was bedecked in the green and white of the team and had the club crest on the windows-a great show of support from a local business.

The ground was excellent, the type I like, cover down the side in case of rain, terracing behind both goals (One thing that has disappointed me this season is the number of grounds that have flat areas behind the goals were you can’t see a thing) and a stand that meets the needs of the club. You could walk around freely, although I was desperately trying not to speak to anyone because of the language barrier! The game itself was great to watch, particularly the first half, but isn’t it odd that when you watch a game on telly and a team has a three goal lead you think the game is over but somehow when it’s YOUR team it never feels quite so comfortable? I needn’t have worried we were in control throughout and Blyth never really threatened.

This was our longest trip of the season and a very creditable 70 or so Southport fans were in attendance and gave the lads a well deserved ovation at the end of the game. The encouraging support of these fans throughout the game was a joy to listen to, no moans or groans, just true genuine diehard support and I think everyone who was there will agree that the lads responded well and made for a very enjoyable day out.

The Blyth fan that I got chatting to on the way out, yes I risked it, was very complimentary about the team but if you take away the expletives he used to describe his own teams performance there wasn’t much left.

I think the Blyth fans frustration was summed up when the man with the mike said there were four minutes of added time…..sorry!

The next away trip is Radcliffe and I am hoping to also take in some of the fans match on the morning before the game. This is an excellent idea and a report from the match will feature in a future programme. Let’s hope we pull off the double with fans and players both winning.