Tims 92

Shrewsbury Town

The New Meadow

Ground No. 129

Visited - Tuesday 14th August 2007
Result - Shrewsbury Town 1-0 Colchester United (A.E.T.)
Competition - Carling Cup
Attendance - 3069

When the final whistle was blown in the first leg of the play-offs against Milton Keynes, referee Keith Stroud signalled the end of an era in Shrewsbury Town’s history with the curtain being bought down on Gay Meadow. Having followed the club for four years since first visiting for a match against Scunthorpe, it was a bit sad to see the old ground go, and the prospect of a new, flat pack, out of town stadium wasn’t the most mouth watering one, with a change in the matchday experience not exactly promising to be all that positive when compared to the location and charm of Gay Meadow.

Despite the fears though, on first visiting the new ground for an open day in early July, the first impressions were more positive than expected. The walk from the station/town centre is a long, but not unreasonable one, and with there being plenty of pubs en route, it could have been a lot worse. After reaching the ground, its size is a lot larger than expected, and despite not being the most inspired of designs, it could have been worse. My next visit was a week later for the opening game against the ‘A-Line All Stars’, a team made up of mostly retired players with the pick of them being Gianfranco Zola and ex-Wolves forward Don Goodman. That game was a typical pre-season affair with Shrews running out easy 4-0 winners on a bright summers afternoon, but with half the ground closed due to capacity restrictions and there being no away fans, nor the trip counting towards the 92, then the game/ground hadn’t really caught my imagination just yet, so I was looking forward to the first competitive match, which was scheduled to be against Championship side Colchester United in the League Cup.

The journey over to Shrewsbury by train had gone without a hitch, arriving into the town just before 6:30pm, and then making the short walk to the bus station where the matchday bus service was due to run from. Whilst not being opposed to walking the 2½ miles to the ground, I would have needed to get the bus back afterwards for the train, so decided to take advantage of the £3 return offer. Unfortunately, once at the station, there were no signs as to whether the bus service was actually running, and with no one seeming to know, then I was left wondering whether it was actually running at all, but one eventually turned up, and the 10 minute ride down to the ground passed by quickly and with little incident.

Once at the stadium, there was a long queue for tickets, with no pay on the gate entry allowed any more. That took about 10 minutes up, but after getting to the front and buying a ticket for the South Stand, I then set off to the club shop (disappointingly small and under-stocked), before going off around the ground.

From the outside, particularly from Oteley Road, the ground looks quite imposing. With the pitch at ground level, it means the stands are taller than they could have been, but with no signage on the exterior, they do look quite bland with the white metal cladding being vaguely reminiscent of the Walkers Stadium. Whether anything will be added at a later date remains to be seen, but certainly the Main Stand is in desperate need of writing or the club badge being added to it, with the reception area itself looking particularly dull.

Once inside and going through a fairly average concourse (in terms of design and facilities), you come out into the ground itself. All four stands are separate and the same height, with the North and South stands behind each goal looking identical, except for the police control box on one side of the North (visitors) stand. To the left is the West Stand (or Railside as the fans call it in mock reference to the Riverside Stand at Gay Meadow). With little features in it, other than a raised balcony for disabled fans/TV cameras it doesn’t really catch the eye, but does the job all the same and looks reasonably smart, running the length of the pitch. Finally, is the East/Main Stand. Whilst the same height as its opposite number the West Stand, it differs considerably in the middle, with a big ugly section of dark blue padded seating standing out like a blot, and executive boxes above that. In addition, on the roof of each side are four small, but interesting floodlight pylons providing light for night games.

Having sat in the West Stand for the All Stars game, it was good to be behind the goal again, with me much preferring the view from here to along the side. Unfortunately the game was well below selling out, with a disappointing attendance of just 3069 for the first competitive match (there had been exactly 100 more for the friendly game). The one plus side of this though was that I was able to sit next to a friend at the rear of Block 10, which offered a great view with the height between rows being more than adequate.

Colchester kicked the game off, and the difference in quality between the two sides was evident as the visitors looked impressive with a good passing game that gave them more than enough chances to take the lead. Fortunately for Town, they couldn’t make anything of their attacks, and at half-time, it was still 0-0. Whatever Gary Peters said at half-time must have worked, as the League Two side came out and looked far the better team with Colchester restricted to half chances only. Despite this though neither side could find the net or even trouble the two goalkeepers, so at 90 minutes the referee blew his whistle to indicate that extra-time was needed, much to my own disappointment, meaning I would miss the train home.

In the first period, Colchester looked to be taking the initiative back, but another 15 minutes went by without score, until just a minute into the second half when Darren Kempson got onto the end of a long throw-in at the near post and slammed a header in past Dean Gerken. This stirred something in the visitors from Essex who were buoyed on by a small, but vociferous following in the goal they were attacking, and it looked like they had got back into the game when just minutes from time they got a penalty following a foul on Kem Izzet (who had gone into the box looking for it imo), but Ryan Esson in the Shrewsbury goal stood up and managed to pull off a great save to keep it at 1-0. Town could have increased the lead at the end when Dave Hibbert took all the time in the world to miss a virtually open goal, but it didn’t matter and the home side went into the next round with a deserved win.

The busses back to the town centre after the game were fast and efficient, leaving from behind the South Stand, and getting back with no problems, although with the extra 30 minutes, I had missed the 10:22 train home and had to wait around for an hour until the next one, grabbing a pint and some food before getting back to Wolverhampton just after midnight.

Overall, whilst I hadn’t been looking forward to the move, initial impressions seem somewhat positive. Getting to and from the ground is fairly easy, if not as convenient as the Gay Meadow, and the ground itself, whilst lacking inspiration is a tidy effort and could have been a lot worse. There are a lot of simple things that could be done to make it better like signs/writing around the outside, a bit of paint to brighten up the concourses, or moving the scoreboard to where you could actually see it (with the sun reflecting off it during daytime, and the light directly above it reflecting off it after dark!), but on the whole it isn’t too bad. I’ll miss the Gay Meadow, but the New Meadow (yet to be officially named) is an adequate replacement that will undoubtedly help the club move forward.