Harrogate Town vs Grimsby Town

Harrogate Town VS Grimsby Town

Wetherby Road

15/07/2014

The day has finally come! Back on the supporters coach and on the road again. I was quite happy that we managed to get a game at Harrogate as I consider then to be a team with good ambition. They have recently signed former Mansfield Town striker Jake Speight. I was quite impressed with him in the 2011-2012 season when he played for Wrexham, notching up 21 goals in 38 games in the Skrill Premier League (Blue Square Premier League back then) and earned himself a move back to Mansfield for a undisclosed fee. They also have former Mariners goalkeeper Phil Barnes who made 120 appearances for us over 3 seasons. Another former Mariner was Matthew Bloomer. Lastly but most definitely not the least Mariners legend John McDermott is there assistant manager. Making 754 appearances overall  in a black and white shirt is a great milestone to reach. He also has a book called "Its not all black and white" which I intend to buy at some point.

Harrogate are currently in the Conference north. They were founded in 1914 after the town had been trying to form a football club for 7 years. They was entered into the Northern League and was due to play their first competitive fixture in 1914 but due to the World War One, all of the fixtures were postponed. After the war Harrogate were entered into the west riding league after a meeting took place to put the club back together and they went on to play their first competitive fixture in August 1919.

Wetherby Road is 3,800 capacity stadium with 500 seats. It opened in 1920 and has been their ground since. I think its a nice little stadium. Next to the entrance they have a little tea bar. After looking at the prices I thought I would stay away today as I was on a budget. Next the Tea bar is a terrace and opposite that there is a bar and  the seating area. To the right of the seating area there is an open space called the Lancaster End witch is soon to be where the new stand is going to be.

Harrogate FC New Proposed stand

I got up at 10 that day. Playing Football Manager makes makes time fly and before I know it the time came to leave for the coach. I left at my house at 15:10 to meet up with Kieran. We stopped off at the shop on the way to the coach and got to the Stamford club at 16:00. We set off for the journey to Harrogate and stopped off at a service station on the way there. The prices put me off getting any food so I just got a drink. We got into Harrogate at around 18:30 and had too walk 5 minuets down the road due to no parking at the ground.

When going into the ground the website said that it would be £1 to get in but when We got there they said it would be £2 to gain entrance which annoyed me. Something which was disappointing was the program.

This wasent even a program. It was just a piece of A4 paper. Also to add the the list of disappointments the Club Shop which I was really looking forward to visiting was closed.

After a walk around the stadium to grab some pictures we sat down in our seats to get ready for the game. Just a few minuets later Russell, who was coming up all the way from Wycombe came and joined us. It was nice to see him because I haven't met him before. The game kicked off at 7:30. James Mckeown made a great save keep the score level.  Grimsby hadn't started too well but Scott Browns shot from range fired home on the 38th minuet. Just 4 minuets later Lenell John-Lewis doubled the score. The second half was very evenly matched and no goals where scored. The full time whistle was blown and we said our goodbyes. I really enjoyed the day but really wanted to get in the club shop. One thing I am going to remember for next time is to bring my camera because the one on my phone inst to good at zooming in.

We went straight back to Grimsby and got there for 11:30. Grimsby felt so different at night. It was so quiet and you could hear an owl which was quite cool. I saw a total on 8 foxes on the long walk home and it looked like someone had tried to brake into a nearby school because of the alarm going off and a few people gathering outside. I got home for 12:30 and had a quick look on Facebook and YouTube before heading to bed.