Match: v Exeter City - Blue Square Premier

Date: Saturday, September 8th, 2007

Result: Exeter 1 Cambridge United 1

The Journey

Departure Time: 8.20am

Arrival at Ground: We were fortified for the long journey ahead by high jinks on the Baldock bypass where a carriageway had been coned off for road works. A large highway maintenance lorry, replete with flashing lights, was closely followed by a couple of cars as it plodded slowly along until it slipped through a couple of cones into the closed carriageway. In fact the two vehicles behind it were so close that when it did turn into the road works both followed it... much to our amusement, but not the drivers who sped off embarrassed at a high rate of knots.

With the forecast suggesting a sunny day the world, his mother and their surfboards were predictably all heading for the West Country so stodgy motorway traffic was thick with early autumn surfer-dudes.

After a brief stop at the world's busiest service station, the final motorway section of the journey was made even more ponderous by everyone slowing down to look at a car boot sale being held on a hill next to the road. Maybe they thought it was some new reality TV programme, or maybe this part of the country is simply very short on entertainment, but with all the impressive countryside around and picturesque church towers on many of the rolling hills, surely there are better things to slow down for a better look at than a car boot sale.

Fortunately the final drive into Exeter was straightforward enough and we parked, close to the ground, at about 12.45pm.

At The Ground

The Ground: Set on the side of a hill, between terraced housing and a railway cutting, half of St James' Park hasn't changed at all in all the years I've been visiting. The half that has changed is very impressive though with a large, red seat-filled stand running along one side of the pitch. Glass windows from various executive areas are in the central section at the rear of this stand.

To the right, a large, part-covered bank of terracing is forced into a slightly odd shape at one end by the railways cutting - a fact revealed by a helpful aerial photograph in the programme. This terracing has, for some unexplained reason, a huge red and white heart painted on it... or, to be more accurate, a heart shape rather than an anatomical representation of a heart.

Continuing round the ground, there is a big contrast on the opposite side of the pitch to the new stand. Here, we are in old St James' Park where the only thing ahead of its time about the wooden-framed stand was the smoking ban that was wisely introduced when they realised how quickly dry rot burns. At the back of this stand, sandwiched between a wooden wall and a less substantial one of rusting corrugated iron, a maze of stairs leads between various blocks of seats and surprisingly clean facilities. With one block of seats covered to protect the seats from incontinent pigeons and a roof supported by some of the widest pillars in football, regular denizens of this stand show just how strong the pull of tradition and habit is amongst football fans. Like the big bank of terracing, the railway curtails one end of this stand and there's only an optimistic mesh fence to prevent enthusiastic clearances bouncing off the roof of the 4.15 to Okehampton.

A small area of open terrace to the other side of this old stand leads all the way round behind the remaining goal to the new stand. This uncovered terrace is, of course, for away fans and is backed by a chain link fence and whitewashed wall.

Being on the side of a hill means there is little chance of the pitch not having a slope. The large hummocks in either six-yard box are a little more difficult to explain unless, in this ancient landscape, they actually are the Iron Age tumuli they resemble and thus have scheduled monument status. The playing surface was further compromised before the game when a large 4x4 belonging to a local independent radio station blithely took a short cut across the pitch. I don't know what came as a bigger surprise, the fact that the driver had the audacity to do it or the fact that they weren't chased off by a pitchfork-wielding groundsman. The incident can't have done anything for the groundsman's temper, which might explain why, at half time, he had a prolonged shouting match with a steward that ended with a fork being thrown into the pitch so hard that it had to be drawn, Excalibur-like, before the second half could begin.

United Fans: Another decent turnout for a long journey and, despite the lack of a roof, they managed to make themselves heard. One even managed to make himself seen as he offered his glasses, on a couple of occasions, to the linesman. It was probably a waste of time though; the linesman in question missed so much in the game he probably wouldn't have seen the offer anyway. Another fan, who seemed to have been over-served at a local hostelry, managed to see just 22 minutes before being removed for being rather too objectionable towards the family enclosure.

View from Away End: With no roof - and therefore no pillars in the way - United fans on the away terrace and in a block of seats in the new stand had an unobstructed view.

Home Fans: Despite the best cheerleading efforts of Exeter's Director of Football, Steve Perryman, the home fans weren't anything like as noisy as they had been on our last couple of visits. They only got going in the second half when they stomped and clapped unrhythmically when their side won a corner.

Police/Stewards: Only really had the one incident with which to deal and were generally friendly and helpful enough.

Programme: For years 'The Grecian' has been the benchmark programme for whichever division Exeter City happen to be in, and year's publication is no exception. A heavyweight tome at 72 pages for £2.80, it was packed to the gunwales with articles - including an interesting history of the City of Cambridge. I understand their aim this season is to produce a 'better programme than Oxford'. We shall see.

In addition to the aerial photo of St James' Park there's also one of the training ground. Given its lack of features, only the photo caption gave a clue that it wasn't just any old fairly flat field in Devon.

Food/Drink: Pasties were excellent - and pretty good value too at a meat-filled £2.20 - while the burgers (£2.50) were tasty enough to prove the old adage that you shouldn't judge a book by its (worryingly pallid) cover.

Afterwards

The Journey Home: Just when you think motorway services have revealed every possible facet of life, they come up with something to surprise you. On this occasion it was Membury Services hosting a children's' birthday party - for the sake of the birthday child, I hope this wasn't the high point of their day.

And there was another surprise later in the journey when we passed a fireworks display. At the start of the day we would have been pleased with a point at Exeter but the pyrotechnic celebration seemed a little disproportionate. What do you mean it wasn't for us?

Mileage: 480.7 miles

Total Distance for Season: 1,334.7 miles

Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by David Gray, Gordon McMillan and Doug Shulman

[Match report] [Fixture list] [League Table]

Make Your Click Count For The U's - talk about it on the Message Board!

The views expressed on this page are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cambridge United Football Club or the webmaster.

AT070910