Match: v Rushden & Diamonds - Nationwide Football Conference

Date: Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007

Result: Rushden 3 Cambridge United 1

THE JOURNEY

Departure Time: 4.20pm

Arrival at Ground: The chances of A14 hold ups were obviated by the early departure and a problem-free journey ended, about an hour later, in one of the large car parks at the ground.

AT THE GROUND

The Ground: Nene Park may not be the biggest stadium around, but it is a smart, modern and completely out of place in the Conference.

The exterior has something of a shopping mall feel to it - all steel and glass - and helpful signposts all around, that would not look out of place in Trumpton, reinforce the 'not a football ground' impression. Well almost helpful signposts...

The procedure for collecting my press pass was something of a palaver. The pick up point had changed from our last visit and there were at least three separate reception areas, each on a different side of the ground, which may have held the ticket. Needless to say, it was in the third one that I it tracked down.

One of these reception areas had a garden shed standing outside bearing a notice that you could win this 'outside room'. The details were a little sketchy but, even so, there can't be many football grounds that you can leave after becoming the proud owner of somewhere new to keep your flowerpots - irrespective of whether you call it a 'shed' or a 'room'.

The stadium itself is seated on three sides. The stands along either side of the pitch contained a similar number of rows of seats as the South Stand at the Abbey, but started closer to pitch level. There were executive areas in a central section at the back of one of these sides, and this part of the stand was covered by a gable roof.

Opposite, a similar sized stand contained the press box three quarters of the way along. Only the gentlemen of the written press were allowed in the warmth of the press box though; we hardy radio types had to sit out in the cold - which actually makes for a better commentary position, even if it did take miles of gaffer tape to attach the effects microphone to the recalcitrant front wall of the press box.

The away end was to the left of this stand. This was also seated and covered by an elegantly curved roof. Covered terrace was behind the other goal and had the bright lights of the match control room at one corner and an equally illuminating scoreboard at the other.

Because three sides of the ground were covered by a continuous roofline - the away end being the exception - the filling-rattling effect of the ridiculously loud public address system was magnified to an almost ear-bleeding level. Given that some home areas of the ground were so thinly populated, it might have been more cost effective to send someone round to pass messages to individual supporters.

United Fans: Given the run of results, it was not surprising that there were loud calls for the manager's head. However, this was done only when the outcome of the game had been settled. Prior to that point, there was loud support and encouragement for the team. It was one of those nights when the supporters deserved so much more.

View from Away End: Excellent view with no pillars to get in the way.

Home Fans: Little was heard from them until their team scored the second goal.

Police/Stewards: With Northampton Town hosting Millwall that night, it was not surprising that there were no police at Nene Park. The stewards were unobtrusive and left United fans to express their views.

Programme: £2.50 for 52 pages. Plenty of articles worth looking at, although the photo of the United team group was more than a little blurred - presumably because so few of people pictured are still at the Abbey.

Food/Drink: There was a good range on offer in the concourse that ran behind the stands. The tasty cheeseburgers, at £2.70, would have been better if their recipe had actually included any cheese while even on a cold night the chips remained red hot - though not in a top shelf magazine way, you understand. Coffee (£1.30) was welcomingly warm too.

State of Toilets: Clean and spacious enough.

AFTERWARDS

The Journey Home: Overhead signs on the A14 warned of delays leading to the Channel Tunnel - which was a bit alarming - but fortunately the particular section of the A14 and M11 in which I was interested seemed unaffected so, with the gritting lorries out and about, the journey back proved straightforward enough

Mileage: 88.4 miles

Total Distance for Season: 3,278.5 miles

Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by Gordon McMillan

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