Gigg Lane

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Bury 0-0 Mansfield Town

Aerial shot of Gigg Lane (Courtesy of Bury FC Official Website)

Programme - £3.00

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 6/10

Ease of getting there : 9/10

Atmosphere : 7/10

Programme : 8/10

View of Action : 4/10

Quality of the game : 4/10

The "football" feeling : 5/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 1/10

Legroom : 10/10

Surrounding area : 7/10

Overall : 60/100

Cemetery End

Main Stand

The Main Stand just before kick off...

Cemetery End

Les Hart Stand

Main Stand midway through the first half...

Cemetery End

Les Hart Stand

During the second half... the Main Stand

Cemetery End

Les Hart Stand

Cemetery End and Les Hart Stand

Bury 0-0 Mansfield Town

The experts of League 2 are on their travels again less than 2 weeks after their last trip to Exeter City's St James Park. Tonight marks the 5th League 2 match we've seen this season as well as seeing 10 different teams during those 5 matches!

Being a Tuesday night game it was ideal to take the day off work but even though it wasn't a problem for myself, Adrian on the other hand had ran out of leave so for the afternoon I was accompanying him on the job before finishing the day in Stoke-on-Trent.

Adrian and I were expecting a few traffic delays up to Greater Manchester yet we were surprised with the ease of our journey!

We stopped at Morrisons in Whitefield (not too far from Gigg Lane) at 5:30pm where Adrian got changed out of his work clothes....in the car park! Someone call the Manchester Evening News!!

"Man, 52, Caught in the nude!"

Once Adrian got changed, thankfully unnoticed, we went into the shop to get a sandwich before continuing our travels to Gigg Lane.

We were parked up on Brierley Street at 6pm just before another sudden downpour.

Once the rain stopped, we got out the car and went to the ground which was only a short walk away.

With it still being an hour before kick off, we decided to walk around the ground in an attempt to see the rear of each stand which proved to be difficult with three of the sides being blocked off by housing.

On this occasion we sat amongst the away supporters as Adrian was going to meet up with a couple of friends who follow the Stags.

Bury have played at Gigg Lane since they were formed in 1885! Previously with a capacity of 35,000 in its heyday, the current capacity is now reduced to just fewer than 12,000. As with many clubs following the Taylor report in the early 1990’s, Gigg Lane was forced to be redeveloped into an all seater stadium. The Shakers began converting all four sides of their ground in 1993, with the Cemetery End being the final terraced section to be demolished in 1999.

Gigg Lane has never seen a league crowd below 1,000 although the closest to that mark came in 1984 with a crowd of 1,096 against Northampton Town.

Unfortunately the game ended as a nil-nil stalemate with Manfield Town being reduced to 10 men with the dismissal of John Dempster for a two footed lunge. Bury had numerous shots throughout the game yet ultimately couldn’t find the back of the net. The Stags chose to play a more physical game which certainly wasn’t popular amongst both the home supporters and away supporters!

Following the game we made a the short journey back to the car and drove down the Manchester Road towards the motorway before going around Greater Manchester to Hyde before travelling across the Peaks on the Snake Pass road back onto the M1 and eventually reaching the Midlands for just before 12am.

With the completion of Gigg Lane, I only have 12 grounds to complete out of the 92! The nearest grounds remaining now are Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane and York City’s Bootham Crescent which are all just over 100 miles away.

Even though the game wasn’t brilliant, it’s still a good feeling knowing that I’m edging closer to my 92nd ground.