Pirelli Stadium League 2 Saturday February 15th 2014
It’s not very often I leave home with no idea where I’m going but thanks to an early morning postponement of Boston’s trip to Colwyn Bay, Nick, Tom and myself were left with a decision to make- what game to go to?
The big game today- To be fair, the best programme apart from Notts County’s
My plan had been to get the 8:41 out of Nottingham, meet Nick at Stafford, Tom at Crewe, and from there we’d enjoy an afternoon in Colwyn Bay watching Boston get back on track before getting home extremely late.
Expecting us to end up somewhere in the north-west, I stuck to my plans and was out the door by 8am- catching the 8:41- thought it was so early, Greggs wasn’t open so no chance of a quick sausage roll to fill me up. No Non League Papers were on sale so I couldn’t hastily look for some more obscure fixtures on top of the list Nick and I had come up with the night before (in case it was postponed)
All 3 of us had our own dilemmas. I had a slight preference for Chorley v FC United of Manchester (which was later called off!), but Nick had seen FCUM recently so was less keen. Tom didn’t want to go back up North having travelled south to Crewe from Sheffield. It was only when I got into Derby that Burton v Dagenham became an option. It was a sensible compromise for all 3 of us. We were all within 1 hour of Burton. Sorted
Burton-on-Trent Railway Station. This wasn’t taken by me. I’d managed to accidentally delete my early shots somehow
The only snag was that I was only 10 minutes from Burton and would arrive at 9:35… a full hour before Nick would arrive (having just made an early train) and 2 hours before Tom could get there.
So I took in some of the local area, got to know the route to the ground, took a few shots of the station and surrounding area before getting back to the station in time to meet up with Nick. A quick trip to Sainsbury’s to wander around rather aimlessly and grab a bag of sweets, before heading back to the station to meet Tom (for the first time in my case)
The plan was to go and grab some dinner and kill a bit of time before the game, seeing as it was only 11:40 by now but upon walking to the ground and having a quick poke in the club shop to enquire about tickets, Tom fancied a bit of a kickabout and once we’d bumped into a concrete footy pitch in a cage down the local park, the decision was made for us.
A trip to McDonalds via a comfort break round the back of a gym by the railway was in order, only for Tom his moments coincided with a passing train! We managed to find the 1 free table in McDonalds and then paid £10 for the football and headed for the park
Cheryl let us have a football
Cue football in heavy rain ranging from the sublime (whatever Tom hit), to the ridiculous (my first attempt landing on top of the goal and some of Nick’s efforts which resembled the John Smith’s advert). Alas, it killed 45 minutes and by 2pm we were ready to go to the ground.
The Pirelli Stadium is a relatively new build. Built right next to the old ground- Eton Park (which is now a housing estate bearing such roads like Clough Drive and Barker Round Way). For the rail enthusiasts like me, the ground is also located on Princes Drive- which used to be the short section of track which joined Burton with the Crewe-Derby line.
Being a new build, it is very much like a concrete block. It has a main stand just like the ones at Telford and Newport, with 3 identically deep terraces down the 3 other sides.
View from the North Terrace- towards the East Terrace, normally used to house away fans, but not today
The away section. About 100 or so Daggers made the trip
Burton’s more vocal fans in the West terrace. note some of the 20 or so flags.
Having paid £11 to get in (pretty good) and grabbed a pre match Steak and Kidney Pie & Cuppa (about £4) as well as a good quality programme (£3) with some rather plastic clapper things which I totally despise, I was a bit underwhelmed by the ground to be honest. It is exactly what Boston will end up with, it looks like a ground out of Football Manager 2013 and there was minimal atmosphere throughout the game. I just felt for a team chasing promotion to League 1, surely there would’ve been a real good atmosphere to spur the team on, but alas- modern stadia are built with minimal cost in mind, not acoustics.
So onto the game itself then, the wind really played a role in the game as both sides struggled to create anything. Frequent showers also made it tricky and the pitch began to cut up quickly. Burton looked the more likely to create anything and were strong in the air from set pieces. Both wingers were well in the game and looked constantly menacing- Zeli Ismail down the right flank was particularly impressive, with great trickery to fashion several openings, only for indifferent decision making to let him down.
However bang on half time, with their first real attack all game, Lawson D’Ath curled an absolute stunner into the top corner from 25 yards, leaving Rob Lainton completely helpless in the Burton goal. That stunned all bar 100 or so of the 2,934 inside the ground and left the Brewers with a tall order to come back.
Dagenham came close to going 2 up at the start of the 2nd half, as a well worked team move resulted in a powerful strike from Medy Elito forcing a fine save to Lainton’s left.
However, they would be playing with their backs to wall from the 55th minute, as JAck Connors- already booked for bringing down Ismail in the first half, fouled the tricky winger again and received his marching orders. From there, it was almost constant pressure from Burton. The wind was also against the Daggers and they found it almost impossible to get out of their half. Burton didn’t create many clear-cut chances but did eventually level on 69 minutes with a neat low finish from Billy Kee, curling low past Chris Lewington’s left hand.
Burton peppered Dagenham’s penalty box and in injury time and Robbie Weir hit the inside of the post with a low shot, but Dagenham held out for the 5 minutes of added time to get a hard fought point.
In truth, Burton had much the more of the game and I wouldn’t have begrudged them a winner but Dagenham were well organised and restricted the hosts to few clear chances, so a point was about fair. Burton are in 6th place, with Dagenham in 9th- albeit nearer the relegation zone than the playoff places.
Burton- Lainton, Edwards, McCrory, Palmer, Sharps, Cansdell-Sherriff, Ismail, Weir, Alexander (Knowles 79), McGurk (Kee 57), Phillips (MacDonald 79). Unused Subs- Hussey, Bell, Lyness, Gray.
Dagenham- Lewington, Hoyte, Connors, D’Ath, Wilkinson, Doe, Ogogo, Bingham, Murphay (Norris 70), Elito [Ilesanmi 55 (Saah 75)], Azeez. Unused Subs- Dickson, Shields, Seabright, Hines.
Ref- Kevin Wright
Attendance- 2,934 (roughly 100 Dagenham)
Game rating- 5/10. a turgid affair in difficult conditions. Two excellent goals though
Ground- 7/10. A nice facility but as a footy ground, just your average new ground. Though Burton fans did try and dress it up in flags. Give me York Street over this all the time.
Atmosphere- 5/10. Pretty poor effort from both sides. Burton’s more vocal fans ran out of puff after 20 minutes. A lot like a Boston home game from last year, minus a bit of moaning.
Prices- 9/10. £11 entry is good for a student (£13 for adults to stand, £15 to sit still good). food was decent for the prices, programme is on a par with Boston’s good standard.
Day out- 7/10. Good to meet up with Nick and Tom. Not had a kickaround for ages- I can tell why! Didn’t get so lucky with our game but can’t win them all. All of us back home by 7pm. Even won a couple of bets for a change!
Next up- As it’s half term, there may be a game on in Nottingham in midweek, but it’ll probably be Harrogate v Boston. My first visit to Harrogate and my 2nd attempt to get there after last seasons game was called off. A big game against a playoff candidate- certainly must not lose.
Under The Floodlights 
A good read, I somewhat agree with your assessment of the new grounds, functional but bland is fair, although the flags do improve things at Burton. Chesterfield’s and Rotherham’s are wonderful exceptions to the new grounds. However, have you ever been on the away end at York Street? That is an awful experience. At Burton you get, a good view, a roof, decent toilets, a bar rather than a serving hatch on a concourse and that is consistent in ll parts of the ground. It is also perfectly sized for our fan base and generates significant income outside of match days. It is a while since I went to York Street so it may have changed but I take the facilities at Burton over it any day.
Hi Ian,
Thanks for reading. If you’re talking about Boston’s away end being the big terrace behind the goal, yes the catering facilites aren’t great when you get the large numbers which force us to give you that end. 1 or 2 food trucks for 2,000 fans or so in the League days was ridiculous and the facilies are not designed to cope for more than 1,000 or so in that area, let alone double that. The terrace itself though is amongst the best in the country now that there are very few terraces remaining.
If you’re on about the tiny pocket of the York Street (double decker) end then yeah facilities are minimal but when you’re only dealing with away turnouts of 20-30, they’re fine.
Don’t get me wrong facilities are spot on at Burton, 3,000 fans were easily catered for but as a ground I just felt it lacked something- a problem we will have when we move into a similar structure very soon.
Cheers
Josh
Hi Josh,
When I went with Burton a few years ago we were in the double decker stand and it was awful and we were there in reasonable numbers.
I do understand your point about the new grounds, as I mention I think Chesterfield and Rotherham have done great jobs. I suppose though it is a difficult compromise, some of the character of the old grounds came with the fact they had different shaped stands and/or an old world charm, often though the facilities were woeful. The fact that we still let clubs into the League (never mind the Conference) without basic facilities like a roof on the away end or half decent toilets rankles. The new grounds are generally homogenous and soulless but they do have good facilities for all fans including away fans.
I did look at the artistic impressions of your new ground, it looks perfectly formed but with quite low terracing. Unfortunately the higher you build the more expensive it gets I guess.
It was a good read Josh, I hope you enjoyed your day out, not quite Colwyn Bay but then again a bit more comfortable. Good luck as you come back up the pyramid.
Hi Ian,
I’ve not been to too many new builds such as Chesterfield/Rotherham. Our new ground was initially going to be about 4,300 but they plan to extend one of the terraces to try and make it different to other parts of the ground. It would also make it League standard at 5,000 capacity, though given how tough we’re finding the Conference North and the fact we only ever won the Conference by bending the rules, it’ll be a long hard slog to get back, but examples of similar sized clubs such as Burton, Stevenage and Morecambe show it is possible to succeed when you’re well run.
And as much as I whinge about new grounds, I’d rather be playing at one in front of a few thousand than stood, with all due respect, at Vauxhall Motors and Solihull Moors in front of 200!
Cheers
Josh