Morecambe PvP Macclesfield Town

Instead of Only Fools and Horses 'To Hull and Back', we bring you 'To Morecambe and Back'!

In the days leading up to this game there was a hard frost which we considered before making our long journey up the M6 to Morecambe. We left at 8am while it was still fairly dark and cold. After an hour into our travels, the first stop of the day was Newcastle Town’s Lyme Valley Stadium which according to Wikipedia holds 4,000 which I (Ross) find hard to believe. The Lyme Valley Stadium also has a cycle track surrounding the pitch.

Newcastle Town (Click the image for full page of pictures)

Our next stop was at Bamber Bridge’s QED Stadium (also known as ‘Irongate’) just outside Preston. Bamber Bridge first moved to The QED Stadium in Aug 1987 and holds just over 2,000 people. In the 90’s, Floodlights were installed at the then ‘Irongate’ and also the fairly new ‘Gerry Lawson Stand’ was built following their FA Cup run in 1999-2000 reaching the second round of the FA Cup for the first time where they lost 1-0 to Cambridge United who at the time were in the old Second Division.

Bamber Bridge (Click the image for full page of pictures)

This was meant to be the final non-league ground of the day, Lancaster City. We arrived in Lancaster just before 11am. Lancaster City have played at Giant Axe since 1905 and featured some development in the 90’s including seating being introduced to the Main Stand. Giant Axe has a 500-seat Main Stand, with the open Club End Terrace behind one goal and The Shed at the other. Opposite the Main Stand is the Long Side, a small open terrace which also plays host to a raised corporate box and the dugouts. According to the Club Secretary, the Floodlight lamps, the Main Stand seats and Carpet in the club house used to be featured at Filbert Street before the demolition in 2002! The Carpet that was shown to us had the traditional Foxes head patterned across their club house floor. The barman told us that at the auction, the lot title read ‘LCFC embroidered carpet’ thinking it would have the letters ‘LCFC’ (For Lancaster City Football Club or Leicester City Football Club) embroidered into the carpet. Unfortunately, when it arrived they found they had purchased rolls of carpet which featured Leicester City’s logo patterned throughout the design. Waste not want not, they used it anyway!

Lancaster City (Click the image for full page of pictures)

We reached Morecambe at 11:30am, finding out instantly that the game was called off! We headed back towards the M6 Southbound hoping to get to either Rochdale v Charlton Athletic in League 1 or Crewe Alexandra v Accrington Stanley in League 2. Radio 5 live announced that Rochdale’s game was called off before we got onto the M6 and Crewe’s pitch was inspected at 12pm with the same outcome as the previous two games.. POSTPONED!

Our brief minute at the Globe Arena, Morecambe

We decided to make the most of the day by stopping off at a number of non-league grounds on our way home, including Warrington Town, Northwich Victoria, Witton Albion, Winsford United, Nantwich Town and finally Kidsgrove Athletic.

We arrived in Warrington at 1pm. Warrington Town play at Cantilever Park which holds a capacity crowd of 3,500. The ground name was taken by the iconic Cantilever bridge behind the ground which stretches across the Manchester Shipping Canal.

Warrington Town (Click the image for full page of pictures)

Following lunch at Morrisons in Warrington, We continued our journey heading towards Northwich. Northwich Victoria play at The Victoria Stadium which is located outside of the town. The Victoria Stadium was opened in 2005 (officially in 2006) and holds just over 5,000 spectators. They previously played at Drill Field until it was demolished in 2002 due to the ground not meeting new safety regulations. In the three year gap between the demolition of the Drill Field and the construction of The Victoria Stadium, Northwich Victoria played at Wincham Park, the home of their Northwich rivals Witton Albion, which is located across the canal from the Victoria Stadium.

Northwich Victoria (Click the image for full page of pictures)

Talking of Witton Albion, that was our next stop! Witton Albion play at Wincham Park which is across the canal from The Victoria Stadium (Northwich Victoria). Wincham Park first opened in 1989 with a capacity of 4,813. As well as Northwich Victoria, Runcorn Linnets previously played at Wincham Park between 2006 and 2010 who have now returned to Runcorn playing at their newly constructed home the Millbank Linnets Stadium which holds 1,600 supporters.

About as local as you get!

Witton Albion (Click the image for full page of pictures)

Next stop was Winsford United. Winsford United play at Barton Stadium which has a capacity of 7,000 (I doubt that’s right, Wikipedia!). The stadium formerly had a greyhound track. It was formerly known as the Great Western Playing Field, but was renamed in honour of R.G. Barton, who led the committee to re-establish Winsford United after the First World War.

Winsford United (Click the image for full page of pictures)

Nantwich Town play at the newly constructed Weavers Stadium which can hold up to 3,500 people. The Stadium cost £4million to construct before being officially opened in time for the 2007-2008 season. Statistics show that since moving to the new stadium coupled with success on the pitch has helped contribute to a dramatic increase in Nantwich’s attendances from an average of 118 supporters in 2005/6 to an average of 664 supporters in 2008/9. Even though that doesn’t sound like much, think of it as team with 12,000 supporters and increasing it to 66,500 supporters. Thats a lot!

Nantwich Town (Click the image for full page of pictures)

Our final ground of the day is the Seddon Stadium, home of Kidsgrove Athletic. The ground holds 2,000 spectators. While I (Ross) was looking at Kidsgrove Athletics Wikipedia page, I noticed the squad contained a number of familiar faces!

Kidsgrove Athletic (Click the image for full page of pictures)

A fairly disappointing day for Adrian and I as our trip to Morecambe will have to be put on hold for a while now. We were very unfortunate not to be able to go to a game in the North West (..oh by the way, non-league Fleetwood Town and Southport both played! This leaves a slight sour taste). We both really enjoyed the 9 non-league grounds we visited on the day (Surely that must be a record!), from the Lancaster City carpet story to standing on a cone at Witton Albion!


Hope you enjoy viewing our pictures as much as we enjoyed visiting them