Salisbury 2-1 AFC Bournemouth
Raymond McEnhill Stadium
21/07/15
Att: 1,727
*testing* 1,2 *testing* This thing still work? *testing*
Er, hello. After a lengthy absence I'm back with bad anecdotes, poor humour and questionable grammar...Whether you all like it or not. I'd actually done a game in Berlin since my last blog but technical difficulties and German shops not opening on a Sunday mean that the wonderful Poststadion does not feature on this website, yet. Instead it's taken me 4 months to get to another game. I'm not happy that it's taken so long, but some exciting plans due to taking more hours at work in this period have taken effect meaning I'll be taking the PDM name further east than we have before. Including a game that is well and truly on the bucket list.
Anyway, where was I? The biggest pain about having a rota that is announced only a week in advance means that games are scarce as I can't plan them or I end up working anyway. When my rota for this week came out I dropped Phil a text to see where he was heading in the South-West, and to much delight he replied with Salisbury. Not too much of a pain, do-able by train and a new ground to boot. Off I went to Wiltshire via Reading and Basingstoke. Exciting. Arriving with plenty of time I took the opportunity to explore the city a little. It's a nice enough place, particularly in the sun, if a little dull. With 5pm approaching fast people were packing up to go home, so I didn't really see the place in full glory. Instead it was to the pub, via Waterstones to pick up reading for the prior mentioned plans.
In turn, finding a pub proved a bit of a calamity as I was on the search for food and a charger more than anything else. First was the Mill Inn, but I decided against it due to being a cheapskate. Across the road I avoided spoons like the plague, nipping round to the Old Ale House. They didn't do food, but perhaps more criminally, no ale. With disgust I begrudgingly headed to Spoons for Steak Club. No worries, I had a plug and free wi-fi. Ordering my food took the bloke behind the counter 3 attempts to get it right, then when getting my customary free drink all but one of the ales were broken. Scandal. Eventually settling for a god-awful Yorkshire IPA I sat and awaited my food. Twenty-five minutes later I was bought a steak. As it turned out, the wrong steak. Much to the embarrassment of the waiter as I'd already poured an assortment of sauces over the various sides. I think the morale of the story here is that I should've continued to avoid Spoons like the plague.
Meeting Phil we took the 10 minute drive out to the RayMac where we joined the already queuing traffic 50 minutes before kick off. With the Car Park nearly full we nabbed one of the final parking spaces and made our way in and straight to the bar. Here a flat, and again not that nice, ale was drunk before we made our first impressions on the ground. Opened in 1997, for the now defunct Salisbury City, it's not the best new build. The terrace behind one side is a nice size, and I imagine a decent noise can be created. Along the main side is covered, with seating for maybe 300. The roof is high, meaning it's probably not the best for covering spectators against the elements. The opposite end and along the other side are uncovered terraces, save for the at-costs perched in the middle. The floodlights are decent, mind.
In terms of the game, I'm not sure how strong this Bournemouth side were, but they aren't Premier League standard. Despite having most of the possession, the most they could muster was the opening goal just before half time (photo 27). Apart from that it was stalemate, but fair play to Salisbury. They gritted down and got a deserved victory in a game that will be forgotten already. Which makes it all the more surprising that both fans and players alike celebrated the goals in the manner they did, which leads me to believe it was a fairly strong Bournemouth team.
Because of the size of the crowd we had to leave 5 minutes before the end, because Kick Off had been delayed by 15 minutes, and the majority of the away end had snuck out. Thankfully it was a smooth journey and I was saying my goodbyes at the station in no time. Then scandal struck again. There are NO plugs AND NO Wifi at Salisbury station so I had to make my way back, via Basingstoke and Reading (exciting), with no technology. And I thought this was the 21st century.
Er, hello. After a lengthy absence I'm back with bad anecdotes, poor humour and questionable grammar...Whether you all like it or not. I'd actually done a game in Berlin since my last blog but technical difficulties and German shops not opening on a Sunday mean that the wonderful Poststadion does not feature on this website, yet. Instead it's taken me 4 months to get to another game. I'm not happy that it's taken so long, but some exciting plans due to taking more hours at work in this period have taken effect meaning I'll be taking the PDM name further east than we have before. Including a game that is well and truly on the bucket list.
Anyway, where was I? The biggest pain about having a rota that is announced only a week in advance means that games are scarce as I can't plan them or I end up working anyway. When my rota for this week came out I dropped Phil a text to see where he was heading in the South-West, and to much delight he replied with Salisbury. Not too much of a pain, do-able by train and a new ground to boot. Off I went to Wiltshire via Reading and Basingstoke. Exciting. Arriving with plenty of time I took the opportunity to explore the city a little. It's a nice enough place, particularly in the sun, if a little dull. With 5pm approaching fast people were packing up to go home, so I didn't really see the place in full glory. Instead it was to the pub, via Waterstones to pick up reading for the prior mentioned plans.
In turn, finding a pub proved a bit of a calamity as I was on the search for food and a charger more than anything else. First was the Mill Inn, but I decided against it due to being a cheapskate. Across the road I avoided spoons like the plague, nipping round to the Old Ale House. They didn't do food, but perhaps more criminally, no ale. With disgust I begrudgingly headed to Spoons for Steak Club. No worries, I had a plug and free wi-fi. Ordering my food took the bloke behind the counter 3 attempts to get it right, then when getting my customary free drink all but one of the ales were broken. Scandal. Eventually settling for a god-awful Yorkshire IPA I sat and awaited my food. Twenty-five minutes later I was bought a steak. As it turned out, the wrong steak. Much to the embarrassment of the waiter as I'd already poured an assortment of sauces over the various sides. I think the morale of the story here is that I should've continued to avoid Spoons like the plague.
Meeting Phil we took the 10 minute drive out to the RayMac where we joined the already queuing traffic 50 minutes before kick off. With the Car Park nearly full we nabbed one of the final parking spaces and made our way in and straight to the bar. Here a flat, and again not that nice, ale was drunk before we made our first impressions on the ground. Opened in 1997, for the now defunct Salisbury City, it's not the best new build. The terrace behind one side is a nice size, and I imagine a decent noise can be created. Along the main side is covered, with seating for maybe 300. The roof is high, meaning it's probably not the best for covering spectators against the elements. The opposite end and along the other side are uncovered terraces, save for the at-costs perched in the middle. The floodlights are decent, mind.
In terms of the game, I'm not sure how strong this Bournemouth side were, but they aren't Premier League standard. Despite having most of the possession, the most they could muster was the opening goal just before half time (photo 27). Apart from that it was stalemate, but fair play to Salisbury. They gritted down and got a deserved victory in a game that will be forgotten already. Which makes it all the more surprising that both fans and players alike celebrated the goals in the manner they did, which leads me to believe it was a fairly strong Bournemouth team.
Because of the size of the crowd we had to leave 5 minutes before the end, because Kick Off had been delayed by 15 minutes, and the majority of the away end had snuck out. Thankfully it was a smooth journey and I was saying my goodbyes at the station in no time. Then scandal struck again. There are NO plugs AND NO Wifi at Salisbury station so I had to make my way back, via Basingstoke and Reading (exciting), with no technology. And I thought this was the 21st century.