Meadow Lane - Notts County
March 6th 2004, 3pm
v Plymouth Argyle, Division Two
 By Philip Brown

1. Why you were looking forward to going to the ground (or not as the case may be)

It wasn't until the last minute that we decided to go to this game, Paul Sturrock had left to go to Southampton during the past week, and many Argyle fans felt they needed to go, and get behind the team.

2. How easy was your journey/finding the ground/car parking

The Journey was quite un-eventful apart from the usual traffic problems around the Birmingham area. From the direction that we entered the ground wasn’t signposted, but we headed towards the town centre and were able to see Nottingham Forest's Ground whilst on route, so we headed in that direction (as Meadow lane is only just across the River Trent).

We parked up in a car park outside the civic/council building next to the City Ground (free parking) where it was only a five minute walk to the Ground.

3. What you did before the game pub/chippy.... home fans friendly?

As we were relatively early thanks to a early start, we decided to find a pub to watch the mid-day game on Sky TV, not far from where we parked was the Southbank Pub (Which once inside could easily be recognised as a Forest Pub), but was generally quite and getting served was instant. The Southbank also served a good range of food with huge steak sandwiches, chips & peas very tasty at reasonably good value.

We then went to the ground, got our tickets (students need to buy from the ticket office as turnstiles won't do this), grabbed a program and entered the ground, there wasn't many home fans around at the time, so we didn't experience any trouble.

 

4. What you thought on seeing the ground, first impressions of away end then other sides of the ground

Quite different from other grounds, the away fans were given one of the better stands, a huge Kop stand behind one of the goals, which seated over 5,000, the rest of the ground comprised of relatively new, but smaller single tier stands making it a well balanced modern looking ground.

5. Comment on the game itself, atmosphere, stewards, pies, toilets etc.

The game itself was a bit of a let down, with both sides being quite nervous (us at the top of the league, and Notts County fighting for survival), the atmosphere from the away fans was awesome (this helped from a big turn out & the stand having good acoustics), and a good contingent of home fans in the far corner of the Jimmy Sirrel stand also help add to the atmosphere, however as the other two stands were less than 1/2 full this did put a bit of a downer on the atmosphere.

The stewards were quite helpful, and even helped us put our flag up, and although it was quite cramped in the concourse there were ample toilet facilities as well as the usual snacks and beverages available.

6. Comment on getting away from the ground after the game

My only criticism of the away end is that fans have to enter/exit from one corner, which means it takes a while to get out, but outside the ground it wasn't the case and we were able to leave Nottingham with great ease.

7. Summary of overall thoughts of the day out

Even though the game ended 0-0 and we almost lost it after the Ref awarded Notts County a dubious penalty (which was saved), it was still a very good day out. Notts County is a good club, Meadow Lane is a great Ground, Nottingham is a Top City, and I will be definitely returning next season but this time to see the other team in Nottingham.

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