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

The ground looks very impressive on arrival, it is situated in a light industrial area, so the ground is a lot bigger than the surrounding buildings. It’s a shame that the City ground (Forest) is so close, it certainly looks a lot larger than Meadow Lane, which is a shame as Meadow Lane is a very impressive ground in its own right.

Upon entering the ground, we were very impressed with the away end; away fans are given the large Kop end of the ground, which is spacious with good acoustics, allowing away fans to make a lot of noise!

Being an all-seater ground, and with none of the stands being particularly old, the ground had a very modern feel to it, but perhaps as the stands are all different designs, it still had a lot of character and certainly didn’t have the dull “Mc Stadium” feel to it that a lot of new grounds have.

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

Quite an eventful game, one where the ref was the star of the show. Despite Shrewsbury putting on a lot of early pressure, we were unable to capitalise, Notts County played well and took a 2-0 lead into the second half. As the game wore on, Shrewsbury once again got back into the game and sub Kelvin Langmead scored with two minutes of normal time left to give a tense, exciting finish. However, we were unable to grab an equaliser and lost 2-1.

As mentioned, the ref was very controversial and rather whistle-happy, even as an away supporter I felt Shrewsbury benefited from his decisions more than they should. Notts County scored an injury-time goal that was disallowed due to a Shrewsbury foul, rather than play the advantage he awarded a Notts-County free kick and disallowed the goal!

Understandably this didn’t go down well with the home supporters, which made for a very hostile atmosphere towards the ref, who was booed loudly by the home fans at the final whistle. When the home fans weren’t abusing the ref, most of them didn’t really do much, which meant a rather dull atmosphere inside the ground. Had it not been for a noisy group of enthusiastic home fans (complete with drummer!) and the vocal away support, it would have been more like a library than a football match!

However it must be mentioned that the matchday experience was very good, there were plenty of food/drink stalls, toilets were fine, and there was some good half-time entertainment, with a local youth football team splitting into two and playing a 5-a-side match (one side being Notts County, the other Shrewsbury). It was fun to watch and at least Shrewsbury got a result as “our” team drew 1-1!

The stewarding was firm but fair, we saw one or two home fans being kicked out of the ground, and one of our supporters was kicked out for abusing an injured player who was receiving treatment right next to the away end, although it must be mentioned we saw the fan being warned several times by a steward to calm down. However, they did not object to us standing up during the match, and after the match they kindly opened up the emergency exit gates at the front of the stand and let us and the small group of fans who were near the front exit quickly via the pitch perimeter.

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

To get to our car we had to walk through the home fans, who were leaving at the same time but despite the hostile atmosphere caused by the ref, we didn’t encounter any trouble from the home fans at all. Although it was busy after the match, we were able to get away of the ground quickly and we were out of Nottingham within 15 minutes of starting our return journey.

7. Summary of overall thoughts of the day out

Overall I enjoyed visiting Notts County, despite us losing I enjoyed the match and was pleased with the commitment Shrewsbury showed. The ground was very good, Nottingham is a top city to visit (if you have time I recommend mixing the match with a night out and make a weekend of it), and should our two teams be in the same league next season, I am looking forward to going again.