The Memorial Stadium

Saturday, 22 March 2014

Bristol Rovers 0-0 Southend United

Aerial shot of the Memorial Stadium (Bing Maps)

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 4/10

Ease of getting there : 8/10

Atmosphere : 7/10

Programme : 9/10

View of Action : 5/10

Quality of the game : 3/10

The "football" feeling : 6/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 1/10

Legroom : N/A

Surrounding area : 6/10

Overall : 49/100

East Stand

West Stand

East Stand

South Stand

West Stand

East Stand

South Stand

West Stand

East Stand

South Stand

West Stand

The raining coming down over the South Stand

The rain continues to drench the travelling Southend United supporters
who have a long journey home!

Bristol Rovers 0-0 Southend United

With the season coming to an end, both Adrian and I are starting to look at games with something at stake. A trip to the Memorial Stadium to see Bristol Rovers against Southend United on a Friday night seemed to be an ideal opportunity to cross another stadium off our list.

I (Ross) took the day off to join Adrian whilst he worked in a southern part of his area before making the journey South West after work.

A fairly straight forward journey through the Coteswolds saw us arrive in good time and parking fairly close to the ground off Muller Road just off the A38.

Just as we got out the car, the heavens opened in what we would call ‘Bristol fashion’ following both Adrian’s rainy visit to Ashton Gate in 1989 and our brief visit to the Memorial Stadium in 2012 which ended up being a wash out too!

We went into the closest pub looking to not only get out of the rain but also get some food. We went into a pub off the A38 Gloucester Road called ‘The Wellington’ which was busy yet not many people eating for the reason being the outrageously priced food!

With the rain now stopped, we left ‘The Wellington’ and decided to look further down the A38 Gloucester Road where we found a more reasonably priced pub called ‘The Royal Oak’ which is for home supporters only.

After we finished tucking into our respective Shepherd's Pie and Ham, Egg and Chips, we made our way back up the road towards the Memorial Stadium.

Upon our arrival, we collected our tickets and took photos outside the ground (which proved to be difficult with the lack of light) before taking our places on the Blackthorn Terrace.

Bristol Rovers previously played at Eastville before being forced to leave in 1986 due to financial problems which saw them move to Twerton Park in Bath. The tenure at Twerton Park lasted for 10 seasons before moving back to Bristol in 1996 to the Memorial Stadium which is shared with Bristol Rugby Club. It was announced that Rovers are to move away from the Memorial Stadium into their very own 21,700 seater stadium called the UWE Stadium located on the University of the West of England's Frenchay campus.

Onto the game and congratulations to both sets of players for playing one of the worst games I (Adrian) have ever witnessed. You are beaten into 2nd place by a top flight match in the 80’s between West Brom and Southampton at the Hawthorns, but only just!
This Friday night game had plenty at stake for both clubs but the entertainment never got going.
Play off chasing Southend looked the better passing side and would have won if they could have taken the half chance.
Bristol Rovers require points to stay in the league, so I guess a point was well received. However the performance lacked any quality and you never ever thought they would score from open play.
The main danger appeared to be the long throw into the box by Michael Smith, but the lottery of the second ball did not fall Rovers’ way.
This is the worst Rovers side I have seen and at League 2 level they are one of the better supported sides. You have to expect better in terms of performance and style of play.
This is 90 minutes of our lives we won’t get back! Dreadful is the only word that comes to mind and if the Gas are lucky they will stay in the Football League.

After the final whistle, we ran back to the car the rain, yet again! We got back to the car and in no time onto the A38 out of Bristol.

The journey home at 10-11pm at night proved to be more challenging than the journey down!

We were making good progress up the M5 before reaching numerous road works and later on the M42, navigating around a closed junction. Even with all this bother, we got home at 12am.

Overall, a dull game yet on a more positive note, another ground off the list leaving just 7 more grounds to do!