DATES VISITED THIS GROUND

21/8/2001 - Grimsby 2 Lincoln City 1 (LC)

22/1/2005 - Grimsby 2 Lincoln City 4

28/12/2005 - Grimsby 3 Lincoln City 0

16/5/2006 - Grimsby 2 Lincoln City 1 (Playoffs)

28/4/2007 - Grimsby 0 Lincoln City 0

29/12/2007 - Grimsby 1 Lincoln City 0

Ahh Cleethorpes, fond memories come flooding back after spending almost every weekend of my childhood summers watching my parents put countless 2p in a machine hoping to win more 2p's. Having not gone to Cleethorpes for over 4 years, City were due to play Grimsby Town so I decided to go have a nice little day out in the seaside town. Getting off the train in Cleethorpes station at 10am brought back so many memories and looking around, not much had changed. First job was to secure the location of the footbridge leading to the ground so after a 10 minute walk up the seafront, I came to the end of the road and there it was, the footbridge. So having now made sure of the location of the bridge, I could have some fun. Getting some food meant going in a fish and chips place on the seafront and the food was absolutly gorgeous, I would seriously recommend it, it's the one as you turn right after exiting the sea-front side of the station that's next to the main arcade. Anyway, a few rounds of bowling, House of the Dead 2 and a bit of a snooker later, I finally made my way to the ground. However, something caught my attention, a teddybeat machine with some really cool stuff in it. So I put £1 and the first go was a bit of a dud, second one grabbed hold of the toy/teddy replica of a jamacian on drugs and brought it to the hole and I was thinking, nice one, alas, when it dropped the Jamaican, it was over the hole but somehow, the thing bounced back in after hitting the side, grrrrr. After several more attempts of trying to get the other ones involved, I'd just create a little orgy in the middle of the machine and there was only one realistic one left to get, thankfully I managed to get it and have something to show for my 5 minutes.

After another trek, I finally got to the ground, or at least one set of turnstiles, after a half mile walk around a council estate full of very crappy houses. I finally made it to the front of the ground. I did the usual of going in the club shop to be meeted by several young women stuffing their faces with chips, after several pieces of chip went in my face from them talking and eating at the same time, I finally got the programme and couldn't get out of the place fast enough. Now, one thing about the turnstiles if you're at an all ticket game, the tickets says, go through turnstiles 5-14, yet no turnstiles are marked with numbers, I had to scurry back through the club shop and into the ticket office to just confirm where 5-14 were.

Finally getting into the ground, I had mixed feelings. The stand away fans in was quite massive, however, the roof was a bit of a problem, if you went to the top, you quite literally had to sit down, for all those who think "I won't sit down," then you won't see half the game because the roof quite literally blocks the view of the far end of the pitch. If you're on row Z (which oddly comes straight after row O), you have absolutly no chances of seeing the other goal, the final picture on the right demostrates this perfectly. Anyway, the away end, if you were sat in the right place offered a great view of the action.

The stand to our left was a very neat stand, although in a similar style of the Echo stand at Sincil Bank, it only covered around 1/3 of the pitch. This stand was 2 tiered and the view from the top of the top tier must be very good indeed. The stand opposite away fans would be a fairly good end if it wasn't for the colour scheme, if you ever went to Feethams and can remember the all seated stand they had there and that colour scheme, it's basically that, for all those that haven't, the stand has columns of 2 seats wide and each column is alternatively black or white. The final stand is just an average seated stand, very similar to that at Southend in that no matter where you sit (unless it's the front row), you have at least two pillars in your view.

Overall I had a mixed day out. We won comfortably and I enjoyed going around Cleethorpes again, however, I didn't feel safe at a single point during the day. I was just expecting a load of Grimsby hooligans to just jump out of nowhere and start attacking me. Walking back to the train station was fun, the only Lincoln fan walking amounst hundreds of Grimsby fans, oh the looks I got. Overall I would recommend this as a day out for anyone at any time of year with the exception of Winter obviously because there isn't a lot to do. However, be very careful if you're a local team supporter because you'll never feel safe until you get home again.

SCORES

Overall Ground Quality : 7

Ease of getting there : 9

Atmosphere : 2

Programme : 8

View of Action : 8

Leg Space : 7

The "football" feeling : 10

Friendliness of Home Supporters : 7

Quality of the game : 9

Chances of Coming Here For a Random Game : 10

Overall : 78/100