Welshbee’s Guides

Well, my guides aren’t gonna be a patch on the Reckless ones, but they are going to be a bit different.

Below you will find a Ground Guide which will be updated with every new ground I visit during the course of the season, another ground guide, however this one is specifically an Underhill Guide for away fans. A Food & Drink Guide for the area surrounding Underhill and finally a Programme Guide on the various programmes I collect during the 2005-2006 season.

Also, anyone interested in writing their own guide for this section? Let me know on the above e-mail address. I would especially like a guide to grounds of opponents we’re about to visit, so any opposition fans interested, get in touch!

This is a very big ground. I like the way that it mixes tradition with a bit of new. Their East Stand is a massive all seater stand, is very impressive and can get quite loud to when they all start singing. That’s on one side of the pitch, opposite is an old stand. It has seats at the top and below it a long terrace, “The Paddock“. It’s pretty big too, this is the side with the dugouts and tunnel. Behind on goal is a covered terrace, which has ‘CARLISLE UNITED FC’ proudly written across the front of the roof. It’s one of the first things you see when you walk in there standing on the away terrace, quite imposing, reminds you where you are! Behind the other goal is the uncovered away end, not a bad view, but not nice in the rain (unless your 3-1 up!). This is the Petteril End, though the locals call it the “Waterworks End” before 2004-05 it had been shut for several seasons before this as it hasn’t been in a very good condition, with a roof it would be an adequate away end, particularly as it would protect you from rocks being thrown in from the car park outside! Not a bad ground on the whole.

The Deva is a fairly new stadium. Neatly built it has a capacity of 6,000 partly seats and partly terrace. The ground which was built in 1992 has two very smart seater stands on either side of the pitch. Behind each goal there is a terrace. The whole stadium is covered, meaning it can get pretty loud in both the home and away ends. Although it is quite a smart stadium, there is something about it I don’t really like. The away terrace isn’t bad, but the stadium just feels a bit ‘plastic.’ Something you wouldn’t really associate with lower league football. It is very rectangular shaped and unlike a lot of old fashioned grounds (Aldershot, Barnet, Shrewsbury etc.) there is no real character or special feeling. The Chester fans sing a bit, but despite having a large following at home they are not very loud, although when they came to Underhill, their drumming was quality. A rather odd fact that is unique to Chester’s ground is that half of it is in Wales and half is in England! That is a true fact! Well built, but has no soul, the Saunders Honda Stadium (even more now with a crappy sponsorship name like that) is no more than average.

Ground Rating: 5/10

A neat ground, though in a similair way to Chester, its missing something, not much character to it. It has one massive stand, which can hold 4000 I beleive, this looks very impressive and if they sing it generates a fair bit of volume. This stand has been made larger than when it first opened (as a stadium) in 1994. On this side is where the dugouts and changing rooms are, you can see this stand from quite far away. The ground in general looks very nice as you get nearer to it. Opposite the impressive large stand is the Alwyn Hargave (East Stand). This can hold 2000 people, the same as its opposite stand used to. If you bring 1000+ away fans part of this is allocated to away support. Behind each goal there are small stands, both hold approx 1000. One is the Hotel End, a favourite among many Northampton 'die-hards'. That's behind one goal, behind the other is the South Stand, the away end. You get a good view from just about anywhere in the ground I should imagine, it's all seater and all-covered. The food seemed to go down well with a lot of Bees, I thoroughly recommend the hot dogs, served in french bread, but I'd avoid asking for onions, as they fall out everywhere! The toliets were fairly decent too and the home fans gave us no hassle. Lastly, if you're a chep git there's a big grassy bank behind the Hotel End. You can see into the ground easily from here and depending on how big the game is a fair few do, except when they played Man United in the Cup. They put large metal fencing up, fair enough! I like the Sixfields a lot more than many new grounds, you can get a really good atmosphere going in the away end too!

Ground Rating: 7/10

Shrewsbury Town: Gay Meadow

Well, I’ve been here twice, once was great, the other was probably my worst experience as a Barnet fan, I wasn’t so much of a fan when we were relegated in 2001, so I have mixed feelings about this stadium. It’s quite a nice ground in general, on one side of the pitch there is a well built all seater stand. Opposite that is a long terrace where most of the noise the Shrews make will come from. Behind the one goal there is a covered end which is where teams with a large enough travelling following are allocated. They are also given around 150 seats in the stand to the left. The away end isn’t great however, the roof goes a little too low though and the view is just slightly obstructed from the back and down the front there is a large fence which is a bit annoying but can be easily seen through. On both visits I have climbed up it to applaud the team the end. Strangely to get out of the away end they open the back of the stand for you, literally what acts as the wall of the stand comes up, weird! At the other end is an open terrace, not much to report about that, but in the rain it wouldn’t be too good. For some reason they have no fence there, so easy access to the pitch for them! Food from what I remember isn’t bad, but is quite expensive.

Ground Rating: 7/10

The Weaver: Officially called ‘Weavers’ but most people call it the weaver. It is very popular with Barnet (and local Arsenal) fans, particularly post match. You even get the odd Barnet player in there, no prize for guessing it’s most regular customer from the Bees team, or was. The pub is quite traditional looking inside and is also a lot bigger than it looks from the outside.

Location: On the end of the row of shops on the Great North Road, it’s on the corner of Dinsdale Gardens, near Fresh Fry chip shop. About five minutes from Underhill.

The Queens Arms: The Queens is pretty popular with Bees fans pre-match and it has a bit of Barnet memorabilia inside it too. Away fans are not allowed in on match day (I don’t think). It is fairly big inside and has a big screen, a few pool tables and some good machines such as the football quiz one. Though popular pre-match of a Saturday night it has been known to get a bit rowdy and there is the odd bit of trouble. The drinks are a little bit more than the Weaver I think, so it’s a little pricey. The atmosphere for England games when they're on in there is very good. NOTE: QUEENS IS OVER 21’S ONLY

Location: It is in between the Petrol Station and the Odeon Cinema, off the slip road. About two minutes walk from Underhill.

The Old Red Lion: This pub is nearest Underhill and very popular with away supporters, probably for that reason. It serves quite a lot of food and is quite a family pub. Its quite traditional and on my few visit’s the atmosphere seems quite good. Drinks are priced quite well. There is a small sort of patio area outside where you can enjoy a drink on a warm day. Quite a nice pub, though if a big away following is in town, that's where they'll congregate.

Location: It's just off Underhill lane, go under the railway bridge or down Barnet Hill and you can miss it. Next to it is an alley which leads to the Westcombe Drive turnstiles. Less than a minutes walk from Underhill.

The Cricket Clubhouse/Pavillion (Barnet FC Social Club): Not able to comment on this yet, but look back soon for a guide to the club's new social bar.

Location: The Cricket Pavillion, at the top of the cricket pitch, about 50 or so yards from the Durham Suite, the old social club by the South Stand.

Food in the ground: The service is not bad, although at half time the queues are endless! However, the food isn’t brilliant. It’s edible but £2 for a burger of that quality isn’t great. Bit over-priced and not delicious.

Location: Various snack bars around the ground.

Fresh Fry Fish ‘n’ Chips: Most home games I will go here for my food. Very good service and very good pricing too. The food is of a good quality, although some weeks the chips aren’t so nice, but generally it’s all good. It’s quite popular and depending on what time you go there may be a queue, but as mentioned the service is good and it doesn’t generally take too long. The staff in there are pretty friendly although the service me and Craig gave them in 2004-05 season it’s no wonder they’re alright to us!! Steak and Kidney pie with chips-can’t be beaten!!

Location: On the row of shops on the Great North Road about ten seconds further up than the Weaver, so about a five minute walk from Underhill.

Food Rating-8/10

Location: On the slip road opposite the Weaver etc. Its near the Ladbrokes and about thirty seconds from the Odeon and Queens Arms. About five minutes walk from Underhill, maybe.

Food (and drink) Rating-9/10

The Petrol Station: Often go here before home or away games. Got all the usual stuff, so sweets, crisps etc. Being a petrol station it isn’t cheap, but isn’t ridiculous. Service is generally pretty quick too. There is also a cash point to the side of the petrol station, opposite the bottle banks by the slip road. 

Location: Next to the Queens Arms. It’s about a two minute walk from Underhill.

Same link as on the Underhill guide, just a map of the surrounding area. (The arrow in the map is pointing at the Old Red Lion pub)

This was just a team sheet, which had numerous spelling mistakes on it! Louis Socres (Louie Soares), Luke Hickle (Hickie) and Pavio (Paolo) Vernazza just some examples. Still, I guess it gave information, so was not totally useless! The fact we had to pay for it was a joke, but, in fairness admission was free so I didn’t really begrudge giving a small club a bit of money, hardly bank breaking too!

Not a bad one, though not a lot better than average. I think the Macclesfield programme has under-gone a recent change, the price has been lowered, which is a good thing, particularly from a club in debt, quite surprising. The content wasn’t too bad, though the layout was nothing special, quite similar to Conference one’s like Halifax Town, in terms of its appearance. The away team coverage was, like all this season, quite good, though they did keep it to a minimum where as ones such as Bristol and Wrexham added additional content, Macclesfield had more or less just the stuff that gets put in every programme. For Macclesfield fans I suppose it’s quite a reasonable read, though not so interesting for opposition fans and not the best in terms of presentation and layout. I’ve seen a lot worse though.

All things considered, this was pretty good. It was a black and white print, but placed inside a very neat and smart glossy cover. Their had been a real effort made and there was quite good coverage of the Bees, such as a story of the season so far. They did not include profile’s of the squad, but there was little point given the team we fielded. They had a number of Jets reports and if you are one of their few fans you would not complain about the content. The programme being free with admission again gives it greater credibility. Baring in mind The Jets are six leagues below us the effort they put in gets it a good rating.

Cost -  Free With Admission (£2 or £5)::Value For Money - 8/10

Notts County FC

Welshbee’s Guide to Underhill

This is aimed to help anyone thinking of going to Barnet for the first time, or for away fans visiting Underhill.

PRICES:

MATCHDAY TICKETS-

SEASON TICKETS-

Concession £228

Concession £133

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION-

Under 12’s get in free to any part of the ground with a membership. The membership is £15

£1 SURCHAGE: DUE TO BARNET’S ON-GOING PROBLEMS WITH BARNET COUNCIL, THIS HAS BEEN ADDED TO HELP COVER THE COST OF PLANNING APPLICATIONS ETC.

The East Terrace is where I stand. If you want to go properly mad when you score and sing during the game then this is the place to be, particularly in the middle around in line with the half way line. Generally you won’t get a bad view although the floodlights act a bit like pillars as they are in the stand. On the East Terrace there is a snack bar, although don’t go at half time because the queue is always ridiculous. There is also toilets for both sexes, the male ones have certainly seen better days-cobwebs galore! Also we don’t have sinks in the bogs. But no we’re not totally unhygienic we have ‘hydro-gel’! Just put some in your hands and rub them together until they’re dry!! There is also the control room up the top end by the loos where you can get information about the attendance, if you go at half time. I personally really like the ET, although pick the right place to stand, if you’re an atmosphere lover come in the section around the half way line, if your someone who will just enjoy watching and maybe clap along at the big games, then stand either in the middle section (providing it’s open) or anywhere from the eighteen yard line facing the north end up to the halfway point. The other place to stand is near the tea hut, however there are quite a few people who have their own opinions and voice them around there and from my experience standing there it can be a bit depressing. I’m not saying I don’t respect those who stand there, I’d just rather jump around sing and try and be positive!!

This is where I started my Barnet watching. You get a good view of the game, obviously especially when the action is at the north end. Warning though: Don’t sing!! One of the reasons I initially moved to the ET was because of this. Mt and my mates used to from time to time try and sing a bit, however, we were always given cold looks and were once told ’stop trying to act hard!’ because we were simply just singing! However, its generally a pleasant environment to watch football in. For a while was populated by quite a few young chavs but most of them seem to have sadly moved over to the east.

Quite a few of the Bees older fans congregate on the NWT. It seems to have quite a hardcore group of supporters who always stand there. If you’d like to watch football in peace this is the place. Not a criticism, as I know not everyone likes to shout and sing at football, if you like terracing and want to take young children along this is a good place as they are unlikely to hear much bad language and wont get crushed if we score!

The main stand is opposite the ET and is often asked to ‘give us a song’ but rarely does! It’s a bit pricey but you generally get a good view from it, especially the centre. From the stand you can access the Durham, so if the game is boring you can always go and grab a pint. Autograph hunters can easily get signatures if they wait by the players tunnel when the players have done the warm-up.

Its uncovered, so if it rains you're screwed and will get very wet. It is also very hard to generate an atmosphere, as it's an open stand, you get a fine view, but this is all thats good really, oh and access to the bar!

To get to the away section, walk behind the East Terrace down the sort of alley/road and then its on the corner (the turnstiles).

(IN CASE OF LARGE AWAY SUPPORT) AWAY SECTION-THE SOUTH EAST TERRACE: This is the effectively the third section of the ET and is used as the away section, when there is a large travelling support. It has a snack bar and access to toilets too.

Aldershot Town: The Recreation Ground

This is my favourite grounds I’ve been to. I have been there on two occasions, though on the second we were unable to use the fantastic terrace that’s is, the East Bank. The slightly intimidating East Terrace, behind one of the goals is given half to home fans and half to away fans. The stand’s roof is really well shaped, helping create a better atmosphere. I’ve been to games at the Millennium Stadium, Highbury and Stamford Bridge, but the game at the Rec between Aldershot Town and Barnet, in February 2004 (1-1), is the loudest match I’ve ever been to. The Aldershot fans, although they have a reputation of being a bit unpleasant are, in my opinion, the loudest in the Conference. So many of them pack into their East Bank and along with their voices and the huge drum they are awesome, they love their flags too! The rest of the ground isn’t in the best state, but still has a nice old fashioned feel to it. There are slightly shabby all seater stands on either side of the pitch, one has a small terrace adjacent to it (like Barnet’s North West Terrace) and backs onto the railway track, this is where we were given on our second visit, in our 3-2 win (November 2004) the other stand however, runs the length of the pitch. Behind the goal opposite the East terrace is an uncovered ‘terrace’. However, this is pretty much just a flat piece of land, the High Road End, it‘s official name. It may not be the best stadium, but this one is definitely my favourite!

This is a real non-league ground! With a capacity of just 4000, Farnborough’s Cherrywood Road isn’t the best stadium. There is a main stand similar to quite a few other non-league grounds (Hayes for example) it doesn’t stretch the length of the pitch, although people do stand either side of it, despite there not really being a terrace. Opposite the main stand is a quite small in height, covered terrace. This is where Farnborough fans sing, although it is not generally segregated. At the end of the Terrace there is a small seating area, which when segregated is given to away fans. Behind each goal there are terraces. At the one end there is the Prospect Road stand, which is fairly small, although it does have a roof-although it is probably one of the smallest roofs in the league! But we got a good atmosphere going in there in 2003. At the other end is a very shallow terrace, which when segregated is given to the away contingent. Now this is definitely a ground with great character, despite you can’t really create much noise (except in the prospect road end-that was mental!!) I really like this ground, although for players who drop into the Conference this ground must be a bit of a culture shock! To be fair it’s a dump and is falling apart. Still, I like it even more now as I’ve played there in the supporters tournament (2005)!

Like Farnborough this is a typical little non-league ground. The people at Forest Green are some of the nicest around and it’s easy to see why they’re called the ‘friendly club on the hill.’ In the small country town of Nailsworth, there is something sort of surreal about going to watch a football match there. The ground itself is pretty badly built. There is a reasonably nice main stand, typical non-league style, which is adjacent to a small uncovered terrace. Opposite there is a similar set-up, a bigger stand, though this one’s a terrace next to a little uncovered one, the bigger one is covered. Behind one goal, to the left of the dugouts, which are on the all-terrace side, is a very badly built little covered terrace. The view here is pretty poor, and you have to keep moving to see the action. The stand badly needs sorting out; the fact that Craig C was able to shake the stand quite worried me really (on our visit in 2004)! At the other end is a nicer terrace. Again it is small and does have a roof. However, with no disrespect to Rovers fans they obviously don’t get too excited when they score. There are four steps to the terrace with are a good 12 inches tall each, in some ways just as well we didn’t score when we were standing there in 2003-04 season! It would have been bloody dangerous! The 2^nd time I went there, in March 2005, there was segregation and the Bees were given the covered terrace on the side of the dugouts, well built and you can create a reasonable atmosphere there.

This is a stadium I really like. I have had three very memorable visits here, although I did like the ground as well as the results! At either end there are huge and extremely steep terraces, absolutely quality (although dangerous) for Terrace runs. On one side there is an old all seater stand, which has been there the longest. On the other there is an unfinished stand which has been waiting to be finished for the last three years. When finished I’m sure it will be nice, the reason it still hasn‘t been finish is due to financial difficulties at Halifax. The ground has a really good capacity, when finished, something like 14,000. On my three visits we’ve had each of the large terraces in 2003 we had the better one (I reckon) because it is closed at the back, unlike the other one with it being all open at the back, allowing the wind in! The catering here is good; they sell anything from chips ‘n’ curry sauce (very nice) to candyfloss! After the three awesome trips there, all ending in quality wins this is now one of my favourite grounds, the terraces are awesome!

Ok, so Barnet have never played here, but I’ve been enough times! Newport County have only had this stadium for about 10 years, after a long struggle with the council, sound familiar Barnet fans? Although I hope it never gets as bad for us as it did for them with there council. They had their old ground Somerton Park taken off them as it was council owned and subsequently went bust, it is now Somerton park housing estate, disgraceful. They used to get very good crowds in their football league days which ended in 1988. When they reformed they had to start over and so the fan base is nothing on what it was. For the bigger games at home the attendance does sometimes beat the 1000 mark. They are one of the best followed sides below the Conference national. The ground holds 4,300 so it is up to Conference standards, there have been big improvements in the last few years. It has one seater stand, which is fairly big. On the other side is a very good new terrace, built just over a year ago. Unfortunately there is an athletics track round the pitch so the view from the small uncovered terrace behind the one goal isn’t obstructed, but just a long way from the pitch! A lot of people gather by the railings near the corner flags where the stands on each side end. There is no segregation at Newport, except for when they play Cardiff in the Welsh Cup. Unfortunately there is no real atmosphere on a regular basis, this is what lets the ground down-along with the athletics track. The food is quality and well priced, the curry and chips is even better than Halifax’s and cheaper! There is also a little kiddie’s sweet stall at the bottom of the main stand, run by an old bloke who has been there for ages. It has a very nice family feel to it, and for the last season or so it has been free for ‘juveniles’ as the sign says. Pretty good I reckon. I think the Athletics track spoils it a bit, but ,maybe if they ever return to the football league they’ll return to a proper football ground.

Although they’re our rivals I have to admit they have a good ground, but it’s bloody expensive. I know it’s an all-seater away end but £9 concession is a bit steep, considering when we go there a lot of us didn’t use the seats! You can get a good atmosphere going there, but it isn’t hard to out sing the Boro fans! The Buildbase Away stand can hold 1400 (I think) and is well built. That’s behind one goal, behind the other is a mess of a stand, it partly has a roof and also doesn’t. That is the only thing really that lets Broadhall Way down. Like at Barnet and Aldershot the East Terrace is their largest and (when they try!) their loudest area. Like at Underhill it runs along the whole length of the pitch. Opposite is their main stand and to be honest it is impressive. It’s a good ground, but needs more atmospheres to be a really good ground. Though I only made one of the various trips to Stevenage, it was very memorable and I’ve been told the others were good too. Go on the Bees!

Ground Rating: 8/10