With so much resting on this game, it was guaranteed as being one not to miss for the neutrals, never mind for the fans of each club. Also with the Britannia having a ‘less than savoury’ reputation, this was perhaps the best game to take it in as part of the 92 instead of as an away fan.

Getting tickets was surprisingly easy, and the attendance of a little over 19,000 suggested that both clubs could have done better to promote the game, even though 13,000 of that was Shrewsbury fans!

You would think that with a major sporting event taking place at the ground, the local authorities and club would try to make extra arrangements to the usual reduced public travel on a Sunday, however this wasn’t to be, and the busses from the train station to the stadium were infrequent, and poorly advertised. With this, we decided to take the long hike down there. We did get lost on a couple of occasions, but the locals were helpful in providing us with directions, and being in no real rush we managed to make it taking us around about an hour to get down there.  

Despite the long (and very hot) walk, we had probably chosen the right option, as the queues on the dual carriageway next to the ground were horrendous, and especially in the heat of one of the hottest days of the year, public transport (or in this case, lack of it) was probably the right option to choose.

Due to knowing it was a long walk, we were in that type of situation where you know that there’s more than enough time to get to the ground, yet not quite enough time to stop in a pub or anything, so we made our way directly down there, and milled around the ground beforehand taking in the atmosphere. With this being a neutral game, there were of course no home fans, so despite a heavy police presence there wasn’t really an air of trouble.

We came to the ground from the opposite side of the A50, so although when you enter Stoke towards the city centre the ground looks to be on top of a hill, we actually descended down onto it.

The outside of the ground isn’t one I would tend to like, being very bland, and done almost on the cheap, but with the area you walk through being rather run down, and with not much in the area directly around it, it does tend to stand out, and look an impressive sight in among the hills.

Whenever Wolves aren’t playing, I try to pop along to the Gay Meadow, and so although being semi-neutral, it was a natural decision to support Shrewsbury, and because of this we were sat in the Sentinel Stand, and had a good view of the action, the ground was a good size, with the impressive John Smiths Stand opposite, but the 3 open corners really don’t do it any favours, although again, not being a fan of the bland ‘bowl’ type stadiums, I think that design would vastly improve the overall look and feel of the ground.

The facilities were as expected with a new stadium, although I did think that the concourse underneath the seats was unusually cramped for a stand of that size, but couldn’t really have any moans about that, or the stewards on hand in the stadium, who seemed generally quite helpful.

The game was very tense, with neither side looking to stretch themselves too much. Aldershot scored first, and were looking like they would capitalise on the game, but Shrewsbury got back into it with a scrambled goal from Duane Darby just before half-time.

The second half was much the same as the first, but without the goals, Shrewsbury probably had the better chances, but like their fans on the atmosphere front, Aldershot really dominated. With the 90 minutes up, the game went into Silver-goal extra time. If we thought the game had been tense up until then, then it doubled in the anxiety stakes. Id managed to get along to the semi-final second leg versus Barnet, which after Shrewsbury had levelled the tie with winning the game 1-0 we thought that the 5-3 penalty win was exciting as it gets, but this game was to beat even that.

Like in normal time, neither side really went for it, but for the first time in the game, Shrewsbury really started to capitalise on their opponents, with Aldershot starting to tire. Again there were no goals and it went to penalties. Shrewsbury were to go first, and the penalties were due to be taken at the opposite end of the ground to us, in front of the Boothen End (or as it was renamed for the day- The ‘Shrew’-then End!). Up first was Luke Rodgers, this was a banker, having scored the penalty goal in the semi-final and subsequently scoring a penalty in the shoot-out there was no way he would miss. So up he steps, and bang, apparently its still in orbit to this day! Oh dear, its all gone wrong, so up steps the Aldershot player, against hope of all hopes, Scott Howie guesses the right way and dives to save it, brilliant, back in it! Jamie Tolley stepped up next, and buried it with no problems, back in front, easy! The next Aldershot player came, and Howie saves again, 1-0, in front, brilliant! Jake Sedgemore (someone who I used to go to school with) had no problems in making it 2-0 to Shrewsbury, before Howie made it 3 in a row, with yet another save. Ex-Telford full-back Trevor Challis was the man given the responsibility to win it, and he had no problem in securing a swift return to the Football League, so from the initial disaster of Luke Rodgers miss, Scott Howie had been instrumental in securing the overall victory for Town.

It was hard on Aldershot, whose team had probably been the better overall, and indeed the clubs fans had been magnificent with non-stop singing throughout the game, drowning out Shrewsbury fans who were there in twice as many numbers.

Getting away from the game wasn’t too bad, of course staying behind to celebrate had given the Aldershot and neutral fans the opportunity to get away, so it was no problem leaving. Once more there was no public transport, but walking was still the preferable option with the traffic queues around the ground being horrendous again.

Overall it had been a very good day out, a tense, but good game and the joyous outcome for my adopted team had meant it was certainly better than having a typical boring Sunday doing nothing!

Football is of course full of coincidences, and with this being the last game and ground of the 2003/04 season that I went to, perhaps unsurprisingly Wolves were drawn away to Stoke for the first day of 2004/05! In all honesty its not a ground I will look forward to going to as an away fan, even with there being no sense of trouble from Aldershot fans, the ground itself, and the surrounding area has an aura of a place that you wouldn’t really want to be and stand out as not being a Stoke supporter, but as a neutral its definitely worth a trip, although probably one of the less memorable ones of the 92.