Rodney Parade

Saturday, 3 August 2013

Newport County AFC 4-1 Accrington Stanley

Aerial shot of Rodney Parade (Bing Maps)

Programme - £5.00

Ratings
Overall Ground Quality : 6/10
Ease of getting there : 8/10
Atmosphere : 7/10
Programme : 10/10
View of Action : 8/10
Quality of the game : 8/10
The "football" feeling : 6/10
Chances of coming here for a random game : 1/10
Legroom : 9/10
Surrounding area : 6/10

Overall : 69/100

George Street Bridge

Newport City footbridge

Hazell Stand

Bisley Stand

Hazell Stand

North Terrace

North Terrace

Hazell Stand

South End

The teams coming out

Hazell Stand

North Terrace

North Terrace

Hazell Stand

South End

North Terrace

Hazell Stand

North Terrace

Newport County 4-1 Accrington Stanley

Saturday 3rd August 2013, the start of the 2013/14 season!
It didn't seem that long ago when both Adrian and I saw the victorious Yeovil Town beat Sheffield United 2-0 at Huish Park who then went onto win promotion to the Championship.
A couple of weeks before Yeovil Town’s victory under the arch at Wembley was the promotion of Newport County beating Wrexham in the Conference Play Off Final meaning they would be playing in the Football League for the first time since 1989.
Adrian never saw Newport County play at Somerton Park whilst they were in the Football League previously and this meant it was a must do trip to complete his 92 for another season and what a great time to do it, the first day of the season!
We departed at 7:45am heading southbound on the M42 before joining the M5 and coming off at Gloucester.
Our first stop of the day was Cinderford Town who play at the Causeway which proved to be a tricky ground to photograph. Adrian and I put our brains together and worked out a way of taking photos of the ground.
We drove round to the other side of the ground where we managed to get into an open field and we walked up to the boundary fence of the ground and took photos over the fence instead at ease.
We then drove towards Newport, bypassing it and continued towards Cardiff to visit the SWALEC Stadium.
Again the SWALEC Stadium like the Causeway in Cinderford, proved to be tricky to photograph yet we found a way!
As we walked round the stadium we noticed numerous gaps where we could see inside meaning we could picture the inside from outside.
With time in our favour, we chose to visit Ninian Park, now a housing development, which we originally visited whilst it was being demolished in 2009 and also the Cardiff City Stadium, home of Cardiff City.
Following that made a U turn and headed back towards Newport where we ate at an ASDA in Newport fairly close to the George Street Bridge.
Following our pre-match meal we had a quick detour to Rodney Parade before visiting Somerton Park, now a housing development. We noticed the Newport County U12’s team were posing for a photo with the match ball used for the last match played at Somerton Park in the Football League in 1989 and today’s match ball for their return to the Football League, 25 years after. They intended to walk with both match balls from Somerton Park to Rodney Parade which they later arrived with on the pitch at Rodney Parade.

From Somerton Park, we drove to Llanwern Street where we parked up and walked to the ground.

Before we arrived at the ground, we had a quick look at the waterfront where we admired the George Street Bridge to our left and Newport City footbridge to our right, both towering over the shallow murky River Usk.

We arrived at the ground and asked a steward if it would be possible to photograph the Bisley Stand (where we were going to sit) which to our amazement he said yes that’s not a problem!

We continued to photograph the exterior before purchasing our 164 page programmes at £5 each before they sold out!

With photos taken and programmes bought, the only thing that was left to do was to go into the ground where we watched the last few minutes of the early kick off on the TV in the concourse and had a drink.

We found our seats in the beaming sunshine before noticing we were sat next to fellow ground hoppers who were also intending to complete their 92, just like Adrian!

Rodney Parade is a rugby ground which is shared with Newport County which has 11,676 for rugby yet for football only holds 5,511. With the construction of the Bisley Stand completed in 2011, the long term plans include the construction of covered stands to replace the North and South terraces and to provide cover on the currently uncovered stretch of the west touchline terrace.

The game saw a well organised Newport County side thrash a poor Accrington Stanley side 4-1.

After the game we ran back to the car before heading towards the A449 leading to the M50, before joining the M5 and M42 back towards Leicestershire.

We both really enjoyed our trip to South Wales and are pleased that Newport County have found their way back to the Football League after 25 long years.

The progression of Welsh football in the past decade has been a real turning point.

Only 10 years ago, Swansea City almost dropped out the Football League, Cardiff City were in Division 2 (Now League 1) and Newport County were mid table in Dr. Martens Southern Premier (Now Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division). In 2013, Swansea City are in the Premier League, previously winning the League Cup and are now in Europe for the first time, Cardiff City are in the Premier League for the first time and Newport County are back in the Football League!