First Impressions -- Around the ground -- Facilities -- The Stand -- Overall -- Pictures

First Impressions

Another London ground to tick off my list. I didn't have high hopes about this ground judging by other reviews I had read and pics I had seen and needless to say they were right.

The day got off to a disaster as we only arrived 15 minutes before kick off - thanks to bad planning by the coach driver and a traffic accident on the A40, so therefore we didn't really have time to have a good walk about.

The first glimpse of the ground was of the main stand. I wasn't really impressed at all - it looked like a shabby, bland, 70's office block. Very boring. This seemed to set the tone for the rest of the ground which was also bland. Not a very good start at all.

Around the ground

Unfortunately due to the time constraints, we didn't have time to have a good walk round but luckily we had to walk round to the opposite side anyway to gain entry to the away end.

You can tell how it is 'squeezed' in as there is houses nearby. This wasn't a good sign for what it would be like inside as by the looks of things, it looked cramped.

As said above, just like the main stand it looked very bland and boring from outside.

Inside, you could tell here just how 'compact' it was. Very close to the pitch, which is sometimes a good thing but not in this case as we were in the upper tier - it was difficult to see the touchline below.

On a positive note, due to the 'compactness' you shouldn't have a problem creating an atmosphere.

Facilities

The facilities were pretty bad to say the least. The concourse was very tight and narrow and so were the toilets - this created quite a number of problems. Even more so since the toilets only had 2 single door entrances (at either end).

I decided to take a precaution and went down for the half time beers 5 minutes before the whistle was blown. Good judgment on my part as the concourse soon became very cramped.

Overall the facilities were very poor.

The Stand

It was evident that this stand, as well as the rest of the ground, hadn't seen much investment for quite some time - at least 15-20 years. It was quite shabby looking to say the least and as already mentioned, very cramped.

The seats weren't much better either - equally as shabby and the backrests looked liked they had been salvaged from old school chairs! The legroom was poor too - quite cramped.

The view was ok, but the downside was being in the upper tier, it was difficult to see the goal line.

Overall

Overall, I certainly was not impressed and I would list it as one of the poorest I have visited. It looked very bland, has seen very little investment, poor facilities and just generally an all-round poor experience of the ground.
It didn't help that North End chucked a 2-0 lead away which was very annoying to say the least. The QPR fans also came across as being arseholes too after the game.
Other than that, it was an 'ok' day and another ground ticked off the list.

Ratings

Appearance: 5/10
Facilities: 6/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Fans: 5/10
Away Stand: 5/10

Overall: 6/10

Pictures

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