It's a steel
Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2021 12:46 pm
Well that was one of the more enjoyable away days, our first away win of the season.
I had visited Hillsborough once before when we played them in a cup match midweek but that was at night so couldn't really see the ground.
This time I came up on the train, ridiculously cheap LNER advance tickets of £14 return London to Doncaster, and £4.55 Doncaster to Sheffield Return. + travelcard to London £19.40.
Stopped in the Sheffield Tap for a pint before heading off to Kelham Island on the tram £4.40. We stopped at the Kelham Island Tavern, which has apparently won real ale pub of the year twice in a row. After a few more beers and a delicious pork-pie (I also bought one more for the train home), off on the tram again to the match.
A really enjoyable game, a nice early goal to set things up, an equaliser, and then that added time winner from James Henry to send us delirious, and then Jack Stevens tipping an even later shot onto the bar to leave us winners, with a bit of "play the ball in the corner" to use up the last few seconds.
Hillsborough is a proper old school ground, converted to all seater. The posts holding up the stand blocked the view a bit, and you could see in the home end that whole sections of seats were empty to avoid missing seeing the main part of the pitch. I didn't understand why some fans were in the uncovered open corner in the top left when it was raining.
Journey back was a bit more stressful. The tram was absolutely crammed full and seemed to take almost an hour to get back into Sheffield.
Then back at Waterloo, the line was blocked between Woking and Surbiton, so had to get the slow train home which eventually got in past midnight. [edit: got full refund on travelcard via delay/repay]
I had visited Hillsborough once before when we played them in a cup match midweek but that was at night so couldn't really see the ground.
This time I came up on the train, ridiculously cheap LNER advance tickets of £14 return London to Doncaster, and £4.55 Doncaster to Sheffield Return. + travelcard to London £19.40.
Stopped in the Sheffield Tap for a pint before heading off to Kelham Island on the tram £4.40. We stopped at the Kelham Island Tavern, which has apparently won real ale pub of the year twice in a row. After a few more beers and a delicious pork-pie (I also bought one more for the train home), off on the tram again to the match.
A really enjoyable game, a nice early goal to set things up, an equaliser, and then that added time winner from James Henry to send us delirious, and then Jack Stevens tipping an even later shot onto the bar to leave us winners, with a bit of "play the ball in the corner" to use up the last few seconds.
Hillsborough is a proper old school ground, converted to all seater. The posts holding up the stand blocked the view a bit, and you could see in the home end that whole sections of seats were empty to avoid missing seeing the main part of the pitch. I didn't understand why some fans were in the uncovered open corner in the top left when it was raining.
Journey back was a bit more stressful. The tram was absolutely crammed full and seemed to take almost an hour to get back into Sheffield.
Then back at Waterloo, the line was blocked between Woking and Surbiton, so had to get the slow train home which eventually got in past midnight. [edit: got full refund on travelcard via delay/repay]