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Luton

Ground: Kenilworth Road

Visits: 1

Date: 28th December 2013

Match: Luton Town - Kidderminster  6-0  (Conference Premier)

Attendance: 8 488

 

Every year since the 2005/6 season I have made a trip to England around New Year. This season was not going to be an exception and once fixtures were confirmed I started with my planning. In the end I decided to stay in the UK for a full week with 3 matches in England and 3 in Scotland on the menu for me. After two months without (live) football I was of course looking forward to this trip. The weather in England had been quite mild with plenty of rain and strong winds in December. A few days before my trip a lot of rain fell over the UK. In combination with strong winds it was testing times for many. In time for my trip it cleared up though and on Saturday morning there was a blue sky as I made my way from Heathrow (I stayed the night at an airport hotel) to my hotel in central London. This Saturday (28 Dec.) there were matches in the Premier League as well as the Conference Premier to choose from. Having attended a match at all the grounds in the Premiership I looked at the Conference and noticed Luton were at home to Kidderminster Harriers. Knowing Kenilworth Road is an old football ground with a lot of character (others might call it a dump) combined with the fact Luton Town have very good attendances it was easy to choose my first match on this trip, Luton vs Kidderminster.
 
Staying in central London travelling to Luton is very easy. You take the tube to St Pancras station and from there it is around 35 minutes by train to Luton. I arrived at Luton station shortly after 1pm, two hours prior to kick-off, and walked from there to the ground. Kenilworth Road really is tucked-in with the neighbouring houses and where the ground is situated now it is impossible to expand. Nowadays Kenilworth Road has a capacity of around 10 200. My seat was in the Kenilworth Road End. To my right was the "Executive Boxes Stand", a strange looking stand with no regular seats. The houses behind this stand are really close to the ground. To my left was the main stand. This stand looked really ran-down and is also full of pillars obstructing the view. Parts of the main stand are apparently from 1922. As I picked my ticket there were only "poor" seats with obstructing view left for home fans to purchase. In total 8 500 was at Kenilworth Road this afternoon, for a match at this level (5!) that is very impressive to say the least. Most of the, well everyone except the 250 away fans, had a great day at Kenilworth Road. Luton, 2nd in the table before this match, were by far the better team and were 1-0 up at half-time. In the second half the scored an early goal before Kidderminster had a player sent off. 3-0 from the resulting penalty kick and the match was over. In the end in finished 6-0 to Luton and with Cambridge only drawing away to Nuneaton Luton actually went top of the table this afternoon. For me this was also a great day out. Nice weather, six goals  and a chance to visit the ground from where I watched so many Tipsextra matches as a youngster. In 1988 Luton beat Oxford 7-4 and this was one of the most memorable matches in the history of Tipsextra.
 
Tomorrow there is a full round of matches in the Football League and I am off to Bournemouth where I will be joined by my friend James. Hopefully plenty of goals in that match as well.

 

luton town fc

Luton Town FC

 

kenilworth stand, rear

Rear of the Kenilworth Stand

 

executive boxes stand, rear

Rear of the Executive boxes Stand

 

oak road stand, rear

Rear of the Oak Road Stand

 

main stand, rear

Rear of the Main Stand

 

main stand, rear2

Rear of the Main Stand

 

kenilworth road, outside

Outside Kenilworth Road on a matchday

 

david preece stand

David Preece Stand

 

main stand

Main Stand

 

main stand2

Main Stand

 

oak road stand

Oak Road Stand

 

executive boxes stand

Executive boxes Stand

 

kenilworth stand

Kenilworth Stand

 

flags

Flags

 

lutonfans

Luton fans

 

david preece stand2

David Preece Stand

 

main stand3a

Main Stand

 

main stand4

Main Stand

 

main stand5

Main Stand

 

spelbild

View of play

 

avspark

Kick-off

 

kidderminsterfans

Kidderminster fans

 

kenilworth road, vy

My view

 

executive boxes stand2

Executive boxes Stand

 

executive box

Executive box

 

pano, kenilworth road3a

Pano

 

pano, kenilworth road4

Pano