Milton KeynesGround: stadium: mk Visits: 1 Date: 22nd April 2011 Match: Milton Keynes - Huddersfield 1-3 (League 1) Attendance: 11 857
Good Friday started with me meeting up with my friend Håkan, he travelled to London on Thursday evening and was to join me for the weekend. There were two matches on our menu today. First up, at 3pm, was Milton Keynes vs Huddersfield and then later in the evening Northampton vs Rotherham. We arrived in Milton Keynes by 12.30 and after having "lunch" at the local Subways we the eventually found a bus which would take us to the ground. The bus journey went smoothly, there are a lot of roundabouts in Milton Keynes though!
MK Dons are one of the most controversial clubs in England. In 2002 an FA panel approved the move of Wimbledon FC from southwest London to Buckinghamshire. This relocation was and still is the source of many emotions. Wimbledon fans protested but when the move was approved they started a new club, AFC Wimbledon. After the 2002/2003 season Wimbledon FC changed its name to Milton Keynes Dons and they played at the National Hockey Stadium. Their current ground stadium:mk was opened in 2007 and has a capacity of around 21 000. The upper tier is still empty though and it won´t be completed until MK Dons are established in the top two divisions. The capacity then will be 30 000. Every current seat in the ground is padded and the ground feels spacious.
MK Dons against Huddersfield was an important match. Both teams are in the play-off zone with Huddersfield level on points with Southampton in second place. There was a big away following, 2 800 Huddersfield supporters had made the journey to stadium:mk. This was to be their afternoon. They went 1-0 up early on and their keeper then saved a penalty (in front of celebrating away fans!). It was 2-0 before half-time and Huddersfield then missed a penalty themselves before scoring a third goal. The songs from the away sections were by now louder and more impressive than ever before. MK Dons scored late on but nothing could dampen the joy among the visitors. The home fans were very quiet throughout the match but thankfully the visiting fans made this a great afternoon for a neutral Swedish groundhopper.
Afterwards we hurried to the bus stop to catch the bus taking us back to the train station and our train to Northampton. The bus journey did not go to well though. After a while the bus broke down (see picture below). Luckily we found another bus after a while and we made the 17.52 train. Part 1 of this double-header was over.
stadium:mk
Away fans outside the ground
North Stand
East Stand
South Stand
View of stadium:mk
Huddersfield fans
View of play
Kick-off
East Stand
View of stadium:mk
South Stand
A broken down bus
Pano
Pano
Pano
|