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Swindon Town

Ground: County Ground

Visits: 1

Date: 1st January 2019

Match: Swindon Town - Exeter  0-2  (League 2)

Attendance: 6 755

New Year´s Day 2019 was to be a day full of travelling and football for me. Two of my (five) remaining 92 clubs, Forest Green and Swindon, played at home and in the end the decision was quite easy. Bromley v Sutton in the National League was moved to 19.45 for TV-reasons. That meant I had the opportunity to do a double today, Swindon v Exeter and Bromley v Sutton. At 09.10 in the morning I was in an almost empty train from Birmingham New Street to London. I then went by tube to Paddington where my hotel was. To my surprise it was possible to check in, normally I have to wait until 2pm. I left my bag in my room and made the short walk back to Paddington station. At 11.30 my train left the station and an hour later I was in Swindon. The County Ground is only a 10-12 minute walk from the station and my plan was to go there, buy my ticket, take a few pictures and then get something to eat. The planned worked although I am not sure I actually was served what I ordered at the Turkish ‘restaurant’ I visited. Anyway, after lunch I went back to the ground and also went to have a look at the nearby Magic roundabout. Traffic flow around the larger, inner roundabout is counterclockwise, and traffic flows in the usual clockwise manner around the five mini-roundabouts and the outer loop. I stood there for a while watching cars and I am grateful we don´t have roundabouts like that in Sweden!

As soon as the turnstiles opened I went inside to take pictures of the empty stands. The County Ground has been the home of Swindon Town since 1896. The record attendance is 32 000 but nowadays the capacity is around 15 500. The ground has four separate all-seated stands but for teams with a smaller away following the Stratton Bank is closed. In the Main Stand (Arkell´s Stand) there are 1 200 seats for away fans and for most games that is more than enough. I decided to buy a ticket for the upper tier of the Don Rogers Stand and from there I had a great view of the action. Swindon are mid-table and that is most likely where they will end up at the end of the season. Exeter on the other hand are in the play-off zone and for this game the Grecians brought around 800 fans, quite impressive for League 2. In the first half it was an even battle on the pitch. Poor defending and a clumpy tackle meant the referee had no choice but to award Exeter a penalty kick. =-1 and joy for the visiting fans. The second half was more entertaining with both teams having good chances to score. In the 69th minute Archie Collins scored a great goal from 25 yards out and it was by noiw even more joy in the away end. Swindon had their chances to score but missed them all and it ended 0-2 at the County Ground. I have now visited 88 of the 92 and hopefully it will be at least one more trip to England this season. After the game I hurried back to the train station and via Paddington and Victoria I was just about in time for kick-off at Hayes Lane in Bromley.

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The County Ground

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Stadium map

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Ticket office

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The County Ground

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Ticket office for away fans

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Rear of the Don Rogers Stand

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Magic roundabout

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Town End

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Main Stand (Arkell´s Stand)

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Stratton Bank

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Flags

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Players and officials entering

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Kick-off

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Town End

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View of play

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Main Stand (Arkell´s Stand)

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View of play

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Exeter City fans

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Pano

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Pano