Wolverhampton

Ground: Molineux

Visits: 1

Date: 28th December 2009

Match: Wolverhampton - Manchester C 0-3 (Premier League)

Attendance: 28 957

My last tour of 2009 was to be in the England and I had been lucky enough to find four matches in three days. The first was to be Walsall-Norwich and later in the evening Wolves-Manchester C. I stayed in Birmingham and early Monday morning I made the short trip to Wolverhampton to take some exterior pictures of Molineux. It was quite cold with some fog this Monday but when I arrived at Wolverhampton there was some lovely winter weather with a clear blue sky. Molineux is only a 10 minute walk from the train station and from a road near the ground I was able to take some great pictures over-looking Molineux. I walked around this classic ground, taking some more pictures including one of the legend Billy Wright. Molineux for sure looks like a proper football ground and I was now even more looking forward to the game against Mancini's Manchester City.

There was of course a game before that, at Walsall, and after a quick lunch in Birmingham I headed towards the Bescot Stadium, or Banks's Stadium as it´s now officially called. Bescot Stadium has its own railway station and the ground is only a 5 minute walk away. I picked up my ticket by 1.30 and witnessed bus load after bus load with Norwich fans arrive. With so many away fans this was going to be a game with an excellent atmosphere. That was not to be however, for some strange reason the referee decided to call the game off at 2.05. Less than an hour before kick-off he had concerns about the pitch and called the game off. It was cold outside and I knew there was a risk this was going to happen, but why not inspect the pitch earlier? The 2,000 or so Norwich fans were of course very upset. This is a 3,5/4 hour journey for them and most of them had already arrived when the game was postponed. I was of course disappointed myself but at least I had another game to look forward to, Wolves-Manchester C.

I returned to Molineux by 6.15 and when the gates opened 20 minutes later I went inside to take some pictures of the empty stands. Fortunately Molineux has under-soil heating so the game was never at risk of being called off, at least not for a frozen pitch. When the game started the it was pretty even on the pitch but late in the first half Carlos Tevez scored for City and despite some good chances Wolves failed to equalise and City then went on to win 3-0. They showed quality in front of goal and I guess this is what separates good teams from the others. It had been a long and eventful day for me but when I returned to my hotel I could look back on another Premiership ground visted and even though I was disappointed of not being able to see a game at the Bescot Stadium it had still been a good day for me.

molineux