Grimsby

Ground: Blundell Park

Visits: 1

Date: 1st January 2015

Match: Grimsby - Macclesfield 1-2 (Conference Premier)

Attendance: 3 545

Every year since the 2005/6 season I have travelled to the UK around New Year. Since I was not too pleased with how fixtures worked out in England I actually looked elsewhere this time around but in the end I booked a trip to the UK anyway. This year there were no matches in the Football League on New Year´s Day, only Premiership and Conference on offer. With Burnley, my only remaining Premiership ground, playing away I had to look at fixtures in the Conference Premier. Grimsby and Macclesfield are both in the play-off zone and knowing Grimsby have good attendances I decided my first match in 2015 was to be at Blundell Park in Cleethorpes, Grimsby vs Macclesfield. I had a flight to Manchester on New Year´s Eve and at 10.20, after a short night´s sleep, on New Year´s Day I then boarded a train at Manchester Piccadilly. 2 h 30 min later I was in Cleethorpes. Cleethorpes, being right next to Grimsby, is situated on the east coast of England. In parts of England and Scotland it was forecasted heavy rain but no rain as I made the walk from the train station to Blundell Park. I decided to walk along the beach where plenty of people (and dogs) enjoyed the mild weather.

Blundell Park was opened in 1899 but only one of the original stands remains. The current all-seated capacity of the ground is 9 500. The Main Stand is one of the oldest stands in England and looking at the exterior I have to say it looks really old. In 1982 the two-tiered Findus Stand was built and it is in this stand the club has its offices. The home end is the Pontoon Stand which was made all-seated in 1995. The Osmond Stand houses the away supporters at Blundell Park. I bought a ticket for the top row (7) in the lower tier od the Findus Stand. My seat was quite a good one and I had a great view of the action. Macclesfield brought around 100 fans to Blundell Park this afternoon and in the 30th minute they could celebrate, 0-1. Grimsby had most of the chances though and shortly before half-time the equalized, 1-1 and quite an entertaining first half. At half-time I met up with fellow (German) groundhopper Julian. He texted me shortly before kick-off and he was in the Pontoon Stand. We met in the corner of the ground and I asked a steward if I could pass the gate and watch the second half from the Pontoon Stand. To my surprise he said yes! In the Pontoon Stand I could not only chat to Julian but also take pictures of the Findus Stand. The second half was not very good with few chances but in the 85th minute Macclesfield managed to find the net. The visitors hold on and could travel back to Cheshire with three points. Two defeats in a row for Grimsby and they can probably forget about the automatic promotion spot. Play-off at the best for them. This time of the year there is always a risk of having planned matches postponed and even though Grimsby vs Macclesfield wasn´t the best of matches I was still quite pleased as I made the walk back to Cleethorpes train station. At 17.26 I then boarded the train taking me back to Manchester.

cleethorpes