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First County Visit:	Friday 1st April 1983
Competition:	Football League Division 4 – (Tier 4)
Result:	Blackpool 0 – 0 Stockport County
Attendance:	3,126
Away Trip:	27
Away Day:	76
County Line-up	1 Brian Lloyd; 2 John Rutter; 3 Steve Sherlock; 4 Dean Emerson; 5 Tommy Sword; 6 Andy Thorpe; 7 Oshor Williams; 8 Nigel Smith; 9 Micky Quinn; 10 Mike Power; 11 Tony Coyle
Manager:	Eric Webster
County Visits:	13

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BE CAREFUL WHEN PARKING UP AT BLOOMFIELD ROAD

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My parents certainly found it the place for many a trip when I was young. I loved it as a kid, and to be honest so did my own offspring many years later. Some describe it as tacky and classless. More fool them. Maybe not a place to spend a full week on holiday, but for a day there was simply no beating it.

It was on one of those early family jaunts that Bloomfield Road first caught my eye. Tucked away just behind the promenade but separated from the main drag by row upon row of railway lines upon which the trippers to Blackpool made their way to the fun and frolics.  It stood there with a proud history, (which looking on from afar these days is something that the actions of recent ownership have sullied to a degree for which words will not suffice). 

My awareness of football began to grow from late 1961.  Aged just over 7 I was an avid reader of anything to do with the beautiful game, and at that point we were removed by less than a decade from the golden names of Matthews; Mortensen; Mudie et al.  The books that seemed to find their way to me by way of Christmas and birthday presents pointed to the legends – tales of the Matthews final back in 1953.  Equally an avid collector of any memorabilia, (a huge part of which now resides in my loft more than a half century later), my Dad bequeathed to me a programme from the 1948 Cup Final.  He’d been there that day as the first emergings of the Busby dynasty at Old Trafford resulted in the silverware being lifted as they overcame the Seasiders 4-2. 

All this stuff pointed me to the stars of the game, and just to spy the field of their dreams whetted my appetite.  Sufficiently so for my Dad to give in to the requests, (some might say persistent mithering from yours truly), to get a closer look. 

Making our way over the railway bridge on Bloomfield Road itself the towering South Stand truly marked itself as Blackpool.  Completely tangerine, from the outside it bore the club colours with pride.  I thought that would be it, but more was to come.  It was an autumn Saturday afternoon, (no doubt organised for the illuminations trip later), and there were signs of activity.  The legend outside imparted the news that Blackpool Reserves were playing Aston Villa Reserves in a Central League fixture.  Curiosity had clearly got the better of my Dad.  It must have been well past 3 o’clock, but a door at the bottom of the South Stand was open.  It led into a gymnasium, and thence onwards to the seating.  We didn’t stop long – just enough for me to take things in.  And then it was off my radar for the better part of 20 years.

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Those years hadn’t treated the Seasiders well.  From the glories of FA Cup final success and a stable position in the top league Blackpool had subsided into Division 4.  The ground hadn’t fared well either, matching its occupants fortunes. (Archive footage taken in 1979, four years before my first County visit).  All the components remained substantially unchanged apart from the removal of the roof on the Kop.  This was a spot which if the game wasn’t appealing enough then a look over the back wall would uncover the Tower, and for those who fancied refreshment a whole raft of drinking dens; seafood emporia, and other culinary delights, (or not!).

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The old South Stand was still there towering over the rest of the ground. It seemed from the Kop terrace to be completely out of proportion.  To either side was covering standing barely more than head height.  The East Paddock, (aka the Scratching Shed), provided standing, although at one point some seats were put in there.  Quite for what reason, and indeed by what kind of logic is difficult to comprehend.  Seats on low terracing like that do not a good spectating experience provide.  These were removed quickly and it reverted to its original lay-out.

But it was the West Stand which particularly intrigued me.  This was completely wooden.  Remember that first sighting 20 years earlier.  Train lines ran along the back wall of this construction.  Quite how the thing had never gone up in flames over the years must have been a miracle as the old steam engines made their way in and out showering the place with sparks. A similar lay out these days would have the insurance brokers in a fit of vapours.  Inside it was a complete maze, described by Simon Inglis as “a timber merchant’s yard”. It hardly proved a decent view, with its low aspect, and the seats were little more than lengths of 4” x 2”.  I tried it a couple of times but thereafter always headed for the Kop, or what remained of it, which became the place to be on County visits

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And there’s been a fair few of them.  Thirteen in total.  And a complete change in the ground from the first to the last.  The only common feature has been the pitch.  The last visit, (the best of all bringing with it a 4-0 win back in 2004), saw it in what might be described kindly, as a state of transition. 

The West Stand and Kop had been replaced with the creations which still stand today.  The Scratching Shed gone too, but in its place open seating which might well have served a couple of miles down the road at Royal Lytham when the Open Golf came to town.  The imposing South Stand had fallen victim to the bulldozers and in its place stood absolutely nothing, other than bare earth and demolition debris.  Errant shots at that end had to be rescued from this scene of dereliction by a squad of individuals no doubt heavily sanctioned by Health and Safety and kitted out with a full risk assessment. 

It’s been over a decade since I last went.  County have descended into non League; Blackpool enjoyed the joy of a Premier League campaign but at the current rate will be setting the sat-nav for some of the places that have become familiar to the Hatters in recent years.  I proffer no fact on what has happened there, not being overly keen on being on the end of legal action from the current owners, but it smacks to me of managed decline.  Pretty sad all the way round really.

There haven’t been too many of the games that live long in the memory.  That first trip was the start of the Easter programme.  Strangely enough the Sealand Road visit three months earlier had been the Christmas part of that season, and 24 hours after the game at Bloomfield Road Chester were due to visit EP.  Good Friday; then Easter Saturday – an English football tradition, and its disappearance a sore loss to the game.  Neither side troubled the scorers to use a cricketing analogy.  Not one to reminisce upon.

February 1997 saw a lot riding on the fixture.  Hanging onto the coat tails of the play-off places County were in that phase of a minimum of two games a week as they tried to keep league hopes alive; still making progress in the Autoglass Trophy and were, 4 days after the game at Bloomfield Road due to face Middlesborough in the League Cup semi final.  A decent following from SK3 and we were allocated what remained of the Kop.  The roof had long gone, with but the original supports still in situ, stretching skywards, as though to try and emulate their big brother a couple of hundred yards away, but merely standing forlornly, all purpose in life having gone.  Half of the terracing was closed off, no doubt condemned by that point, and the part that remained open didn’t look in the very best of condition.

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The roof had gone, but the bottom of the supports were still there. Later on the whole place would become little more than derelict with only a small part, (on the right in this picture) being permitted for use

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By 2002 the train lines had gone; the West Stand had too, so the conflagration which threatened all the way through the pre Beeching Iron Horse years had mercifully been avoided. In its place was what seemed to be miles and miles of car parking ready for the day trippers.  The main route into Blackpool and to the ground followed the path of the old railway lines.  An extension of the M55 it gives easy access and plentiful space to park up. 

On a dark October Tuesday night Jeff and I, (together with Andrew Green – a colleague from the Nationwide BS who I had been meeting on business earlier in the day), got to the ground an hour or so before kick off; left the car having looked for any sign that this might be a pay car park.  Nothing within 300 yards either way, and plenty of others were of the same view. 

We watched the game, (a 3-1 win), and returned to the car to find consternation all round.  Blackpool Corporation must have had a field day, (or more accurately night).  Every single car had been ticketed, and the price for avoiding the promised legal action was £60, (but for you guv only £30 if you pay up in 14 days).  (If truth’s known I can’t really remember how much it was other than it was a liberty taken – and more than a nice earner for the Council).  A case of make any signage about as invisible as possible; wait for the game to start and then despatch a jobsworth to deploy a ticketing machine.  Why isn’t officialdom more transparent?  But there again a host of fines is significantly more lucrative than a couple of quid fee.  A curse on their house.

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January 2017

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Fri	01/04/83	Football League Division 4	Tier 4	Blackpool	D	0	0	3,126	76
Tues	10/04/84	Canon League Division 4	Tier 4	Blackpool	D	1	1	3,971	94
Sat	10/11/84	Canon League Division 4	Tier 4	Blackpool	L	1	4	3,428	103
Sat	27/04/91 (Highlights)	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Blackpool	L	2	3	8,590	212
Sat	24/04/93	Barclays League Division 2	Tier 3	Blackpool	L	0	2	7,205	259
Sat	02/04/94	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Blackpool	L	0	2	5,235	277
Tues	27/12/94 (Highlights)	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Blackpool	W	2	1	5,711	291
Sat	09/09/95	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Blackpool	W	1	0	6,602	305
Sat	22/02/97	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Blackpool	L	1	2	5,772	349
Tues	05/09/00	Worthington Cup	Round 1 – 2nd leg	Blackpool	L	2	3	3,133	428
Tues	29/10/02	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Blackpool	W	3	1	7,047	471
Sat	27/03/04 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Blackpool	D	1	1	7,604	505
Sat	14/08/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Blackpool	W	4	0	6,334	507

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – SEALAND ROAD Next stop – ELM PARK