By Nathan Jackson
December 4 2010

Lincoln City made the 2010/11 pre-season trip to south-west London to face Staines Tow. It was the first visit in a London time that City had made to Staines, but it turned out to be a rather dull day, not helped by the incorrect directional information that our driver had gotten.

As part of Chris Sutton's random decision to travel to three London area based clubs in the pre-season of 2010/11, the club played at Staines Town's Wheatsheaf Park. The journey down from Lincoln was a familiar one as it was roads that City journey down to get to places such as Barnet and Aldershot, the latter of which being more relevant due to the trip onto the M25. Ahh, the M25, the only road in the UK where you can virtually guarantee queues. This queue meant we didn't enter the area of Staines until fifteen minutes before kick off......and the wrong information provided on the Staines website with regards to the postcode meant we only got to the ground just before kick off.

Around the ground there was ample parking, either in the streets or actually at the ground itself, which doubles up as a leisure centre. There only appeared to be a single set of turnstiles, something that is highly unusual. They bring you out right next to the main stand. There didn't appear to be a club shop around the area, but then again I didn't overly look for one as I was concentrating on getting into the ground.

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The main stand is an unusual stand. It is only about as wide as Lincoln's Lincolnshire Echo stand and the seated section comes out of a much wider building, it's looks like a smaller and narrower version of the main stand at Gillingham. Much like many other non-League grounds, this whole ground is not segregated, meaning that this stand is shared between home and away fans, it offers an excellent view of the action and is fairly relaxed, the Staines fans seem friendly enough in the sand.

Behind either goal is a small pathway with trees behind them. It's hard to say whether these really count as stands or not, infact they are very similar to the areas at Lincoln United at the sides of the pitches. There's barely enough space for one person, so if you're trying to get past then it might be a bit of tight squeeze. The view from both isn't too bad due to the small size of the pitch, but neither are great stands.

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The stand opposite the main one is a small terraced effort that looks quite unique due to the way the standing supports are set up. The view from this site isn't bad, but there's not much you can really do with only a step or two's worth of terracing. The only major advantage to this stand is that you are right next to the dugouts, so can hear exactly what is being said.

Facilities around the ground aren't the best, the food stall, although run by a really nice woman from memory, the food on offer wasn't exactly great and was a bit over-priced. Don't get me wrong, there are far worse food facilities in the League, but to pay £3 for a cheeseburger that is quite small is pushing reasonable doubt a bit.

Much like most other teams at that level, there was seemingly no atmosphere whatsoever, although this could change if it was due to be a friendly.

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Overall, it wasn't an awful ground by any stretch of the imagination, but out of all the grounds I have visited at the level of the Blue Square North/South, it is the only one that I've felt wasn't actually up to that level in terms of quality. However, the people seem friendly enough and the parking situation is amongst the best at that level.

I wouldn't object to come here again if City played here again, but due to the issues with the travelling, I wouldn't want to come here for just a random game. Even if I lived in London, it wouldn't be my choice to random grounds to visit simply due to the vast array available in that area of the country.

I'm basing the scores on the seated stand, as that's where I spent most of the game.

Staines Town's Wheatsheaf Park

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 04/12/2010 21:31

theimps.ka
04/12/2010 21:31

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