By Nathan Jackson
August 14 2011

Our first game back in the Blue Square Premier was a trip to Southport. An old school ground that is mostly terracing was certainly very different to a lot of the grounds regularly visited in recent times.

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Relegation from the Football League means a lot of things, you lose out on funding, you generally attract lower crowds and you visit some strange places.

When Lincoln were relegated in 2011, the first ground was one that City hadn't gone to since the 1970s, Southport's Haig Avenue. I was born in 1984 so didn't have any reference to the past, but I have been told by the older generation that the ground hasn't changed much since the last visit, and to be fair the ground does look like something from the 1960s.

Outside of the ground there doesn't appear to be a lot to do within a distance of the ground, although there is a retail park and a few restaurants within about a mile. Directly outside the ground there isn't a lot that greets you when you get off of the coach, other than a brick wall that the turnstiles are in and the mass of barbed wire just above it.

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The away fans are divided into two stands, the terrace behind one of the goals and around 200 seats are allocated in the main stand, although there is no segregation between fans. Despite this, there was no trouble between the fans and there was quite a few friendly conversations going on between the sets of fans. It's certainly a lot friendlier than a lot of Football League grounds and when there were goals, there was no goading on the part of either set of fans. 

Don't get me wrong, thats not to say there were no exceptions of iritating Southport. There was this one extremely iritating Southport fan sitting in the main stand who was shouting, as in properly shouting, at the person sat next to him throughout the entire. This is nearly enough to ruin an otherwise peaceful experience.

So onto the ground itself. I was sat in the main stand, which despite being seemingly very old, it was fairly modern in terms of seating, unlike some traditional Football League teams that still have wooden seats...such as Leyton Orient. Despite this, the facilities in the stand were shocking. The toilet was extremely small, with just one cubicle and a urinal that is no longer than four feet long is supposed to be shared by several hundred fans. That canteen is quite small and only has one person serving, but the prices are extremely reasonable.

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THe view from the main stand is reasonable as well, and only slightly restricted from the top due to what I can only guess is an executive area, other than that it's a near enough clear view of the pitch, with a decent view of both ends of the pitch.

To the left was the other away end, a terrace that ran the length of the goalline. Strangely this seemed to be divided into three sub-terraces, with two small terraced areas either side of the larger terraced area. The toilets also appeared to be just a t-hut located at the end of this stand.

Behind the other goal is a stand that reminds me a lot of the Town End at Boston. A terrace that has a roof that only partially covers the stand. Due to Southport's colours of yellow and black, it could easily be mistaken for the aforementioned Town End. The Southport fans did move from this stand to the side terrace when their team was attacking the other end of the pitch.

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The final stand, as mentioned above, is a pitch length terrace that much like the away terrace, is divided into several smaller section terraces. This is quite a small terrace and in terms of height, is the smallest stand at Haig Avenue.

The atmosphere at Southport is very poor, with songs very few and far between. Even just after they scored they were quite quiet. Despite this, Southport fans seemed passionate about their team, with the aforementioned iritating shouter being particularly keen to get behind his side.

Overall I have no overwhelming opinions either way about Southport. I didn't dislike it but I didn't really like it either, it was just there. I would visit it again but I wouldn't go out of my way to go if City weren't playing.

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Southport's Haig Avenue

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 14/08/2011 21:36

theimps.ka
14/08/2011 21:36

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F1imp
14/08/2011 23:45

At least they can say they have a better ground than Macclesfield FC

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