By Nathan Jackson
October 8 2011

The Lamb is the home of Tamworth FC and was one of the many new away grounds for most fans following the relegation from the Football League. It was yet another culture shock for those fans who were used to the comforts of Football League grounds.

Tamworth's The Lamb is yet another ground that made the fans of City realise that the non-league era had well and truly begun. The Imps were relegated in 2011 and the first ever visit for a competitive fixture came in October of that year. I know a few of my friends were exceptionally excited about the prospect as they had been Tamworth followers for a few years.

I decided to go on the train for this game and it's a relatively easy journey from Lincoln, changing once at either Nottingham or Beeston. I do find it bizarre though that you can't get a direct train from Lincoln to Boston (30odd miles).....yet you can get to Plymouth directly from Tamworth, it makes no logical sense.

The walk from the train station is slightly more difficult than it would appear on maps as you go under the roads into a sub-walkway system. Despite this, it's quite a quick walk that should take no more than 10 minutes.

Around the ground there's not a lot to do, there is a club shop which has a lot of old programmes and loads of old kits for sale for really cheap prices. Other than that there's nothing at the ground, but you can go to nearby cinemas and entertainment complexs, the town centre is not too far away either.

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I had asked to go into the ground to take pictures a few hours before kick off and was greeted by a yes by the steward, but then whilst inside the rather rude stadium manager came up to me and said "Who are you?" Infact, throughout the entire day I found the stewards to be rather arseholeistic. I had one who asked me if I was legally allowed to take pictures of the ground whilst I was stood in the away end.

So anyway, entering the ground is through a rather unusual set of turnstiles, with a see-through gate between fans and getting in. Immediately to your right as you go into the ground are the most cramped toilets ever, four urinals places within 5 feet of each other. The food stall is to the left and is very reasonably priced....but I would not recommend the chips, they were horrible.

The away stand itself was a very unusual stand, not too dissimilar to the old away end at Cheltenham Town. The view from this stand is actually better than you might think, although there are a lot of pillars slightly blocking the view.

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THE AWAY END

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To the left is a pitch length covered terrace, although it is very small and only has a few steps. This didn't seem very full with only what appeared a small number of Tamworth fans inside of it....although the small nature of the stand could have easily made the crowd in there seem smaller than it actually is..

To the right was a seated stand where the away fans have a small section dedicated to them. This stand appeared to be completely full and when I went in there whilst taking my photos, it offered a reasonable view of the action, however, the leg space left a lot to be desired. Strangely the away section seats were considerably newer than the ones for the home fans.

The final stand behind the other goal was a terrace and the highest stand out of any at the ground and this terrace was reasonably popular with the home fans.

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There is virtually no atmosphere to speak of and even scoring goals didn't produce a large noise, it was noticeable but not overly loud. Other than a very brief spell after they scored their goals, their fans were generally quiet.

The programme is also effectively a yellow pages with a tiny section about football in it, it certainly wasn't good. However, Tamworth were giving away an excellent "History of Tamworth FC" booklet that was well worth a read.

Tamworth's fans are reasonably friendly and I had a good chat with a few in the club shop. They're certainly a lot friendlier than the stewards. Speaking of the club shop, they had a fake sheep's head hanging off of the wall like a trophy.

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Overall the trip to Tamworth was reasonable. I'd come here again if City were playing but maybe not for a random game. Having said that it certainly wasn't the worst away fan experience I've ever been on....with the exception of the stewards.

Tamworth's The Lamb

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 08/10/2011 22:52

theimps.ka
08/10/2011 22:52

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Mr Staffordshire
09/10/2011 10:17

To the left is a pitch length covered terrace, although it is very small and only has a few steps. This didn't seem very popular with Tamworth fans and only had a small handful of fans inside of it.

That made me a laugh.. That's where hardcore and faithful fans are housed in. It is most popular stand and certainly most famous of all 4 stands.

Overalll, our ground may be not your liking but at least not forget we have been in non league for our entire history, hence compact ground.

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F1imp
09/10/2011 14:04

To be honest, considering Tamworth have never been a league team, its not that bad.

Fleetwood Town have a really good stadium considering they haven't been a league team before however, they have had a lot of investment.

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