Gresty Road

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Crewe Alexandra 0-0 Accrington Stanley

Aerial shot of Gresty Road (Bing Maps)

Programme - £1.50 reduced from £2.50 (Original programme from the postponed game and a sleeve covering the programme with latest news and squads)

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 7/10

Ease of getting there : 8/10

Atmosphere : 4/10

Programme : 2/10 (Simply due to the programme being out of date)

View of Action : 9/10

Quality of the game : 7/10

The "football" feeling : 8/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 5/10

Legroom : 10/10

Surrounding area : 5/10

Overall : 65/100

Gresty Road from the Railway Station

'Gresty Rd'

'Welcome to Crewe Alexandra...before chaos at the ticket office!'

Air Products stand

Gresty road end

Blue Bells BMW stand

Air Products stand

Gresty road end

Blue Bells BMW stand

Railway end

Blue Bells BMW stand

The Accrington Stanley supporters making use of the 1,680 capacity!

Gresty road end

Railway end

Panoramic shot of Gresty road

Crewe Alexandra 0-0 Accrington Stanley

Gresty Road is one of the closest grounds which myself (Ross) haven’t actually visited. A while ago, I (Ross) went on a slight rant about the pricing structure at Crewe Alex on the 606 website because there wasn’t a price for a student unless you purchased a membership which is pointless as this may have been the only time I visit Crewe!

Anyway Adrian and I travelled the fairly short distance to Crewe and arriving in the town at 6:15pm. We walked the short distance to the ground and purchased our tickets. Crewe’s website stated the Accrington Stanley game’s pricing for myself quite clearly “17-19 year olds - £10.50”. Adrian asked for 1 adult and 1 17-19 year old before witnessing a predictable question “Have you got your Crewe Alex Student Membership?” We continued to ask why I needed a student membership as I was asking for the 17-19 year old ticket at £10.50 rather than the Student ticket at £8.50 which also needed a membership card which was unnecessary as we don’t go regularly. Eventually, the girl at the desk asked her superior about this and she sorted it out. After taking my details and printing our tickets I was asked to have a photo taken...for a Crewe Alexandra membership card!

Basically we walked out the ticket office with 1 adult ticket at £19 which was correct for Adrian and for me, a student ticket at £8.50 plus a membership card which are usually £5.00 yet I got this for free. We saved £2.00 somehow and gained free Crewe Alex membership!

Wikipedia says that Gresty Road “is a multi-use stadium in Crewe, England. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of Crewe Alexandra. The stadium was originally built in 1906, and has been redeveloped substantially from the mid-1990s, and now has an all-seated capacity of 10,153”

The first of the major redevelopment of Gresty Road was the Railway end which was rebuilt in 1992 holding 638 and also containing disabled access and hospitality suites.

Next was Gresty Road end which holds 982 and also the Blue Bell BMW stand which holds 1,680, followed by the installation of new floodlights in 1998.

The Air Products stand was completed in time for the 1999/2000 season which holds a massive 6,809 which holds almost 70% of available seating at Gresty Road!

The game was an entertaining end to end game where both sides had chances to snatch a winner but as I said to Adrian before half time with the many chances missed “This has nil-nil written all over it!” I was right!

Overall I really enjoyed visiting Crewe Alex, not only because it’s one of the closest remaining grounds for myself, but also because Crewe is a traditional football town which is a nice feeling when visiting which is sadly starting to become rarer as even more new stadiums are being built on the outskirts of towns and cities.