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Away Days - Chesterfield
Away Days - Chesterfield
Thursday, 19th Oct 2006 00:00

Away Days - Chesterfield

Away Days - Chesterfield

The one solitary official coach left the Quadrant at 8am, on our way to Chesterfield for my 85th consecutive game (Sad, I think I need a life!). The talk was obviously about Leon Knight after Ugo told us that our top scorer was not in the squad for the game. It was all pure speculation at the time. What had he done etc, many wondering how we'd fare without him? We would find out in good time.

We stopped off in a pub just outside Chesterfield, at around 12.30 and had a few orange juices before making our way to Saltergate; I noticed that there were no Under 16 prices today. So being the honest guy that I am I paid full price - They must have known I was going to be there!!

The programme was a good re, 62 pages, 4 of them dedicated to the Swans, giving a brief history and a little write up on the fact that we were once managed by four people in the same season. As well as the usual profiles on the players.

Saltergate is an old style ground, with not much development over the years, as far as I could tell. The away end was an old fashioned terrace with no cover - luckily it wasn't raining - the other sides of the ground aren't that much better.

They do have planning permission for a new 11,000 seater stadium, about a mile away from their current ground, so obviously there's no point in them developing Saltergate.

The other three sides of the ground all have cover, but they are very small stands; the pitch was in good condition so no need for Willy to worry about divots a la Paul Robinson.

The Swans only took 271 fans, around 800+ less than last season and 1000 less than those who went to Forest, which is only 28 miles further. There was no roof on the away end so it was hard to create a loud atmosphere, the home fans weren't that much louder, only sang when they scored and a few chants of 'Spireites, spireites' The chant of the day being 'Willy, give us a smile' and he duly obliged.

After a great away win the journey back seemed to go pretty quickly - strange that. A quick stop at the services, where some Bristol Rovers fans also decided to stop at - I wondered why there were tractors outside! That explained it.

The Swans player's coach also passed us on the way back (how fast they must have been going to catch up with us I don't know!). Willy gave us a wave - shame he couldn't stick his hand up in the air to stop the Spireites's second goal though!

Our bus (which worked this time) arrived back at Swansea at around 9.30, not too long to wait until the next game against Walsall in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy on Tuesday night.

Ticket: £15

Coach: £16

Programme: £2.50

Current running total: £358

Photo: Action Images



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