Football Grounds Picture Quiz (3)

Got one at last

No 24 smeathorpe stockcar track.

Am I still allowed to enter?

23: Halifax Town 24: Northampton Town (County Ground) 25: Oxford United (Manor Ground) 26: Celtic 27: Sunderland (Roker Park) 28: Huddersfield Town (Leeds Road) 29: Brighton & Hove Albion (Goldstone Ground) 30: Everton 31: Rangers 32: Aston Villa 33: Manchester City (Maine Road) 34: Wolverhampton Wanderers........................you can't beat me (well not quite)

I think what comes over as evident of those mainly pre-war pictures is how many of the grounds were "cut to fit" every bit of available space within the confines of the often dense urban landscapes...................even our very own Plainmoor had to adopt a somewhat "wedge shaped" footprint and Exeter City had the encroaching railway track to contend with.

Take a look at no 30 and see how many terraced houses surround Goodison Park and even then how the back wall of the "Park End" stand had to be indented to accommodate just one of those little homes. Note too how the local church imposed itself into the vast stadium next door! Wolves' Molyneux ~no 34 [/b, ]too had to work it's way between Molyneux Street on the far side and Waterloo Road on the near side. Note too how the "Zig Zag" Stand wound it's way up the ever steepening incline of the hill so that although vast (it held well into the top twenty thousands) the famous South Bank was in fact level with the ground behind at it's very summit.

Villa Park no 32, also had to contend with the curving sweep of Trinity Road and just look how they built all those offices and other ancillary rooms beneath the Holte End! If you look beyond the far end of the Trinity Road Stand you can see the wonderful old Victorian red brick buildings complete with clock tower that used to be so much a part of the Villa Park experience (there was also a bowling green incorporated amongst all that and it was all still there when I was afforded a private look round the wonderful old ground during my time with Torquay United. Whoever sanctioned the demolition of all that heritage and failed to force the Villa into incorporating it as a back drop to all the new development there wants hanging upside down by their goolies in my opinion....................what a bunch of reprobates doing away with all that heritage ~ bastards!

Perhaps interesting for anyone from Newton Abbot, is the name of the woolen mill in the background to the old Leeds Road no 28, ground of Huddersfield Town (the Galpharm is but 400 yards to the South East of this spot).....................it's called Bradley Mills , now could there possibly be a connection seeing as the two mills of the same name were both in the same industry?

Today's Shay no 23, has been squared off so that the bends of the old speedway track are now the footprint of the two new covered ends. The stand on the right hand side was supposed to have been replaced by a shining new construction but after eight long years it still sits unfinished! The long side opposite is still the same. Did you know that the Hunger Hill terrace at the far end used to have a target golf range at the top with the targets laid out on the pitch below and it wasn't that unusual for games to be stopped when the odd rogue golf ball got trodden on

I went to that game too...................and I also stood there with my Wolves supporting best mate when we won there to get to Wembley for the first and most meaningful time in our history. Playing at Wembley really meant something then, it did to the hordes of Wolves fans who were so bitterly disappointed and it certainly did to us; unlike nowadays when we all feel ripped off and lost in that ridiculously too big venue foe BSP Play Off Final!