Shildon v Jarrow Roofing

Dean Street

Northern League Division One

January 17, 2015

Ground No 164

I GUESS I'm destined never to watch Darlington play at their current Heritage Park home.

The plan was to watch the Quakers against Prescot Cables but, just as on the previous occasion I'd intended to go there, Mother Nature stuck her size nines in and kicked my plans into touch.

It always pays to have a Plan  B in place though and since this call-off  at 'Heritage Pond' (as someone on the Darlo forum board rather unkindly dubbed it) was hardly unexpected, I had a trip to Shildon up my sleeve as soon as I knew their fixture had passed a lunchtime pitch inspection.

As I pulled up, the Radio Five Live pundits were talking about how QPR's Loftus Road ground is hemmed in by housing on all four sides and, by way of coincidence, Dean Street isn't dissimilar.

With plenty of roadside parking as a result, it was easy enough to dump the car within short walking distance of the ground's solitary turnstile.

Since I was early I decided to call in on the local chippy for lunch, and if my day had involved a change of plan, then the owners had been burdened with even more ripping up of plans and starting again. They'd been broken into overnight and as a result business was conducted through the recently - and forcibly - removed upper half of the door while the damaged half remained stuck in situ.

As I passed on my way back to the car after the game I was pleased to see a shiny new replacement door in place, although the thieves must have been back and nicked the apostrophe out of the signage that read "Erics Fish Bar".

My next purchase was the club's excellent programme, surely one of the most professionally produced in the Northern League, as I entered a new ground for the 164th time.

The first thing you notice is the large and distinctive main stand on one side of the ground. Its pitched roof and squat shape make it look like a house with three of the four walls taken down and all the rooms replaced with rows of seats.

Incorporated within it are the changing rooms and the clubhouse. The latter is well worth a visit and not just because it's a cosy little den that offers respite from the cold outside. It's like a mini-museum.

On the walls are signed shirts (including one from SV Hamburg congratulating Shildon on their 2014 Durham Challenge Cup win), programmes (including one from the Shildon v Manchester United game in 1987 that marked the switching on of the ground's floodlights), pictures and other memorabilia from a proud history that dates back to the 1880s.

Pride of place on the bar - for this season at least - however, is the Durham Challenge Cup itself, a beautiful, hand-crafted silver trophy.

Opposite the main stand is the Lee Hainsworth Stand. Named after one of the club's players who was killed on the way to training in 2004, it offers covered standing out of the glare of the bright sun that blazed behind it.

Next to it are small grass banks with signs telling spectators not to stand there. Two blokes were doing just that next to one such sign and it would have made a great photo but I thought it best not to take one...

The game itself took a while to warm up, not something I was ever likely to do on a chilly January day, but it developed into a keenly fought battle between two teams in the top half of the table. The hosts fought back from a goal down to grab a deserved 2-1 win.

A great set-up, decent game and a ground worth visiting.