Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Wednesday was lovely for anyone reading this.
For anyone who is a fan of football, you basically get two ‘Christmas eve’s’.
Obviously there’s normal Christmas eve, but then Christmas day too, because there is only one sleep before Boxing Day football begins!
This year our destination was Whitstable Town, in their Boxing day fixture against Ashford United.
Apart from a little bit of a struggle locating a petrol station, our journey was relatively easy and we ended up parking about 5 minutes from the ground.
We got into the ground, used the toilets and found our seats just before the game was about to kick off, perfect considering the blustering wind and rain.
The first observation we made was that this game was really going to be about who wanted it more, the pitch was not particularly conducive to fluid football due the heavy barrage of rain recently.
But you could tell that both sets of players were really up for the fight.
The deadlock was broken mid way through the first half, and it was the away team who pulled in front after their big number four poked home following a set piece.
After the halftime break both sides improved a lot, and this was reflected in Whitstable’s equaliser. Harry Stannard curled an absolutely sumptuous long range effort into the top corner with what I think was his weaker foot.
This was met by gleeful appreciation from the 330 onlookers.
Ashford United reasserted their dominance after this setback and were soon back in front with another delightful goal, this time by Lee Prescott.
The midfielder took on a player in the box and then poked home past the keeper.
The rest of the game saw a couple of goalmouth scrambles but the worsening condition of the pitch meant it was hard for either team to muster any rhythm into their play.
The end of the game soon came and we managed to get back for about 3:30 (this is why I love early kick offs) and another successful Boxing day tick was complete.
Just a quick note on The Belmont Ground as I was really intrigued by it.
As you can see from the pictures it is somewhat a throwback stadium, the goals, stand and dug outs really look like you’d imagine they would in the 80’s.
This is something that I really love about groundhopping because it allows you to see so many different kinds of ground and places which I find so interesting.
Thanks for reading!
- GROUND: The Belmont Ground
- GAME: Whitstable Town 1 v 2 Ashford United
- COMPETITION: Isthmian South East Division
- GROUND NUMBER: 67
- WOULD I GO BACK: If i’m ever in Whitstable again!
- TICKET PRICE: £5
A Groundhoppers Guide to the Pyramid 
Was great to share your ground hopping experience xx
LikeLike