The New Lawn

Sunday 6 August 2017

Forest Green Rovers 2-2 Barnet

Aerial shot of the New Lawn

Programme - £4.00

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 6/10

Ease of getting there : 5/10

Atmosphere : 7/10

Programme : 6/10

View of Action : 5/10

Quality of the game : 5/10

The "football" feeling : 4/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 1/10

Legroom : N/A

Surrounding area : 9/10

Overall : 48/100

Watch football whilst charging!

North Stand

Main Stand

South Stand

West Stand

West Stand

North Stand

Main Stand

The Groundsman tackling a puddle of the pitch with his blotter.
I wonder if the sprinklers helped the situation...

West Stand

North Stand

Main Stand

West Stand

North Stand

Main Stand

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Forest Green Rovers 2-2 Barnet

Forest Green Rovers became the newest members of the Football League following their 3-1 victory against Tranmere Rovers at Wembley Stadium in the National League play off final.

This made Nailsworth the smallest town ever to host a Football League club. Who would’ve thought it! A football club based in a small town with a population of 5,000 people in the picturesque Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds would make it to the Football League!

When the Football League fixtures were announced, Adrian and I (Ross) chose to attend their first home match of the season against Barnet buying our tickets online as soon as they went on sale.

I made the short journey to Adrian’s house and from there we made our way down the Fosse Way. We reached traffic in Stow on the Wold and Cirencester which briefly delayed our journey, however, we reached Nailsworth just after 11:30am.

This gave us plenty of time to visit another football club based in Nailsworth. We made our way around the tight winding road up the hill to Shortwood United’s Meadow Bank ground to take a few photos.

We made our way back down the hill into Nailsworth high street before making our way up the hill towards The New Lawn. We parked the car on Churchill Road which was mid way between the town centre and the New Lawn. When we parked the car, the weather was warm and sunny which soon turned to sharp showers with thunder and lightning as we took the short walk to the town centre.

As we walked around the town in the driving rain, we came across a café called The Coffee Pot where we ate a baguette and a cake with a couple of mugs of tea. By the time we finished in this independent Greggs styled café, the rain had stopped giving us chance to make the 1 mile walk from the high street to the New Lawn at the top of the hill.

When we reached the New Lawn, it was already getting rather busy around the ground with large queues of cars waiting to get into the various car parks. We noticed various regional accents (and in some cases various replica shirts!) for those, like ourselves, aiming to complete the 92 at the earliest opportunity. Outside the ticket office, there are car parking bays with numerous electric cars plugged in and charging which isn’t the usual sight at a football ground. Fans were waiting for the turnstiles to open full of excitement and optimism for the new season. Programmes were priced at £4.00 which seemed rather expensive for League 2 and contained very little content (or even correct information with the squad numbers appearing to be wrong!).

The New Lawn has been the home of Forest Green Rovers since 2006. The stadium was due to cost the club £3 million and was approved in October 2003 by local council members, despite much local opposition due to the controversial siting of the development on school playing fields. Work started on the stadium on 3^rd May 2005. During the 2007–08 season, the stadium was shared with Gloucester City. The stadium has a capacity of 5,140, of which 2,000 is seated. The largest attendance so far at The New Lawn was in a FA Cup third round match against Derby County in January 2009 when 4,836 watched Forest Green narrowly lose 3-4.

Following a takeover by environmental entrepreneur, Dale Vince, work began on the pitch at the stadium to make it the first organic football pitch in the world. This was then followed in December 2011 by the installation of 180 solar panels to help the club generate its own electricity.

In April 2012, the club introduced the first solar powered robotic lawn mower to be used on a football pitch in British football. The Etesia robot mower - known as a 'mow bot' - uses GPS technology to automatically guide it round the pitch without the need for human intervention. The pitch also collects rainwater to be recycled around the stadium and all waste cooking oil at the club is recycled into biofuel. Local farmers use the grass cuttings from the stadium to condition their soil plus the stadium is the first meat-free football stadium in the country after the club changed to an environmentally sustainable menu in February 2011.

The New Lawn replaced The Lawn Ground as Forest Green Rovers' home stadium which was located only a short distance away from their current home. When the club left the ground at the end of the 2005-2006 season, the Barnfield Terrace was transferred brick by brick to their new ground and is now the South Stand behind the goal at the New Lawn. The club are expected to replace the New Lawn with a new stadium development located near the M5 motorway.

And so to the action and league football is staged at the smallest settlement ever in the history of the English game.

Forest Green Rovers from Nailsworth taking this accolade after their victory in last season’s National League play off final and their first league encounter saw Barnet arrive at the eco vegan world of Dale Vince (FGR Owner).

The home side started tentatively and Barnet seemed quicker to settle however chances were at a premium. Akpa Akpro headed wide for Barnet, while Forest Green had several shots blocked, Cooper firing just wide.

But it was Barnet’s misfortune and consequent defensive disorganisation that led to FGR taking the lead. Charlie Clough was forced off the field to receive treatment for a head injury and change of shirt. While this was happening, Forest Green took the lead. Christian Doidge heading across goal into the top corner of the net unmarked from Cooper’s corner.

Two minutes later on the 43^rd minute, Doidge made it 2-0 with a delicate chip over Stephens after he latched onto Noble’s through ball.

In the second half, Barnet clearly feeling a sense of injustice came more into the game. They changed their system, they brought on 2 subs and upped their game.

Jean Louis Akpo Akpro headed a goal back after Jamal Campbell Ryce had a shot blocked, the ball conveniently looping up for the French man to bundle home.

Five minutes later Barnet were level, Campbell Ryce firing a low shot from distance that cannoned in off the post.

It looked as if there would only be one winner with the Londoner’s tails up and Forest Green appearing to run out of steam and ideas. The action was all in the FGR half. However so often the final ball was disappointing and as the second half drew to an end it became scrappy and inevitably a draw seemed to be the obvious conclusion. Barnet played the last few seconds with 10 men after Jack Taylor was given his marching orders after receiving a second yellow card.

Over the 90 minutes, both sides will be happy with a draw and if they are both to get into the division’s top 7 they will both have to step up.

After the match, we made our way back down the hill to the car before navigating the only way out which was back into the town centre. For our journey back, we decided to avoid the Fosse Way and instead head up the M5 via Cheltenham and Evesham following the A46 to Coventry and around the Coventry eastern bypass reaching Adrian’s house for just after 7pm.