"Slough Town - Arbour Park"

My original plan was to visit the Camrose Stadium to see Basingstoke versus Slough as this had been a reasonably local ground that had been on my wish list for some time. I was staying reasonably local to Basingstoke that night so everything looked good for a visit. Unfortunately, in part due to the snow last week, both sides agreed to reverse the fixture with this match becoming a Slough home match and the reverse fixture at the Camrose on 24th March. Could have been worse – I’de not yet visited Arbour Park and Slough was still do-able even if it was further away from my nightstop

Pleased to have visited Arbour Park. It's a very modern ground without feeling soulless. Nicely laid out and with room to expand the existing stands and introduce more seats. This ground will easily meet Step 2 non-league grading and with more seats could be suitable for conference crowds

Location

The new Slough Town ground is reasonably easy to find, being located just a matter of minutes from the town centre on the B416 Stoke Road. The nearest BR station is Slough itself which, my phone tells me, is a 17 minute walk from the ground. The is a car park at the ground (not free) and there is plenty of parking in residential roads nearby. Places to eat nearby are plentiful with a variety of fast food and other takeaway restaurants available. I didn’t notice any pubs in the immediate vicinity, but, to be honest, my attention was focused on navigating the town centre roads and finding somewhere to put the car !

View

As for Arbour Park itself, this is the second “new” ground I have visited since 1st Jan (the other being Aveley) and I have to say that Slough’s new home looks very impressive. There are turnstiles at either end of the ground on the Stoke Road side, with the Main stand, changing rooms, bar, club shop etc all being located here as well. This is a multi-use community asset so there isn’t much on the outside to draw your attention to the fact it’s home to Slough, but there is no mistaking it for what it is.

Once inside the ground it’s noticeable that there is cover on all four sides. Covered terraces exist behind either goal which consist of 3 steps. On the far side of the ground is a stand containing a little over 250 seats in 4 rows. This is of metal modern construction and is fairly low level, not much higher that the terraces. On the turnstile side of the ground sits the impressive Main Stand. This houses slightly under 300 seats which are steeply raked up from ground level in 8 rows, separated halfway along the length of the stand by the tunnel. At the back of the stand, above the seating area is the bar / clubhouse which has a glass front giving a view across the ground. It is a very impressive stand, even though – like it’s opposite number – it only runs for about 40 yards, straddling the halfway line.

Facilities

Toilets are at floor / pitch level at either end of the main stand and were very new and clean. There is a small club shop in the Main stand as well and the programme was decent enough for £2.

Food & Drink

Refreshment-wise, the bar sells alcoholic drinks whilst there is a tea bar located inside near the club shop. Although it didn’t sell burgers or chips, it sold pasties, sausage rolls, hot drinks soup etc. I found this good value as a Bovril and a packet of walkers crisps only cost me £1.50. Having said that, there wasn't a huge choice of food compared to grounds like Gainsborough Trinity and Sutton Coldfield

Atmosphere

There was no police presence at the game but, being Step 3, there were a number of stewards around who were unobtrusive but helpful. The crowd for the match was 471 and both sets of fans were in noisy good humour thoughout. The hardcore Basingstoke fans (only about 10 of them) sang throughout the second half and treid to match the much bigger Slough contingent. All in all this was a very decent atmosphere for a non-league match.

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