"Newcastle Town FC- Lyme Valley Stadium"

Newcastle Town play in the NPL Div 1 West and are currently managed by ex-Port Vale legend and Derby promotion winner Robin Van Der Laan. The club have a number of local rivals in the same divisio, namely, Kidsgrove, Leek and Chasetown so there is plenty of opportunity for some friendly local banter. The ground is a dual use, doubling as a velodrome, so I guess it's quite unique

Location

They play at the Lyme Valley Stadium which is to the south west of the town centre and is about a 15-20 minute walk. Newcastle suffered under the ‘Beeching cuts’ so the nearest train station is in Stoke City Centre, travel by train would therefore require a bus or taxi journey. The stadium itself does have a car park but this got full very quickly when I visited (the players and officials use it too), although street parking didn’t seem a problem as the ground is situated in a residential area. There are no pubs in the immediate vicinity, but there are plenty of places to eat and drink in the town centre

View

As for the stadium itself, although in a mainly residential area, it’s location is pleasant in that it borders the rugby club’s pitch at one end and a park at the other, so it has a nice feel to it. The main thing to mention about the ground is that it doubles as a velodrome so the pitch is essentially in a bowl with a banked track surrounding it and spectators looking down on the action. I hadn’t been to any other grounds that included a velodrome before and, although I don’t like athletics stadiums being used as grounds, this one was noticeably different in atmosphere.
The Main stand sits awkwardly beyond the halfway line so gives a closer view of action in one goalmouth than the other. It seats about 300 spectators in a relatively high structure. Next to the stand are the changing rooms, snack bar and clubhouse, (although these are set at a lower level than the spectator areas due to the velodrome banking). On the opposite side of the ground is a long covered terrace which stretches between the two 18 yard lines. The view from both stands is good. Either end of the stadium is devoid of any cover and, being the banked curve of the cycle track, views are some way from the action so the vast majority of the spectators watch from the sides. However, the height of the banking does mean that, on average, far less balls go out of the stadium than at your normal non-league match !

Facilities

The ground includes a club shop which is just inside the turnstiles. The majority of the club memorabilia was set up on a table outside, the shop itself containing a large selection of older programmes (league and non-league). Toilets are situated on the main stand side of the ground (actually behind the main stand).

Food & Drink

The clubhouse was reasonably well stocked and also included a small display of trophies, photos pennants from the history of the club, whilst the snack bar next door had a varied menu, all of which was reasonably priced. Particular mention must be made of Newcastle’s pies, 3 varieties of which were on offer – Steak and Kidney, Meat and Potato and Cottage. I can personally vouch for the excellence of the meat and potato variety!

Atmosphere

The opponents during my visit were Chasetown FC, making it a local-ish derby. Newcastle’s average gate this season had only been 155, with Chasetown slightly better on 188, both being amongst the lower half in the attendance stats, so this wasn’t ever going to be a raucous affair. The actual attendance was 151 and whilst there wasn’t any singing etc, the Newcastle fans certainly made enough noise when the home team scored on their way to a deserved 3-1 victory

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