"The though of this ground in the Football League scares me"

Newport County could be playing in League 2 in the near future. What a scary thought that is for admirers of football grounds.

Spytty Park is a mis-shapen, ugly, miserable hole. It hardly meets Blue Square Premier standard. The oval-shaped ground isn't actually a football stadium at all. Located in the ridiculously named "Newport International Sports village", Spytty Park is in fact an athletics stadium with a football pitch.

I went for an FA Cup 3rd round tie. The surrounding area is empty and uninteresting, though the advantage is that there's ample parking.

The ground consists of one permanent stand which looks large enough to hold a few hundred fans. There is also one temporary stand behind one goal. Behind the dug-outs is a small, rickety raised terrace. The away end is a long, flat, roofless terrace, running around the running track.

The worst football ground I've ever been to.

Location

The ground is situated on the outskirts of the city on an industrial estate. As far as I could see there isn't a pub anywhere near the ground. There's a KFC around the corner.

Buses run from the city centre.

The only advantages of the location are that it's easy to get to from the M4 and there's plenty of parking space.

View

What view?

Away fans are put on a very flat terrace which can't be more than 1.5m high at it's most elevated point. Add to this the fact that the terrace is ten miles from the pitch due to the running track and what you're left with is the worst view in football.

In the first half Swansea scored 3 in the goal furthest from us. We actually didn't know whether to celebrate because nobody could tell if we'd scored or not. The action was so distant that the only way we knew we'd scored was when the kick-off was taken.

It was nice standing on a terrace for a change, but I don't know why I paid for a ticket. I would have had a similar view watching from the bypass next to the ground.

Facilities

Portable toilets, reasonably clean, but no sinks. So if you're really concerned about hygiene, hold it in.

Food & Drink

Burger van which sold very nice food.

No alcohol on sale in the away end because the open nature of the concourse means you can see the game from the queue.

Police & Stewards

The biggest issue of the day was the hooliganism, which made the headlines on the national news.

The match had to be stopped for 10 minutes in the first half because a coin thrown from the home terrace struck the 4th official on the head and severed an artery. That wasn't the only object thrown from the home end. The area around the dug-out was covered in bottles, coins and other missiles. It got so bad that the managers had to invite the ball-boys into the dug-out to shelter. The police should have intervened, but it became obvious that there weren't enough police at the game.

As home fans left the ground they walked behind our terrace and threw rocks and bottles into our end. The one policeman monitoring the area fled in fear.

The trouble increased when some of our fans reacted by jumping off the back of the terrace to engage in fighting. It took an age for police to arrive with dogs to calm the situation.

The one bit of common sense shown by the authorities was letting us out first and keeping the home fans in. It prevented any trouble after the match.

The police knew there'd be 4,500 home fans, they should have been better prepared.

Atmosphere

When full, the home end does produce an atmosphere.

It certainly wasn't a nice ambiance. The home fans' idea of atmosphere was chucking missiles at officials and ball-boys.

There was a sizeable chunk of the home support that saw this as a chance to play up and start trouble. A minority, yes, but a large minority.

The lack of a roof on the away terrace makes it more difficult to create an atmosphere.

Write your own review of Newport Stadium

Have you been to Newport Stadium? Write a review!