Burton Albion 3-1 Lincoln City

Oh dear.
I didn't blog about Saturday's 0-0 bore draw at home with Accrington Stanley. Nothing happened so there was little point in either me writing about it or you reading about it. Tonight there was a full round of fixtures and the Imps went into it having a nice 11 point gap to the two clubs in the drop zone.
Originally 5 men of steel were going to Burton to watch this mouthwatering (?) clash, in the end only three hardy souls/idiots went. Judge for yourself who got the better end of the deal.

My directions to the ground were as normal spot on and we arrived in good time. The £13 quid entrance fee is one of the cheapest in the division and the ground is far from the worse. Even through it is a newish stadium it isn't quite as soulless as most of them. They have proved that you can build a new ground and not charge fans through the nose for the privilege. Well done Burton. All sides of the ground are covered and three sides are terracing. It feels like a football ground and not a mickey mouse Lego brick shithole ala Doncaster and Scunthorpe etc etc

Another area where Burton excel is the catering. As regular readers of this blog will know i don't rate Football league food very highly. All until a couple of years ago Burton were non league and its great to see that the food is still of a non league (and very high) quality. All three of us had different things and we were all very impressed. Felice went for the Cheeseburger and quickly gave it the burger of the year award. With me watching my figure i just had a portion of chips and mushy peas. Baz went for the flagship item on the menu. Faggots, and very nice they were too. Not only that but the prices were very reasonable (well by football standards anyway)

As normal The football managed to ruin the night. Another poor away performance from Lincoln which was on a par with the one we saw a couple of weeks ago at Barnet. If anything this one was worse because we offered very little very going forward all match. The first goal was another defensive balls up between Danny Hone and Trevor Carson. Lincoln were lucky to get to half time 1-0 down.
Burton went further ahead just after half time when we tried to be clever and pass the ball out of defence when just putting "Boot on ball" and sending it high and long would have done. Burton robbed us of the ball crossed it in and a great volley right in front of the Lincoln fans made it 2-0.
Burton continued to made the better chances and got a penalty to make it 3-0. City did get one back with a couple of minutes left through Ashley Grimes but it was too little too late.

The bright lights of Burton at 10.00pm
Thankfully defeats for Stockport and Barnet kept Lincoln a healthy 11 points clear of the drop zone but we don't want to be relying on other sides. Serious arse needs to be kicked in the Lincoln dressing room before the weekends home match with Southend United. A game which sees a repeat of the 2005 playoff final and Imps manager Steve Tilson up against the club where he is still viewed as a hero after leading them from League two to the Championship.

For me however the night was saved by two things.
As always the company was first class, and as always something daft happened. Tonight one of our number received a phone call telling him to bring some bread back with him. Now even in this day and age it can still be pretty tough to find fresh bread at 10.00pm on a Tuesday night on a journey from Burton to Retford (Or Fucking bread as it was referred to a couple of times). After getting a couple of gone out looks in a some service stations when cheerily asking if they had any bread at this hour we gave up. Ladies reading this remember, never ask men to go and get bread after there team has got humped in a far away land. You will always be disappointed.

Just to really rub salt in the wounds of the driver (the chap who's quest it was to rescue a loaf for a damsel in distress) We passed a sign for the village of BREADSALL in Derbyshire. Yes the very Breadsall that gave the world Henry Harpur-Crewe.

Again on the plus side The Nottingham Panthers will take a 3-1 lead into the second leg of the Challenge Cup semi final against the Belfast Giants after a great win in Nottingham. Every cloud has a silver lining as they say.

Burton Albion 1-0 Lincoln City

After spending around three months training on a new process for work in Burton I was looking foward to going to watch the Imps take on Burton Albion. For those three months we passed their new stadium everyday. It was in the process of being built back then (2005). I think it was finsihed the week or so after we finished down there.
Since I knew the way i was able to navigate our way perfectly without a hitch or problem! 27-01-10 the flight of the navigator! But dont expect me to repeat the trick for either the Chesterfield of Darlington away matches next week chaps!



Burton Albion's ground is called the "Pirelli Stadium" Pirelli, a tyre company also sponser Italian champions Inter Milan!!! Only the other week Inter stuffed their city rivals AC Milan 2-0 despite have 10 men for over an hour. Lets have a quick peek at the highlights :-)



It's about an hour and a half to Burton. We parked the car in the carpark opposite the ground(only two quid). Just after we pulled up the Imps supporters coach turned up. As we crossed the road i heard them moaning about how the coach hadn't dropped them bang outside the away turnstiles even though it was only a 30 second or so walk over the road, lazy twats!



From the outside the stadium looked smart enough, as you would expect from a new stadium. The reception area looked very smart and clean. As we still had about 50 minutes till kick off we had time to walk round and check out the club shop. The range in the clubshop did seem to be quite limited compared to other league two clubs we had visited this season. The badges were priced at £2.50 and there was a choice of three. I got one that celebrated Burtons promotion, but only because i didnt see the crest badge Doh! I also picked up the Programme for £2.50.



This is one of the strangest looking programmes i have ever bought at a league two stadium. The size is about the size of a CD case which prompted my first thought to be along the lines of what the fuck is this! I didnt read it at the match as it was too cold but after studying it in the bath the next night i can say that it reads alot better than it looks, although somebody may want to check the mascot "Billy Brewer" page for correct content. For some reason he seems to think the two sides played each other in the same league in 2004 where as tonight was the first time the sides had ever met in a competitive league match; Muppet.



We handed over our £13 quid at the turnstile and piled into the ground. Below the away end there is an area where you can grab a pint in the warmth and watch sky sports news. Next to the bar there is a food area selling all the normal crappy football food. Although for the first time this season though, faggots were on the menu. Alas when felice went for some 15 minutes or so into the game they had sold out of the afore mentioned faggots so he had a burger that he said was crap and received a season low of 2.5 out of 10! Although his mood was brightened by the fact there was a smoking area below the stand. I am sure he said something about quitting smoking when we were all in Germany...



From the inside the ground is abit of a let down. Three sides are terracing, with the only stand with seats in to our left. Behind the opposite end of the ground to us the Burton fans had a nice collecton of flags in black and yellow.
Burton haven't lost from a winning postion this season so the one thing we didnt want to do was go 1-nil down. Alas we did so after about 50 seconds. The rest of the first half was a total non event for both sides as too many niggly fouls ruined the match. Although on the balance of play the Imps didnt deserve to be behind.
Lincoln stepped it up in the second half but couldn't force the equaliser we deserved. The Imps won the match even though the home fans were quiet throughout the match. Overall not a bad ground but there is still a very strong non league feel about the place.



Admission £13
Programme £2.50 6/10
Food -burger 2.5 out of 10
Ground 5/10
Match quality 4/10
Imps man of the match - Delroy Facey