Professional Development League
Saturday 27th October 2018
Kick Off 11.30 Actual 11.33
Bristol City U18 5 Coventry City U18 1, attendance 40
53’ 1-0
56’ 2-0
60’ 3-0
73’ 3-1
76’ 4-1
79’ 5-1
@ SGS College, WISE Campus, Pitch 6
New Road
Stoke Gifford
Bristol
BS34 8LP
No Admission
Team Sheet, free.
The full title for this venue is South Gloucestershire & Stroud College, West of England Institute of Special Education. I had been here before, when I saw Bristol Academy beat Thornbury Town 2-1 in a Gloucestershire County League match on 26th September 2011, with the game being played on the ‘Show Pitch’, which is the one inside the running track, which is now home to Bristol City ladies team, who were going through a training session on it this morning.
Bristol City have used a number of home venues in the past, with this being the fourth ground I have seen them play on….. 1) 6.3.99 at Clifton College Sports Ground, U19 won 3-2 v Everton 2) 24.11.01 at Watson Pavilion, Clifton College Sports Ground, U19 lost 0-2 v Chelsea 3) 5.9.09 at Q.E.H. Sports Ground, U18 lost 0-1 v Chelsea.
With Bristol City playing the majority of their matches with a kick off time later than the standard 11am of most other clubs, it limits the opportunity of doubling up with an afternoon match, especially if planning a later match that is not floodlit, so with today being the last chance to get a 3pm kick off in before the clocks go back an hour, this was as good a day as any to come here.
There is no problem with access to watch games here and team sheets are available from inside the changing room building. The only real problem is being ripped off to park your car. With many matches today kicking off late and taking an age to finish, you have a choice between paying for 2 or 3 hours to park, but having arrived at 11.05, then I had to pay the latter, which was £3 and the match didn’t finish until 13.26.
The match was played on Pitch 6, with the U16’s, also playing Coventry, being on the adjacent Pitch 7, which meant all too frequent stray balls going onto the other pitch and vice versa. Having seen Coventry a few weeks ago, I knew what to expect…..dull, uninspiring football and no intention of crossing the halfway line. Their tactic worked for a while, but once Bristol City opened the scoring the floodgates opened and Coventry got the thrashing they deserved. Having scored with their first shot of the match, after 73 minutes, they did manage two more efforts, but by that time the hosts were totally in control and just went up an extra gear by adding two more goals.
This was the first cold day of the season, with a biting wind, not helped by rain arriving for the last ten minutes of the match.
As with all youth venues, it is awkward taking photographs, but I did manage to take a few….
