'Pies

The start of an impetuous couple of days in the East Midlands, prompted by little more than an alignment of cheap train tickets, Friday night football and a free weekend. 

Following 12yo's early morning transmogrification into a teenager I headed down to Nottingham for the first time in five years. Apart from a few stays over for conferences I've never really explored the city, so I had a bit of a stroll around before checking into my accommodation. A short walk along the canal and up through town to the castle revealed a typical haul of ghost signs, plaques and Robin Hood related public art.

Notts County were hosting Accrington Stanley in a League Two fixture. Both were, in 1888,  among the twelve founder members of the Football League, although Stanley have died and resurrected in between times. County have played at Meadow Lane since 1910, although the stadium was effectively demolished and rebuilt in stages in the early 90s. It still has an old fashioned feel to it, but a pleasing symmetry that only comes from contemporaneous stands.

Both teams had started the season pretty well, and had either side won they would have gone to the top of the table. County took the lead with a Jon Stead penalty (last seen as a Bradford City player a couple of seasons ago) - cue chants of "We're top of the league...". When the lead was extended it seemed the Magpies (hence, "Come on you 'Pies!") would go on to win, but further goal chances were spurned and Stanley, despite having gone down to ten men, clawed one back. A lengthy injury stoppage was followed by a further sending off, and at ten-aside Accrington equalised deep into added time. That point was enough for Stanley rather than County to finish the game on top of the league, for a day at least.

Today's image was taken from the London Road approach to the ground, with the foreground sign as a reminder that Nottingham has an unusually dense concentration of famous sporting venues, with Meadow Lane, the City Ground and Trent Bridge all within a few hundred yards of each other.  You can find my essential internal stadium panorama here.