Written by Max
Ground #7
Grantham Town FC – ‘The Meres’
29th September 2020 – NPL Premier Division (Step 3)
Grantham Town 1-1 Stafford Rangers
Attendance: 201
Entry: £10
Another Tuesday night means another new ground for us both as we made the short 25 minute journey to, to give it its official name, ‘The South Kesteven Sports Stadium’. Grantham will always be a team I look out for as they were one of the first non league teams I watched, seeing them away at Coalville Town a few years ago. I mention the Game in my first ever blog on this website and you can read about it here: 2019/20
After multiple seasons challenging towards the top end of the table, the brilliantly nicknamed ‘Gingerbreads’ struggled last season and found themselves just 2 points above the drop zone with 2 teams below them having multiple games in hand as the season was ended prematurely. Their opponents today Stafford will be glad to get another chance having found themselves adrift at the bottom last season.
Both sides struggled to get any control in the first period with the lack of quality from both teams meaning not many chances were created. In the second half Stafford took the lead early through an own goal. With 10 minutes to go Grantham finally produced some quality and managed to get back level. The home team then piled on the pressure but couldn’t find the second goal as the points were shared.
Location: 7/10
The ground is located in the west of the Town of Grantham, a 25 minute walk from the train station. It’s also very easy to get to if, like us, you are traveling to the ground on the A1 as it’s less than a minute from the junction.
Kit: 2/10
Over the years Grantham have had some fantastic black and white striped kits. Sadly this seasons effort lacks, well….anything! Just a plain white shirt with a small black design on the shoulder. The sponsor is barely visible as its very small on the kit and as you’ll see from the photo the stands are quite a way back from the edge of the pitch so it was difficult to get a close up picture of the kit.
Facilities: 8/10
The Meres has a fantastic bar within the Main stand serving a decent range of drinks. The bar has lots of large round tables and is decorated with I assume fake newspaper cuttings and old programme covers from past games. I’m Sure Grantham will make plenty of money throughout the year renting this out for private parties and events.
Look: 4/10
This was a difficult one to judge. The stands themselves are both fantastic. The main stand containing 2 tiers of seating and includes within it the bar and changing rooms. On either side of the stand are multiple steps of terracing. Over on the opposite side was a large covered terrace where the more noisy Gingerbread followers stood. Despite the positives, I couldn’t give the ground any higher than I did due to the fact the pitch is surrounded by a 7 lane athletics track. This sadly means you are so far removed from the match and at times in the first half as we were sat in the silent main stand, it felt like we were watching the game on TV. You don’t feel involved in the action at all and being so close to the action is one of the best things in my opinion about non league football. In the second half we moved round to the terrace. This was even further from the action as the long jump was over on this side of the track.
Food and Drink: 5.5/10
The food was served from a large garden shed like building to the side of the main stand. We were excited as we saw some lovely thick juicy looking burgers being griddled as we queued. I ordered the ‘Gingerbread burger’ which was a double bacon cheeseburger and Emma had a cheeseburger with onions. Sadly as we got to the front of the queue we saw the woman behind the counter slice the fantastic butcher quality burgers in half before serving, therefore making my ‘double’ cheeseburger just a single one in two halves! I also didn’t like the fact we were charged an extra 50p for onions on Emma’s burger which we felt was a bit of a rip off. The Bun was huge which also meant a lot of bread only bites. The burger itself was tasty, but we were disappointed after seeing how great the burgers looked before they were cut up. We also each had a hot chocolate at half time. Emma’s exact words after one sip were ‘I think toilet water would taste better than this’. I also had one sip and agreed. It went straight in the bin. For a team so obsessed with gingerbread, sadly none was available!
On a positive note, the bar offered Strongbow Dark fruits and therefore they gain a bonus half point!
Total Score: 26.5/50
In conclusion, this is a fantastic ground……for fans of the steeplechase. Sadly though, this is a ground obviously not made with football in mind. The quality of the game itself and the fact the crowd barely reached 200 obviously affected this but the atmosphere throughout was extremely flat. The fact you are 12 miles from the pitch doesn’t help this and to be honest I’m glad we got this ground out of the way. We had heard from other groundhoppers it was one to avoid, and sadly for Grantham they were proved to be correct. If think we were both glad to have got it out of the way and can’t see ourselves returning anytime soon. Sorry Grantham!
Emma’s Ground Guide 