A trip to Hatfield ... sort of

On Saturday Ely took on Hatfield in the Second Round of the FA Vase. We didn't exactly go to Hatfield though, as the team from the Spartan South Midland League play at the Gosling sports Ground in nearby Welwyn Garden City. The ground itself is an athletics ground, which doesn't really suit football, but you can understand why they would want their own ground. That said whether many people from Hatfield have bothered to carry on following them and if they have gained fans from Welwyn is debatable, as the home support seemed to be in single figures. They weren't even going to bother putting soup on until they found out that over 40 were coming from Ely.

The entrance to the ground, well one of them as they have a really complicated entry system looks quite impressive.


The dressing rooms were also up the side of a hill, so a pretty long way for the players to get to the pitch and with a running track and a cycling track going round the ground it was an unusual distance to watch non-league football from.



The stand looked pretty impressive in the distance, but it had seen better days and the toilets left you needing to have a tetanus jab. Anyway, it was a good day out if not a little surreal in terms of atmosphere.



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