Racecourse Ground

Christmas Trip to North Wales

For this year's Christmas football weekend, we were fortunate enough to get the opportunity to visit Hollywood FC! The perfect trip for myself who has never been to the Racecourse Ground making it my 90th ground out of 92. With the Racecourse selling out most weeks and with a limited capacity whilst they await the rebuild of the Kop, purchasing tickets could've been tricky. However, with previous purchasing history at Colchester United, it only took a quick phone call to their ticket office for us to buy 4 tickets in the away end of the Racecourse. On the day of the match, we set off around 9.30am making our journey through Burton and Stoke on Trent towards the M6. We took the bypass around Nantwich before continuing our journey along the A534 to Wrexham. Whilst travelling in the car, we managed to get 4 tickets for the Sunday early kick off with West Bromwich Albion taking on Stoke City at the Hawthorns. A nice bonus to our weekend! We arrived at our Premier Inn at 11.30am parking the car in their car park before making the short walk to the Racecourse. Following a brief walk around the ground, we decide to pay a visit to the Turf for a few pre-match drinks and to watch the early kick off. Just after 2pm, we we're making our way into the ground via the away end turnstiles. The concourse area must be one of the smallest in the Football League and a half time can be cramped for space. As for the view, for an away end, it’s about as good as it gets on the side just by the dugouts and tunnel. Following the recent demolition of the Kop, plans are in place to replace it with a new all-seater stand however, due to high demand for tickets, they have built an uncovered temporary stand with the capacity of 2,289 behind the goal which is due to open in the next few weeks raising the overall capacity beyond 12,000 seats. Onto the match and Wrexham's promotion push continued as they added to struggling Colchester United's troubles. Elliot Lee fired home from close range in the 4th minute, but before the half was up, the hosts were down to 10-men with George Evans being shown a straight red for a challenge on Colchester's Arthur Read. In the second half, Zach Mitchell's own goal doubled the hosts' lead from a James McClean cross from the left, but the spirited visitors hit back late on through Jayden Fevrier which proved to be no more than a consolation. Despite victory against Phil Parkinson's former team, Wrexham dropped a place to third in the table as Barrow went above them on goal difference thanks to a 3-0 win at Swindon Town while Colchester remain a place off the relegation zone. After the match, we made the short walk back to the Premier Inn to check in before going out in the town for dinner at Nandos and drinks at various bars in the High Street. The next morning we checked out and went for breakfast at The Elihu Yale Wetherspoons pub just after 8am before setting off towards the West Midlands just after 9am. A straight forward journey out of Wrexham following the A525 to Whitchurch then following the A41 to the M54. We approached the West Midlands via the M6 bypassing Walsall and driving past the Bescot Stadium then onto the M5 for West Bromwich. We arrived just after 10.30am parking the car on Sandwell Road just a 10 minute walk from the Hawthorns. Struggling Stoke earned a hard-fought point at West Brom but their winless run now stretches to eight Championship matches. Paul Gallagher was put in temporary charge of Stoke City following the dismissal of Stoke City manager Alex Neil. The hosts seemed in control of the match from the start and Grady Diangana created the first chance. The winger advanced to the byline and crossed to the back post, finding Jeremy Sarmiento whose speculative effort flew high over the crossbar. However, a cross from Lynden Gooch sailed over the head of goalkeeper Alex Palmer and into the back of the net, via the underside of the crossbar, to give the visitors an early lead. Ryan Mmaee had a chance to double the lead just minutes later, but his shot deflected off Kyle Bartley and a foot wide of a post. West Brom continued to dominate possession but were frustrated by the Potters' resolute defence. Then, a moment of quality from Sarmineto required Jack Bonham to make an excellent fingertip save and it spurred the Baggies back into life. Alex Mowatt's corner was headed over by Cedric Kipre, albeit under the close attention of a defender and goalkeeper. Thomas-Asante found West Brom's equaliser after 35 minutes, striking a fine volley into the bottom corner of the net after Darnell Furlong did well to keep the ball in play. Furlong pulled it back to Okay Yokuslu whose shot was blocked on the line, but the ball fell kindly to Thomas-Asante to level the scores. Stoke continued to set up to frustrate after the break and the hosts were struggling to create any chances of note. However, Jed Wallace's curling goalbound effort was diverted off target by the head of Michael Rose. Rose also made a superb last-ditch tackle to deny Tom Fellows when the substitute was bearing down on goal and ready to shoot. Josh Laurent came close twice to restoring Stoke's lead, firstly when his shot deflected off Kipre and narrowly wide before shooting a good chance over the crossbar. Thomas-Asante had the chance to win it for West Brom late on, but Bonham reacted well to his effort. The goalkeeper then pushed over Pipa's close-range shot to preserve a point for Stoke. After the match, we walked back to the car on Sandwell Road and headed towards the M6 then onto the M42 making our way back to Leicestershire getting home around 3pm. With Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground ticked off, this now only leaves Barrow Town’s Holker Street and Tottenham Hotspur’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium remaining to visit in order to recomplete the 92 again!

Racecourse Ground

Sunday, February 4, 2024

Wrexham 2-1 Colchester United