Abbey Hey FC - The Abbey Stadium

 Ladies and Gentlemen, football is well and truly back! This week football comes in the form of yet another pre-season friendly, this time between Abbey Hey and Curzon Ashton being played at the creatively named Abbey Stadium (sarcasm).

Last week’s journey to Nelson’s Little Wembley was great and really enjoyable for me so it was important that this week the game I chose to go to was as good, if not better. My original plan was to go and see a very good and forward looking West Didsbury & Chorlton side play Prescot Cables but in the end I wasn’t really up for that. After a quick recheck of the fixtures and interesting fixture popped up, Abbey Hey vs Curzon Ashton.

Never have I been to The Abbey Stadium, located in Gorton, let alone ever see Abbey Hey and Curzon Ashton play. So it was a fixture I was looking forward too.

The plan was to get the train down to The Abbey Stadium (Ryder Brow train station) and meet Gibbo, Joe Lawton and Matt Harrison (all fellow Ground hoppers) in the ground. And this is what I did.

The problem with getting the train to The Abbey Stadium is that there not very frequent, you have the luxury of once an hour. For a 3 o’clock kick off I had the following options, get into Ryder Brow at 13:23 or 14:23. I felt 13:23 was too early and I felt 14:23 was too late. 13:23, obviously, was the one went for.

I caught the 12:23 train from Bromley Cross to Bolton which was delayed by 5 minutes, thanks Northern Rail. Then, I caught the 12:35 service from Bolton to Manchester Piccadilly, only just. After arriving at Piccadilly I caught my final train from Piccadilly to Ryder Brow.

Upon exiting Ryder Brow train station I decided I’ll try and find a chippy or a Café to have a bite to eat. So, I followed my nose in an attempt to locate myself round he confusing and endless streets of Gorton housing estate and find café/chippy.

In the end, I found neither a chippy nor café that was open. I had to settle for an overpriced and soggy tuna mayonnaise sandwich.

Incorrectly, I was told the gates didn’t open till 2 o’clock so after burning a good half hour looking for a chippy/café I made my way towards The Abbey Stadium.

Approaching The Abbey Stadium you see no turnstiles just a man with a little money tub and a pile of programmes, this is the Turnstile.

My first impressions of The Abbey Stadium was it’s a tidy, well-kept and with a superb playing surface. I would probably describe The Abbey Stadium as a basic yet typical non-league ground, that’s the way I like it!

Running around every side of the ground is the usual pitch perimeter bars.

As you walk through the turnstiles, you are standing in the Goredale Avenue End. There is nothing really in this side of the ground, apart from a little area for the Abbey Hey players to warm up, maybe that’s why the pitch is in superb condition.

To the left, is the Clubhouse and the changing rooms (in one building), upstairs you will find the very nice clubhouse/snack area and downstairs is the changing rooms. The windows to this building are heavily barred which sort of makes it fell like a fortress or a prison. Next to this building was a warm up area for the visiting team, Curzon Ashton. The rear of the clubhouse acts as a car park.

In front of you is a side similar to the Goredale Avenue end, nothing really more to say!

To the right is the main stand. This is located in the middle of the pitch and runs a good ¾ lengths of it. On either side of this stand you have the option to sit and in the middle there is the option to stand.

As I walked into the ground I picked up a good looking programme. For the first issue of the new season it wasn’t a bad publication! My only complaint was the lack of material, but like I said, it’s the first issue of pre-season what do you expect?

Abbey Hey is a historic football club, founded in 1902 under the name Abbey Hey WMC. The reason behind the name Abbey Hey is, I have been told, that they were founded in the Abbey Hey district of Gorton. They started life of in the Church Sunday Leagues progressing to the Manchester Amateur League. The ambitious Manchester club then decided to apply for a place in the 2nd division of the Manchester League, this was accepted. The club moved with the times and eventually found themselves in division 1 of the NWCFL. Last season they achieved promotion to the NWCFL Premier Division.

I met up with Gibbo, Joe and Matt, and the game kicked off.

The game got off to a good start, both teams were plating good, attractive football, but it was a moment of quick thinking by Matt Warburton.

A Curzon player was fouled on the edge of the box and Warburton collected the ball heard the ref blow his whistle and the ball flew straight back into the net. This was all before the Abbey Hey defence sorted themselves out.

Warburton’s goal was sadly spoiled by the jokes Matt, Gibbo and Joe came up with. Matt started it off with, “I have heard Warburton is breadly in front of goal” and Joe replied with “To be honest, I thought he sliced it”, you get the idea.

The first half petered on and became a bit boring. Although, Abbey Hey’s Ross Heywood made some superb saves towards the later periods of the half.

Half time, thankfully soon came. With it being another hot day in this sudden heat wave we seem to be having it was desperation for me to go up into the clubhouse and buy a drink, of any kind! I did just that and boy did it feel good!

It was after buying this drink I notice a pile full of programmes from around different periods and clubs. I love programmes, for me they make the football match worth going to. Once I saw this, I couldn’t resist, I bought an Altrincham vs Burton Albion programme along with a Morecambe vs Accrington programme for 25p each. The guy at the bar then offered me a free copy of the First Divison Trophy final programme, very kind gesture.

After watching the build-up to Catalan Dragons vs Hull K.R the teams came out.

The second half is what I would describe as ‘more of the same’. Action was limited, this game was more of a midfield battle, which is good for Abbey Hey considering Curzon Ashton are a team one division stringer than them.

However, there was one bit of goalmouth action which ended in a goal. Curzon Ashtons Lawrence Hunter took a highly optimistic shot from outside the box which ended in the bottom left hand corner of the Abbey Hey goal. Hunter did well to double Curzon’s lead.

The goal presented an opportunity for the game to open up a bit more, but, sadly, it did the opposite. The game got so boring that conversation changed to Matt’s uncle’s combine harvester. How? I really don’t know.

A final blow of the referees whistle signalled the end to what was a long and boring game, and also to a shout of “Thank God for that” from Gibbo.

Now, I had four minutes to get from the ground to the train station or else I face and hour long wait till the next one. I said bye to the lads and of I ran, well I tried, and I only just made it with the train arriving at the platform same time as me.

The same connections applied so a stop at the very busy Manchester Piccadilly and a stop at the practically empty Bolton and I was home.

Abbey Hey is a nice football club, home to some very friendly people. If you are thinking about visiting in the near future I would recommend firstly, not to go by train, and secondly to just go straight to the ground as I found myself walking miles to go to an overpriced off license. Although, I would recommend visiting The Abbey Stadium, nice little place!