I have been to all 92 Soccer League grounds – these are the 5 WORST, writes OLIVER HOLT

On Tuesday evening, I am going to take my place on the terraces at Harrogate City’s Wetherby Street stadium for his or her match in opposition to Tranmere Rovers and, after a lifetime of attempting, full my set of every of the present 92 league grounds within the English recreation.

I’m a stadium nerd. I like grounds like they’re individuals, their character and their quirks and their magnificence and their structure.

I’ve ranked my favourites from 1 to 92.

The most effective and the remaining will come later however there are a handful I might fortunately by no means set foot in once more.

92. The Den, Millwall

I’m banned from The Den in the mean time, in knowledgeable capability anyway. I may nonetheless go in a private capability however, on stability, I feel I’d quite not.

The Day by day Mail has been informed our reporters are usually not welcome on the membership as a result of we had the temerity to report on the horrendous problem by Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts on Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta in the course of the FA Cup tie at Selhurst Park a number of weeks in the past.

Let’s be trustworthy about this: there are worse locations to be banned from. Being banned from The Den is the soccer equal of being banned out of your native abattoir.

You don’t should be a racist, misogynistic, homophobic bloke with anger points and a penchant for tragedy-chanting to really feel at residence at The Den. However it helps.

And, sure, I do know Millwall try to rebrand themselves a ‘household membership’ now and the odd Tarquin and Tabitha stray throughout the county strains from Blackheath and Clapham to maintain it actual however that simply makes The Den expertise even worse.

The final time I went as a supporter was 15 years in the past to observe Stockport County play there and the stroll from South Bermondsey station to the away turnstiles was an eye-opener.

Not that there have been any issues: even at Millwall, soccer has moved on for the reason that 70s. However this nonetheless felt deeply dystopian: for their very own security, away followers stroll to the bottom via an extended wire mesh cage that appears to don’t have any finish.

It felt like embarking on a tour of Jurassic Park: that if the fences fail, the dinosaurs are going to take a run at you.

Inside the bottom, which is fashionable and neat and comparatively characterless, the extent of hatred for visiting supporters feels unusually visceral. It’s loud. I’ll give it that. It’s primeval.

It’s unreconstructed, which is usually a good factor, too, and it breeds a way of togetherness. If medievalism is your factor, you’re in for a deal with. If not, give it a miss.

91. Stadium MK, MK Dons

I do know it’s a smooth goal however I actually don’t care a lot for Stadium MK.

Or for MK Dons themselves for that matter, even when they’re inviting supporters to revamp their membership crest and rethink their title.

The membership was born beneath a foul signal when it was jemmied out of Wimbledon and moved to Milton Keynes in 2003 and it has by no means been in a position to shake the stigma since. 

The stadium suits the membership. It’s a soulless, faceless, gloomy place. Greater than that, there’s something quite forbidding about it.

Its 30,000 capability is just too large for the membership it hosts and, aside from the thrill of the native KFC and McDonald’s, there may be little to advocate its fast surrounds.

Its black seats lend it a sinister air, too. It’s the form of stadium solely its mom may love. And it doesn’t have a mom. Until you wish to do the 92, give it a miss.

90. Kassam Stadium, Oxford United

I really feel ashamed to say it, provided that it’s my native membership, however the most effective expertise I’ve had on the Kassam Stadium was getting my Covid jab there in the course of the pandemic.

Once they moved, across the flip of the century, abandoning the chaotic attraction of the Manor Floor in Headington and swapping it for an remoted plateau outdoors the town, they solely accomplished three sides, abandoning the fourth due to rising prices.

A very bitter wind blows in off the automotive park behind one of many targets and, from the primary stand – in reality, from each stand – there’s a magnificent and uninterrupted view of the Frankie and Benny’s within the mini retail park that abuts the bottom.

The empty finish kills numerous the environment, too, though the Oxford followers are to be recommended for the noise they do generate given they’ve endured a technology of being caught right here.

Firoz Kassam nonetheless owns the stadium however not the membership. That form of separation all the time spells bother.

Oxford are hoping to maneuver to a brand new stadium to the north of the town in a few years’ time. It could actually’t come quickly sufficient.

89. London Stadium, West Ham United

I don’t even like calling it the London Stadium. It’s the Olympic Stadium nevertheless it fits the David Sullivan-Karren Brady rebrand of the membership to provide it the capital’s title.

It was a fantastic athletics area and residential to a complete host of golden recollections at London 2012 nevertheless it’s a canine’s dinner of a soccer floor.

It’s additionally a monument to a lot that’s improper with the highest flight of the English recreation: a give up of identification and custom as collateral harm within the homeowners’ pursuit of revenue.

Strolling to it, sadly, feels a bit like strolling via a wasteland and its odd configuration inside harms the environment regardless that the followers are proper up there with the most effective within the nation.

The outdated stadium at Upton Park was intimate and raucous and intimidating. The London Stadium is nothing like that.

The homeowners spent numerous time congratulating themselves on the deal they did to maneuver to the brand new floor: they’re the archetypes of soccer homeowners who know the worth of the whole lot and the worth of nothing.

88. Hillsborough, Sheffield Wednesday

I used to consider Hillsborough as one of many cathedrals of the English recreation however for the reason that catastrophe that claimed the lives of 97 Liverpool followers in 1989, it’s onerous to get previous its affiliation with a lot dying and despair and heartbreak and betrayal of supporters.

I do know, clearly, that this might punish Wednesday followers who don’t need to be punished for one thing that had nothing to do with them however Hillsborough, and its Leppings Lane Finish particularly, has such a cursed legacy that a part of me thinks it ought to have been demolished and that the membership ought to have moved elsewhere.

Even within the final couple of years, followers of Newcastle United and Leeds United have reported critical security issues within the Leppings Lane Finish.

I recognise the failings in my argument about demolishing the stadium, or a part of it, and the feelings it provokes on all sides so maybe it’s simply sufficient to say I’ll by no means really feel the identical in regards to the stadium as I as soon as did.

Visiting it now looks like an intrusion.