URBAN

matt’s top 10 football grounds
I have been to a number of football matches which resulted to me visiting different stadiums. So, here is
my personally curated list for my top 10 football grounds ranking it from the best to the worst.
1
Leigh Sport Village, Leigh
Wembley Stadium, London
The national stadium and the largest ground in the UK,
with a total capacity of 90,000. As you would expect from a
ground of this size, it is very impressive with its arch over
the roof standing out over the skyline. A feature like that
is certainly a useful reference point when walking to the
ground from the station. I visited to watch England take on
Denmark in a friendly ahead of the 2014 World Cup having
won the tickets in a social media competition organised by
a bookmaker. The fairly muted atmosphere and flat performance
seemingly a sign of things to come that summer!
Although the game wasn’t the best in terms of quality and
intensity, possibly due to it being a friendly rather than a
competitive match, I enjoyed the experience. Despite the
size of the ground and crowd, I was able to get in and out of
the ground quickly and safely thanks to efficient stewarding.
Given the experience I had, I would definitely be keen to
go back again one day, hopefully for a cup final involving
United.
3
Etihad Stadium, Manchester
Leigh Sports Village, Leigh
The home ground of Manchester United Women, which I
have now visited 9 times, is probably influenced by sentiment
as I already have a number of great memories there,
but there is a lot to like about the stadium. The ground is
shared with Leigh Centurions Rugby League club and the
pitch is always in excellent quality. I would go as far as to
say that of all of the Women’s Super League grounds I have
been to so far, Leigh Sports Village has the best quality
pitch. With the way the ground is laid out, it only takes a
few minutes to enter and get to my seat once the gates are
open. Without doubt the highlight so far has been at the end
of last season when we lifted the Women’s Championship
trophy at the end of our debut season after the club was
reformed.
2
Wembley Stadium, London
Etihad Stadium, Manchester
Manchester United’s first ever Women’s Super League
game was a local derby against Manchester City. This game
was moved from City Women’s usual home of the Academy
Stadium to the men’s ground as the FA looked to capitalise
on the growing popularity of the game in the wake of the
Women’s World Cup. I had only moved to Manchester the
previous day so I was not familiar with the area and had not
used the trams too often, but I managed to find my way to
the ground without too many problems. It certainly helped
that I was going to the game as part of an organised, independent
fans group. Despite the result not going our way,
the away fans were in full voice throughout as they have
become well known for and were responsible for generating
the vast majority of the atmosphere. A then league record
crowd of 31,000 was definitely encouraging.
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