Plenty of Grounds for Optimism

I think we can all agree that it has been quite a jolly, bumper-wheeze to see the Poppies back on the television and becoming part of the national footballing conversation once again.  A few bob in the bank and Luca's headed equaliser at the Cobblers on constant loop on the old Betamax.  It's fair to say that we would have all taken the current situation at the start of the season. 

An unexpected downside of our exposure though is the introduction of Latimer Park and it's limitations to a wider public.  We all know and mostly accept that our home isn't the greatest footballing temple in existence, but I certainly could do without my armchair Premier-league watching Boss weighing in with his ill-informed two-penneth.  This despite the fact that he has actually visited the club once when we managed to wangle a match-sponsorship out of our company bosses several years ago.  My boss turned up in a silk shirt and light jacket for a January fixture and ended-up watching the second-half of the game from the warmth of the match-sponsor's room.  And this was before we had the excellent Club 1872 facility we enjoy today.  Back then it was a cramped little room stuck away in a corner office

My boss had plenty of opinions of the televised games, our players, our facilities and particularly our pitch.  To be fair, he spoke well of a number of our players, suggesting they MUST be pretty good to be able to play on the Burton bobble-patch.  Ha-bloody-ha.

But, it got me thinking.  As I mentioned earlier, WE kind of accept Latimer Park for it's faults because we also see all the good things there and we know how much the ground and facilities have improved in the dozen years we've been here.  The Social Club at LP is a far better bar and certainly far better utilised than the Tin Hat ever was at Rockingham Road.  And, even though we'll never have a main stand to compare with the leviathan we had at Rockingham Road, we must have had almost as many seats at Latimer Park for the recent Doncaster cup game! 

But it wasn't until I found the images I've included in this article that I truly realised how much Latimer Park has been improved over the years from a literal field to a ground that has hosted National North football.  Some are from THAT play-off final with Slough, when we realised just how many people you could fit around a roped off pitch, while others show the ground in all of it's arboreal glory!  And, how bare was the Morrisons Hill back in the day?  It looks a bit wilder now!