- Oct 31, 2015
- 2 min read
Leyton Orient 0 Accrington Stanley 1
Windass (25)
4,701
Ground number 84 of 92 was Brisbane Road or The Matchroom Stadium to give it its sponsors title. I set off at the crack of dawn to benefit from a cheap train fare to London Euston but even at 7am it was a gorgeous day for Halloween. Arriving in Euston at 10am, I made for Holborn as the most direct way to get on to the Central Line while Tottenham Court Road is still closed at weekends. Just round the corner from the tube station in Holborn is the Wetherspoon pub, The Shakespeares Head and so that was breakfast sorted - a "Spoons" Large Breakfast and a foaming pint of Sharp's Doombar Ale!
I then went for a walk down to the river, something I never tire of seeing whenever I'm in the big city. The sun was shining so brightly it actually hurt the eyes as it glinted off the Thames. That done, it was back to the tube to get to Leyton tube station. It was buzzing around there with the near horizon peppered with cranes building yet more skyscrapers no doubt.and the inevitable London traffic. It is only a ten minute walk along Leyton High Road and then left through the Coronation Gardens and there it is.
I walked right around the ground going first past the old away turnstiles in Brisbane Road that look to belong to a different era and then another couple of left turns got me to the main entrance. The ground is unique in that four almost identical blocks of flats fill each corner; the corners were sold off to a developer to fund the building of new stands. The tenants of some of the flats have a fabulous view of the games!
The Social Club had been recommended to me as a source of several real ales and it was not a disappointment. There was a bit of a Halloween theme going on in there with several beers having catchy names like Coffin Dodger and Dracula's Blood. I feasted on the Coffin Dodger hoping it would work!
The atmosphere inside the ground was not the best I've ever experienced - in fact for much of the time the few handfulls of Stanley fans were making more noise but that may have been a reflection of the way the game went. Orient began well but missed a host of chances and then as always happens Stanley broke away and Josh Windass finished a through ball perfectly. The rest of the game saw more efforts go astray from the home side but Stanley played out a very efficient victory.
All in all it was a grand day out
