The Onion Bag: Colne

Saturday 16th July 2011
Colne 2 v Salford City 4

Pre Season Friendly
Gate : £2 - superb value ! 10/10 (other clubs take note !)
Atten : 50
Ground : Superb ground , set high up in the East Lancashire hills. Excellent views. Lovely old rickety stands with bags of charm ... a must tick and a groundhoppers dream 10 /10
Match Enjoyment : very enjoyable game by two energetic teams . First goal after 10 seconds !!! 8/10

View all photos (47)

Despite the awful weather i was determined to get a game in today and i had a choice of three matches but as it later turned out , Colne was definately the correct choice.

On arrival in East Lancashire i was greeted by rain storms , i was due to meet up with a fellow groundhopping buddy , who himself had put in decent mileage to be here today. His excellent blog can be found here .
When i arrived Reynard was already snapping away at this gem of a ground. The groundstaff were friendly and very amused at the distances we had travelled for todays event. The sun was now shining and the game was definately on !

Reynard suggested we went in to town for a lunch but the cheap skate 'suggested' the £2.99 all you can eat special at a local pub was his preference. The Onion Bag opted for a more discerning eating establishment and off we went. We returned to the ground just in time to watch the teams warm up ....

Colne warming up

The entrance was only £2 - superb value in my book but the cheap skate Reynard suggested we asked for the £1 concessions option !!! deep down i like to feel he was only kidding !

The game started and within 10 seconds Salford had scored !!! the quickest goal i had ever seen. But to be fair to Colne they fought back well and the game was a very decent affair.

I walked around all parts of the ground and the more nooks and crannies i found the more enjoyable this ground became. The locals were very friendly and interesting to talk to.

I loved my day in Colne and the ground and location makes this place a gem and is in my top ten grounds of all time - that alone will make me return when the chance is given.

5 comments:

RussWWFC19 July 2011 at 16:52
Best new blog I have seen in a while, I run my own at http://footygrounds.blogspot.com/
Anonymous16 February 2013 at 09:54
Heading here today - thanks for the write-up, sounds grand!
The Onion Bag16 February 2013 at 21:31
Dizzypenguin ..... Let me know how you get on please !! I am sure that you will have a great time at Colne. It is one of my all time favourite Non League Grounds.
The views are superb, the ramshackle stands and the warm welcome make this ground simply outstanding.
Anonymous17 February 2013 at 18:48
Great ground! Great match. Would've loved to visit this one on a sunny day because like you said it has cracking views, to rival New Mills' Church Lane.

Met a very nice chap called Edward who is the club secretary. They'd run out of programmes when I got there (only 10 printed.. seems incredibly low) and he made it his personal mission to find me one, eventually coming out the bar area on about 88 minutes with one in hand. He also insisted on no money for it.

The game itself was an 8 goal thriller, Colne unfortunately coming out the wrong side of a 3-5 loss.

Am very behind on blogs (had a baby boy recently and he's taking up a lot of my time) so the write-up on this game will take some time because of backlog. I have all my notes though.

Great site, cheers!