Scunthorpe United's Glanford Park

Glanford Park is one of the stranger grounds in the country. It's small, cramped and unwelcoming, but it does offer one of the closest views to a pitch you can get from the back row of a stand. It does look really out of place in the Championship, but it's one of the few grounds at that level where you can virtually guarantee the home ends will be full every other Saturday.

Scunthorpe, such a lovely place full of factories, chavs and polluted air. A trip to Glanford Park isn't exactly where most people would want to go for a playoff game but it could be a lot worse. This game took place 4 days after the first leg playoff game which had ended with a remarkable 5-3 victory for City. It had been the second time in 3 months that I had visited the stadium and I must admit that I wasn't looking forward to standing/sitting in that incredibly cramped away end.

Getting to Scunny is quite easy from Lincoln as it is quite literally just up the road and getting to Glanford Park is also relatively easy due to it being right on the outskirts of the town. Around the ground there is a fair bit to do with numerous restaurants and a large shopping area just over the road from the ground.

Getting into the away end, you get a feeling you've entered Legoland because the colour scheme seems like something you're more likely to find with the Lego pirates rather than a football ground. The ground is enclosed, which is a rare thing for a lot of football grounds even today, and was virtually unheard of in the fourth tier at the at the time.

The away end is mixed, although it is a good away end and offers a great view of the action, it is incredibly cramped and the seating is very back-breaking. There are several pillars restricting the view and if you want a view of both goals then you'd have to sit at the side rather than on directly in the middle, something I've never overly been a far of.

The stands to our left and right are pretty much identical, running the length of the pitch with patches of maroon/purple and sky blue. The final stand is a terrace at the other end of the pitch. It's not the worst ground in the world and didn't look out of place when it was in the lower leagues, but their time in the Championship in recent years has seen Glanford Park become a strange addition to a division that contains some of the best grounds in the country.

Atmospherically, Glanford Park is very poor. You get all the little chavish hooligans to the right whenever we play Scunthorpe, yet you never saw them on the highlights of their other games in the lower leagues. There is also a "sing when you're winning mentality" to Scunthorpe fans, and even then their atmosphere isn't fantastic. Due to the nature of this ground, being enclosed, small and cramped, it would be quite easy to create an atmosphere if needed.

Overall, a trip to Scunny is fairly enjoyable usually but the lack of atmosphere and the chavs to the right do spoil it a bit. I would however recommend this ground as a randomer. It may not be the nicest ground in the world and it may be a ground that you will never feel comfortable in, but I suppose that's why Scunthorpe have a generally good home record in recent years.