Braintree Town's Cressing Road

Braintree Town's Cressing Road wins my award for the most difficult to find ground that I have visited to date. It's safe to say that this was one of those grounds that will never appear on a list of best grounds in the country, but the biggest saving grace is the friendliness of everyone at the club.

Braintree Town's Cressing Road is a bit of false advertising in itself. It's not located on Cressing Road and I will get onto a bit of a moan about that later.

Braintree Town is just shy of 150 miles away from Sincil Bank, however, the entire distance is both dual carriage and motorways, so despite the distance it is actually a relatively quick trip. I managed to make the drive in just over two hours and got there early enough to have a little look around the town.

Nearby the ground is a large retail park that contains numerous activities, including shopping, a cinema and a large activities centre that includes bowling, arcades and a bar. If you get to the ground early enough, I would advise going to this retail park as it is a great time killer.

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CRESSING ROAD TERRACE

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So now we get onto getting to the ground. You go on the various websites and you find the postcode, that postcode guides you onto a lane that is barely big enough to fit a car down it and no ground in sight. So I drove around for about 15 minutes looking for the ground with no success, there was a sign for the ground but that just guided me back down the road I had just gone down. I eventually gave in and phoned the club and been told the name of the road the ground was actually on....and eventually got there after nearly 20 minutes of driving within a few hundred metres of the ground.

Once I got there I was met by some really friendly staff. The car park attendant wanted £2 for parking but I didn't have anything smaller than a £20 note, so he just let me park up for free. A quick look around the ground (a gate was open, hence the pictures being taken from the home end) was followed by a journey into the club shop. The T-hut club shop had more programmes in it than I had ever seen and I got into a conversation with the guy in the shop, again a very friendly guy. That's one thing I do like about being non-league, all the traditional non-league sides couldn't be nicer. Granted, Braintree were no-where near Farsley in this sense, but they were still excellent.

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THE MAIN STAND

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The ground itself is not the best to be honest. There is a small seated stand on one side which is shared by home and away fans. For once I chose not to go into the seated stand due to the relatively large amount of pillars for a stand that small. On the opposite side was a pitch length covered terrace that isn't quite flat but might as well be as it only has a few steps.

The away end is named the Quag End and is a terrace that stretches around to the Main Stand. This is highly similar to one of the terraces at Lincoln United, and due to the size of the pitch, the view from this end is poor of the action at the other end of the pitch. The potential is there for good acoustics in this stand, although City fans generally weren't interested in chanting due to the poor performance.

Finally, the Clubhouse End is behind the goal opposite of the Quag End.

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CLUBHOUSE END

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The atmosphere at Cressing Road was fairly poor, with only the odd smattering of chants coming around the ground and even when they scored, the fans weren't overly loud. However, this could easily be because the majority of their fans who don't sit down seem to prefer the Clubhouse End rather than that Cressing Road terrace, that despite the Clubhouse End being uncovered. If that wasn't the case then a good atmosphere would probably be present.

Facilties at the ground are what you could define as stereotypically non-league. The toilets are a t-hut and the food comes from a little caravan style outlet, although the prices for this are exceptionally good and the food is excellent.

The programme is also relatively poor, resembing a yellow pages with the occasional bit of information about football in it.

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THE QUAG END

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Overall Braintree's Cressing Road is a mixed bag. It's a long but quick journey, but the time you have saved is quickly eradicated by the time it times to find the ground. The staff and fans are friendly enough but it's not a ground that I would visit again unless either Lincoln were playing or I ever find myself living in Braintree.