Forest Green Rovers' The New Lawn

Certainly one of the more unique places to ever visit it The New Lawn, the home of Forest Green Rovers. A ground that is environmentality is one of the more pleasent grounds to visit in the non-league.

Please note that this review is based on visits prior to the 2013/14 season. I am lead to believe that the fans in the ground have been moved around, so what I talk about as being the away end, might not actually be the away end anymore.

Forest Green Rovers are one of those sides that are seemingly always disrespected by league sides. They are often cited as the side who people say they don't want to play when they go down and to be fair, even when we were in the league I was asking "where is Forest Green anyway?". The longest serving side in the Conference might explain why people always cite them, but once you've been there, it's certainly not a trip you will forget soon.

Getting to the small town of Nailsworth is a lengthy journey and when you get near there, you go down an extremely narrow country road where there could easily be an accident at some point. Once you're there the New Lawn is relatively easy to find, and parking is very plentiful, but don't go there expecting there to be a lot to do nearby.

Infact, the only thing nearby to do really is the bar that's at the ground. This bar comes complete with a pool table, which is something that you don't get at many bars that are located directly at grounds. I went unbeaten on the table, even beating a Forest Green fan who gloated before hand that he was never beaten on that table.....it was funny seeing his reaction afer I quite easily beat him. 

It is quite a nice bar as well, which again makes a change, but it is relatively empty, which is a bit strange. The only thing I will say about the staff at FGR is that they really like to make you feel at home, even when you're the away fans.

Onto the ground itself, I'm actually going to do this slightly differently than my other reviews, because as you can tell from the pictures, I actually went in the home end for the first visit there. At the time I actually couldn't stand most other Lincoln fans and went into grounds completely on my own. I actually really enjoyed this, although it is always strange sitting amongst home fans when your team is playing....especially when your team wins (I didn't celebrate when we scored).

For this game I sat in the main stand at the ground, a pitch length seated stand that offers an excellent view of the action. Despite it not seeming to be very high, this stand is one of the better stands in the division. It is also fairly empty as well, meaning that I was easily able to find seats that were fairly central that weren't near anyone else.

I got into conversations with several Forest Green fans and openly admitted being a Lincoln City fan and rather than act offended or aggressive, they actually got really interested in the club and also why I had chosen to sit in the home stand. As well as the staff at the ground being very hospitible, the fans were also extremely friend.

Anyway, going clockwise around the ground you get to the away end, a tiny seated stand behind the goal. I sat in this stand in my second visit and the view is terrible. The stand is awful and I think in terms of professional divisions, it is the smallest seated stand that I have seen behind a goal. 

Continuing around the ground is a pitch length terrace that only appears to have a small handful of steps. This is unsurprisingly the least popular stand at the ground with very few people being in there.

The final stand is a relatively small terrace behind the goal that covers about 2/3 of the width of the pitch. Although not an awful stand, I can't imagine due to it's small nature that this offers a decent view of the pitch, I'm sure I will soon find out as this is apparently the new away end as of the 2013/14 season, although I have yet to have that clarified.

All in all it's not an awful ground but that small terrace at the side of the stand does make it obviously non-league. Without that and with a stand that is of a reasonable size, this ground wouldn't look out of place in League Two.

Getting out of the ground after the game was a nightmare and we weren't back on the main roads until near enough 45 minutes after the game had ended, which is extremely frustrating. 

I would definitely recommend this as a ground for people to visit though as it was one of the more relaxing and pleasent that I have been on. Whether I would go if Lincoln aren't playing is a very different matter though.