No Alarm at Ashburton

Captain
By Boris Mellor
July 20 2006

Crowds gathered early for members day at Highbury. All got a free programme for the event. It remained cool in the seats, but apparently it was very hot on the pitch with one young player requiring medical treatment. A photo blog covers the day.

Queues had built up by 10 am. Fans had been told to arrive for 9:30 am but rumours that problems with the alarm system had delayed opening. However gates opened about 10:15 and queues diminshed rapidly. Queues for the Armoury (Shop) went round the block as I entered.

Everyone was directed to the upper tier, and inspite of being more expensive than the lower there were no sit down cafe's . Just very similar to the Northbank. Allegedly a larger selection of food, but most pies were not available. Fish and chips, and burger and chips cost over £7.00

There are two high quality screens, unfortunately not a clear view of either from my seat, unless I turn completely round and face the back of stadium.

But views of pitch are brilliant from all over the stadium.

Once in the new stadium its easy to look over to the old one, almost touching distance.

The squad trained for about an hour. None of the WC players were present apart from Rosicky and Eboue. Some will not be back until first week of August.

After lapping the pitch for what seemed eternity the players played 7 v 10. The referee was A Wenger. So I can't say who won, or what the rules were exactly- or if any of the two goals were allowed. But the crowd applauded the glimpses of skill on offer, especially Cygan's practice shooting.

As I left queues for the Armoury went round several blocks. So I decided to postpone buying the wonderful new range of Arsenal goodies.

A selection of photos follows.