It's Showgrounds time...

Photos from the recent match between Ballymena Utd v Donegal Celtic.  Full write up to follow.

 Looking towards the Warden Street stand and the smattering of away fans.

The big guy surveys the action. 

 First half gets underway.

Ballymena goalie, Dwayne Nelson. 

 Getting ready to restart after the first goal.

 Celebrations after the second goal.

The impressive Warden Street stand.

Return to Seaview...

Having visited Seaview, the home of Crusaders FC last season for their cup tie against Nortel (here), I wanted to stop by the ground when I was passing through Belfast as I'd heard there'd been a fair bit of redevelopment...

The club has undergone a massive programme of modernising and redeveloping the stadium which must have commenced only a few weeks after my first visit. Amazingly the work is now all complete and thankfully the new stands were in place for their Europa league qualifier against Fulham.  The return leg at Craven Cottage was actually being played later that evening on the day when I stopped by for some photos.  Despite Crues being soundly beaten over two legs, the Fulham tie was able to double up as a grand opening for the new stands and was a fiiting tribute to the people who had put in so much hard work in getting the ground up to scratch.

 The open terrace at the motorway end has now been replaced with a small covered stand.

 The main stand remains in place.

The new shore road end. 

The terracing that we stood on last season is now a seated enclosure.

Ballymena Showgrounds...

The Showgrounds, home to Ballymena United, are only a couple of streets away from my in-laws house. Whilst visiting recently, I wandered down on a particularly rainy day and took a few photographs.


The stadium is a multi-use venue and gets used for exhibitions and stock care racing in addition to football. For that reason, both ends are open and the ground has an oval shape with a sizable track between the pitch and the stands.

The ground is considered to be one of the better venues available for football in Northern Ireland (taking things such as general facilities and accessibility into account) and recently hosted the finals of all three categories of the Milk Cup 2011, the world famous youth tournament played annually throughout County Antrim.
 

 The main stand from the nearby Ecos Centre.

 The away entry.

 I've no idea why I took this photo.

 One of the stands from inside the ground.

 The stadium is open at both ends.

 Looking towards the other end.



 The Warden Street stand.

Clock on the other side of the turnstiles.