About four years ago, in the main AISA pages, I wrote a piece about how Meadow Lane (or whatever it’s now called) wasn’t really a fitting ‘Home’ for Arsenal’s Women’s team. I was ashamed of pictures I’d seen of the changing facilities, not to mention the whole non-League feel of Boreham Wood’s ground. And how could a team wearing Arsenal colours call a patch of grass somewhere up the A1 be the home of women’s football?
Yet, after another match at the Emirates, I’m having doubts. The crowd numbers are ten times those Meadow Park can accommodate, and it’s obvious the players not only want to be in a bigger stadium, they deserve to be. And yet . . .
For me, Sunday was another 90+ minutes of purgatory. Not the game (though it was a hard watch until the dramatic ending). It was enduring to my left a part-time spectator commentating the whole match. ‘She’s going to pass it back to the Keeper,’ ‘It’s another diagonal pass,’ ‘We’re the better side but we’re not having enough shots,’ ‘She’s not good enough for this team,’ and more (and worse); while to my right, a small child munching his way through a sandwich box before half time, chips after half time, and fidgeting the whole time. It’s great they can now get to see matches and experience the Emirates, but I wish they could leave their armchair habits in their homes and come to support the players. Heaven forfend that we might even see a Mexican wave some time soon.
At Meadow Park, not only do you know there’s only space for supporters who come to support the team, but also if you are stuck with a fidget or a whinger, you can move!
And I’ve become a little sentimental about the little stadium. Good memories, the close links with the players, fantastic nights with DVD . . .
So while the future is (and has to be) the Emirates, roll on the Conti Cup and a return to Hertfordshire!
RS October 2023