We had this game in the diary for a couple of weeks, keen to add another ground to the ‘done’ list, however the decision was taken with one eye very much on Edinburgh City’s away game v Cowdenbeath on the same night for a ‘6 pointer bottom of the table’ clash.  Alloa or Cowdenbeath.  What a choice!

However, with Central Park already ‘ticked’ (#3), I convinced myself that we’d better take this opportunity to go to Recreation Park and a first visit to Alloa for us both.  I wasn’t sure if I could handle the stress of the City game anyway!

After a straightforward journey through to Alloa, we found some street parking just a 2 minute walk from the ground.  The bizarre set-up at the turnstiles meant I had to go and pay for Joshua first at one turnstile and then go back and pay for myself at another.  To understand this procedure I had to bend down almost double to hear the person at the turnstiles through a tiny hatch positioned about a meter off the ground.  £22 pounds lighter (for a League 1 game!) we were inside Recreation Park.

Although I had seen pictures of Recreation Park, it really is a very unimpressive stadium when you see it with your ‘own eyes’.  There is little coordination between the different stands and terracing areas, a mixture of old and new which doesn’t work.

We took our seats in the ‘main stand’ which sits high up off the ground giving a quite peculiar view of the pitch.  The stand felt a bit like a very bad combination of Shielfield, Galabank and New Douglas Park.  At Meadowbank we regularly sit far away from the pitch but here you felt further away, despite being closer (if that makes sense?!).  Add that to the seriously uncomfortable bucket seats and Joshua was quick to agree that we would watch the second half standing on the terracing behind the goal.

Apart from the first 10 minutes of the game, East Fife rarely threatened and once Alloa had scored their first, the game was pretty much decided.  A big bonus was that both teams wanted to play the ball on the ground, which was a welcome change from a lot of what we see in League 2.

Glad we ticked another stadium off the list but we’ll not be rushing back to Recreation Park in a hurry.

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Stadium – 3 out of 10 – and that’s being generous

Adult – £16, Under 16 – £6  (Far too expensive for Under 16s, which is probably why there were so few in the stadium)

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Final Score: Alloa Athletic 3-0 East Fife

Attendance: 436