Thursday, 21 February 2008

What's this all about?

Loftus Road, Upton Park, Maine Road, Highbury, St James's Park....and the Daddy of them all, Wembley.

There was a time when these famous football grounds - and many more at home and abroad -were characterised by more than just a sponsor's name on plastic seats.

This was the era of the stanchion. An inelegant piece of metal bolted onto the back of the posts that held the net up.

To some of us of a certain age, this was a thing of great beauty (sort of). As a child you just yearned to hammer a ball into the top corner and see it nestle twixt net and metal. Or more likely, bounce out again (like it always seemed to at Upton Park).

A part of football's soul went when these disappeared to be replaced by soulless, formless continental style netting.

This site aims to celebrate the stanchion in all its sepia tinted glory. It may take some time....

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