It was meant to be back by now - weekend nonmatchgoing 4th April

[Patrick Thistle]

The initial suspension of football activity was until today, 3rd April. Which meant my plan for a ridiculously long round trip to the far North to see Sunderland v Shrewsbury tomorrow would have been on.

It's not on, of course. So I'm not ticking off the Stadium of Light yet.

Did anyone else have plans?

[fatbear]

I would have gone to Chinnor vs Moseley National League 1 Rugby........

[Jumbo McGinnis]

I can’t remember if it was scheduled to be this Saturday or next Saturday but Tottenham did have their Premier League 2 game with Everton advertised as being played at White Hart Lane. I would have possibly gone across to this as it presented an opportunity to go their without needing a membership.

[The Mighty Trin]

I would have been at the Grand National on Saturday for the first time, and I shall be, just in a year's time.

[Capybara]

As a season ticket holder, I'd missed far too many home games this season so was planning to catch as many as possible in the run-in. I was intending to be at the Riverside for the visit of Queen's Park Rangers tomorrow. In fact I would have been sitting on a train about to head north right now. Incidentally, given that football is off at least until 30 April, the club website optimistically (?) indicates that the next game is at Sheffield Wednesday on 2 May.

[Simon G]

I was due to be at Whaddon Road for what was setting up to be a crucial promotion 6-pointer at home to Exeter. Instead I'll be popping to Morrisons again to pick up the bits the wife hasn't been able to get in Aldi today.

[Ray de Galles]

It looks like Wimbledon wouldn't have had a fixture this weekend anyway which I presume is due to Bury's demise so it's doubly poignant.

Not sure what I would have been doing otherwise, possibly a trip to a random game & ground but Futbology isn't even showing what the fixtures would have been any more which has left me felling a little unmoored.

I've got Hammersmith & Fulham v London Welsh in the diary and as it was a potential promotion/title clinching game I may have been there. Frustratingly I haven't seen Welsh this season and was planning to remedy that with a flurry of games at the business end but that's all gone Pete Tong.

[Third rate Leszno]

I'd pencilled in Chorley v Sutton Utd, would've been a new ground tick.

[Gangster Octopus]

Wycombe Wanderers v Rotherham United for me.

[cantagalo]

Brentford v Wigan

Not the most glamorous of fixtures but what I'd give to be going there on Saturday.

As it is, I may have seen my last game at Griffin Park.

[Ray de Galles]

Has the work continued to finish Griffin Park? Initially the build on New Plough Lane was still going on but I've not heard anything for around a week so not sure of the current situation. Brentford appeared to be far further along than Wimbledon (though on a far more substantial stadium) so they may have more of a chance of beginning in their new ground when things do finally start up again.

[Grimmer]

There’s definitely work going on around York’s new ground. My daily walk often takes me around there and the car park was being worked on yesterday.

So I may have been to my last game at the Crescent?

[Ray de Galles]

I saw reports this morning that York City had 'shut down' but I'm not quite sure what that entails (putting all on & off field staff on the furlough scheme, I think), how it differs from most clubs at their level's situation and its impact on their stadium build.

[Grimmer]

My understanding is that your right. All staff on furlough and chairman covering the rest.

it shouldn’t impact the stadium build as the club aren’t involved in that. Not sure it’s essential work though and those guys I saw in high vis weren’t two metres apart.

I don’t think we are alone in shutting down. They interviewed the Dover keeper on the Price of Football pod and they were definitely shut down and furloughed. I thought I saw Wrexham had shut as well.

[Southport Zeb]

I didn't have particularly firm plans for this weekend. I think I was probably going to go over to Manchester and do some non-floodlit ground, although I don't think fixtures at that level had been announced for this weekend before all this started.

[Viktor Boskovic]

Would have probably been my 200th ground visited. Initially planned to possibly go to a match in Germany, then had a trip to Farsley Celtic earmarked. Think this might be the first season I've not made one away Chester match in probably 30 odd years!

[Benjm]

Has the work continued to finish Griffin Park? Initially the build on New Plough Lane was still going on but I've not heard anything for around a week so not sure of the current situation. Brentford appeared to be far further along than Wimbledon (though on a far more substantial stadium) so they may have more of a chance of beginning in their new ground when things do finally start up again.

Brentford sent out an email update today. Here's the bit about the new stadium:

Our new home at Lionel Road was due to achieve what is known as Practical Completion during April leaving the Club on track to complete our move in July 2020. Last week Buckingham Group, Stadium Principal Contractor to the developer, Eco World, had to take the serious, but prudent decision, to urgently pause the bulk of the works underway to allow time for the position to be assessed. This was a very important action and was fully supported by both the Club and by Eco World with whom we are in constant dialogue.

At its recent peak over 400 people were travelling to and from work on the stadium site each day. In light of current Government Covid-19 Guidelines, Buckingham Group have now decided that it is imperative that they dramatically scale back activity at the stadium site for the present and this has been implemented. Subject to review again in two weeks’ time it is intended that for now works will be mainly targeted at electrical safety, care and maintenance and security areas and any activities will be conducted strictly in accordance with current government Covid-19 guidelines. The absolutely minimum and essential requirement during this period is to ensure, as far as possible, that the site is made and kept safe at all times especially in respect of hazardous unfinished electrical installations and, where feasible, other dependent critical live safety and related systems. Given the evolving situation regarding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic it is not possible at this stage to reliably forecast when the new stadium will be fully complete.

[cantagalo]

Has the work continued to finish Griffin Park? Initially the build on New Plough Lane was still going on but I've not heard anything for around a week so not sure of the current situation. Brentford appeared to be far further along than Wimbledon (though on a far more substantial stadium) so they may have more of a chance of beginning in their new ground when things do finally start up again.

The new stadium is almost complete. They were just putting the finishing touches to it, though I think that work has now stopped.

Of course, there would need to be test games for safety reasons before official fixtures could take place. Still, I don't think they'll be knocking down Griffin Park before we're ready to move out.

If it was to be the last match at GP, the 5-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday would be a pretty good way to bow out but I wish I'd known at the time.

Edit: Sorry, just seen Benjm's post above.

[Ray de Galles]

Thanks, not sure why I referred to the new stadium as Griffin Park above! Does it have a formal name, sponsored or not, as yet?

[1974ddr]

I'd planned on Villa - Wolves; there's a FIFA20 version being played tomorrow on the website by Ezri Konsa and Diogo Jota, if I've grasped the details correctly (possibly not, as it's young person stuff that I don't understand / have any interest in). Anyway, it's not really much of a substitute.

[cantagalo]

Thanks, not sure why I referred to the new stadium as Griffin Park above! Does it have a formal name, sponsored or not, as yet?

It's current official name is the Brentford Community Stadium. We're calling it New Griffin Park.

I doubt whether either name will last much longer.

[shadsworth cloud]

If you're a Shrewsbury fan, an away match to Sunderland is certainly a day to look forward to even if it's a long journey.
as an Accrington Stanley fan I was looking forward to a long journey to Gillingham, so this virus thing is causing a lot of suffering and dismay for me. Even with adequate PPE.