THE OLD SHOWGROUND

SCUNTHORPE, ENGLAND

Somehwat surprisingly, Scunthorpe United were the first football club of the modern era to sell their home and up sticks, in 1988, and the fans’ reaction was pretty uniform.

“Most people were a bit confused, to be honest,” Steve Cammack, the club’s record goalscorer, tells Fourfourtwo. “There were a lot of memories wrapped up in that old ground – I don’t think anyone really knew why we had to leave there.”

Money, of course, was the predictable and simplistic answer behind Scunthorpe becoming the first club since Southend in 1955 to switch venues. Supermarket giant Safeway had been sniffing around the bins of a ground dating back to 1867, and they wasted little time in making an offer that was far too good to turn down.

In fairness to Safeway, they did try their best to commemorate the ground’s proud history after the Lincolnshire outfit’s move to Glanford Park. Iron fans were allowed to stand on a plaque marking the centre-spot of the Old Showground while they ordered cheese and cold meats at the deli counter. However, spoilsports Sainsbury’s, who now own the site, chose to ditch it.

Unlike the football ground itself, there is no slope to aid the wheeling of a trolley between the fruit and veg and booze isles. That quirk often provided food for thought for visiting teams, most of them trembling at the thought of a marauding Cammack running their backline ragged.

“There’s an old picture somewhere of the Northampton goalkeeper sat on his backside with the ball nestling into the back of the net, just after I had chipped him from the halfway line,” recalls Steve. “Our fans were going bananas.”

Now, they’re just buying them.