By Chris Wright
It’s been a while since we’ve gone Around the Grounds here on Pies so let’s fart the series back into life with a photographic trip around the Sixfields Stadium, home to Northampton Town and, as of the start of the 2013-14 campaign, temporary tenants Coventry City, who have agreed a deal to play at the Cobblers’ ground for the next three seasons after the Ricoh Arena disappeared in a puff of financially-unsustainable smoke not so very long ago.
Sixfields is sometimes unkindly referred to as “Sickfields” by fans, which is apparently due to the stadium being built on a former rubbish tip and that specifically-designed vents around the perimeter of the plot allow methane to escape from the underbelly of the ground.
Here it is in all its pungent, gas-belching glory…
And as wee bonus, here’s a few eerie shots of Northampton’s former home at the County Ground, which they left to move to Sixfields in 1994. The ground was abandoned for many years as it was slowly stripped, reworked and gradually assimilated into Northamptonshire County Cricket Ground next door…
More in Pies’ Around The Grounds series…
City Ground, Nottingham Forest
Princes Park, Dartford FC’s Wooden Eco Stadium
Molineux, Wolves
The New Maracana, Rio De Janeiro
Griffin Park, Brentford
De Kuip, Feyenoord
Upton Park, West Ham
San Mames, Athletic Bilbao
FC Gspon’s Ottmar Hitzfeld Stadium, The Highest Pitch In Europe
Valley Parade, Bradford City
Prenton Park, Tranmere
Wankdorf, Young Boys
Estadio Municipal, SC Braga
Home Park, Plymouth Argyle
Victoria Park, Hartlepool United
Bloomfield Road, Blackpool
Ninian Park, Cardiff City
Wankdorf Stadium, Young Boys
Portman Road, Ipswich Town
Recreation Ground, Aldershot
Saltergate, Former Home Of Chesterfield
(Photos: PA)