More chewy than usual as on arrival at the entrance to get onto the field was blocked by the police and people were simply turning away as parking in the area was non existent . I drove around the block with a line of cars then when we got there were told it was ok to drive onto the field down a tight line of parked cars, to find the entrance had been narrowed down with a bollard bent over with a pile of old paving stones either side of it. There was no turning back, you had to go accompanied by bangs and scraping sounds. Not happy. A bloke was there assuring the bollard would be 'ripped out before full time' .... It was and the car was taken for a good look underneath.

Did you see the lawn mower?

From the noises coming from under the car I think I drove over the twat!

I fortunately managed to get parked on the street outside, having initially aimed for the field. Not particularly well organised.

That said, spent the morning at Gateshead watching junior football then drove down and the parking at Gateshead was a bit of a nightmare.

Please follow this sound advice, go with a blue badge holder and park where you like

Bollard had been put in a few weeks ago by the council to stop joy riders going on to the field and tearing it up. Unfortunately it wasn't the best done job and was quite high when in the lowered position. It was fine at first until a car got stuck half an hour before kick off and the wheelspinning from getting it out only made things worse. Out of our hands I'm afraid! The good thing is the council were pretty rapid to come and get it removed before the end of the game.

We arrived about half 1 before any cars had gone on the field but we have a wide car and could see that we stood no chance of getting through the gap so we just had to make do. As we sat there was an attempt to get on the field followed by a bang and the sound of scraping metal before they gave up. A guy in a suit came out and started directing people to the field, we told him what had just happened which he ignored and persisted to try force a vehicle that couldn't get though to do so and insisted no one else had any problems despite what he'd just been told.