Chris and I are both life long Leicester City supporters. We have both had season tickets in the past, however in recent years, the price to attend a Foxes match has increased so much. We moved to Shepshed whilst I was pregnant with Ted and we started attending Non League football matches at our now local club, Shepshed Dynamo.
Since the beginning of the season, Chris is now a match reporter for Shepshed Dynamo. His match reports feature on the clubs website, Loughborough Echo, Coalville Times and The Non League Paper. He also writes an article for the Shepshed Dynamo programme which is published every home game.
Since Ted was a baby, we have been introducing him to football, at The Dovecote Stadium, Shepshed. We haven’t attended many matches so far, as we keep him at home during the winter months, as it was too cold for him as a baby. He also didn’t start walking until he was 20 months old so we didn’t want him to only be able to sit in the pushchair.
We’ve decided how he is 2 and a half and his gross motor skills are at a good level now for his age that he is ready to attend more matches. As it is a Bank Holiday and Ted wasn’t at Nursery, we decided to take him to his first away game, which would be in Grantham.
The drive is around 40 minutes from Shepshed, lovely drive along country roads. We also passed Belvoir Castle from a distance, which looks beautiful. Getting to the ground felt very easy. Parking is plentiful and free, next to South Kesteven Sports Stadium, which is where Grantham Town play.
The staff and fans were very welcoming towards us. First we headed to The Gingerbread Hut, which sells cold and hot drinks, hot dogs, pies and much more. There is more food and drink which is sold in the clubhouse.
During the match, Chris is busy making notes and watching the game and speaking to his friends from the club. As the club play at a Sports Stadium, it means there is huge area to walk around the pitch. Ted was enjoying himself and we did a few laps of the Stadium. Every time we passed Daddy, we would stop for a keep chat before continuing. Ted did have a couple of breaks from his walking and would sit back in his pram and watch his favourites Cocomelon and Booba for a few minutes.
I did take drinks and snacks from home for Ted, so we didn’t need to worry about food and drink for him. I wasn’t able to locate any baby changing and the disabled toilets were locked, however the ladies toilets were clean and big and were more than adequate for me to change Ted’s nappy.
At half time, Chris went to the clubhouse and bought one of their famous burgers, the gingerbread burger, for £5. It was worth every penny, absolutely gorgeous!
It was a great game, which ended 2-2. There was a red card and a missed penalty as well. Most of this I did miss from doing laps of the stadium with Ted! We all had a fantastic day out. Ted was good as gold and had loads of fun. We look forward to joining Daddy on the next away game!
