Groundtastic GT23 | Page 42

Plough Lane Floodlights tionary check for canine activity my companion and I scrambled inside. We emerged at the back of the Covered End Terrace, which has retained its crush barriers and is in reasonable condition aside from the waist-high weeds everywhere. A gate in the perimeter fence leads onto the overgrown pitch, which lacks focus without a set of goalposts. Plough Lane is, in fact, much as it appeared in 1991, when Wimbledon left to share at Selhurst Park, although the crush barriers on the East Terrace have been removed. In this respect, the ground is a useful benchmark for the progress in top flight facilities made over the last decade. We never felt comfortable inside the empty, decaying ground and were as relieved to return to the busy roads outside as we had been to find the ground still there in the first place. If we'd been expecting a Secret Garden behind the barriers, it felt more like a Secret Graveyard. Photographs courtesy of Adrian Brown and Colin Peel Groundtastic page 42 Issue 2