Welcome to the “Tour Of The 72” series.
In this series, I attempt to visit every EFL ground to find the greatest football experience there is to offer and rate each ground on five different factors: Pricing, Atmosphere & Quality of the game, Food, Facilities, and the overall experience of the matchday.
For this edition, I headed to England’s eighth largest city Nottingham, to visit the world’s oldest professional football club Notts County, as they took on Colchester United in Sky Bet League Two, on the 22nd of November 2025.
Here is how they fared!
Notts County: Meadow Lane Review
Pricing & Ticketing: 8/10
Notts County, I’m impressed.
My matchday ticket for this League Two fixture cost £22 for a standard adult ticket in the Jimmy Sirrel Stand, making it the cheapest ticket for any League Two ground I’ve visited this season, quite surprising that it’s from a club like Notts County, whose attendances are one of the highest in the division.
Even better too, is I’m fairly sure tickets for Under 19’s and students were just £8, a great incentive to bring the younger demographic and future supporters base into the club, as they are the key to the future!
Once again after the horror show of Watford’s ticketing website earlier this month, I was grateful to purchase tickets on such an easy platform to use, no bad marks here from me.
My only tiny complaint was the frustration numerous supporters faced at the turnstiles, with a rule that screenshots of tickets weren’t allowed, only files directly from emails.
Slightly strange admittedly, especially given the questionable Wi-Fi quality surrounding the ground, causing a few problems entering for supporters, granted I probably should have arrived a bit earlier.
Unfortunately, since my last visit, I believe matchday programmes are no longer available for purchase, which is always a shame, but not the end of the world!
Atmosphere: 5.5/10
Once again, I’m unable to fully comment one way, given I was sat in the away end, but I shall try to reflect on it as honest as possible for what I experienced.
First off, I’d like to comment on the biggest shock in terms of the atmosphere, being the volume and quality of the speakers within Meadow Lane, apparently being within the top three stadiums with the highest quality sound systems in the EFL.
They could do with possibly turning the volume down a bit.
I was only there for about ten minutes before kick-off, and my likelihood of going deaf in the next year severely increased from the walkout song (if my music knowledge is correct I believe it was Nightmare by Brainbug, which is quite a strange option for a walkout song)!
Most of the noise came from the designated “Kop” behind the goal where the more passionate supporters were located surrounding the drum.
Furthermore, on the occasions where the supporters got behind their players after an attack, it was a solid atmosphere, one of the better atmospheres in League Two in my humble opinion.
Being quite honest, the supporters didn’t have too much to get excited about after the 20th minute, so I’m sure on another day the rating would have been much higher, but it didn’t quite hit the same as previous visits.
Food: 3/5/10
Well, I can’t really comment.
By the time I arrived inside the concourse from my time in Nottingham, there was absolutely nothing left, other than a packet of sweets!
Perhaps I underestimated the hunger levels of the Colchester supporters, but I would assume a club like Notts County would cater for the number of supporters they knew were visiting, but clearly not!
Although this is likely my fault for arriving late to Meadow Lane, I’m bumping up the marks from a one, because I’m aware there is a plethora of options available, just from my walk to the stadium alone I wandered past three separate burger vans, that’s at least worth a three!
Looking back, I should have perhaps gone to “The Nest”, as loaded fries, hand-cooked pizzas and even macaroni cheese were on offer!
Facilities: 9/10
Meadow Lane is personally my favourite ground to visit in League Two currently, not only due to the size of the ground and the history surrounding it, but due to the proximity of the city to the ground.
If you fancy a bit of tourism before kick-off and are an avid sports fan, the City Ground home of Nottingham Forest is just an eight-minute walk away, with iconic cricket ground Trent Bridge just a few minutes further down the road.
If you’re after a pint there’s a ton of bars and pubs not too far away from Meadow Lane, including a certain not so family friendly restaurant that seemed to be quite popular amongst the away supporters (certainly not my cup of tea however)!
Despite not going in, I’m aware of Notts County’s brand-new supporters’ bar “The Nest” redeveloped from a disused warehouse.
It held up to one thousand people featuring a large TV screen displaying SkySports, providing a space for supporters to meet up and enjoy the festivities pre match.
In terms of inside the away end, my only complaint is the amount of space on the concourse, it was quite a struggle to get through the crowds due to its narrow nature, but in terms of view of the pitch it was top notch.
Overall Experience: 7/10
To summarise overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon of football, however a few small things knocked down this mark slightly.
I’ve already touched on the situation with screenshots not being allowed for digital tickets, causing a small amount of disruption.
Furthermore my tempers were increased in frustration and the lack of hot food available by the time I got in (yes, I know this one is my fault), but other than these small nitpicks, it was a decent game.
Obviously, I left feeling slightly happier than the home supporters (sorry County fans), given the result, possibly influencing my rating slightly, however the game itself was quite a thriller in the first half.
The momentum swung both ways in the opening half.
Firstly, Notts County’s wingbacks caused havoc for Colchester’s defence, and they felt unlucky to go behind after an unfortunate deflection off Vincent-Young broke the deadlock, but swiftly returned the scoreline to level terms after Kelle Roos made his first mistake of the game.
Mistakes by Roos became a particular theme, as all four goals conceded by Notts County (one of those ended up being disallowed rather controversially) could arguably be blamed on his questionable goalkeeping.
Both second half goals came completely against the flow of play, County absolutely peppered the Colchester box in the second half but couldn’t get it in the back of the net.
Final Score:
Notts County 1-3 Colchester United
Goals:
Notts County: Vincent-Young (OG) 8’
Colchester: Anderson, Mbick, Goodwin
Lineups:
County: Roos, Bedeau, Macari, Ness, Tsaroulla (Jarvis 65’), Palmer (Kouhyar 71’), Roberston, Bennetts (Iorpenda 71’), Grant (Dennis 65’), Hall, Jatta
Colchester: Macey, Iandolo, Flanagan (Hunt 21’), Araujo, Vincent-Young, Tucker, Read, Anderson, Lisbie (Gordon 71’), Mbick (Williams 77’), Tovide (Goodwin 71’)
