'Our away end is part of football folklore'

A non-league football club in Nottinghamshire is a scoring sensation with fans across the world, thanks to its unusual away end.

Teversal FC, near Sutton-in-Ashfield, has housed visiting supporters in old trolley shelters salvaged from a Tesco supermarket that closed about 20 years ago.

Kevin Newton, club secretary, said the reused features regularly attracted the attention of social media, with some people travelling from across the UK to the ground to take selfies and see them in person.

He said the shelters had now become a much-loved "part of the ground".

Founded in 1918, the club currently plays in the Central Midlands Alliance League's South Division, the 11th tier of the English football league system.

Mr Newton said the club came across the shelters by chance when redeveloping its ground, which is based off Carnarvon Street.

The former trolley collectors were saved from the skip and installed near one of its own goals, and now regularly hit the back of the net with football fans online since Scarborough came to play in 2007.

"We had an attendance of over 400 that particular day, and it got picked up then, and from then it's on social media I'd say every other season," he said.

"It does the rounds where it goes absolutely mad, and we get an increase in groundhoppers coming to take photos.

"We've had them travelling from all over the country just to view the Tesco stands."

Mr Newton said the club had originally planned to paint over the old supermarket branding with the club's colours of red and black, but now plan to retain the unusual inherited design.

With the livery due a touch-up, he said the club was considering getting in touch with the supermarket giant to see if they could offer a little help.

"It's pretty much football folklore now," he said.

"On the serious side, it does actually give us some airtime... it generates a different type of interest than just football.

"It's an interest that we're pleased to promote, and the good thing is that they're not unsightly.

"If you say you've got Tesco trolley parks as a stand, [people] laugh, but actually when you see them in situ they're not out of place, they're part of the ground.

"It's just a phenomenon we would never have predicted."

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