Woodside Road is a football stadium

Stadium

A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

 in Worthing

Worthing

Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...

, West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. First opened in 1892, it is the home of Worthing F.C.

Worthing F.C.

Worthing Football Club are an English association football club based in Worthing, West Sussex, currently playing in the Isthmian League Division One South...

 and has a capacity of 4,000.

History

A sports ground opened on the Woodside Road site as early as 1892 when the site was part of the parish of West Tarring, which at the time was not yet part of the borough of Worthing. Known as the Pavilion Road Sports Ground, it occupied a 13-acre site, with a Queen Anne style

Queen Anne Style architecture

The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...

 pavilion giving its name to Pavilion Road along the south of the site. Worthing FC moved to the ground in 1903. In 1937 the Sports Ground closed and it is the site's northern portion which developed into the existing stadium. The southern portion of the Sports Ground became tennis courts and then in 1948 became home to Worthing Pavilion Bowls Club. Floodlights were installed in 1977. At the end of 1984-85 Woodside Road's main stand burnt down. In 2008 the ground was renamed the A2B Stadium after naming rights were sold to a local taxi firm. The ground is still often known simply as Woodside Road.

The ground was used as a groundshare with Horsham FC in 2008/09. Originally a deal was agreed for two years but the deal ended after just one year.

The ground was home to Brighton & Hove Albion FC Reserves after the closure of the Goldstone Ground

Goldstone Ground

The Goldstone Ground was a football stadium and home ground of Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. between 1902 and 1997. The club currently plays at American Express Community Stadium, a stadium on the outskirts of the city, following the move from their temporary stadium in the Brighton suburb of...

 in 1997. This led to Brighton playing their opening friendly against Worthing at Woodside Road as a thank you for the use of the ground.

Transport

Woodside Road has the benefit of being around 500 metres' walk from Worthing railway station

Worthing railway station

Worthing railway station is the main station serving the town of Worthing in West Sussex. The station and the majority of trains serving it are operated by Southern. The other operator is First Great Western. It is one of the main stations on the West Coastway Line; all timetabled trains stop...

which allows fans to use public transport.