Withdean Stadium, Brighton
Championship League
v Hull City
Friday, December 16th 2005, 8pm
By Chris Donkin
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Being a Hull City fan living in London, prior to the fixture list being
published Brighton away was one of the fixtures I was looking out for. A
relatively short train ride and a nice day drinking by the sea.
Unfortunately the football leagues fixture computer didn’t quite have
my trip to the seaside planned out like that - rather than a Saturday
afternoon on a warm September day it chose a cold Friday evening in mid
December - nice!
Still it wasn’t far I suppose so I still had that. I only started to
dread the game when I discovered the away stand was completely open to the
elements - luckily it wasn’t too cold and it didn’t rain, sleet or snow.
After rushing out of work into London Victoria station we (me and my
long-suffering cousin) got on the train to Preston Park station. It was a
bit delayed, but we still had fifteen minutes to spare before the game
kicked off.
On arrival at the station we found no signs to direct any lost
supporters to the ground. There were a few home supporters wandering
around so we asked a family group (always the safest ones to approach)
which way the ground was. They laughed at first and had a
mini-reminiscence between themselves of when they told a couple of Palace
fans to head the other way. They seemed nice to us though and took us to
the ground.
The fans we spoke to seemed nice and they took us the ‘short cut’ to
the Withdean which involves following a dirt-track for about fifteen
minutes through a wood. It was very poorly lit and I would advise away
fans to avoid this at all costs - without a torch we would have been well
and truly stuffed. Luckily the little boy with the family had one so we
could side-step the huge pools of water which blocked the track.
On finally arriving at the Withdean we were fit to drop, but we were
there and they were second to bottom of the league, an easy victory -
surely!
We got to our seats just as the teams were running onto the pitch, we
were in row three of the temporary away stand, totally uncovered and it
felt quite wobbly underfoot especially during the “jump up if you’re Hull
City” chant - one you don’t hear often in all-seater grounds!
The leg room was okay, although we stood for most of the game. Between
us and the nearest goal was some concrete, the curve of a running track
and the semi-circle. The view was appalling, by far the worst I have seen
at a ground. Hull were attacking the furthest goal from us in the first
half and we could barely see what was happening. There was a definite
delay from us scoring and the fans noticing, then all the talk was about
who had scored. The PA was incoherent, but by the front-flip celebration
we worked it out.
I’m not sure if they have a rule about going onto the running track as
our mascot (Roary the tiger) was sat in the stand with the supporters -
quite a bizarre sight. I’m glad we weren’t sat behind him, the view was
bad enough without having a huge tiger head in the way as well.
The atmosphere in our stand was good - though I’m sure the home
supporters couldn’t hear us and we certainly couldn’t hear them. Half time
came along (by then we were 2-1 down) and we headed to the burger van
which is situated on a hill behind the stand. Incidentally, the position
of the van offered a better view of the pitch then any of the seats. The
food was good and prices were fairly typical of football food.
The second half came and went with little action. The view was better
when (supposedly) attacking towards the stand we were in, but even then we
felt very detached from the game, the ground was very open and the lack of
a roof didn’t help keep the noise in.
We left the ground to some music which sounded like it had been lifted
directly from Harry Enfield’s Mr Chumondley-Warner sketch and headed home.
We decided against the dirt track and stuck to the main roads. There were
still no signposts and the station is very well hidden. It took us about
45 minutes to find it and we saw some other away fans looking for it in
the other direction. If you’re in the area at all, there may still be some
stray City fans around now!
If you are thinking of a trip to the Withdean I would advise taking a
torch, a street map and something to read during the half where your team
is attacking towards the furthest goal. You may need some waterproofs too
as the stand is totally open. This ground offers poor value for money -
£22.50 and you hardly see a thing.
Still, it can’t be as bad as the next one - Crewe away on Boxing day! A
big thank you to the fixture compilers!
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