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1. Why you were looking
forward to going to the ground (or not as the case may
be):
Living in Plymouth, I always make the very short trip
up to Bristol for the local match. There is always an excellent atmosphere
there. Being a 7:45 kick off, it was just manageable to sneak
out from work half an hour early to make the car journey up with a few
mates.
2. How easy was your journey/finding the ground/car
parking?
Normally we would use a tom tom to find the stadium
but we were stuck on the motorway for a long time and were about to give
up and turn back home when we spotted the supporters buses taking another
route so we decided to follow them and made it to the ground. As I have
connections with Plymouth Argyle I was able to get a car park pass, so
that was nice and easy.
3. What you did before the game
pub/chippy.... home fans friendly?
Being very late I made my way
straight into the ground as the players were coming out, just before that
the coaches were greeted by a large number of Bristol City fans shouting
'Green Army!' after the Aviva advert which was in good
nature.
4. What you thought on seeing the ground, first
impressions of away end then other sides of the
ground?
Visiting the stadium a few times before I knew
what to expect. When walking to the away stand there were riot police
left, right and centre which was very intimidating. Being very late and
with a sell out away allocation, it was annoying as it is not
reserved seating but luckily a friend that had got there early somehow has
managed to save us some seats. The stand is old and the leg room very
tight. Two pillars were obstructing my view and I almost fell
backwards a number of times with there being no backs to the
seats.
5. Comment on the game itself, atmosphere, stewards,
pies, toilets etc..
The atmosphere between the two clubs is always
fantastic and with 2000 Argyle fans it made it very special. The abuse and
bad language exchanged between the fans was warm and light hearted. The
game was good and exciting although my team came out on the wrong side of
a mad 6 minutes in which four goals were scored. The stewards were relaxed
and allowed fans to stand and shout which was good. The concourses were
very crowded at half time and there were only two food outlets. I missed
the first 5 minutes of the second half queuing for the
loo.
6. Comment on getting away from the ground after the
game:
We decided to leave five minutes early to avoid the
crowds and possible trouble, plus the game did not look like it was
going anywhere. Using our tom tom it only took 15 minutes to get out of
the city.
7. Summary of overall thoughts of the day
out:
Even though we lost the match I thought the experience
was superb once again and I emailed the club and thanked them for a
great atmosphere. I would not say Ashton Gate is a great
stadium, but for atmosphere it is possibly the best in the
league. |
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