1. Why you were looking forward to going to the ground (or not as the case may be):

I had not been away to Cardiff before, either Ninian Park or the new ground, so it was an opportunity to visit a stadium I hadn’t been to before.

2. How easy was your journey/finding the ground/car parking?

We drove down the M50 to the M4 and as recommended came off at J33 to the ground.  The journey was very simple, well signposted and traffic was light, although we did arrive over and hour before kick off so that may have been a factor.  We drove towards Cardiff and after finding no suitable parking near the Millennium Stadium we came back across the river and parked on Cathedral Road for free as it was a Sunday, but there did seem to be side roads which you could park on.

3. What you did before the game pub/chippy.... home fans friendly?

We went for a drink in the Westgate pub which was quite quiet but a nice friendly chain pub.  I had a pint of Brain’s bitter which was excellent and there was sport on the TV.  It should be noted I was not wearing colours so I don’t know the policy but I wouldn’t have thought it was a problem.  The food looked decent but we decided to have a pie in the ground.  It was then a 20 minute walk to the stadium.

4. What you thought on seeing the ground, first impressions of away end then other sides of the ground?

The ground looks good but nothing of note as a lot of new stadiums look very similar, although I can see the similarities with the Madejski it seemed a bit more open and didn’t create a particularly intimidating atmosphere.  It is strange that with Cardiff’s new Malaysian owners that everything is decked out in blue but they play in red.  The away end was simple to get to if you remember to look for HSS Hire.  The away fans were tucked in corner and the stewards advised it was sit anywhere you want as it was only three quarters full.

5. Comment on the game itself, atmosphere, stewards, pies, toilets etc..

We grabbed something to eat before the game, they were out of chicken curry so I had the mince and potato pie which was very good.  My girlfriend is veggie, so generally she’s a pain when I take her to the football (standard fare is a cheese pie) but Cardiff had a veg hotpot as their option.  This was pretty poor, not very hot, too much onion and a slightly funny aftertaste.  The concourse is a bit sparse and doesn’t look quite finished and there are no TV screens.  If you want food or drink it’s worth walking to right hand kiosk as the queue is significantly smaller.  The gents toilets are ok, my missus reported the ladies were very nice.

The game itself started very brightly both teams playing at a high tempo, Wolves scored through a free kick but Cardiff were awarded a penalty moments later and took the lead before the break.  The second half was pretty dire, Cardiff protected their two goal advantage once Whittingham completed his hat trick with a free kick and Wolves never really threatened.

6. Comment on getting away from the ground after the game:

We left during injury time and walked back to the car and a Cardiff fan chatted to me about our prospects as he overheard me reporting how dire we were to my Dad on the phone.  When we got to the car we drove down the Cardiff Bay and had something to eat there which was great and then travelled back via the Severn Bridge this time, there wasn’t much difference time wise I was just a bit sick of the roadworks on the M50/A449.

7. Summary of overall thoughts of the day out:

Overall a better day than I was expecting as there has been some trouble between both sets of fans in recent years but I found everyone we met very accommodating.  I would call the ground functional rather than spectacular but the travel links are good and it’s another ground ticked off the list.