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1.Why
were you looking forward to going to the ground?
My perfect weekend
would be to see my beloved Ipswich Town Football Club playing at a ground
where I have never been to. I always enjoy watching Town away from
Suffolk, and having a chance to explore a city that I have never
visited before. It is my instinct or in built desire to explore a new
place which has made me think like this.
My perfect weekend would
continue with my invite to friends, who live in the local area, to inhale
a little bit of the Ipswich atmosphere that has been part of my body for
so long. The match will vary in quality, and I would claim that I could
not personally engineer goals, but I would reward their persistence and
suggesting that we go for an after match curry. I did have that perfect
weekend in early March 2011, when I visited a ground that I had never been
to in a part of the UK that I did not know that well.
Until that
Saturday, Yorkshire had been a barren land in terms of football watching
or catching Ipswich at play. I know that Yorkshire is a proud sporting
county and it is surprising that this region defined for me by
‘Countdown,’ ‘Calendar,’ cricket, the Kaiser Chiefs, yellow chevrons on
the TV, John Charles and ‘3-2-1’ currently does not have a team that is
regularly playing in the Premiership. Leeds United would like to return to
the Premiership, and Elland Road is a Premiership stadium, although I had
been told that it was a stadium that had seen better days. They were not
wrong.
2.How easy was your journey/ finding the
ground/ car parking?
My journey to Elland Road was easy. I had
taken a coach service up the M1 to Leeds and then I was
helped by two friends who were local to the area. They knew where the
stadium was and how to get there. As we meandered around Leeds’ exciting
yet baffling dual carriageway system, where roads seemed to launch
themselves over junctions for no apparent reason, there was no question
that I would not get to Elland Road in time for the game.
I have
done some travelling across the UK but I do not know Leeds that well and
if you are new to the city, it would be wise to stick to the dual carriage
ways and follow the brown signs down the M621 into the city. The stadium
is well signposted. I was told that football buses do run from the
station and may be an option for people arriving by train or want to
arrive by public transport. I was meeting with my friends at the railway
station and the Leeds station seemed full of friendly and approachable
people who could direct you in the right direction to the bus.
We
paid three pounds for car parking at a site near to the ground and there
are various car parks close to the football ground that vary in price.
Like any trip to the ground on a matchday, it is a simple case of
following the crocodile line of other fans to the ground and the stadium
quickly appears near to a railway line and nestled next to some random
houses, a characteristic pub (which I sensed was for home fans only,) some
car showrooms and a fast food operative that sells Big Macs. I immediately
sensed that there was an aura of history about the place, which has not
always been the case in certain football grounds. In contrast to some of
the modern stadia that are full of concrete and not much soul, this ground
did seem to have a heart and some friendly stewards too. How many grounds
have you been to where you have been welcomed in person by a friendly
steward? He even hoped that I had enjoyed a pleasant journey up the
M1.
3.What did you think when seeing the ground/ first
impressions of away end then other sides of the ground?
TV distorts
the size of grounds and my first reaction to Elland Road was a certain
amount of surprise. It seemed to be very small even though we were high up
in the away section towards one corner of the stadium. Being a fairly
enclosed area of the ground, the chanting and the all-important
‘atmosphere’ can be generated with ease in the away end. You are right
next to the Leeds Kop and as the Leeds team song was played out over the
loud speaker (and that was a pleasant change to the Electro Pop that is
standard material at most grounds around the UK,) everyone seemed to be
emotionally ready for the game. It was just a shame that it was obvious by
around 3:20pm that 0-0 was likely to be the score. Despite being very
close to an automatic promotion, Leeds played like mobile phones with two
cells left on their batteries. Ipswich played like a team that will finish
in the mid table of the Championship, which is a distinct improvement for
Town from earlier in the season.
4.Comment on the game
itself, atmosphere, stewards, pies and toilets etc..
It has been a
long while since I was watching football from behind poles but that was
what I was facing at Elland Road. It did seem for a while, that all of the
various contentious tackles enraging the home supporters and the Leeds
manager were taking place behind the poles. The referee became a key
figure in the game facing anger from the home dugout and the stands and
the atmosphere became undeniably tense. Half time came to defuse the
tension although the game continued to be played in an air of injustice
made worse by missed chances. With the rain starting to fall in a typical
northern way, I really did feel that my team were playing the role of
party poopers who were frustrating the rise of Leeds United back to the
Premiership.
When you turn up at a football ground, you should not
expect Ritz like facilities unless you are taking the corporate
experience. There is a fast food bar at the away end with some bucket
seats where you can eat your pies and fast food grub and drink your pop or
beer. It does feel that you are eating and drinking in a concrete wind
tunnel but you do have some room to stand around and talk to your mates
about how your team were lucky with various decisions and were really
rattling the cage of the home fans.
A toilet is a toilet in my
opinion but there seemed to be less than the normal amount of facilities
in the away end compared to other grounds where I have visited. If you are
a bloke that needs to visit a convenience at half time, you are liable to
spend most of the half time break in the action in a queue wondering why
you should be expected to pay 80p for a single chocolate
bar.
Stewarding seemed to be fairly light in the away end although
Ipswich Town fans are generally not known as particularly notorious across
the UK. The game meandered to a 0-0 draw despite the anger of the home
fans, and Leeds generally being on top of the action without never quite
managing to reach top gear and score that important goal. Town were riding
their luck at certain times but were sufficiently dogged to secure a
point. My friend turned to me an wondered whether Ipswich Town were a long
ball team. At that point in the game, I could not quite argue against
him.
5.Comment on getting away from the ground:
At the final
whistle, we had to turn right at the junction on to Elland Road. Fellow
Ipswich fans had seemed to disappear into thin air, and I found myself on
my own and walking against a tide of home fans who seemed frustrated with
the 0-0 draw and I also wondered whether they were annoyed with the
referee too. For the first time in a while around a football ground, I
felt fairly intimidated and wished that I could have managed to have
zipped my hoodie entirely over the football shirt but I was in a rush with
a desperate search to find our little car.
After a couple of
minutes, I was subject to a little bit of what some people would regard as
‘banter,’ and I can take ‘banter.’ However this was ‘banter’ with a
slightly harsh and personal undertone to it, but I had disappeared in a
rush without even thinking about the first word in a reply. I would
strongly advise discretion when wearing club colours around this ground
and whether it is even worth wearing your shirt if your team is a local
rival or has had any particular ‘history’ with Leeds.
I know that I am spoilt at my home town club in Ipswich with the
railway station within easy walking distance from Portman Road, and I can
walk home from the ground too. I also accept that it may not be the job of
a football club to run a suitable traffic management system to let their
supporters head for home, but getting out of Elland Road was difficult.
Like bees around a honeypot or the average rush hour around the
centre of Paris, it was every car for itself to get out of Elland Road to
reach the M621 out of the city. Having arrived late back to the car, we
were towards the back of the queue. As a result of my previous uneasy
encounter with a group of home fans, I was collapsed on the back seat of
the car like an escaped fugitive with the hope that no other home fan
could see my blue shirt.
Once onto the M621, the journey was
fairly simple, but you have to remember that Leeds v Ipswich had not
attracted a full stadium nor was it a high profile game like a Leeds v
Manchester United fixture. Is it traffic gridlock around the area when
bigger teams come to town? If you are coming to a game at Elland Road and
especially for a bigger match, I would recommend parking in roads around
Ring Road Beeston but beware of Matchday
restrictions.
6. Summary of overall
thoughts of the day out:
Regardless of what happened following the
game, I felt that I had visited a key football ground in the UK that may
not be showing Premiership football but does show some fairly impressive
‘b’ movie action (although the Leeds team seemed bizarrely lethargic on
that Saturday afternoon. If you are on a trip around important football
grounds in the UK, you have to visit Elland Road, but you have to be
slightly more discrete than usual if you are an away fan. In general, I
did get a very polite and warm Yorkshire welcome and left for my trip back
down south wondering how long it will be before Leeds United may become
giants in the English game again.
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