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As
I'm only 12 years old I have not visited many away
games. As a big Watford Supporter I chose to go to
an away match for my birthday, and Reading seemed
the perfect trip. I was also looking forward
to visiting the Madjeski after reading lots of good
reports on the stadium.
As my family and I live near Brighton on the South
Coast, me and my Dad packed into our Citroen car at
around 10am and made the two hour trip to Reading.
We had no hold ups on the M25 or the M4 and got to
Reading at around 12 noon. We tried to find some
parking on the streets, however as the ground is
located next to some Industrial parks and there is a
strict two hour parking curfew we found this very
hard. We spent nearly 10 minutes doing this and
after a while we took this websites advice and
parked at the Acre Road warehouse car park for a
cost of £7.
We then visited the convenient KFC and got something
to eat while both sets of fans mingled and chatted.
After about an one hour we made the short walk to
the ground and made the customary walk right around
the stadium.
As we had previously paid for our tickets online and
had recieved them in the post a couple of days
before, we got into the stadium painlessly and made
the massive hike to the top of the stand. As
you come out of the concourse the stadium looks
pretty impressive although a little bland as nearly
all the stands were the same apart from the West
Stand which has a row of excutive boxes which run
the length of it. The legroom was very impressive
and spacious. The acoustics were excellent and as
the Reading faithful were located just to our right
there was quite a bit of banter. The concourse was
nothing special but did its job.
The game was nothing special, however Watford came
away with 3 deserved points. The game started well
for Watford and we scored with only 12 minutes on
the clock from an excellent free-kick dispatched by
Mark Yeates, which sent the 1,338 Watford fans wild
with delight.
At half time we went to the food counter and both
purchased a reasonably priced hot chocolate before
making the trip back to our seats. The only downside
to the away section, is at the back there is a
small gap between the roof and the back wall. And as
it was raining and we seated at the back of this
stand, we got soaked!
The
second half kicked off with Reading puting pressure on
Watford, however during that period John Eustace came
out of nowhere and placed the ball in the top of the
corner from a low cross. This sent the Watford
faithful into full song and completely drowned the
Reading crowd.
After the final whistle me and my Dad applauded the
players and our manager before joining the long line
of spectators trying to get out of the stadium. 5
minutes later we were walking through the crowds to
get back to our car. There seemed to be no trouble
between the Reading and Watford fans. There was a big
traffic jam going towards the M4 but that quickly
passed and before we knew it we were back on the
motorway. From there it was quick journey back to the
South Coast.
Overall a good day out and very good result for the
Golden Boys.
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