Britannia Stadium - Stoke City
Championship League v Burnley
Saturday, September 16th 2006, 3pm
Daniel Luke
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I was looking
forward to my trip to the Britannia stadium as a
Burnley fan as I thought there would be a good
atmosphere as we have a couple of ex-stokies.
We went on the
coach which was not a bad journey, the ground is in
a difficult position to get to as you go past the
ground then come back up to it, the coaches park in
an excellent position right outside the stand, A big
fence keeps the home fans away from the away fans
but the stoke fans do there best to give you
intimidating gestures, before the game there is not
much to do as you are in the middle of nowhere, a
visit to the stoke club shop was my best bet picking
up a matchday programme.
My first thoughts
on the ground from outside were very impressive, all
decent size stands but a bit out of place, I took my
seat in the stand which can be a bit crowded with a
big away following, the game kicked off and in the
1st minute Burnley went 1-0 up from an Andy Gray
goal !!! The Stewards are very strict with people
being ejected from the ground for what in my opinion
are little things (i.e swearing) without a warning.
They are very strict about standing as well, but
what could they do when 2,500 Burnley fans stood for
the whole of the match?
The Burnley fans
created all of the noise and there was not a song
all match from the Stoke fans, Burnley went
into half time being the better team, I went to get
a pie but with very limited room it took me most of
the half time interval to get a pie and have a
toilet break which also where very small.
I just got back in
my seat for a round up of the latest scores which
are very well presented on a scoreboard to the right
of the away stand.
The second half
began with Burnley winning and with my delight ended
with Burnley winning, The away fans had to be kept
in the ground for 10 minutes after the game due to
excessive rowdiness, As I was leaving the ground the
coach was just outside the stand leaving me in for a
comfortable trip back to Lancashire, the trip home
took about 2 hours due to traffic but it was worth
it.
I would Recommend
this ground for any football fan, with its stunning
looks its worthy to be a Premiership ground.
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