Football Ground Guide: Fans Reviews, Britannia Stadium, Stoke City FC

Britannia Stadium - Stoke City
Championship League v Burnley
Saturday, September 16th 2006, 3pm
Daniel Luke

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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