What better way to spend Valentine ’s Day night than a trip to Coventry City? And if you’re getting grief from your loved one for going to the football on a night like this, you can always make amends with a romantic meal in the club restaurant, for a mere £75 a head.

Coventry moved into their new home at the start of the 2005/6 season, the £113m Ricoh Arena, which is owned by the council and leased to the club. Like all the other identikit new stadia around the country, it's functional and has lots of nice modern facilities, but also lacks a bit of character.

The stadium is well to the north of the city centre and getting there by road is pretty easy, as you just have to make your way to junction 3 of the M6 and then head into Coventry on the A444, before reaching the stadium about a mile to the south of the motorway junction. Some car satellite navigation systems have not been updated to show Coventry City FC as playing at the Ricoh Arena, so make sure you enter "Phoenix Way" and the post code "CV6 6GE" instead.

The problem is that you then have to find somewhere to park. As the stadium is in a residential area there is an exclusion zone of about 2 miles around the ground as far as street parking is concerned, which is rigorously enforced by an army of traffic wardens. The official car parks by the stadium cost £10 for car parks A and C, and £7 for car park B, but apparently these take ages to clear after the match. There are also two ‘park and walk sites’ at Christ the King Football Club in Wheelwright Lane and St Finbarrs and Wayside Business Park in Wilsons Lane, which cost £5.50 per game.

As part of the government's strict planning laws, there is a Green Travel Plan, which aims to ensure that 75 per cent of all people at major events get to the Ricoh Arena by means other than car. There are six bus routes running to the Ricoh, including the number 101 from the central bus station at Pool Meadow, which runs every 10 minutes from two hours prior to kick off and then returns every five minutes, for one hour after the game has ended. After the match the return buses leave from outside the North Stand, and the adult return fare is £3.

Coventry railway station is about three and half miles away from the stadium and is on the opposite side of the city centre from the bus station. The cheapest way of getting to the Ricoh from here is to buy a £3.10 ‘daysaver ticket’ and get the number 27 bus to Pool Meadow bus station and get the 4 or 5. Another option is to catch the number 20 from the street opposite the bus station, outside Sainsbury’s in Trinity Street, getting off at Arena Tescos, which is close to the stadium.

The railway line from Coventry to Nuneaton goes right past the stadium and a scheme to build a new station here has finally got the go-ahead from the government, though by the time it’s finished the chances are we’ll be in a different division to Coventry, so it’ll be too late for us to make use of it.

The recommended away fans’ pub is the ‘Lord Raglan’, which you’ll find at Coventry Road, Exhall,Coventry,CV7 9EZ (Telephone 02476734008 or 07747115478) It’s got a large car park which is big enough to accommodate coaches. Parking is free for those who go into the pub, and it’s less than 10 minutes’ walk from the stadium. To find it you need to follow signs for Bayton Rd Industrial estate, which is 2 minutes off the motorway.

Away fans usually get an allocation of 3,000 places in the South Stand, out of a total capacity of 32,000, but once again Coventry have been generous enough to offer us a couple of extra blocks of seats, so a total of 6,200 tickets are available. But with it being a midweek game we’re not going to sell out this allocation like we did last year, so tickets will be on sale on the night to our members and season ticket holders. It's cash only, and for some reason it's £2 extra for the privelage of not paying in advance. Advance ticket prices for away fans are £22 for adults, £16 for concessions £14 for under 16s.

The angle of the South Stand is quite steep and it's quite a long way back from the pitch, so it's quite difficult to see the action at the other end. The legroom is quite good, and the stadium has good acoustics, which makes for a good atmosphere. Behind the stands there are spacious concourses and a number of food and drink outlets serving steak & kidney pies, pasties, hot dogs and burgers, and it seems that everything costs £2.70. Alcohol is also available in the form of bottles of Carling Lager & for £3.10. The counters are very clean and service is efficient, so you won't have to queue for too long. The main downside at the Ricoh is that the stewards are rather heavy-handed in these parts, and quite a few fans have been ejected for 'persistent standing'.

Many thanks to Coventry fan Kevin Monks for his help with this piece.

Photo: Action Images

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