Our annual visit to Leicester City is on Tuesday eveming, with a 7.45pm kick off, and you’ll find the King Power stadium is about a mile and half south of the city centre, close to the site their former home at Filbert Street.

If you're coming by car you need to leave the M1 at Junction 21, and take the A5460 towards Leicester city centre. Continue on this road until you go under a railway bridge and carry on for another 200 yards, before you turn right at the traffic lights into Upperton Road (signposted Royal Infirmary) and then right into Eastern Boulevard (just after crossing the river), then keep going straight on to get to the ground.

There is plenty of street parking in this area, especially around the Upperton Road, although you shouldn't double park as the traffic wardens are always out in droves on a matchday. Alternatively you can park at Leicester Rugby Club (£3) which is a ten minute walk away from the stadium.

It will just about be possible to get a train back to Leeds after the game, provided you can get the 22.04, and you will then need to change at Sheffield. The railway station is around 20-25 minutes walk from the stadium, and there is a walking route signposted to the stadium from the opposite side of the main road from the station exit, and in any case there is usually a large number of police around who will be happy to show you the way.

Once you’ve crossed the in front of the station you need to turn left and then go right along a pathway that runs beside and looks down on the Waterloo Way ring road. Continue straight along this pathway for around half a mile and you will reach a small park on your right (Nelson Mandela Park). The stadium you will see in front of you is the Welford Road home of Leicester Tigers Rugby Club, but beyond it you should be make out the roof of the King Power Stadium. If you keep going in that direction you can’t miss it.

The police usually insist that all the pubs will be shut before the game when we visit, so I can't guarantee that you'll get into any of the establishments I'm about to recommend, and most of the pubs near to the stadium are home fans only, The 'Counting House' pub on Freemens Common Road (near the Morrisons), usually welcomes both sets of supporters, but does exclude away supporters when the game is deemed to be a 'high profile'. It might be a better bet to drink in the city centre, and if you're coming by train then you could try 'The Hind' pub across the road from the station, which has a fine selection of real ales.

The new stadium was built by Birse Construction at a cost of £35m, and opened in August 2002. It's capacity is 32,500 and it's completely enclosed, with all four corners being filled with seating. Like most new stadia it's functional but lacking in character. The stadium is intended to be part of a major regeneration of a huge area of previously neglected inner city land, and the club's official website does of course speak lovingly of all the conference facilities and stuff, such as the banqueting suite with a lovely view over the river.

Away supporters are given just over 3,000 seats in the North East corner of the stadium, and the view of the playing action is good (although you are set well back from the pitch) as are the facilities. The concourse is spacious, and there is a good range of hot dogs, burgers and pies available. However no alcohol is available in the away section for ‘high profile’ games, even though bitter & lager are both available in the home areas.

The main problem is that the stewarding and policing is way over the top, with both home and away fans likely to be ejected for any sort of boisterous behaviour, like dancing, pointing at opposing fans or even standing up. Ticket prices are £32 for adults and £28 for senior citizens, and concessions for younger people ranging from £8 to £20.

The stadium has been built in such a way that if required, an additional tier could be built onto the East Stand at some time in the future, which would increase the total capacity to just under 40,000, though this will probably have to wait until the Foxes get back into the Premiership.

Some of this rubbish came from http://www.footballgroundguide.com/

Photo: Action Images

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