Tomorrow night’s visit to Bristol City (with kick-off at 7.45), is sold out, but if you haven’t got a ticket there is always the option of the ‘beamback’ at Elland Road.

If you’re going by car, the recommended route is to use the M5 as far as junction 18, then take the (A4) Portway, signposted towards Bristol Airport and Bristol City. Following signs for the Airport/Taunton (A38) drive over the swing bridge (Brunel Way) branching left into Winterstoke Road & you will see the ground on your left. Then continue along Winterstoke Road until the KFC roundabout and take a first left, and it’s another 200m to the away turnstiles.

Parking at the ground is reserved for permit holders only and street parking is limited. There is the Bedminster Cricket club on Clanage Road (A369) that offers parking at a cost of £5 per car and is around a 5-10 minute walk to the stadium'. There is also some residential parking, but most of the streets close to Ashton Gate have double yellow lines, with parking regulations strictly enforced!

The nearest railway station to the ground is Parson Street, which is around 15 minutes walk away and is served by local trains to Western Super Mare. There are trains from Bristol Temple Meads at 17.26, 17.55 and 18.27 and 18.56 (taking only four minutes) but coming back there’s nothing between 21.27 and 23.42.

If that doesn’t appeal, you can make your way direct from the main Bristol Temple Meads station, although that is just over two miles from Ashton Gate. Service ‘A’ buses leave an hour before kick off costing a flat rate £2 from Temple Meads station. The pick up point is across the main road at the bottom of the station approach road and the buses make the return journey after the game from Ashton Road, (behind the Atyeo Stand) by the Greville Smyth Park.

Walking to the ground from Temple Meads will take around 45 minutes, but if you need the exercise you can turn left into Temple Gate, cross over the river, take the first right into York Road and follow the river into Coronation Road. Keep following Coronation Road until you see Raleigh Road on your left. Walk down Raleigh Road and the ground will appear in front of you.

A railway branch line to Portishead runs very close to the ground, but it currently used only by freight trains. A local group have put forward a proposal to re-introduce passenger trains to this line, which would include a station for Ashton Gate, and the latest news is that is that the service is due to start in May 2019. So if we’re still in the same division as the Robins in the 2019/20 season we will finally have a direct train service all the way to the ground.

None of the pubs next to the ground are very welcoming for away fans, so the best advice is to head north of the ground and over the River Avon on the ‘plimsoll bridge’. Among the decent pubs on the waterside are the ‘Nova Scotia,’ ‘The Cottage’ and ‘The Orchard Inn’. The last of these three is in the CAMRA guide and was voted Britain's top cider pub in 2009, with it’s 24 different ciders available!

And there are of course a lot of pubs in the city centre, including a large Wetherspoons close to Temple Meads station, called the ‘Knights Templar’. Food-wise, there is a KFC right next to the ground and two fish & chip shops on Ashton Road, as well as a few other takeaways round the corner on North Street. Inside the ground is the usual football ground scoff, including burgers, pies, slices of pizza and sausage rolls.

City moved to Ashton Gate in 1904, though the ground had an unfortunate history during it’s first 37 years of existence. The roof of the South Terrace was destroyed by gales in 1916, a fire partially destroyed the Old Stand in 1929 and then an air raid in 1941 which destroyed the entire grandstand. In more recent years the club replaced the former away terraces at the west end of the ground with the £1.8 million John Atyeo Stand in 1994, in order to comply with the Taylor report.

The current away allocation is only 1,300, on one side of the Atyeo Stand, because of redevelopment work currently taking place at Ashton Gate. The Leeds allocation was sold through the club’s ‘attendance tracker’, (i.e. priority went to those who went to the most away games last season) and has now sold out. The prices for our fans are £30 for adults, with various categories of concessions at £27, £25, £22 and £18.

Home tickets were restricted to those already on City’s database who had bought tickets for at least two games in the last couple of years, and these have also sold out. This all seems a bit tough on the local Leeds fans, for whom this should be a valuable opportunity to see the team without having to travel, so we can only hope that they managed to get themselves sorted out with the tickets they need.

The first phase of the stadium redevelopment was completed when the new South Stand opened at the start of the current season, with a capacity of just over 6,000 seats. It is equipment with the latest ‘rail seat’ technology, which allows the seats to be folded back so the area becomes a safe standing terrace. But currently they can only do this when the stadium hosts rugby matches, so we’ll just have to live in hope that the government will one day allow football fans the privilege of standing.

But the stadium still has only three sides at the moment, as Phase 2 of the redevelopment is underway with the demolition of the old Williams Stand on one side. In its place a two tier Grandstand will be built, with a capacity of around 11,000. This is due to be ready for the start of the 2016/17 season, so at least we can look forward to a decent ticket allocation the next time we come to Ashton Gate.

Some of this information came from www.footballgroundguide.com.

Photo: Action Images

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