Elland Road

Saturday, 27 December 2008

Leeds United 1-1 Leicester City

Aerial shot of Elland Road (Bing Maps)

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 8/10

Ease of getting there : 8/10

Atmosphere : 10/10

Programme : 8/10

View of Action : 6/10

Quality of the game : 8/10

The "football" feeling : 8/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 4/10

Legroom : 5/10

Surrounding area : 5/10

Overall : 70/100

Programme and Ticket

East Stand

Adrian with the Billy Bremner statue

South Stand

John Charles West Stand

East Stand

Don Revie North Stand

East Stand

Don Revie North Stand

John Charles West Stand

Leeds United 1-1 Leicester City

This fixture has Premier League / Top flight football all over it but during the 2008/09 season, both of these clubs found themselves mixing it in League 1.
Elland Road and Leeds United have an illustrious history, a big stadium, big support and big ticket prices!
We were being asked to pay, what we considered Premier League prices for a 3rd tier game.
City chairman Milan Mandaric, acknowledged the outrage felt by City supporters and offered fans half price travel to Yorkshire if they travelled on the official club coaches.
Adrian and I (Ross) took up the generous offer from Mr M and on Boxing Day morning; we left the Walkers Stadium on one of 30 coaches heading up the M1 to Leeds.
Adrian picked me up earlier in Coalville and left his car at the Walkers Stadium.
We stopped for a break at Woodall services before continuing north to Leeds.
The big match atmosphere well and truly hit us on arrival with Leeds fans all over the place making their way to Elland Road.
All the coaches parked across the road from the stadium and after eating sandwiches on the coach we alighted and immediately took a stroll amongst the crowd around the stadium.
Adrian pointed out former City favourite Frank Worthington and former Leeds player Paul Reaney, walking into one of the hospitality areas.
Elland Road has been the home of Leeds United since the club's foundation in 1919. The stadium is the 12th largest football stadium in England, and the second largest outside the Premier League!

The ground has hosted FA Cup semi-final matches as a neutral venue, and England international fixtures, even being selected as one of eight Euro 96 venues. Elland Road comprises four main stands, the Revie Stand, the East Stand, the South Stand and the John Charles Stand which altogether with the corners, bring the total capacity to 37,900.

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson once said that Elland Road was "the most intimidating venue in Europe".

On Adrian’s previous visit, he almost got a brick thrown at him, but somehow ducked out the way and the brick knocked a Policeman’s helmet off instead.

The game itself was played before a packed crowd of over 35,000, remarkable for a game in League 1, bigger than all Championship games plus some in the Premier League on the day.
Matt Oakley put City ahead in the first half, but late pressure from the home side led to an equaliser in the last few minutes from Scotsman Robert Snodgrass. The noise was deafening!
Overall a draw was a fair result, most City fans on reflection were reasonably happy with a point on our return journey to the East Midlands.
Our humour helped by the news that struggling rivals Forest had just sacked their manager, Colin Calderwood!
The journey back home was uneventful, the convoy of coaches crawled back into Leicester at junction 21 arriving back at the stadium for approx 7pm.
I was dropped off by Adrian in Coalville about 20 minutes later.
I enjoyed the big match atmosphere at Elland Road, a real football feeling assisted by the big crowd. A good Boxing Day trip