SOUTHAMPTON 25.04.11

HOW TO GET THERE

CAR
From the M3 take the A33 into Southampton. Continue on the A33 until you reach the junction with the A3024 Northam Road and turn left onto this road towards Northam. Then turn right onto the B3038, Britannia Road for the stadium.

PARKING
There is very limited parking at the ground and in the surrounding areas. A good bet is to park in one of the many City Centre car-parks, but expect to pay a premium for doing this. It is a fair walk to the ground from here and you should give yourself about 15 minutes.

Last season we parked at the Ocean Village Leisure Complex, which as its name suggests is down on the waterside. This had a lot of spaces and was free to use after 5pm, hopefully it will still be free to use on a Bank Holiday. There is a large cinema, shops and restaurants down in this area. To get to this area follow the A33 into Southampton then follow signs to Ocean Village. This area is a 5-10 minute walk from the City Centre.

TRAIN
Southampton Central Station is located on the opposite side of the City Centre to the ground (as luck would have it). This does mean that you are well placed for a good session, but in for a long walk back after the game. The ground and centre are well sign-posted from the station.

PUBS/FOOD
Southampton is a large city with a lot of options for day-trippers. The City Centre has a large number of bars which should be ok on a match-day, although some may not allow visitors displaying their club colours.

Here are your options;

King Alfred- The pub is a short walk from the away end and is located on Northam Road. From the High Street head up the hill and turn right onto New Rd. Follow this until it becomes Northam St. This place has a good pre-match reputation and attracts a mix of home and away fans. They get very busy as kick-off approaches so do yourself a favour and stockpile some pints before about 1.45pm! The South East Poolies will be heading here for a few(!) pre-match beverages.

The Royal Oak- This is a decent enough pub located near to the derelict and drug-ridden, East Street Shopping Centre. We walked through the shopping centre last year and I believe that there was only 1 shop still trading, but the building was still in use! Still the pub isn’t bad and despite being quite basic has a good pre-match feel and a large number of home fans with frequent the place. The pub made fame a few years ago when a bloke ordered a pint then ‘expertly’ removed the urinal and stole it as a souvenir. He was flushed out and ordered to hand it back to the pub where it now sits as a tourist attraction on the bar. Now I have been into some toilet pubs, but this really does take the pee. I would expect Poolies to behave a little better than this (but not much).

The Standing Order- A pretty standard Wetherspoons pub located on the High St. It is very well named as last year we did stand and order for quite a long time. At least the barmaid kept us entertained with her dancing and singing, whilst also asking why we would want to drink in the pub. I think that perhaps she would have been better employed serving customers rather than annoying them, but perhaps I am wrong. There are quite a lot of home fans that use this pub so expect it to be quite busy.

ST MARYS STADIUM- Capacity 32,689
This one of the more impressive new stadiums that I have visited and has great facilities to boot. It is large and atmospheric, but please don’t annoy the stewards by standing during the game as they will make a beeline for you, with their mates in tow. Oh and they like to have the odds in their favour so you may find that they out-number us by around 3:1.

The ground is all-seated and a single-tier bowl that wraps right round the pitch. All stands are the same height all the way round and the steep rake means that views are very good, and even better if you stand of course!

Away fans are house in a corner of the Northam Stand, where up to 3,200 fans could be accommodated if we were chasing a play-off place, tickets were reduced to a fiver and the council paid to transport Poolies for free as a goodwill gesture. I feel that there may well be some empty spaces. The concourse offers good facilities including a bar and bookies. This means that some may choose to spend the whole game down there and therefore increase the number of empty seats. To the right of the away fans is a large open section of seats and then the more vocal element of the home support. These folk may of course stand for the full duration of the game and do so in safety.

SAFETY
The clubs fans do not have a reputation for trouble or bullying and there should be a good feeling around the ground/city. They are currently flying high so may have a good crowd supporting them. Some city centre pubs may attract some of the ‘younger more lively’ element, but these will tend to discourage away supporters anyway.

SOUTH EAST POOLIES
Before the game, the SEP will be heading the King Albert Pub. Feel free to pop and have a drink with us. Keep in touch via Stu on 07789 734790.

PRICE