Match: v Burton Albion - Blue Square Premier Play Off Semi-Final First Leg

Date: Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Result: Burton 2 Cambridge United 2

THE JOURNEY

Departure Time: The advance party from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire left at midday while other members of the Travellers' Tales coterie set off at 3.30pm.

Arrival at Ground: It didn't matter what time you left, the journey was as horrendous as might be expected on the Friday before a bank holiday weekend.

The radio section was first delayed, unsurprisingly, by turgid traffic on the A14 caused by people needing to slow down so they could get a close look at a van in a ditch - well, I suppose it beats what serves as entertainment on television most nights. Unfortunately, that proved to be only the warm up routine with the country's oldest motorway, the M1, deciding to show the upstart A14 how a proper traffic jam was organised. An accident had completely closed the motorway and we sat for an age in stationary traffic as most of Leicestershire's emergency service vehicles whizzed past on the hard shoulder. Finally, after a diversion via Loughborough and a much-needed service station break, we arrived at the ground at about 4pm.

Those that left at 3.30pm found the A14 worse, but the M1 problems better signposted. There were warnings of delays of an hour and a half, which proved to be unfounded, so a slow trip on the A511 probably wasn't the best way to go. However, they managed to park in the industrial area opposite the ground just before 6pm where a steward was duty, instructing everyone where to park with a cheery yell of, "Oi - don't park there!"

AT THE GROUND

The Ground: The main entrance to the ground is via an impressive glass fronted reception area with sparkling marble floors that, on our visit, were in stark contrast to the state of the pitch. The penalty areas and a wide strip along one side of the pitch were bereft of grass and quickly became sodden when the sprinklers burst into life at about 4.30pm. Those sprinklers were working overtime as they gave the pitch a thorough drenching until well after 7pm.

That muddy strip was in the lee of the main stand, an area of black and yellow seats that that runs the length of that side of the pitch. The only area of seating in the ground, the rows are just about far enough apart to be relatively comfortable for spectators; but where benches are shoehorned in for the press, it becomes a constrictive straightjacket of a working environment, on the bijou side of cramped with access and egress only possible with a lot of cooperation and considerable agility - qualities for which members of the press are not always renowned.

An array of executive suites overlooks the pitch from the back of this stand while the remaining three sides of the ground consist of basic, but perfectly adequate breezeblock terrace covered by a low roof. In the shadow of the local tyre factor after which the ground is named, each of these terraces is accessed via a concourse at the back, each stands some distance from the other stands and each is covered by a low roof.

The open corners between some of the stands probably allow drying winds to whip into the stadium for most of the year and might explain why the ground staff felt the need to give the pitch so much water.

United Fans: There was loud singing from start to finish, even at 2-0 down when the Amber Nation sucked not one but two goals into the net in front of them. When they bounced, the whole stand joined in and it was just as well the match was at a fairly new ground built of modern materials rather than the decrepit old away end at Colchester's Layer Road. A mightily impressive amount of yellow pages were thrown in the air as the teams took to the pitch, so U's fans ended up standing on a carpet of yellow paper during the match and will, no doubt, be finding bits of it in odd places for days. Several pockets of away fans also made it into home areas.

View from Away End: The away end was absolutely packed, so the view wasn't the best. Our away end researcher decided to stand next to the aisle where he thought he might have a bit more room - however the aisle was soon filled too.

Home Fans: The home fans could only really be heard from the away end after their goals, although even then they were was drowned out by the music played over the tannoy when they scored. The operator seemed to have a twitchy trigger finger that constantly hovered over the play button as this music was even played when they had a couple of goals disallowed, much to the amusement of the visiting fans.

Police/Stewards: A Policeman with something that looked like a giant magnifying glass (without the glass) met the United fans as they came through the turnstiles. It was either some sort of scanning device, or he was taking part in a Sherlock Holmes look-a-like competition - a competition in which he would have stood a better chance if he hadn't made the elementary mistake of leaving his deerstalker hat behind. The Police had their hands full on one or two occasions in the seated area where there was no barrier between the two sets of fans.

The stewards were kept busy after the match when they stepped in to escort some denizens of an executive box back to their plush surrounds as they abused Lee McEvilly who was warming down.

Programme: £2.50 for 48 pages with plenty to read if you wanted to find out about Burton's history in the Conference or the story of their season and lots of pictures to look at for those who prefer that sort of thing.

Food/Drink: There were long queues before the game but a decent cup of tea, a choice of large or small cold drinks, and the range of hot food included faggots and chip butties.

State of Toilets: Decent size with good acoustics for singing United fans after the game, which I'm fairly sure wasn't part of the design specification.

AFTERWARDS

The Journey Home: While one of the Travellers' Tales group found the A14 still closed to make his journey home another nightmare, I found my return trip to be considerably less incident-packed than the drive to the match... apart from the bit where a car drove into the side of a Post Office lorry on the M1! All in all, an eventful day!

Mileage: 242.3 miles

Total Distance for Season: 6,760.7 miles

Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by David Gray, Paul Johnson, Ryan Johnson and Gordon McMillan

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