Travellers' Tales

Match: v Lincoln United - FA Cup sponsored by E.ON Fourth Round Qualifying

Date: Sunday, October 25^th 2009

Result: Lincoln United 1 Cambridge United 3

The Journey

Departure Time: 10.20am

Arrival at Ground: The A1 one can be quite spectacular at this time of year with the trees that line the road for long stretches almost as colourful as New England's arboreal autumnal firework display.And there was little in the way of traffic to distract from the show as we made good progress all the way.

We passed a familiar face beside a roundabout between the A1 and A46, where Paul Carden was patiently waiting for the team bus to collect him … at least I think he was expecting the team bus to meet him.He did stick out an optimistic thumb as we drove by, but the car was already packed to the gunwales with people, broadcast kit and cameras.

Lincoln United's Ashby Avenue ground is some distance from the City centre, along the eponymous road - a road littered with fallen leaves and speed bumps.We reached the ground and parked in the smallish car park at about 12.30pm

At the Ground

The Ground: Although it's only a short walk from the car park, the route takes you along a path between a cricket pitch and a large social club before reaching the turnstiles to the tree-lined ground.Unusually for a match at this venue, a temporary barrier had been set up outside this entrance to funnel home and away supporters into separate turnstiles.

These turnstiles all provide access to one end of the ground, where a redbrick building plays host to the dressing rooms and the boardroom.This building is precariously close to the goal, so is protected by a mesh fence.There's still plenty of room at this end of the ground for a similarly constructed building in a corner at right angles to the dressing rooms.This building is helpfully labelled 'Club Canteen' and peering through the windows, you could see a table laden with sandwiches to underline the point.

Set back a little in the space between the canteen and the boardroom a small, green portacabin was helpfully labelled 'club shop'.Less helpfully, it wasn't opened until half time.

To the left of this end of the ground, a small stand of covered seats runs from about level with the edge of the centre circle in one half of the pitch to a point level with roughly midway in the other half.A paved standing area runs either side of this stand while a covered area of terrace is behind the goal at the end of the ground opposite to that which plays host to the assemblage of buildings.United fans were allocated all of this side of the ground and about a third of either end.

Continuing around the ground, the final side started with another small covered area of seating.Here, instead of the plastic seats that populated the half a dozen or so rows opposite, long wooden benches have been bolted onto concrete, with yellow lines marking out individual spaces.

Before completing the tour of the ground with another narrow walkway/standing area that runs back to the canteen in the corner, the whitewashed dugouts mark the midway point of this side of the ground.Unusually, the technical areas in front of each dug out are covered in a layer of bark chippings, rather like you find around the swings, slides and roundabouts of a children's playground.Actually, there was a real play area behind the opposite terrace.I'm not sure if it was being used by children during the match.If it were, they would have struggled to use the slide as a chap was standing on top of it to watch the game over the wall.

But the dugouts aren't the only whitewashed constructions here.Between them is a press box, the likes of which I have never previously encountered.Access is via a metal staircase at the back, which leads into a raised room, perhaps ten or twelve feet long but only a couple of feet wide.Rather like a Vietnamese War prison cell, there was not quite enough room to stand up and not quite enough room in which to sit comfortably on the red velveteen-covered bench that had been thoughtfully provided.The view was a bit of a test as well as its position so close to the touchline meant that you couldn't see the corners on this side of the pitch.Mind you, I can think of press boxes that have been less comfortable, I can think of one or two that have had a worse view but I can't think of many that have been more friendly.

United Fans: U's fans, who packed out the clubhouse before the match, had one of their quieter afternoons … and not just because the drum seemed to have been persona non grata (or should that be percussia non grata?) with the locals.

View from Away End: Most people tried to get to the barrier at the front from which the view wasn't too bad.The view from the seats was better as no one was allowed to stand in front of it.

Home Fans: Even quieter than the U's fans, predictably the home support was swelled by a number of 'day trippers', Lincoln City fans and ground hoppers, with some of the latter apparently disappointed if they couldn't get a team sheet or touch the ball!

Police/Stewards: Stewards, most of whom had been brought in from Lincoln City, were extremely helpful and chatty.There were also a few police in evidence, and they didn't have much to do until they needed to have a quiet word with a small number of Lincoln City fans that had apparently made some unpleasant remarks in Brian Saah's direction.

Programme: £2 for 44 pages.A simply, but nicely designed cover, but little inside other than pen pictures, adverts and fixtures.

Food/Drink: There was a long queue at the catering outlet in a corner of the ground and the wait wasn't always worthwhile.While the tea (80p) was perfectly acceptable, some described the burgers as 'rancid'.Food from the club canteen was tastier, cheaper and only available to supporters in the home sections of the ground.

State of Toilets: Other than the leaves that had blown in, the facilities were clean and tidy before the match.With the doors left open to the small block beneath the seated area, there was little clue as to whether they were intended for male or female fans.

Afterwards

The Journey Home: A ten-minute half time break made for an early getaway.After listening to a skein of geese coming in to land on a lake in a copse behind the ground, the mood was shattered when we passed a couple of over-catered locals spilling out of the social club in the later stages of negotiations for a post-match punch up.The negotiations seemed to have broken down though as the potential combatants seemed to be remarkably unscathed when we drove past them on the way out of the car park.

Mileage: 217.3 miles

Total Distance for Season: 1,821.5 miles

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