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Two
Visits: Saturday January 18th 2003 & Saturday January 10th 2004
I've had two visits to the Brittania stadium, both
with Derby, A match that I
always look forward to, although obviously its
not quite the same as playing Forest or Leicester
match. However, it is seen as somewhat of a
'Midlands Derby', and
with me having family in the area,
who are all Stoke fans makes it a little
extra special for me. When I'm up
in the Potteries for some family party, it's vital
for me that Derby have won the last meeting against
Stoke, or else I don't hear the end of it all
night!
I've made my way to the ground in two different ways, the first time I took
the train. We arrived at Stoke not knowing exactly
how we were going to get too the ground, as I had
read on this site it was too far too walk, but the Police
had laid on special buses for the Derby fans which
picked us up right outside the door of the station.
Apparently these are not normally laid on, but
because of the nature of the match and to
possibly stop any trouble,
it was a good idea by the Police on this occassion to do
so. The second time I took one of the Derby
County supporters coaches, which was just a simple
journey up the road to the stadium, so no trouble
getting there on that occassion either.
There are fences up around the entrance to the away
end and both times the Stoke fans were not being allowed to walk through as a
short cut, so it was fine before the game. On my
second visit Stoke had come up with the wonderful idea of
selling lager in a plastic bottle, as it wasn't a warm day I had my big
Parker coat on and managed to hide a few bottles in
my coat before the game (not all for me I must add)
and smuggled them into
the stands I also must add there's an art to drinking them without being
seen by a steward, although one guy was not so lucky
and had his beer confiscated in the stand by a steward. Its surprising really
that he didn't get thrown out, but generally the stewards were good, being
friendly and generally going unnoticed.
For a club the size of Stoke the Brittania stadium is a nice ground, though
it would look a lot better with the corners filled
in. Strangely your seats are unreserved and you sit
where ever you can get, so for a good seat it is better to get there early. |
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