QPR travel to Ipswich Town on Saturday and if you’re heading to Portman Road with them here’s the usual collection of hints and tips.

Ground Name: Portman Road

Capacity: 30 300 (all seated)

Address: Portman Road, Ipswich, IP1 2DA

Main Telephone No: 01473 400 500

Fax No: 01473 400 040

Ticket Office: 0870 111 0555

By Car:

Stay on the A12 until the Copdock Interchange (the junction with the A14, where the big Tesco and Toys R Us) where it turns into the A1214 (London Rd) going through town. At the Interchange, take the second exit (straight across), over the A12. Follow this road into Ipswich. When you get to the traffic lights at the crossroad with Yarmouth Rd (by Sainsbury's petrol station), turn right and follow the road round. If you want to park by the ground (on the away fan side), get into the left hand lane when you join the one way system by the big ugly council building (the dented steel monstrosity), and the first set of traffic lights onto the Princes St. Depending on your timing you should be able to turn onto Portman Rd and go into the car park. If not, continue to the roundabout with Fransican Way, and take the first exit. Take the first exit at the next roundabout, and the first left will be the other end of Portman Rd.

Map:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=IP1+2DA&ll=52.052596,1.145325&spn=0.008023,0.02 src='/images/news/8946.jpg'>

Click map to visit Google and zoom in/out or tour round.

Parking:

There are several large pay and display car parks around Portman Road however Ipswich loves its park and rides. In fairness the service is cheap, reliable and on a match day when the middle of the town clogs up from lunch time onwards very handy indeed. If you're coming from London the nearest park and ride is at the Copdock Interchange (regular road commuters will have heard that on the travel news few times) between the A14 and A12. The park and ride is located in amongst Tesco and Toys R Us and all of that bollocks. £3 or thereabouts per car and a regular bus. Previously I’ve parked on Dickens Road on the way into Ipswich off London Road just before I’d gone under the railway lines into the town centre. It was a ten minute walk from there through the park and I was straight out afterwards with no problems.

More detailed parking advice from the locals on our message board is available http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/forum/98863/ipswich/#6>h

By Train

An easy and relatively cheap journey of around an hour and ten minutes from London Liverpool Street — although give the behaviour of some of QPR’s finest knuckle draggers at Manningtree Station on a previous trip expect extra police presence there and back and the associated restrictions that brings.

If you’re still to book then the off peak day return price (the walk up fare) is £38.50 but you can knock a bit off that by buying two singles for £15 each — the 10.00, 10.30, 11.00, 11.30 and 12.00 still have them going up and the 17.09 (which you can make, even if you stay until full time), 18.43, 19.09 and 19.43 have coming back.

You really can’t miss the ground from the station — it’s a proper old town centre stadium and it’s slap bang in front of you as you come out the main entrance. Five minutes walk tops.

Pubs:

QPR fans who’ve been here before will know that the away fans tend to head towards/get put in The Station directly opposite the station — a grimy sort of a place that usually has the heating off and passes the winter vomit virus around by reusing plastic glasses after a quick spray with the pump tap. This is now apparently called The Riverside Hotel, and may well have been done up, but is still the main away fans’ haunt.

The Drum and Monkey nearer the ground is home fans only and when I tell you that the Riley’s Snooker Hall opposite is actually one of the better options if you’re looking for the lunchtime TV game you’ll see how slim the pickings can be in this part of the world.

Other pub tips available http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/forum/98934/those-going-

Coach

No LSA coach for this one as so many members go to the game by train. The club coach has a limited number of seats left, leaving Loftus Road at 10.30. This will not stop at the Target Roundabout as it usually does — because Ipswich is in the opposite direction. The price is a hefty £32 for adults, £21 for seniors and young adults and £19 for under 16s. Season ticket holders get the usual £2 discount.

Tickets

This fixture is now all ticket and no tickets will be available for QPR fans on the day. Rangers now only have 348 seats remaining, and they’re all in the lower tier which is the family stand — this means you must have at least one child with every two adults to gain entry. The tickets in that section are priced £27.50 adults, £19 seniors, under 20s, and students with an NUS card and £8.50 under 16s.
All the tickets in the upper tier have now sold out.

Links >>> Detailed fans' guide to Portman Road >>> Official website

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