Our EFL cup trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers is tomorrow night, with a 7.45pm kick-off. It’s not live on TV, but it was put back a day because of a request from our good friends the West Midlands Police. Molineux is on the northern edge of the city centre, just outside the ring road.

To get there by car you need to take junction 10 off the M6, then keep following signs to Wolverhampton on the A454, until you reach the ring road. There you take the 4th. Exit from the roundabout (signposted Stafford A449) and the stadium is on the right-hand side after 0.6 Miles.

The best option for parking is to use the Civic Hall car park just off the ring road near Molineux, which costs £3 for the evening, provided you enter after 5pm. Another option is to head for the street parking on a small industrial estate near to Wolverhampton Railway Station, in the region of Kennedy Road (off Culwell Street) which is about a ten minute walk to Molineux. You’ll find it by taking the A4124 off the ring road and then the first left.

The ground is about 15 minutes walk from the railway station. Leave the station and turn immediately right, following the ring road as it continues around to the left. Eventually you will see Molineux on the right. You can just about get a train back to Leeds after the game by waiting until 23.36 and changing in Crewe and Manchester, eventually reaching Leeds at 04.80. But I wouldn’t blame you if you found that option less than appealing.

It is generally recommended that you don't wear Leeds colours anywhere in the city centre. Most of the pubs near the stadium are best avoided, as they tend to be full of hostile Wolves fans and the publicans don't need the extra trade or possible hassle from away fans, while some establishments are members only. And I don't know of any decent takeaways near the stadium, but there are loads of food vans outside Molineux on matchdays. Inside the food is mainly pies and pasties, and there will be no alcohol available for Leeds fans.

The designated away pub is the ‘Bluebrick’ beside the Premier Inn hotel, which is close to the railway station. From the inner ring road you need to go down Wednesfield Road (the A4124) away from the city centre. Go under the railway bridge and you will see the Premier Inn on your right. On foot you can walk through the gap in the wall, but if you’re driving you’ll have to continue to the next junction and double back on yourself. The Bluebrick is just behind the hotel.

During the 1990s Molineux enjoyed a £20M makeover, thanks to the financial backing of Sir Jack Hayward. In 1992 the pitch was moved to the east so the John Ireland stand (now the Steve Bull stand) no longer stood in splendid isolation, and the Stan Cullis stand replaced the remains of the former North Bank terrace.

At the start of the 1993/4 season the Billy Wright stand opened, and the scheme was completed when the Jack Hayward stand replaced the South Bank in the December of the same season. More recently, they have added an extra tier to the Stan Cullis stand, which now towers over the rest of the stadium.

The total capacity is now 31,700, and our allocation is 3,014 seats in something called the 'Steve Bull lower', which is a couple of hundred more than we get for league games at this venue these days. As it’s a cup tie the prices for this section are £18 for adults and £6-£12 for different categories of concessions, and inevitably they were snapped up as soon as they went on sale.

There are quite a few home tickets are still on sale on the Wolves site, but a message pops up saying “Online ticket sales for this fixture are restricted to supporters who have previously registered with us.” I was only looking in the interests of research, honest!

In the past away fans found in home stands have been marched to the police station and photographed for their records, despite the fact they had only broken ground regulations by being there and hadn’t committed any criminal offence.

The Club have planning permission to replace the Steve Bull stand, which is now the oldest part of the stadium even though it was completed relatively recently in 1979 (at a huge cost which nearly dragged Wolves into bankruptcy) as well as building a new large single tiered stand to replace the even newer Sir Jack Hayward stand.

They would also fill in the corners of the stadium, and in total this scheme would increase the capacity of Molineux to around 50,000. Hopefully this will also mean that we also get a more generous allocation of seats when visit Wolverhampton at some point in the future, but it might all depend on whether they manage to stay in the Premier League.

Some of this stuff came from www.footballgroundguide.com .

Reuters

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