Our first trip to Portsmouth since 2012 has been put back to Sunday with a 12 noon kick-off, thanks to our very good friends at Sky Sports.

Fratton Park is in a residential part of Southsea, which is the nice seaside bit of Portsmouth to the east of the city centre. The best approach by road is to take the A2030 exit off the A27, following signs to Southsea, and this road continues for 3 miles to a roundabout very close to the ground.

But you should look for a parking space as soon as you see the 'Good Companion' pub, as by the time you get close to the ground the streets will all be sprinkled with no waiting cones. There is a large car park behind the Fratton End, but this costs £10. A cheaper option can be found close to the ground at Miltoncross School on Milton Road (postcode PO3 6RB) or street parking a little further away.

The nearest railway station is Fratton (funnily enough) which is 0.6 miles from the ground, and you’ll be able to see the floodlights as soon as you leave the station. After the match they make everybody wait in separate queues outside the station, depending on what train you need to catch, to prevent overcrowding on the platforms.

Recommended pubs close are the aforementioned Good Companion on Eastern Road, and the ‘Connaught Arms’, which is the other side of the ground on Guildford Road. And close to the away turnstiles is the ‘Shepherd's Crook’ on Goldsmith Avenue, which is described as a real football pub, with lots of mementoes on the walls.

The capacity of Fratton Park is now only 21,100 and it looks quite outdated, as the only stand built in the post-Taylor report era is the Fratton Stand, which was opened in October 1997. That said, I think that it still has a lot of character, unlike all the bland identikit new stadia that have sprung up around the country, and you tend to get a good atmosphere.

We’ll be in the opposite end to the newest stand, in the Milton End, where the club have simply plonked some seats onto what was once a big open terrace, so the legroom is a bit limited if we ever sat down. Some parts of the away section are now safe standing, but they now expect everyone in the bit that is still seated to remain seated, with the possibility of being ejected if you don’t.

At they finally got round to putting a roof over this end a decade or so ago, but this means that the view from some seats is a bit limited, thanks to the supporting pillars. The capacity of the whole Milton End is 3,121 and we used to get the whole end, but nowadays part of this stand is given to Portsmouth fans, with a narrow strip of three or four seats covered with netting to provide a bit of segregation.

And if you were thinking of invading the pitch, note that there is also a small moat in front of this stand. Our allocation for this game is 2,171. And regardless of whether you’ve got a standing or a seating ticket the cost is £28 for adults, with a total of 14 different categories of concessions varying all the way from £6 to £22. As always, this has already sold out, as indeed have all the tickets in the home parts of the ground.A

In it’s present condition, Fratton Park is clearly not up to modern standards, and it’s relatively small capacity contributed to their financial implosion of the late 2000s, as they were trying to compete with the rest of the Premiership with a limited income from ticket sales.

They were denied planning permission when they intended to build a new stadium on the edge of the city in 1994, and more recently there have been ambitious plans for the re-development of Fratton Park, and more recently there was talk of a new stadium nearby, on former railway land behind the Fratton end.

But this all came to nothing, presumably because the club’s dire financial situation. Though in the last few years they have managed to renovate the existing stands. There was an urgent need to remove fire cladding, but they have spent £10m to ensure better access for disabled fans, bigger concourses, new seats, and new electrical infrastructure.

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

Tim Whelan

Leeds United Polls