This season’s visit to Derby County is at 7.45pm on Wednesday December 30th, and will be live on Sky Sports

Pride Park is two miles to the east of the city centre, and was opened at the start of the 1997/8 season. It was built as part of the City challenge scheme which revitalised a huge patch of ex-industrial wasteland, though before they could start building they had to get rid of a cocktail of chemicals buried underground, as well as some dodgy relics from its days as an army training ground.

By car you need to come off the M1 at junction 25 and head towards Derby along the A52 till you see signs for the stadium. But as parking around the stadium is limited, a better bet is the cattle market car park. This costs £3 and is about 15-20 minute walk from the ground and is just off the A52. To get there, go past the normal turning for the stadium and go up to the 'pentagon roundabout;' take the first turning off there and then take the next left - you then drive about 300 yards back on yourself, passing it on your left as you drive along the A52. You might need to avoid the nearby Wyvern Shopping centre, where non shoppers usually get clamped.

Pride Park is a short walk from the railway station (aka Derby Midland) and the ground is visible (and well signposted) from the station, though those too lazy to walk can catch the Arriva special buses B1, B2 and B3 straight to the ground. There is an exit from the footbridge above the platforms directly into the pride park area (on the opposite side of the station from the main exit) which is the shortest walking route.

But for an alternative route past the best of the pubs you can turn right outside the main exit and turn right again under the railway, then take the first right into Pride Park Way, from where you can see ground right in front of you. Having written all this, it's quite possible that the police will round us all up for an escort to the stadium, so you may not have the luxury of choosing how you get from the station to Pride Park! It will be possible to get back to Leeds by train after the game by catching the 22.24 and changing at Sheffield.

My favourite pub in Derby is the excellent real ale 'Brunswick' in Railway Terrace, which brews its own beers and usually has five of them on tap, along with up to a dozen guest beers. Other possibilities are the 'Alexander Hotel', which is just a bit further on from the Brunswick, and the 'Merry Widows', also on Railway Terrace. These pubs usually have bouncers on a matchday, but you might manage to get in as long as they think you look well-behaved.

If you're coming by car you can try the 'Navigation' on London Road (the A6), which you'll see on the right hand side just before you get to the away fans car park. Before some games they serve beer inside the ground, so if we're really lucky you might get the chance to pay over the odds for some of their fizzy lager. Apparently it has been known for stewards to refuse admission to fans who are too drunk (in their opinion) so you might need to limit the amount of liquid refreshment you take on board before you get to Pride Park!

Food-wise there is the Old Orleans restaurant on the Pride Park industrial estate, and a bit further afield there is a chippie and a decent café opposite the station, which is a must for connoisseurs of a good ‘All day breakfast’. At all costs avoid the vans just outside the ground, which charge exorbitant prices for chips and horrible plastic burgers. Apparently the pies and pasties inside the ground are quite good, though I've never run the risk buying one myself.

The capacity is 33,597 and the away section is now in a corner between the East and South stands, which means an allocation of 2,700. This is a reduction from the 4,000 tickets we used to get when the away fans had the whole of the stand behind the goal. Presumably this is the reason why the club have decided to use the loyalty system to allocate the tickets for this game.

Derby are the first club in English football to introduce ‘Demand Based Pricing ’ for home tickets, in other words using an airline-style system of charging more for seats the closer the match gets to selling out. The idea is to get fans to buy early, but it’s not exactly a good way of attracting casual supporters to come along, or anyone who may have perfectly good reasons for not being able to get a ticket a long time in advance . Do they have any plans to pinch any of Ryanair’s other ideas, such as charging fans £1 to use the toilet?

At least we can give thanks that this system doesn’t apply to the away section, so whenever we bought them our tickets cost £27 for adults, with over 60's and under 21's paying £19 and under 16's £15. The travel guide on the official site is telling us not to travel to Derby without a ticket, as away fans tickets won’t be on sale on the day.

Up until the last couple of seasons Pride Park was one of the stadia where we weren't allowed to leave freely after the match. Fans were allowed to walk towards the away car park or coaches, but a line of police blocked the way in the opposite direction and the fans heading back to the station had to wait for a police escort. But recently we have been allowed to walk in that direction straight away. What will happen this time? I suppose it depends what sort of friendly banter there is between the two sets of fans during the match.

The stadium has been designed so that an additional tier could be added to three sides of the stadium, which would increase the capacity of Pride Park to around 44,000. This won’t be carried out unless the Club become established in the Premier League, but given their form so far this season that could actually happen!

Some of this stuff came from www.footballgroundguide.com

Photo: Action Images

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