Swansea v Newcastle – A Newcastle United away fan’s guide.
Posted on February 11th, 2010 | 25 Comments |
The Liberty Stadium is a new ground, opened within the last 5 years. It’s a ground I’ve yet to visit, although I do know where it is, so some parts of this won’t be from personal experience but will be from people I know that have been there for the football.
The journey.
Before I start I must warn that potentially there could be a lot of problems travelling down, particularly around Cardiff as there is a Rugby match on at the Millenium Stadium that kicks off at 2pm. Add to that several strecthes of notoriously bad roadworks and some bad weather forecasts and those who do travel could be in for some long waits. I’d advise setting out earlier to give you some breathing space time-wise!
It’ll be another early start for the 350 mile journey to Swansea, setting out down the A1 joining the M1 at Leeds. Continue following the M1 south where you should leave at J23a (A42/M42). Follow the M42 all the way to the end, watching out for traffic near Birmingham airport. When you reach the end of the motorway, merge onto the M5 south. Leave the M5 at J8 (M50) and follow that all the way to the end where you should flow onto the A40. Keep going on the A40 past Monmouth, you should start picking up signs for either Cardiff or the M4 around now. If you follow these signs it should take you on to the A449 which will lead you to the M4 where you should then head towards Cardiff. As soon as you get on the M4 you’ll be straight into some major roadworks, that combined with Rugby traffic means it could take a while to get through this part. Once you’re clear of that, keep following the M4 and leave at J44 (A48). Follow the A48 for a bit before turning left onto the A4067, the ground is on the left.
Parking.
Away fans are encouraged to use the Park & Ride, for this you’ll need to leave the M4 at J45 and follow the A4067 where the Park & Ride is signposted. It costs £5 per car to use and there are designated away buses that will take you to the ground and also wait outside to take you back at the end of the match. Don’t park in the retail park near to the ground, apparently your liable to get a ticket, and it’s the same story with residential streets near the ground.
Beer, scran etc…
All pubs around the ground itself have banned away fans apart from a Harvester and a Frankie & Benny’s right outside the ground, so it’s a choice of going inside the ground or heading into the city centre if your lucky enough to have the time! People I have spoken to say that they have not had a problem getting served inside the ground.
For food, obviously your going to get the cardboard burgers and plastic pasties that you can get at any ground. On top of that there is a KFC and a Pizza Hut on the retail park near the ground.
I hope you all have a great day out and that the team give us all some reasons to be cheerful (1,2,3!). 3 points would cheer me up nicely!
Howay the lads!
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Bloo*y H3ll a new thread, sorry but I had to get this repeat from previous one in.
I see that an EDM (Early Day motion) has been tabled by a Manchester MP for the regulation of football clubs. I don’t know if this is old news, but EDM 807 is a proposal to regulate clubs and calls for fans to have some control over the running of the club.
Potential for NUST to get there foot in the door? Not sure that would be a good thing. Not even sure that it would work if we were able to have a say in the running of the club. There are so many conflicting aspects just on the blog, can you imagine Batty and Stardust debating with Ashley and Chris over who to buy and sell!!