QPR v Newcastle United – A season finale guide for away fans.
Posted on April 30th, 2010 | 31 Comments |
Newcastle United head down south to London on Sunday where they will be hoping to sign off the season in capital fashion by taking all three points at Loftus Road.
It has been brought to my attention that some fans are travelling without tickets and are just hoping to catch the party atmosphere, whilst others will be seated in the home areas. Don’t worry to much about that, as long as you are sensible you will be fine as the QPR fans are pretty decent and don’t really look for trouble in my experience, sit on your hands if you struggle to control yourself! Being the capital city there are plenty of things going on to keep people occupied, and Loftus Road is not a million miles away from some of the more exuberant areas of London, with Shepherd’s Bush in particular being only a stones throw away from the ground.
It works out at around 280 miles from Newcastle to Loftus Road, quite a distance in all fairness and I know many fans will be travelling down south by train which I will cover later. If you choose to drive down then you need to head down the A1(M) out of Newcastle. The shortest way is to merge onto the M1 at Leeds and follow that all the way down to the A406. Turn right at the big roundabout at the end of the motorway and follow the A406 over the Hangar Lane junction until you meet the A4020 junction. Turn left there and follow the Uxbridge Road from which the ground will be signposted.
There is plenty of street parking around the ground but you must be careful about where you park. Read any signs carefully as some roads are residential permit parking only where others can be parked in but you will have to pay a fee via a parking meter. Alternatively, if you follow the Uxbridge Road until it meets Wood Lane and head towards the BBC television centre, there is an industrial estate opposite there down Ariel Way that operates parking for £6.
When leaving, you may want to avoid the Uxbridge Road as that is liable to be closed for crowd safety reasons.
Those travelling by train can take advantage of an extra service from Newcastle down to London which should take you into Kings Cross. From there take the underground Hammersmith and City line to Shepherd’s Bush Market station (for drinks) or Wood Lane Station (for the ground).
For drinks you can really look no further than Shepherd’s Bush. If you get off the underground at Shepherd’s Bush Market there is a Walkabout and O’Neills a couple of minutes walk away, both are fine for away fans. There is also a Vue retail complex which houses a Wetherspoon’s pub upstairs. Avoid The Springbok pub, which was away friendly for many years but is now home fans only with doormen checking match tickets before entry.
For something to eat you really can’t beat the Uxbridge Road. Different foods from throughout the world appear in this area ranging all the way from Chinese to Jamaican cuisine to reflect the general diversity of the area. Or you could be boring and have a pie inside the ground.
To all those that are going, I hope you all have excellent an excellent day out and that the lads make it even better for you by grabbing all three points and sign off from the Championship in style.
Howay the lads!
Always had a soft spot for QPR, I remember the days of Bowles/Francis/Masson/Thomas and Givens etc in the mid 70’s. What a team.
And………We bought Sir Les from them.