We’re free to face Ipswich Town in the league on Saturday, now that both clubs have been knocked out of the FA Cup, ironically by the clubs who will make history the same weekend as the first 2 non-league sides to contest the 5th round in the same season. Kick-off is a 3 o’clock.

Portman Road is between the railway station and the town centre, and if you arrive by train it will be impossible to miss it, as it will be looming in front of you as you take the main exit from the station.

The most direct route from the north by car will be to take the A1156 exit from the A14 (signposted Ipswich West and North) then turning right after 2.5 miles onto the town's inner ring road. If you get there early enough the best bet for parking will be the large car park in Portman Road itself, which on matchdays is only accessible from the top end (Handford Road.)

From the south you will approach on the A12 and you should take the A1214 on the edge of Ipswich and keep straight on when this road crosses the ring road and becomes Handford Road. There have been reports of away fans cars being damaged around the town, so you shouldn't leave anything in your cars which identifies them as coming from Leeds, including garage stickers. Other options are to use the car parks on the railway station side of the ground.

Alas, the traditional main away supporters’ pub (the 'Drum & Monkey') has now closed down, so at the moment there is really only the Station Hotel near to the ground, which is located just outside the railway station and has been a traditional meeting place for away fans. Last time I was there it got packed out well before kick-off, and we were treated to the sight of all the bar staff wearing ‘I Love Leeds T-Shirts’. I’ve no idea if they really are all Suffolk-based Leeds fans or if they have similar shirts in stock for every other visiting club!

Other pubs in the town, such as the Victoria, the Hare & Hounds and the Swan, are very much home pubs and are best avoided by away fans. You could try the 'Punch and Judy' though they might turn you away if they realise you're a Leeds fan. This pub is in the 'cardinal park' complex in Grafton Street, which is about a 5 minute walk from the ground, and also has a car park and fast food outlets.

The best of these is 'Ask Pizza', which Serves very good pasta & pizza. If you're approaching the ground from the railway station you can find the 'cardinal park' complex by turning right at the first set of traffic lights after you've crossed the river. The best options in the town centre are ‘Lord Nelson’ in Fore Street , and the CAMRA listed ‘Dove Street Inn’ on St Helens Street. There are no takeaways immediately by the stadium, which is mainly surrounded by industrial premises and office blocks.

The club have increased the capacity to 30,300 in recent years, with the re-development of both ends. The Greene King (South) Stand and the North Stand are similar in appearance and size, with a larger upper tier which overhanging a smaller lower tier, and they dwarf the smaller older stands on each side of the ground.

Away fans are normally allocated approx 2.150 tickets in the Cobbold Stand, the one on Portman Road itself, mostly in the upper tier, but a few in the small family section in the lower tier. Our main allocation sold out as soon as the tickets went on sale to members, though the official website says that there are still a small number left in the away family section.

Whenever this fixture is played on a Saturday there are plenty of Leeds fans who can’t get tickets, yet there have been plenty of empty seats in the ‘home’ areas of the stadium in recent years due to the high ticket prices and Ipswich’s poor form. So quite a few Leeds fans have resorted to getting seats among the home fans, which in recent years has been unrestricted.

But this year the sales to the home stands is limited to fans on the database who have bought a ticket at any time in the last 10 years, but games against Leeds won’t count. It would be much less hassle for Ipswich to give Leeds a bigger allocation, and make more money as the home fans displaced could easily be accommodated elsewhere in Portman Road, but evidently that would be too much like common sense.

The Cobbold stand is now the oldest part of the ground, and the facilities within this stand are limited, so if you need some refreshments then it's best to get them before you enter the ground. The narrow corridors can get dangerously crowded at half-time, as this part of the ground was the main stand when it opened in 1971, so it was never designed to cope with away fans who would all stop for an extended refreshment break on the way down and so need to depart for the loos en masse to relieve themselves during the interval.

Also the seats within are rather crammed together, and can be a bit uncomfortable even for those with normal length legs. Or at least they would be cramped if we ever sat down! Ticket prices for away fans are: Adults: £37.50, Concessions: £25.00, Under 16's: £11.50.

After the game the police will block off the bottom of Portman Road to segregate the two sets of fans while the Leeds fans go back the coaches in the adjacent car park, which will delay anyone wanting to go back to the railway station.

I don't normally bother to repeat the record attendance information that clubs put on their official websites, but in this case I'll make an exception. The record attendance at Portman Road is 38,010 for an FA Cup 6th Round tie on March 8th 1975, against the greatest team of that era, who went on to reach that season's European Cup final. Happy days!

They might have a go at beating that record one day, and the club are hoping to re-develop the Cobbold Stand at some stage to boost the capacity of the ground to 40,000. However this is unlikely to happen unless Ipswich can establish themselves as a Premier League Club, so don’t hold your breath.

Some of the factual stuff came from www.footballgroundguide.com, but the moaning about our ticket allocation is entirely my own work.

Photo: Action Images

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