Our first ever visit to Burton Albion is on Saturday, with a 3pm kick-off, and you’ll find the Pirelli Stadium about a mile to the north of the town centre.

If you’re driving down from Leeds you’ll be coming into town on the A38 from Derby. Come of at the Burton North exit and follow the A5121 towards Burton. Go straight across a roundabout and you will then pass a McDonalds on your right. Just before the next roundabout you will see the stadium on your right.

There is a large car park at the ground which costs £5, however this gets full pretty quickly. Alternatively car parking is available at the Ryknild Trading Estate (also costing £5), just off the roundabout right by the stadium. Otherwise there is street parking, but keep an eye out for residents’ only markings in the immediate vicinity of the stadium.

Burton Railway Station is around a mile and a half away from the Pirelli, but coming in from the north you have the frustration of passing close to the stadium and then having to walk back again. As you come out of the station turn left and go down the hill, turn right into Derby Road and from there it is a straight road up to the stadium, which should take about 25 minutes.

With Burton’s long and distinguished history as a major brewing town, you would expect there to be some file ales on offer, and it doesn’t disappoint. You can find out about it all at the National Brewery Centre museum in Guild Street, just off the A511 on the northern edge of the town centre.

The nearest pub to the stadium is probably the 'The Beech Inn' which is around a ten minute walk, up the A5121 Derby Road (going in the opposite direction to Burton town centre) on the left. Also close to the Pirelli are the Tower Brewery on Glensyl Way, and Great Northern pub, on Wetmore Road, which leads off the roundabout near to the stadium entrance, go up and over the railway bridge and the pub is on the left.

Near to the railway station are the Roebuck, Devonshire, the Last Heretic micropub and the Cooper's Tavern which are all recommended. And en route from the station to the ground, you will pass the Albert Ale House on your left. In the town centre you can find the Fuggle & Nugget Micropub in the High Street, which welcomes visiting supporters, and a little further along is the Burton Bridge Inn.

In 2005 the Club left their Eton Park ground, which had been their home since 1958 and moved to a new £6.5m stadium on the other side of the road. Like most new stadia it does look a bit identikit, but for the time being it can give fans the pleasure of standing on a terrace, at least for the first three years of their life as a club in the Championship.

The capacity is only 6,912, which is very small by the standards of English football’s second tier, but they were a non-league club as recently as 2009, and have made remarkable progress since. The usual away allocation is just over 1,400 standing on the Coors East Stand Terrace at one end of the ground, plus a block of 400 seats.

I make that 1,800, but Leeds have only got 1,600 tickets for this game. Work that one out. Our allocation was sold through the ‘attendance tracker’ scheme, and it’s no surprise these have now sold out, but if you didn’t get one, the game is being beamed back to Elland Road. Ticket prices are :-

Seating
£24 adults
£22 senior citizens aged 65+
£22 young adults 17 to 22 years (ID must be shown at the turnstiles)
£14 juniors under 17 years

Terracing
£20 adults
£18 senior citizens aged 65+
£15 young adults 17 to 22 years (ID must be shown at the turnstiles)
£7 juniors under 17 years

As you would expect from a modern stadium, the facilities and the view are good, with no supporting pillars to block the view. Alcohol is also served within the stadium, with away fans being 'treated' to their own little inside bar/refreshment area, where beer costs £4 a pint.

All in all it sounds like a good day out, though with plenty hanging on the result, we’ll be a bit too tense to enjoy it properly.

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

Photo: Action Images

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