Our first ever visit to Cheltenham Town has been switched to the Sunday, with a 2pm kick-off, as football in these parts plays second fiddle to the Christmas lights!

Waddon Road is about a mile to the north of the town centre. If you’re driving down from Leeds you need to leave the M5 at junction 10 and take the A4019 towards Cheltenham Then keep straight on through the traffic lights, until you come to large roundabout (there is a McDonalds on the left), and turn left. Continue up this road going over a double mini roundabout. Keep going for about 300 yards and then turn right into Swindon Lane. Go over the level crossing and straight over the next roundabout (signposted Prestbury) passing the race course on your left. Turn right into Albert Road (signposted Gloucestershire University) and at the bottom at the roundabout turn left into Prestbury Road, (the ground is signposted from here) and then further down Prestbury Road, turn right into Whaddon Road. The ground is on the left.  

There are around 100 car parking spaces at the ground for home fans, with a very small area allocated to away buses and cars. Nearby street parking is limited, but there is plenty of parking in the town centre, with the Regent Arcade of St James' probably being your best bet.  The Parklands Social Club does allow some parking at £4 per car (for directions see below). Otherwise there is a free 'Park & Ride' service to the ground operating from Cheltenham Racecourse, which is well signposted around the town. Journey time on the 'Park & Ride' service is obviously dependant on traffic, but is around ten minutes on average. 

Even though it’s a Sunday you can still get there on time by train, provided you get the 8.30 from Leeds. The railway Station is the other side from the town centre from the ground, a distance of over two miles. It’s about 35-40 minutes walk, so the best bet is to catch the G, F, or H bus in to the town centre and then the number 2 (Prestbury) bus from outside Cafe Uno.  

Drinking-wise, there is a club bar at the ground called the ‘Robins Nest’ which allows in small numbers of away fans for a small admittance fee. Otherwise, the best pubs for away fans are the 'Sudeley Arms' or 'The Conservatory' on Prestbury Road on the outskirts of town. There is even a decent fish & chip shop situated in-between the two. To find these pubs, turn right out of the club car park, and then turn left at the end of the road. Go straight over the roundabout, and The Sudeley Arms is on your left and the Conservatory is further up on your right. It is no more than a ten minute walk from the ground. Otherwise there is the Parklands Social Club, which you can find by going down Whaddon Road , passing the ground and the bowling club on your left. Take the first left hand turn and the entrance to the social club car park is a short distance down on the left. 

Away fans sit in the newest part of the ground, the Carlsberg Stand which was opened in December 2005 and has a capacity of 1,100 fans. As would be expected from a new stand, it has a good view of the playing area and facilities and it also has good leg room. All well and good, but this also means that unlike home supporters, we are denied the opportunity to use terracing, and we have to pay extra for seats that we don’t want. Larger clubs also get a block of seats in the In2Print Stand at one side of the pitch, which brings the total visitors’ allocation to a maximum 1,800 out of Whaddon Road's total capacity of 7,066.

The food on offer within the ground is not bad by football standards, you can choose from burgers (including for those with a bigger appetite a half pounder with cheese £3), hot dogs, pies and bacon baps (£2). But on the down side, some of the stewarding to be over the top, and some supporters were ejected from the ground for little reason, so they might be expecting us all to sit down throughout the game. Ticket prices for away fans are Adults £18, Concessions £12, Under 16's £7. But if you haven’t managed to get a ticket for the Leeds end then you won’t get in, because the Cheltenham website is saying that home tickets have now sold out. 

Some of the stuff in this guide comes from http://www.fanzone.co.uk/ and http://www.footballgroundguide.co.uk/.   

Photo: Action Images

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