The County Ground is about a mile to the east of Swindon town centre. The easiest way to get to Swindon from the north is to come off the M5 and cut across on the A417 and A419. This will bring you into Swindon on Cricklade Road, which you can follow down the hill, till it becomes Cirencester Way. At the Transfer Bridges roundabouts, turn left at the first and then straight over the second. The County Ground is on the left after the mini-roundabout.
Near one corner of the ground is the amazing 'Magic Roundabout', which is a large island surrounded by five mini roundabouts, which effectively means that traffic can go round the main roundabout in either direction. Somebody once explained to me what the logic of it all was, and it had been designed that way due to the relative traffic flows on each of the roads, but I still can’t make sense of it all.
There is some street parking nearby, but otherwise you can park at the cricket club. Take County Road off the Magic Roundabout, go past the County Hotel on your right, you will see a small sign further down on your right for football parking, just before the mini roundabout.
The ground is about 15 minutes walk from the railway station. If you’re travelling this way, go straight ahead outside the station and keep going up the road between the two pubs (the ‘Great Western’ and the ‘Queen's Tap’). At the end turn left into Manchester Road and follow this road until it meets county road, and you’ll see the County Ground on the right, on the other side of the main road.
The nearest pub is the ‘County Hotel’ right outside the ground, but this doesn’t usually admit away supporters, though it’s usually easier to get into the Cricket Club behind the Arkells Stand. (See parking directions above). Otherwise, a good option is 'The Merlin' on Drove Road, near to the magic roundabout. There are of course numerous pubs in the town centre, but we’ll have to see what sort of door policy they’ll have for our visit!
The County Ground has a total capacity of 15,728 and consists of two old stands behind the goals, where seats have been bolted onto the former terracing, and two newer stands built down the sides. The usual away allocation is 1,200, in one corner of the covered Arkells Stand down the side of the pitch. This has a supporting pillar that which blocks the view of the goal from some of the seats, but from elsewhere the view is fine. Refreshments are served from a small kiosk at the back of stand, which serves a good range of pies.
Teams with a larger away following (presumably including us) also get the open Stratton Bank End behind the goal, which holds a further 2,100 fans. Here there is hardly ant leg-room, but no doubt we’ll be standing all the way through the game anyway. Ticket prices in the Arkells Stand are Adults £18, Concessions £13, Juniors £9, while if you’re in the Stratton Bank you’ll pay £15 for adults, £12 for Concessions and £7 for Juniors. Some fans of smaller clubs complain that they are being ripped off by Swindon, as they don’t get the option to use the cheaper seats in the Stratton Bank and have to pay more than the Swindon fans behind the goal at the other end.
At the time of writing (Wednesday) Swindon have now sold around 10,500 tickets in advance for the match, so we could be heading for yet another sell-out at a Leeds away game. To cash in on our popularity they gave priority to those fans who also bought tickets for their previous home game against Northampton, and just to make sure we don’t get tickets for the home end, they are only selling to supporters who are already on the database or who have a Swindon postcode.
As far as I know Swindon have no current plans for improving the ground, so if we have to play them again we’ll just have to hope it stays dry.
Some of this stuff came from www.fanzone.co.uk and www.footballgroundguide.co.uk