After all the excitement of the pre-season friendlies, the serious stuff begins in Southampton on Saturday, with a visit to the shiny new St. Mary’s Stadium. Kick-off is at 5.20, and it’s live on Sky Sports.

Southampton moved from the Dell in 2001, and appropriately enough they are back in the St. Mary's area of the town where they were formed as St. Mary's YMCA in 1885, hence the nickname 'the Saints'. The stadium is close to the river and about a mile to the east of the town centre, but Southampton's official website warns that "street parking near to the stadium will be extremely limited and residents-only restrictions will be rigorously enforced. Fans are strongly urged not to bring their cars to the stadium on a matchday". There is an away fans park-and-ride close to junction 8 on the M27, which you can find by following the special AA road signs.

 It's about a 25 minute walk from Southampton central railway station to the stadium, and special bus services also run from here, for which you will have free stubs on your match ticket. You can also catch a local train to St Denys stations which is no more than 15 minutes walk from the stadium. If you’re staying down for the weekend it’s possible to fly from Leeds/Bradford to Southampton with FLYBE, but you’d have to come back on Sunday, as there isn’t a late flight back on Saturdays.

The nearest pub to the stadium is 'The King Alfred' on the Northam Road (the road to the stadium from the city centre) by the pedestrian bridge. The downstairs bar is Home fans only and the upstairs bar (which has its own separate entrance) is for Away fans only. 'The station' is normally OK for away fans, and as the name suggests it is right next to the main railway station, although real ale diehards should head for the 'South Western', next to St. Deny's railway station. If you find any decent takeaways near the stadium, then do let me know.

The 'Friends Provident St. Mary's stadium' cost £32m to build and is over twice the size of the Dell, holding 32,251 fans, as they somehow ended up with one seat more than the planned 32,250, but far more importantly they can now serve 1,500 corporate meals on matchdays compared to a mere 180 at the Dell. The away allocation is 3,200 in the eastern corner of the Northam Stand, which offer pretty good views of the action and are reached through turnstiles K, L and M. The Leeds end has almost sold out, with the official site saying they are down to the last 100 tickets. In previous seasons  Southampton have only sold tickets for this fixture for the home areas of the stadium to fans already on their customer database, but it’s not clear from their official website whether that applies this year.

In the past we have been given dire threats of reduced allocations for this fixture if we carry on standing up at St. Mary's, but if you do manage to stay in your seat you should find that the legroom is quite good. So adult tickets cost from £22 for away fans, with OAPs and teenagers charged £17 and juniors £10. There is a good choice of food inside the stadium, with mini pizza's, hot dogs, & burgers available, but as at most grounds, everything costs more than you would pay for it elsewhere. There will be no alcohol on sale in our section of the stadium.

Saints have no current plans to extend the capacity of St Mary's, but it might happen at some time in the future, if they get back into the Premiership. The stadium was designed to make expansion possible but it would be hugely expensive, as it would cost somewhere between £15m and £17.5m to add an extra 5,000 seats. They would also have to get planning permission and improve access, as there is already congestion on the footbridge after games.

Photo: Action Images

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