Even though we’ve no history of trouble with Peterborough United, it’s still a 12 noon kick-off on Saturday. But at least we can look forward to the only covered away terracing in this division.
The ground is just to the south of the city centre, on the A15 London Road. The ground is fairly well signposted around the town centre, and the best bet if you’re driving is to come into the town centre, following signs for Whittlesey (A605) which will lead you onto London Road. There is currently no public parking at the ground, but there is a council pay & display car park on the other side of London Road, and also at ‘Railworld’, which is a railway museum a short distance away in the direction of the city centre.
The railway station is around a mile away from the ground. Turn right out of station and follow the main road, passing an Asda store on your right. At the traffic lights near to Woolworths, turn right. Go over the bridge and you can see the floodlights of London Road, over on your left. It takes about 20 minutes to walk from the station to the ground, and no doubt there’ll be plenty of police on duty to show us the way.
On our last visit the Cherry Tree pub on Oundle Rd was open for Leeds fans from 10am, but all the other boozers were only admitting regulars before and after the game. The Cherry Tree is a small but friendly pub and it costs £2 to park in their car park, but you get £2 off a beer if you present the parking ticket at the bar. I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t give a comprehensive guide to the other establishments in the city, but if they’re not going to admit Leeds fans there doesn’t seem to be a lot of point. Food-wise, there is quite a good range of pies inside the ground, the usual sort of football ground stuff, and there are also several takeaways on London Road.
The total capacity of London Road is now 15,314, and the only change they’ve made since the Taylor report has been to replace an open terrace on one side of the ground with the Norwich & Peterborough South Stand. This was opened in 1996 and it’s a two–tiered stand with 5,000 seats. Otherwise the ground will be the same, which is excellent news for those of us who love terracing, and who are fed up with having to pay extra for seats we don’t want. The main stand on the north side was built in 1956/7, and the terraces behind the two goals were covered at the same time.
The roof should make for a decent atmosphere, but there are a number of pillars in the way, which tend to block the view. As kick-off approaches the area behind the stand and the steps leading onto the terrace itself gets a bit overcrowded, so unless you’re there early you might find it easier find some space at the side of the terrace rather than trying to get behind the goal. You’ll also find the toilets a little bit outdated, though not quite down to the standard of the bogs behind the old stand at Barnsley.
Because the main away section is a terrace taking up the whole of one end, Peterborough can offer a fairly generous (by today’s standards) visitors’ allocation of over 4,000. We also have a block of 800 seats in the corner of the north stand, yet we have still managed to sell out our complete allocation, and the police have warned that any Leeds fans found in the home areas of the ground will be thrown out. But in any case, if you haven’t got a ticket by now then you won’t be able to get in, as the home areas of London Road have also completely sold out. We’re not famous any more! Adult tickets cost £20 on the terrace and £20 in the seats, while for Over 60's and Students it’s £15, and Under 16's £12.
A couple of years ago Peterborough were thinking of moving to a new stadium, but that idea now seems to have been shelved. But they will have to go all-seater once they’ve spent three seasons in the top two divisions, which takes them up to the summer of 2013 if they don’t go straight back down this time. They’re going to make a start on this pretty soon by demolishing the current away end to replace it with a new 2,500 seater stand, so we won’t have a terrace to use at London Road in the future. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts.
Some of the info in this piece came from www.footballgroundguide.co.uk.