Match: v Chester City - Coca-Cola League Two

Date: Saturday, September 18th, 2004

Result: Chester 0 Cambridge United 0

THE JOURNEY

Departure Time: A long, and frankly tiring, day started at 8.15am.

Arrival at Ground: For the second consecutive away match the journey was beset by road works and dogged by heavy traffic. While that might have just about been bearable for the short hop to Boston, this vastly scaled-up version was disproportionately more exhausting.

It's come to a pretty pass when the easiest bit of the journey is the section around Birmingham, but that's just what happened thanks to the new Midlands Expressway - the toll version of the M6. While that was relatively car free, the rest of the journey was a bit of a nightmare.

From the road works at Godmanchester, the closed section of the A14 - and resulting detour via Northampton - and the heavy stop/start traffic once we'd rejoined the main M6, everything seemed to conspire to make the drive as frustrating as possible.

Nevertheless, a little advanced planning over the departure time meant that there was no need to take any risks along the winding country roads between the M6 and Chester and I was able to park at the ground shortly after arrival time of 1pm.

That arrival time coincided with that of a couple of north west-based U's fans who had taken about 15 minutes to get to the ground from their home and had the good grace not to look smug when asking about our journey!

AT THE GROUND

The Ground: A cathedral of breezeblock, the ground has recently been renamed as part of a sponsorship deal. It will, however, always be the 'Deva Stadium' to many of the locals, as they confirmed in song during the match.

Functional in design, the ground is at the end of an industrial estate on the edge of the city. Although next door to a household waste disposal site, the smell that drifted indelicately across the ground every now and again owed more to the fields on the other side of the ground. This rural aspect did however give the supporters, sponsors and directors sitting along one side a tremendous view of the Welsh hills in the background, and indeed the border between England and Wales ran lengthways across the pitch.

The stands that faced each other across the border were mirror images of each other, with about ten rows of blue plastic seats in front of the windows of various rooms set into the back, while there was covered terracing behind either goal.

Although the crowd was easily accommodated, the centre of the 'main' stand was the most heavily populated and, as a result, the press area was considerably less than capacious. The seats behind the shelf-like bench were extremely tight, especially once I'd filled them with the assorted broadcasting paraphernalia needed for match commentary, and you had to be extremely dextrous to ensure you didn't drop your pen, as you would need to be a contortionist to retrieve it.

United Fans: It seemed to take them a while to get over the journey, as I didn't hear much from them until the second half.

View from Away End: With a steep terrace on which to stand, and no pillars in the way, the view form behind the goal was very good.

Home Fans: Egged on by a Cherokee drummer, Chester fans made plenty of noise throughout the match. Special mention too for the two home fans in front of the press area who gave me a chocolate biscuit at half time - it proved to be the best catering in the ground!

Police/Stewards: The stewards were on the polite side of offhand. There weren't many in the away end, and their main role seemed to be making sure no one trespassed onto a yellow gangway area. Of course, this meant some United fans found it rather fun to jump onto it and dance around when the steward wasn't looking, then jump back and look all innocent when he turned around.

Programme: With no glossy cover, the 40 pages you got for £2.50 felt like a rather thin effort & and so it was. Like the stadium itself, the programme was functional, rather then spectacular, although the 'View from the Terraces' article, which recounted a supporter's experiences with some 'meathead' stewards at Scunthorpe, will strike a chord with fans of all clubs.

Food/Drink: Hot dogs were indeed hot, although they kept falling apart, while the tea was equally warm, but came in a small cup. As for the £2.60 cheeseburgers... perhaps there were trainee staff on duty who didn't realise that you are meant to cook the burger rather than the cardboard packaging.

Fourth Official: Dad's Army fans will be interested to learn that a Mr C Dunn "should like to volunteer to be the Fourth Official" for the match. He would have been a Linesman but wouldn't have been able to raise the flag because, apparently, they "don't like it up them" (or maybe not)!

AFTERWARDS

The Journey Home: With less traffic around, there was time to take in some of the nuances of the journey that had been overlooked on the way up - such as the fact that giving way at roundabouts in Cheshire seems to be optional and the vexing question as to why there is a road sign directing you to the 'Secret Nuclear Bunker'.

Mileage: 405.2 miles

Total Distance for Season: 1,337.7 miles

Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by Paul Johnson, Ryan Johnson and Gordon McMillan