Date: Saturday, October 2nd, 2004

Result: Kidderminster 1 Cambridge United 1

THE JOURNEY

Departure Time: 9.45am

Arrival at Ground: It's turning into a season of nightmare journeys, and the trip to Kidderminster was no exception. The road works on the A14 at Godmanchester kicked things off by clogging up that the start of the journey then, just as we seemed to be beginning to make good progress, an accident completely blocked the road near Kettering.

The traffic bulletin cut in on the radio just in time for us to hear enough to know that there was probably trouble ahead, but not where it was or how to avoid it. In the end, the police car forcing everyone to leave the road gave a bit of a clue, but with no diversions signposted it was every man for himself as we struggled through the clogged streets of Traffic Light City; a town known locally as 'Market Harborough'.

An hour later, we were back on track, but there was no time to stop for coffee before getting to the ground at about 1.15pm.

AT THE GROUND

The Ground: A compact and tidy ground, Aggborough is just about perfect for lower division football. Seated along two sides, the seats in only one of these stands ran all the way to the back, as the Main Stand was backed by the windows of executive areas. This mean that although the press area was quite low down, the view was fine and, more importantly, it was close enough to the executive areas for there to be waitress service with coffee brought out a moment or two into each half of the match.

It would be wonderful to think that Kidderminster has its own by-law which forces local companies to use names that perfectly describe themselves. If that were the case, I'm not sure too many people would be dashing off to Doolittle & Dalley, a firm of estate agents that advertised on the front of one of covered terrace areas that were behind either goal.

Perhaps the only downside to the ground were the 'Monsters of Rock' style speakers that were chained to girders in the Main Stand and propped up facing the crowd elsewhere. Unlike just about every other football ground, they were of a good enough quality not to distort when the volume was cranked up to 12, but at that level most people's ears were bleeding too much for anyone to notice.

United Fans: Good, loud support at times and wild celebrations for the goal that avoided the ignominy of being 92nd.

View from Away End: United fans were given terrace only on our first visit and seats only on our second. This time both were made available and the view from the seats particularly was excellent. With plenty of room to move around to find a good vantage point, you could also discover that the steps were just that little bit too small and seemed intent on tripping you up.

Home Fans: In the first half they were persuaded to counter the support of the travelling fans, and contributed to a cracking atmosphere for about ten minutes or so. After that it all went very quiet.

Stewards: Very friendly - at least I think they were. U's Secretary Andrew Pincher wasn't around to translate, so some fans unable to understand a word the stewards were saying.

Programme: Virtually every programme has been £2.50 this season, but very few have proved to be value for money. The Harrier, with its 68 pages, is the exception. A superbly put together publication, with an extensive section on the U's and loads of general football articles, editor Matt Wall has surely produced the programme of the year. Of course borrowing the title of a popular away travel article is always going to boost the quality!

Interestingly, Kidderminster seem to be using other clubs to help generate finances. For example, a Wolves Q&A Night at Aggborough was advertised in the programme while tours of Anfield were advertised in the club shop.

Food/Drink: Aggborough is famous for its food, and this year's feast included a massive shepherds pie - which must have used an entire shepherd - and meat and potato soup. A drop of two of the soup may have fallen into the tea urn though, as the contents of the large cup barely moved.

State of Toilets: Clean and functional, they only lacked somewhere to dry your hands.

AFTERWARDS

The Journey Home: The drive home was, I am delighted to say, far more straightforward. There was even a chance to break the journey at Corley Services where we saw the Histon team dashing off their coach to get to the games machines, and a couple of QPR players eating even less healthily than us.

Mileage: 272.2 miles

Total Distance for Season: 1,760.2 miles

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