Match: v Northampton Town - Coca-Cola League Two

Date: Friday, February 4th, 2005

Result: Northampton 2 Cambridge United 2

THE JOURNEY

Departure Time: 4.14pm - yes, I know we were only going to Northampton, but you know what the A14 can be like on a Friday night!

Arrival at Ground: It didn't disappoint! The A14 just wouldn't be the same without an accident or two to slow things down a little, and the first duly arrived before we'd even reached St Ives.

Fortunately the road was still passable, and equally fortunately that proved to be the only real problem to circumvent so we were able to park at the ground at about 6.10pm. This arrival time was just about perfect for setting up broadcasting kit or paying a visit to one of the several fast food outlets that are within a few yards of the stadium; a view with which most travelling U's fans appeared to agree judging by the congregation that had gathered under the sign of the 'golden arches'.

AT THE GROUND

The Ground: A neat, tidy but utilitarian stadium, Sixfields is another of those grounds where there is enough of a gap between each of the stands to suggest that they aren't talking to each other.

Three of the stands are low, single-tiered affairs while the fourth is a little taller and two-tiered. The stadium is cut into the side of a hill and, from my vantage point in the press area at the back of the two-tiered stand, there was a great view of the bright lights of Northampton spread out in front of me - mind you, I'd have been more than a little surprised if they'd been the bright lights of San Francisco!

This press area was one of the least capacious in the League with the combination of flip down bench and seat making for an extremely cramped evening - a situation not helped by the hyperactive knitting style collection of wires and cables that connected various pieces of broadcast equipment to the outside world.

Unusually, all the seats were claret with none in a contrasting colour to spell out the club initials or nickname. Perhaps no one wanted to sit in a stand with 'Cobblers' written in the seats.

United Fans: The best support so far this season in terms of both numbers and volume, United fans made it feel like a home game - although given our record against Northampton at the Abbey compared with that away from home perhaps that's not the best analogy!

View from Away End: Sixfields is a pillar-less stadium, so the view was good from just about everywhere.

Home Fans: Heard them briefly after each goal but they were virtually silent for the rest of the time, despite the ground being almost full.

Police/Stewards: Sensibly policed and stewarded, they left fans to their own devices and allowed them to stand if they wished, although they eventually stopped anyone standing in the aisles.

Programme: £2.50 for 68 pages. A simple design throughout, the front cover, which featured a close up, black and photo of the face of a Northampton player set the tone. Inside, there was plenty to read, although admittedly not a vast amount for the visiting supporters, and a number of familiar former U's faces - and not just amongst the players.

State of Toilets: Compact and bijou is perhaps the kindest description.

AFTERWARDS

The Journey Home: While interviews and summaries were being completed in the ground, some of our travelling party were able to tune into the local BBC station where whinging Northampton were texting in to complain about how the U's had 'cheated' by feigning injury to waste time. And there we were thinking that United players had gone down under some hefty challenges as the home team became increasingly desperate to force a win towards the end of the match.

The journey home was straightforward enough - and so it should be at that time of night - with a couple of sets of road works failing to hold us up. These included a set in Northampton, which comprised of a couple of miles of cones, a 40mph speed limit and a grand total of zero workers. No wonder the signs said that work would be ongoing until October - at that rate, the completion date looked very optimistic.

Mileage: 137.0 miles

Total Distance for Season: 4,930.4 miles

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

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