FOREST AWAY: Swansea, League Cup R3, Wednesday 17th September – Fan Guide

I can’t have been the only one who shuddered when this tie popped out in the draw. One of the places that is always high on my list of teams to avoid, and now it’s happened. Sandwiched in between trips to Arsenal and Burnley and only a week before the adventure to Betis.

I think it’s safe to say those two Wednesday fixtures will be something of a contrast! I also wonder if Forest have ever had three consecutive games in three different countries as we now face? I’ll refer this to myself under my Forest Preservation Society (@ForestPresSoc) guise and try and answer my own question in the coming days!

I won’t say I’m looking forward to this one, but it does serve as a reminder of how things used to be. When away games could become something of a chore; trekking across the country in the middle of the week at least once a month to somewhere, with the very best of respect, you ordinarily wouldn’t likely have a reason to visit.

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It was good to hear that everyone who entered the ballot for Seville managed to obtain a ticket. It’s a stressful thing getting tickets and it’s probably never been a more hectic schedule. On Monday of this week I acquired three separate tickets – my Newcastle away ticket, plus my son’s Chelsea home ticket and his Midtjylland ticket on his home membership. And so it’s also a very expensive period!

Although our access to the Europa was, ahem, slightly fortuitous it was something of a relief to avoid some of the miniscule away allocations in the Conference League. As Palace I gather are finding out with the 300 tickets they have received for Shelbourne, the draw Forest have been handed has at least so far prevented us having this sort of headache. Sturm Graz and Utrecht will not be huge allocations in comparison to Betis but hopefully they will be of a decent size.

I’m just going to repeat here again the advice to send your passport numbers to the ticket office if you did manage to acquire a Betis ticket. I believe Forest have to meet the requirements of the hosts for all tickets to be logged with a unique passport number. You can send to [email protected], and I received a swift reply confirming my number had been logged.

 

Away Day No.3 – Swansea, Wednesday 17^th September, 8pm KO

Last Visit: A very impressive 4-1 win in December 2021. I’ll be honest, this game had totally slipped my mind. Maybe because we had plenty of other fine away victories that season. I’ve just been and found the footage and it looked very wet! Zinckernagel, Grabban, Johnson and Cafu were the scorers.

Famous Visit: We have had a few really good games at what I knew as the Liberty Stadium until I just discovered it’s now called the Swansea.com Stadium. We’ve won a few there too, but I think the one that stands out is that play-off second leg in 2011. I’ll always remember that ball rolling across the line begging for someone to boot it in as we searched for a late, late equaliser.

Useful Information:

Forest supporters will be housed behind the goal. I believe as of the end of last week we had sold around 1,300 tickets.

Sunglasses / hat requirement for the away end – 1/10.

TRAVEL

RAIL: Nobody is going to be doing this as a day return on the train, it simply isn’t possible to get home. But Swansea station is 1.4 miles from the stadium and around a half an hour walk.

ROAD: I’d say the best way to reach Swansea is to depart the M5 onto the M50 (just north of Tewkesbury / Gloucester) and head via Ross-on-Wye. The road changes into the A40 after a while, and then the A465 at Abergavenny. Eventually, you will join the M4 just before Swansea.

The road in towards the stadium is pretty direct although if arriving late afternoon / early evening it will be pretty busy you can expect.

I’d recommend you follow my lead and take a look at the Highways Agency Overnight Road Closures section of their website before setting off. It can help avoid any closures and avoid long diversions that might be in place. If I spot anything that might cause us a problem, I will try to post up social media on Wednesday.

As for parking, I’ve previously parked somewhere on the way in but I can’t recall really what that was. Free street parking was fairly scare around the ground I recall but there were little pockets available if you were early enough. Of course, things may have changed since our last visit and typically free parking gets swallowed up but keep your eyes peeled and you will hopefully have some joy. To try and be more specific, there are a couple of residential areas on on the way in which might offer some spots.

Swansea did previously offer a park & ride scheme from just off the M4 which was pretty handy. I can’t see any reference to this so it may have ceased. It might also not be a good option for an evening game as the buses would typically sit for a while after the game before moving. There are, however, some official parking spots at the ground which are available on a first come first served basis. The nearby Morrisons also has some spots which must be booked in advance, but a quick look suggests these may already be sold out. I only checked one parking app though.

When we last visited in 2021, we chanced upon parking at the Landore Social Club. There is a massive car park out front and the consensus seemed to be that people would park there and give the club their custom in order to leave their car there. In an effort to be helpful to my fellow Forest fans I put this little tip on social media and the place was swimming with Reds before too long. I subsequently heard a few locals complaining that their regular pre-match haunt had been swamped by Forest fans! It was a slow escape after the game but it is handily placed close to the ground. Again, this might no longer be an option but it might be an option if you are struggling. Just don’t turn up with the aim of only using it for parking.

 

PUBS

Assuming they will allow away fans in (they did in 2021!) then I’d recommend the Landore Social Club. It’s a big place with a few different rooms and bars. They also serve food.

We were made welcome last time but, having been there for doors opening, some of the regulars did loudly make it known we were sitting in their usual seats!!

The more conventional away pub was the Harvester right next to the ground.

I’ve only been in the town centre once and that was a long time ago, but I recall there being some decent spots. A quick search on social media suggests a place called the Grand Hotel is a regular spot for away fans but I can’t imagine too many of us will be frequenting the town centre on this particular trip.

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Kudos to those of you travelling, especially in the middle of far more glamorous and enticing fixtures. But let’s hope we are all front of the queue for Wembley tickets next year as reward!!

Up the Reds!

Matt