FOREST AWAY: Leeds United, Friday 6th February – Fan Guide
There are so many games at the moment it’s hard to keep up. If you include this Friday in Leeds, we don’t have a blank midweek now until the second week in March, although our premature exit from the cup does at least offer us a rare blank weekend next week.
We ended January feeling a bit better about ourselves after some encouraging performance and results. After the anguish of Braga, the showings at Brentford and Ferencvaros were refreshingly on the front foot and making the opposition worry about us. That was happening too against Palace until the game was changed with the penalty and sending off. The two league games were particularly impressive I felt because we found a way to break down teams outside of the bigger clubs which I’d felt was a real weakness in recent months. The contrast with our end of December / early January performances is stark, and hopefully this forward-thinking football can become a more regular sight combined with our efforts to further push ourselves clear of the bottom three.
Something I will give Dyche additional credit for is that he referred to recent criticism after the Ferencvaros game and tackled it head on. I don’t think it does any good to keep pretending everything is rosy. Nor, should I add, do I think as fans we should continue to dig our trenches on opposite sides of the debate. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being critical when there is a need to be, and then be positive after a good performance. It’s not fickle, it’s just recognising the reality. Dyche likely has a fair bit more to do to win many over, but the last few games was certainly a nice bit of traction and it’s been great to hear a loud and excited City Ground again.
***
I won’t have been alone to have a bit of nerves and apprehension on Friday morning about our play-off draw in the Europa League. There are so many aspects to consider: – cost of flights, the likely allocation and, of course, the prospects of us making it to the next round.
Fenerbahçe perhaps hasn’t captured the imagination quite as much as other potential ties, mainly due to what appears to be very onerous restrictions experienced recently by Aston Villa supporters on matchday. Aided by the Villa experiences, and hopefully with further information to follow soon, I’ll be pulling together another away guide but a few little bits I wanted to chuck out now:
~ There appears to be two main airports in Istanbul – Istanbul Airport on the European side and Istanbul SAW on the Asian side. Both are a similar distance away and do have transport links to the city. A taxi / shuttle should take around an hour or so. Our hotel has offered us an organised taxi from SAW which is costing us €65 one way, just to give you a bit of a benchmark. I haven’t quite got round to looking at the other transport options yet.
~ Information on Gov.uk points out that passports must have 150 days remaining prior to expiry and have at least one blank page.
~ Although the Villa allocation of around 1,800 has been shared, this is actually less than the 5% allocation. As I understand it, Villa did not take the full allocation which should be closer to 2,500 tickets. I believe our allocation will be north of 2,000.
~ Villa fans were taken by bus from Sultanahmet Square to the stadium, and Forest have confirmed the same will happen with us. From what I can see they were asked to be in place by 3pm with the final buses departing at 4pm, although at the moment we are just being instructed to be there for 3pm. The journey is approximately one hour. As Villa experienced, we will face an awful long wait inside the stadium before the 8:45pm local time kick-off. We should also expect a hold back of between 90minutes and 2 hours after the game. In reality, we could be facing 8-9 hours inside the stadium which is absolute madness!
~ Staying close to Sultanahmet Square would be logical. Villa fans arrived back there at 1am and have pointed out that it wasn’t ideal for those needing to then travel further to hotels very late in the evening.
~ Villa fans have pointed out that security checks were stringent and a lot of innocuous items were confiscated at the turnstiles, including coins and even antibiotics. Buses will be numbered so you could, leave things on this bus realistically it may be hard to find your way back to the same bus afterwards. So just have a think about what you might need, and make sure your phone is fully charged before we leave on the coaches. I am informed, however, that flags will be allowed inside.
~ Villa supporters paid around €30 for a ticket but this included the away club picking up the costs of the coaches from Sultanahmet Square. It feels a bit cheeky to expect the away club to pick up the tab, if you ask me!
Another hopefully helpful away guide will follow soon.
AWAY DAY No.19 – Leeds United, Friday 6th February, 8pm KO
Last Visit: Despite an early Orel Mangala goal, we fell to a painful 2-1 defeat in April 2023.
Memorable Visit: What else do I include here apart from the barmy 7-3 in 2012? One of the maddest Forest away game that there has ever been. I saw the highlights this week and it’s often forgotten that Leeds got it back to 3-3 from 3-1 down. When our fourth went in soon after it was absolute bedlam in that away end.
Away End: As with our most recent visits, Forest fans will again be housed in one side of the West Stand. We will be split across two tiers although it is possible to reach one section from the other. The view is okay but deteriorates in certain seats towards the back due to a couple of pillars that blight sight lines of the pitch. It’s also notable, unless its changed since 2023, for being one of the only away concourses that is carpeted!
Sunglasses / Hat Requirement: 1/10. There isn’t going to be much sun at 8pm.
TRAVEL
RAIL: There are plenty of options from Nottingham to get you to Leeds, but disappointingly the last service departs at 21:49 which isn’t going to be possible to make. Even if you somehow could, it’s also scheduled for a bus replacement service and give you only a matter of minutes to make a connection in Sheffield.
A bit crap really, given this is one of the more straightforward away trips.
I have long since argued that if the rescheduling for TV means a trip that is otherwise achievable on train is no longer an option when moved, it should be considered by the broadcaster and the clubs whether that move is justifiable. And if it’s moved anyway, then fans should be assisted as much as possible – whether it be discounted coach travel or something else, paid for ideally by the broadcasters, or out of the millions they pay for the freedom to fuck us all around. Yes, I know I’m barking into a hurricane.
It’s a near 2 mile walk from Leeds Station to Elland Road, so if you are arriving on train allow plenty of time for the journey.
ROAD: The most direct route to Elland Road is to leave the M1 onto the M621 (straight after Jct 42 for the M62) and then depart this a couple of junctions down at Jct 2. Alternatively, you can leave the M1 at Jct 42 into the M62 and leave at the first junction but I have found it easier to come in on the M621 side of the ground.
The ground is very close at this point which also brings problems as it’ll be very busy if you are within a couple of hours of kick-off. From memory, the limited street parking available is often blocked off with police cones. There are a couple of huge car parks directly opposite the stadium but from experience these take an age to get away from afterwards.
You can head past these car parks away from the ground, I think it’s Wesley Street, and you should eventually find something further out.
Aside from all that, here’s what I suggest you do, if you can stand a mile or so walk…
Leave the M1 at Jct 41 and head through East Ardsley. You will eventually reach the big M62 roundabout which you can pass straight over. You’ll head left at the bottom towards the White Rose shopping centre, but before you reach it you’ll veer off to the right onto Dewsbury Road. This is usually pretty busy, but head down it for a about a mile and you’ll eventually spot the Broadway pub. Anywhere around here you’ll be about a 20-minute walk to Elland Road. You can reduce this by driving up the road opposite (on the left as you drive in) called Cross Flatts Grove where you should find some street parking. There are various streets off here too which will have parking.
However, the further up you go, the longer you’ll queue down the street afterwards so you’ll have a decision to make! Whatever you do, make sure you turn your car to be facing back down afterwards. If you went all the way up and managed to find some parking you’d only have a 10-minute walk to the ground.
To make it even easier here are a couple of handy post codes:
The Broadway pub: LS11 5LD
Cross Flats Grove: LS11 7JA
It’s not a direct walk to Elland Road from the Broadway pub / Cross Flatts Grove. When you reach the top, cross the road and head down Sunnyview Gardens and you’ll come to a park / green space you can cross via a tarmac path. If you are anywhere close to kick-off you’ll be able to follow the crowd by this point, but if not you’ll likely see the floodlight anyway. Just head right and you’ll be a few steps from Elland Road.
PUBS
You’ll have guessed this already, but if you are using the above parking tip then the Broadway pub will be your best bet. It’s nothing particularly special, but it’s fairly big, has a decent pool / snooker table, and a better option than drinking around the ground. And it serves food too. I’ve done a quick check and it still appears to be open.
There is a designated away bar right next to the away end too, called Howard’s. I’ve never actually been inside but it’s very well placed.
Further afield, there are plenty of great pubs in the city centre. But keep in mind it’s a half hour walk away so might not be feasible for many.
Forest supporters will also be welcome at the Black Horse in Wakefield, for a ‘Forest Social’ between 3pm and 7pm. It is 25 minutes or so in the car (likely more closer to kick-off) from there, or a short journey on the train from Wakefield Westgate Rail Station which is right next door to the pub. There will be Forest fan DJ on too.
See you up there.
You Reds.
Matt