Man United Awaydaze
Wednesday, 8th Apr 2026 08:16 by Tim Whelan
Our trip to our dear friends Manchester United kicks off at 8pm on Monday night, thanks to those lovely people at Sky Sports.
If you’re driving from Leeds, the best way is to stay on the M62 as it becomes the M60, and come all the way round to the west of Manchester, taking junction 12 onto the M602. Then come off the M602 at the first junction (Eccles), taking the third exit of the roundabout at the top of the slip road and the first exit of the next.
That will bring you to the park and ride at the Ladywell tram stop, from which you can get the Metrolink to the Pomona stop close to Old Trafford. Make sure you get an Eccles-bound tram on the way back. Alternatively, if you need to drop the Mrs off for some shopping, you could stay on the M60 to junction 10 and park for free at the Trafford Centre, getting the tram from there to the Wharfeside stop.
If you’re coming from the south, the best option would be to park in Altrincham or Sale and get the tram from there to Old Trafford. Parking is limited and expensive closer to the stadium, with all the streets being residents only on matchdays. You could park at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground, but it costs £15 and it takes ages to clear after the game. There are lots of small private car parks nearby, and one other option is the Lowry Outlet at Salford Quays, which costs £7.50, with advance booking recommended.
Getting to Manchester by train will be straightforward, but afterwards the direct route home through Huddersfield will be closed for overnight engineering work. So we have to go back the slow way via Todmorden, though there will be 4 direct trains from Manchester Victoria, at 22:30, 22:57 and 23:15 and 23.21, all getting back to Leeds after midnight.
Public transport options from the city centre are the Metrolink to Old Trafford (on the Altrincham line), and the 255, 256 or 263 buses from Piccadilly Gardens bus station, which run down the main Chester Road and pass very close to the stadium. There is a railway platform by the stadium that did have special trains from Piccadilly on a matchday, but these haven’t run for a couple of seasons.
Inevitably the pubs nearest to the Theatre of Nightmares are home fans only, and we can expect there to be plenty of bouncers on duty to enforce that restriction for this particular game. There are some pubs in Salford Quays where away fans can normally drink, including the ‘Lime Bar’ , ‘The Dockyard’ and the ‘Matchstick Man’, which are about a mile from OT.
Otherwise, you could drink in Manchester City centre or in Altrincham, the latter having several decent real ale establishments. But from there you’d need to be on the way by at least 7 to allow time to get the Metrolink to Old Trafford before kick-off. There are several takeaways near the stadium on the main Chester Road, but the chips are nowhere near the standard of our own chippie in Elland Road.
The current capacity of Old Trafford is 74,879, having been extended several times around the millennium. The Stretford End was rebuilt as a new stand in 1992/3 and later had an extra tier built on top, as did the stand at the opposite end. And in 1995/6 a huge new stand was built down one side, which alone contains 25,500 seats.
Away fans get 3,009 seats in the corner between the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand at the East Stand, which is just above the minimum allocation Man U have to provide under Premier League rules. (Visiting clubs have to be given at least 3,000 or 10% of the capacity, whichever is the smaller of the two figures).
The view is pretty good, though there wouldn’t be much legroom if we sat down. There are plenty of food outlets, and usually they sell alcohol, though this might not happen while we’re in town. One thing that will keep us amused is the sight of all the inflatable sheep being thrown around in the home sections nearby, even though West Yorkshire is one of the largest industrial conurbations in the country.
Our tickets cost £30 for adults, with all concessions at a less than generous £29. So they’re obviously desperate to fleece us in any way they can, to make up for the maximum charge for adults set by the Premier League. Inevitably our allocation sold out as soon as it went on sale, and you would have to be a member of MUFC to even get a sniff of the chance of getting a ticket in any of the home stands.
There used to be some touts hanging around near the takeaways on Chester Road for those who were rich and truly desperate, but I’m guessing that in these days of having to download tickets onto phones, this doesn’t happen now.
The capacity has remained the same for the last 20 years, with the south stand being the only one that hasn’t been extended because it backs straight onto the railway line. But they recently announced plans for a new stadium to be built on the land currently occupied by the adjacent rail freight terminal.
Appropriately enough, the artists impressions indicate that it will look like a big circus tent. The capacity is likely to be close to 100,000, but don’t worry, there is no chance that any of the extra space would be given to us.
Some of this stuff came from www.footballgroundguide.com.
Reuters
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