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Kassam Stadium  - Oxford United
Saturday, March 5th, 2005,
V Grimsby Town, League Two 3pm
By Phillip Nicolson  

Visiting the Kassam Stadium was one of the away games I was looking forward to this season having heard it was brilliant for a league two side. After hearing about the ground I believed I had to go as being a Grimsby Town supporter you don't really get the opportunity to go to decent grounds as late being relegated two seasons running. The journey wasn't the longest and being on the supporters bus seems to make the journey quicker as your amongst other fans. The ground itself wasn't hard to find as they had a signpost saying "follow the football" to get there and there were quite a lot of these which was very helpful. The parking for the supporters coaches was brilliant as you can simply pull up round the back of the stand and has plenty of room. The main car park was full of cars but maybe not all for the football as they had a bowling/video arcade building located very close.

We arrived early (1.20pm) so we had to occupy ourselves for a good hour or so before we entered the ground, so we decided to have a look round the club shop but the problem is we couldn't find it at first. We walked round the outside of the stadium twice and there was no sign of it. We gave up looking for it and decided to see what was nearby and down the side of the bowling place was the club shop, this was one of the bad points as it seemed complicated to find as most stadiums have the club shop located at the ground itself. There was a pub nearby and also outside were a couple of snack bars. If away fans coming in cars want to get there early to ensure they get a parking
space you can definitely pass time in the video arcade & bowling complex.

The home fans seemed very friendly as there was no trouble and no banter before the game when away fans were walking about. They were some of the  most pleasant fans I have seen. When I saw the ground for the first time I thought there three stands were brilliant and the pitch was great. The away end was shared with home fans
which I thought wouldn't be all that good as most fans want to be together not with opposition fans but no Oxford fans were in our stand which I found unusual as the stand was very big and we were only taking up a small corner of it.

 

The game itself was hard to concentrate on as it was very cold with the wind coming in from the direction were the 4th stand should've been and was open. I believe that the atmosphere in the ground could be a lot better with that fourth stand as it would trap the noise. The stewards at the game were very professional as they stood out from the fans and were very helpful. Chips, which i purchased from a snack bar outside the ground were brilliant and were cheaper than I expected and you definitely got your moneys worth. The toilet facilities were quite good as there was a lot of room and they were kept very clean. The toilets are located near the kiosk underneath the
stand which I feel was a bad point as getting into the toilet meant you had  to worm your way through a lot of people queuing up.

After the game getting away from the ground was very difficult as you have to join a quite busy road and with a lot of fans travelling in a vehicle made it even more difficult. I remember it taking around five minutes to actually get out of the car park itself and it was very busy until you got a few miles away from the stadium. I believe the day out was brilliant and I would be quite happy to come again if we were to play Oxford away. Me and my fellow fans believed that it was a brilliant stadium with pleasant fans and staff and the facilities were of a high quality.

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