AWAY FANS' GUIDE | Bradford City

The Northern Commercials Stadium
Capacity: 25,136

Tickets
 
Likely to be available on the day, these are priced at £20 adults, £15 over 60s and students, £10 under 16s and £5 under 11s. We have an allocation of 704 seats.
 
Turnstiles
 
Valley Parade (sorry, old habits and that) underwent quite a transformation when The Bantams made it to The Premier League, with one side and one end now boasting a couple of huge two-tiered stands that dominate things.

We are situated behind the goal in the TD Dallas stand, which is also a two-tiered affair, albeit distinctly smaller and less modern than its counterparts, more of the QPR/Southend vintage. The upper tier is where we will be and the view is OK, certainly better than below.

Food
 
Usual stuff inside the ground and, within the immediate environs of the stadium there are nice traditional cafes and chippies, with the usual suspects nearer the city or on the approach roads towards Bradford.

There is also a cafe inside the club shop, with a museum to boot!
 
Refreshments
 
The Cartwright Hotel on the main Manningham Road is nice, while The Corn Dolly, The Oakleigh, Park Hotel and Haigy’s are also fine. The New Beehive seems to be the place for the real ale types, whilst both Bradford Interchange and Forster Square stations have proper pubs next to them, as opposed to bar type places.
 
Travel
 
The Post Code is BD8 7DY. By whatever your preferred route, get to the M62 and leave it at Junction 26 to join the M606 towards Bradford. This, in turn, takes you to the Bradford Ring Road (A6177). Take this in an easterly direction towards the City Centre. Stick with this until you reach a roundabout where you can turn left onto the A650 towards the City Centre and Keighley, keeping right, then take following the signs to Keighley and Skipton when the ground will soon become visible. Once you arrive at a car showroom, turn left onto Station Road, then, at the end of this, left onto Queens Road. The away entrance is on the second left on Midland Road. Alternatively, keep going along Queens Road then left onto Manningham Road. It is street parking but there is loads of it.
 
If coming by train, direct trains from London tend to go to Bradford Interchange, which is a bit of a stroll but buses 622, 623, 626 and 662 run directly to the ground from there. If doing it on foot, aim towards the city centre and walk down the hill until you get the Ginger Goose, do a right and go back up a hill onto Manor Row, where you meet Bradford Forster Square station, which is closer to the ground and served by Leeds, my route of choice. From here, turn right then aim for a big crossroads. Here, either keep going straight on down Manningham Lane, if you have a choice of pub, or turn right, then left onto Midland Road which takes you directly to the away end.
 
Trivia
 
Now not many teams can say that they played a Football League match on the same night as a General Election, but us and Bradford have that proud boast, having faced one another in a Thursday night fixture in 1997, which was quite handy as it provoked lively debate on the way home. The game was a drab affair that we lost, much to the annoyance of a couple of Grimsby players sat behind us who were locked in a relegation battle with the Bantams at the time.