LeedsGround: Elland Road Visits: 1 Date: 7th August 2013 Match: Leeds - Chesterfield 2-1 (League Cup) Attendance: 17 466
Elland Road in Leeds was one of only four Championship grounds I hadn´t visited before this season. Being an old, classic English football ground and one of the most interesting grounds left for me in England I wanted to "save" it for a big match. A first round match in the League Cup against Chesterfield is hardly a big match though but being the only match in England at a new ground for me I still decided to go to Elland Road on Wednesday evening. Around 11am I left my hotel in Preston and 90 minutes later I was at my hotel next to Manchester Airport. Flying home from Manchester on Thursday morning I thought staying close to the airport was a good idea. Later in the afternoon I then travelled to Leeds and by 4.30 I was at Leeds train station. Being quite early in Leeds I strolled around the city centre for an hour. I was pleasantly surprised, the city centre was nice with several interesting buildings to look at. Elland Road is a 35-minute walk from the city centre and I decided to use the shuttle buses. Thanks to Duncan Adams´excellent website (http://www.footballgroundguide.com/) I knew buses were leaving from Sovereign Street, close to the railway station. As I arrived at Elland Road there were already plenty of fans outside the ground.
Elland Road nowadays has a capacity of 37 500 and feels like a mixture of new and old. The East Stand, opened in 1992, seats 15 000 and is twice the size of the other three stands at Elland Road. For this match I was hoping for 10 000 to show up at Elland Road but the attendance was to be be much better than that. In total 17 500 showed up but tickets costing only £12 probably helped boosting the crowd numbers. Still an excellent attendance for the first round of the League Cup. Chesterfield brought almost 2 500 fans to Elland Road and for a League 2 club that is a respectable number. Leeds United started the match looking by far the better team. Several early chances but no goals. Instead Chesterfield took a shock lead, 0-1 in the 19th minute. Leeds then moved up a gear and scored two goals, 2-1 at half-time. In the second half Leeds try to save as much energy as possible for future matches and Chesterfield were given more and more opportunities. This affected the crowd as well. OK atmosphere but not as good as in the 1st half. Despite some late chances for Chesterfield the match ended 2-1 to Leeds. I hurried back to the shuttle buses and was very impressed with the organisation. 12 minutes after the final whistle I was at the train station! I was then back at my hotel around 00.30 and another trip to England came to an end. I have now been to 74 grounds in England. 68 of those are "92 grounds" meaning I now only have 24 grounds left to complete the 92. Most likely I will be back in England around New Year. Plenty of other grounds to visit before then though!
Leeds Minster
Rear of the East Stand
Leeds United
Statue of Billy Bremner
Fans outside the ground
Fans outside the ground
Pin seller
South Stand
West Stand
Don Revie Stand
East Stand
My view
Chesterfield fans
0-1
Kick-off
West Stand
Don Revie Stand
Pano
Pano |