Our visit to Crystal Palace kicks off at 3pm on Saturday, and there are still tickets to be had.

Driving to Selhurst Park can be a bit of a nightmare, partly because the roads can be pretty congested on Saturdays even without football traffic, and partly because it is of course right on the opposite side of London from Leeds. From the end of the M1 take the A406 North Circular Road heading west to Chiswick Roundabout. Take the third exit at the roundabout onto Chiswick High Road, then first left onto the A205 signposted Kew. After 2 miles, take a left at the t-junction signposted Putney.

Continue until the road merges with the A3, then a mile later, turn right onto the A214 signposted Tooting and Streatham. In Streatham turn right onto the A23 Streatham High Road and after one mile, turn left into the B273 Green Lane which becomes Parchmore Road. At the bottom of the road, turn left into the High Street, go straight over the crossroads and the ground is on the right. The 500-space Sainsbury's car park by the ground gets full well before kick-off, so the best bet is to head for the area near Selhurst railway station, where there is plenty of street parking.

Norwood Junction, Selhurst and Thornton Heath railway stations are equally close to the ground (all about 10-15 minutes walk) but please note that Crystal Palace station is about two miles away. Norwood Junction is served by trains from London Bridge, but you need to get to Victoria for a train to Selhurst orThornton Heath.

There are decent pubs near all three local stations, but last year the official site wanted us to do our drinking around Thornton Heath. There is a Wetherspoons directly opposite Thornton Heath Station and you can also visit 'The Railway Telegraph' if you cross the road and then walk 100 yards down the road on the right. Food-wise, there are plenty of Kebab & Chip shops on the route from Thornton Heath, while the nearest takeaway to the ground is the fish & Chip shop on Whitehorse Lane, near the Sainsburys.

Up to the mid-nineties the away fans were put in the corner of the big open terrace on the Holmesdale Road end, but that end has now been replaced by a large new two tiered stand, which was naturally deemed to be much too good for visiting supporters. So we have to make do with the much older single tiered Arthur Wait stand down the side of the pitch. The rake isn't very steep, so fans towards the back tend to stand up to get a better view, until we get shouted at by the stewards. If they really want us all to sit down they could give us an incentive to do so by replacing the old wooden seats they have at the back of the stand.

The view is also partially impeded by the low overhang of the roof, and as we are looking south-west as we face the pitch, on a fine day we have to try to watch the game through the glare of the setting sun.There are plenty of the usual sort of football refreshments available, such as burgers and chips, but as ever it's more expensive than the scoff you can get elsewhere in the area. Alcohol is not served to away fans inside the ground, and for these excellent facilities we have to pay as much as £32 for adults and £18 for concessions. This is of course the category A price, so we are definitely not famous any more!

Palace decided “after careful consideration and in partnership with the police” to give us then whole of this stand, apart from the blocks at the end which will become “sterile areas”. Currently there are 800 tickets left out of allocation of 3,800, and details of how to get them are on the official site. Tickets in the home parts of the ground will only be sold to fans with a ‘booking history’ and no tickets will be available on the day.

It's generally accepted that at least two sides of Selhurst Park need to be improved, but this isn’t like to happen any time soon unless Palace get back into the Premiership.

Some of this rubbish came from www.footballgroundguide.com

Photo: Action Images

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