Groundhopping

[DanyNguessen]

29 minutes ago, SemperEadem said:

Do you need help with an away Bochum ticket?

Phil's sorting us out mate. Sounds like we're jumping on the coach to Elvesberg. 

[Dan]

Bit ambitious but got a flight to Istanbul in a fortnight and hoping we can somehow fluke it to Fenerbahce v Galatasaray.

 

Will at least do Karagumruk v Besiktas while there - they actually play at the Ataturk (where Liverpool & Man City won the Champions League) and average crowds of about 3,000 so think we'll be alright getting one  

Edited 11 November 2025 by Dan

[Stuntman_Mike]

Bremen flights coming up cheap for the weekend we're at Stoke.

 

Wolfsburg and Hannover both at home, so considering either of those if tickets are doable. 

 

I'm desperate to get another game abroad booked in.

 

 

 

Edited 19 November 2025 by Stuntman_Mike

[SemperEadem]

31 minutes ago, Stuntman_Mike said:

Bremen flights coming up cheap for the weekend we're at Stoke.

 

Wolfsburg and Hannover both at home, so considering either of those if tickets are doable. 

 

I'm desperate to get another game abroad booked in.

 

 

 

Bremen is a nice city, worth a night there.

[grobyfox1990]

33 minutes ago, Stuntman_Mike said:

Bremen flights coming up cheap for the weekend we're at Stoke.

 

Wolfsburg and Hannover both at home, so considering either of those if tickets are doable. 

 

I'm desperate to get another game abroad booked in.

 

 

 

Bremen is a worthwhile weekend city, the Becks factory is a must.

[grobyfox1990]

Going to Marrakech for Afcon in Jan for a weekend.

[CosbehFox]

Belgrade flights booked ! 

 

 

[kenny]

On 23/10/2025 at 10:16, CosbehFox said:

So finally chance to talk about my Belgian Sojourn. 

 

Saturday night. - KRC Mechelen 5 Royal Cappellen 1

Majestic old ground on edge of the city. Beautiful huge old stand with terracing below it. Unique facade. Serious terracing with overlooking flats and the smell of weed coming from. Lovely little bar inside the ground. Home side won 5-1 against 10 men. You could see the cathedral tower from the top of the stand. 

 

Sunday - Rupel Boom 0 Eintracht Termin (sp) 1

3rd v 2nd. When I arrived at Boom via Antwerp. I thought why the **** am I? Just two platforms, loads of tracks, no sign of life. A building with no ticket office. This is the town which hosts the music festival Tomorrowland and the walk down a dual carriageway on the way to game was not hopeful. But then the walk turned into a beautiful wander through a park - autumn at its best with water running through the park. Peeking out of the trees, a stand. A football ground. A beautifully dated bar under the stand selling Duvel and hot dogs which looked shit but tasted excellent. The club of Lukaku - another mighty impressive stand, terracing all of the way around with it really steep at one end and a small ultras section. Really good game - got more entertaining as Boom tried everything to find an equaliser. 

 

Two excellent grounds - it felt like I'd visited proper Belgium. I will go back to do some of these smaller grounds. There is a host of them within Belgium. Due to the way the league system works and clubs emerging etc, they are so real oddities in the lower reaches and international breaks are good time to do them. 

I forgot to ask how you got about getting tickets. Do you just turn up and assume the grounds are empty?

[CosbehFox]

31 minutes ago, kenny said:

I forgot to ask how you got about getting tickets. Do you just turn up and assume the grounds are empty?

For those Belgian fixtures? Literally turn up - you are talking the same sort of set-up as a National League club. 

 

Bari this weekend I have had to buy but they were only on sale a week before - stadium empty tho

 

PSG in early December had to buy four weeks ago off their website 

[kenny]

2 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

For those Belgian fixtures? Literally turn up - you are talking the same sort of set-up as a National League club. 

 

Bari this weekend I have had to buy but they were only on sale a week before - stadium empty tho

 

PSG in early December had to buy four weeks ago off their website 

Its a bit weird in europe how you don't find out kick off times until quite late as well.

[CosbehFox]

Just now, kenny said:

Its a bit weird in europe how you don't find out kick off times until quite late as well.

Yeah - Germany and England by far the best (with other UK). Italy have got better but everywhere else across Europe is pretty crap.

[Stuntman_Mike]

On 19/11/2025 at 10:20, Stuntman_Mike said:

Bremen flights coming up cheap for the weekend we're at Stoke.

 

Wolfsburg and Hannover both at home, so considering either of those if tickets are doable. 

 

I'm desperate to get another game abroad booked in.

 

 

 

Booked the crossing to Calais and going to drive wherever is good for tickets over that weekend nearer the time.

 

Plenty of picks in Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. 

 

Travel, good beer and football 

[CosbehFox]

On 24/10/2025 at 09:05, CosbehFox said:

Bari four weeks today - fixtures been a slight pain. 

 

Fly in Friday - enjoy the city

Saturday morning - go out to Matera

Saturday night - Bari at home

Sunday - Barletta - Serie D! 

Sunday night - Milan derby on TV 

 

 

First of all, Matera is an absolute must for anyone in the area. Good thing of going in November is that it's not full of tourists. Annoyingly they have a club which went bust in the summer. 

 

Bari's San Nicola is an absolute gem architecturally. Somehow in a stadium of 58,000 with just 10,800 in it, the ultras did a decent job of not making it a complete morgue. It's located in the middle of nowhere and had a real tailgate vibe outside. Their fans are pissed off cos their owners are the same as Napoli's and they've been forgotten about. Mad first half by a pretty secure second. Frosinone's 200 supporters went home happy. 

 

Now the real delight was Barletta which blew all expectations. Their ultra group is called 'Group Erotico' . Fourth tier but the atmosphere was superb. Some great tunes - including one to the famous Brazilian France 1998 advert. Felt a real South American vibe. Annoyingly they lost 2-1 after being 1 up for 80 odd minutes until giving two penalties away. Barletta as well was a real pretty place if very quiet with the summer season way gone for tourism. 

 

Anyway the brain is thinking of the next Italy trip. Probably back up North to either of Verona, Atalanta or Udinese/Trieste. 

 

Edited 25 November 2025 by CosbehFox

[Harboro]

Wasn’t sure whether to post in here or the non league thread but given the early kick off yesterday took the opportunity to also go to Friar Lane & Epworth vs Highfield Rangers. Started with 2 early goals for the Lane and ended up 4-0

Was surprised there wasn’t more Leicester in, but a group of 6 Sheffield Utd fans provided some off field entertainment giving it to the Highfield no. 9 all game. By the sounds of it they also spent a bit which was well received by the regulars. Also a few Portsmouth stickers in the loos so obviously not the away fans who have had the same idea

[CosbehFox]

Mad how a super club like PSG can still kick out such an atmosphere including a load of Rennes nutcases still singing at 5-0 down. The club really know how to be slick in how it presents itself. Parc des Princes also underrated architecturally for me. 

[Stuntman_Mike]

Looking at going Dagenham & Redbridge the day after England v Uruguay. 

 

Cheap tickets and a good ground for that level. 

[CosbehFox]

A long way to Belgrade - could do with finding something quirky over January 

[grobyfox1990]

3 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

A long way to Belgrade - could do with finding something quirky over January 

AFCON, it's cheap as chips

[bovril]

9 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

A long way to Belgrade - could do with finding something quirky over January 

Sofia. Very nice city with lots of history. Comically dreadful football and crumbling stadia. 

[Dan]

Done three games of interest this month.

 

Turkey; This didn't go to plan, but there wasn't really any way around it. The problem you have in Turkey is the tickets for the games go on sale just days before the game takes place so you have to commit to a trip before you go out there. You have to take a leap of faith. Ours fell flat on its arse as the Fenerbahce - Galatasaray tickets sold out before it even fell down to our bracket. I wouldn't mind having a second crack down the line and Istanbul is a city big and interesting enough to justify going back to, but if I did it over again I would probably try and get a membership at the club of the home team. Find it interesting how pricey the tickets are as well, I think you've got to be very well off by Turkish standards to get to these games, substantially lower wages than over here and this game was priced probably even higher on average than a big Premier League game. It's pretty brutal.

 

We did get to Fatih Karagumruk v Besiktas the day before, played at the Ataturk Stadium, the ground where Liverpool won the Champions League in 2005 and Manchester City won it in 2023. It's a strange ground, a bit of a white elephant, and Karagumruk having to play there is ridiculous really - they're based 40 minutes away from that ground and they're obviously nowhere near big enough to play there either, but rules of the league mean they basically have to. Crowd was 1,500 in a 75k stadium. The biggest surprise to me was the small away end from Besiktas too - I had this silly idea they would take thousands but it was virtually none. Besiktas won comfortably, Ndidi played, Cengiz Under missed a penalty

 

The atmosphere, in fairness, for how bad it 'should' be with those numbers and size of the ground, wasn't bad. They were trying. It's a shame Turkey is such a pain in the arse logistically for getting to games because I'd imagine it's sensational for the big games. I think I will try and get out to some of the bigger clubs one time. Maybe an idea is if they're all at home one week in Europe a day apart or something.

 

 

The last couple of days I went to a couple of games - Linfield v Glentoran yesterday, Hibs v Hearts today. Flew out to Belfast at 6am on boxing day (I have a screw loose), walked around some pretty rogue areas of Belfast in the morning then went to the ground.

 

 

This was the biggest crowd in Northern Ireland in years according to google (10,500). Linfield really are Rangers-lite, loads of the same songs. Got given a free scarf pre-match. Pyro display at the start was great and did build my hopes up that the atmosphere would be good but I thought it was a bit of a damp squib in the home end in all honesty. You had a group down the front going for it but there wasn't a tonne of buy in, in truth. Glentoran's end was not dissimilar, they must've had about 3k there themselves. Was a pretty good away end.

 

Linfield were really, really bad. They went in as favourites and wouldn't have scored if they were still playing. A proper disappointment for them in the derby, the stats according to flash scores were 3 shots each  Glentoran won 0-1. Fully deserved the win for me. I went into that game with a higher opinion of the level of that league than I think I should've done. I had a bit of a look through the squads, their careers etc... and concluded Linfield are probably the level of a team like Boreham Wood. It probably shouldn't be a surprise though, it's a tiny country. It was a decent experience albeit ****ing freezing.

 

Todays game was fantastic. I've had really good change out of trips to Scotland, doing Rangers v Fenerbahce in March and then that. I secretly sort of wanted Hearts to win because I want them to win the league, but not too upset they didn't. Hibs 3-0 up just after half time but nearly threw it all away in the last 15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

Similar to Linfield you had a group similar to UFS at the front of both lower tiers. Gave it everything but I was again a little disappointed by the lack of buy in from elsewhere. I really like Easter Road, it's a cracking ground with good acoustics. Scottish fans are a bit like northern English on steroids - incredible numbers punching the air when a decision doesn't go their way. Fantastic shouts from people around me throughout as well. I thought Hearts' end was actually really bad for their numbers. Reminded me of times when Leicester have taken big ends to places and barely mustered a song after the 1st minute. Didn't help that they went behind straight away but even still. It's hard to explain, it was a good atmosphere, but it was more in terms of crowd reactions rather than songs, if that makes sense.

 

Hibs win meant I got a sunshine on leith. Unsure how to post videos but it didn't disappoint. Bloke next to me told me to stay for it, you wait and see how good this is. Oh I know, don't you worry.

 

Really good game though. It's all come a bit soon for Hearts, looks pretty obvious to me after this that Celtic will win the league this year. Hearts will probably finish 3rd in all honesty, but I've no doubt they'll get better and better under Bloom, only have to look at what he's done in Belgium.

 

Went to Edinburgh City v Spartans for a half as well afterwards - 10 minutes walk away. Actually a pretty fun game but we had a flight to catch so had to dash.

 

Edinburgh struck me as really nice but I had so little time there that I couldn't really see anything. Landed last night absolutely shattered and had to leave fairly early today. I'll likely go back, maybe even for the return fixture at Tynecastle one time.

 

But yeah good month for trips. Germany for the umpteenth time is my next one at the end of January - looking at a triple header of Bochum v Schalke, Dortmund v Heidenheim and Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn. Outside bet we manage to sneak Koln v Wolfsburg in too if we get there early enough on the Friday. Would like to do Cremonese this season but want to tie it in with something else, possibly one of Switzerland, Slovenia or Croatia, if it works.

[Leicesterpool]

Off to watch Northampton v Stockport, probably my fifth visit to sixfields last time was when leicester played there in a friendly which was two years ago. Easy ground to get to for me. Stadium itself i always think it's tad tiny and wouldn't look out of place in the national league. You would hope and think in time they would certainly look to boost capacity beyond 10,000 maybe look to replace the stand behind the goal.

[sishades]

Off to Scotland tomorrow to take in Dunfermline Athletic, This will be my 12 ground in Scotland. I also have only 3 to do to complete the National league and redo Everton.

Edited 1 January by sishades

[CWC1983]

On 01/01/2026 at 14:23, sishades said:

Off to Scotland tomorrow to take in Dunfermline Athletic, This will be my 12 ground in Scotland. I also have only 3 to do to complete the National league and redo Everton.

Nae luck,  called off this morning wasn't it? 

[boots60]

On 01/01/2026 at 14:23, sishades said:

Off to Scotland tomorrow to take in Dunfermline Athletic, This will be my 12 ground in Scotland. I also have only 3 to do to complete the National league and redo Everton.

Bad luck with the postponement though plenty of other games on in Scotlands central belt.

Did you manage to get to another fixture?

Edited 3 January by boots60

[PAULCFC]

Got this for Xmas,decent book,but the title is a bit misleading. It's very southerncentric and more of a coffee table book,some great pics but not the Simon Inglis type football grounds of the uk(that i read from cover to cover in my youth!)