Anfield

Thursday, 5 December 2013

Liverpool 5-1 Norwich City

Aerial shot of Anfield (Bing Maps)

Programme - £3.00

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 9/10

Ease of getting there : 7/10

Atmosphere : 9/10

Programme : 9/10

View of Action : 3/10

Quality of the game : 9/10

The "football" feeling : 10/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 2/10

Legroom : 6/10

Surrounding area : 3/10

Overall : 67/100

The Kop

Bill Shankly Statue

Bill Shankly

Main Stand

The Kop

The Paisley Gateway

The Paisley Gateway and The Kop

The famous Anfield tunnel

'THIS IS ANFIELD'

The door to the Home Team Dressing Room

Ross next to the Match Officials Changing Room door, if he's not ground hopping, he will be Refereeing!

The door to the Home Team Dressing Room

One of the many interview sponsorship boards

Premier League pitch regulations

Anfield Road Stand

Centenary Stand

The Kop

The Kop

The dug outs, Home team to the left and Away team to the right

The groundsman preparing the pitch

Chewing Gum disposal bin in the dug outs, they are ready for you Big Sam!

Centenary Stand from the dug out

Anfield Road Stand

The Kop

Seating crammed into Anfield

TV cameras being hoisted into the TV gantry

The tunnel

Anfield Road Stand

Centenary Stand

The Kop

Main Stand

Anfield Road Stand

Centenary Stand

Model of Old Anfield

Previously used turnstile

1,2,3,4,5 European Cup

Bill Shankly's notable possesions

Bob Paisley's collection

Hillsborough Memorial Mosaic

Centenary Stand

Anfield Road Stand

Centenary Stand

Hillsborough Memorial and the Shankly Gates

Hillsborough Memorial

The Shankly Gates

The nearly abandoned street, Lothair Road, with the clearly necessary residential parking!

Lothair Road and the Main Stand, the potential Anfield extension site

Kind Anfield welcome to the Norwich City faithful

The Kop

Centenary Stand

The Kop

Main Stand

The Kop

Centenary Stand

Main Stand

Centenary Stand

The Kop

Main Stand

The Kop

Centenary Stand

Main Stand

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Liverpool 5-1 Norwich City

With Anfield yet to be visited by myself (Ross), we took the first opportunity to visit when it arose. Adrian's colleague and a Ross and Adrian's Stadium Guide superfan Stewart Gillion managed to get us tickets for the Norwich City end for our visit to this historic stadium!
We left early morning making the journey up the M1 and then across the A50 to Stoke on Trent before going northbound on the M6.
Our first stop of the day was Prescot Cables and AFC Liverpool’s Valerie Park. The "Cables" in Prescot Cables name came from the largest local employer, British Insulated Cables. A.F.C. Liverpool is a club set up by 1,000 Liverpool Football Club fans in 2008. The club was set up to provide a match-going experience for Liverpool fans who have been sadly priced out of Premier League football.

Next, we bypassed the Liverpool city centre in order to get to Marine. We arrived at the Arriva Stadium at 10:45am and we were kindly welcomed in by Chairman Paul Leary. Marine have recently redeveloped their ground with new floodlights and a new stand behind the goal.
Following our visit to Marine, we made our way into the Liverpool city centre towards Anfield. We decided to look for parking prior to our 2pm tour which proved to be rather difficult which later saw us eventually drop the car off on a rough looking street for free.
To add to our struggles, we couldn't find a supermarket with a cafe meaning we ended up at the pub Adrian has been to 3 times now including our visit to Goodison Park. We ate at Adrian's Scouse local or officially known as the Jolly Miller just off the A5058 Queens Drive.
Once we finished our lunch, we parked up for our tour on Rydal Street and walked the rough streets towards the Kop.

Our tour started from the Bill Shankly statue and from there we walked round to the rear of the Main Stand before going in through the players entrance where we passed numerous interview booths before reaching the famous ‘This is Anfield’ sign and the dressing rooms. We then went down the tunnel and explored the dugouts and admired the towering four stands whilst the cameras were being set up ready for the match. Our tour guide Dave gave us a very enjoyable tour and was very open to questions without over doing the ‘Liverpool are wonderful’ bit.
Once the tour was finished we were taken back to explore the museum. After we finished being guided round by Phil Thompson on a touchscreen tablet with headphones, we then decided to get some photos outside the ground whilst it was still light.
We then walked back to the car on Rydal Street and looked for parking ready for a quick exit later on after the game.
We eventually found the perfect place to park on a street called Park View which is a 30 minute walk from Anfield and also not far from the A5058 which leads to the M62.
We walked to the ground going up Lower Breck Road, Walton Breck Road and then Anfield Road.

We found a cafe called the Anfield Cafe where we ate our Steak and Onion Baguette and Tuna Mayo Jacket Potato we a couple of mugs of tea each at only 70p a mug!

After our second mug of tea each, we walk round the ground absorbing the pre match atmosphere and attempted to watch the Liverpool stars come off their team coach.

We chose to go into the ground to get out of the cold chilling breeze. Upon our arrival in the concourse, we noticed the food kiosk was decorated in order to welcome Norwich City with it being transformed into a sea of yellow.
Anfield was actually the home of Everton between 1884 and 1892 before it was taken over by city rivals Liverpool. Since then it’s been the home of the Reds and has been transformed. Since the Taylor report, the ground was completely transformed during the 1990’s following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Anfield currently holds a maximum of 45,276 supporters with the intention of extending the ground in the near future.
The oldest stand at Anfield is the Main Stand, which was completed in 1982. It is a single-tiered stand that houses the dressing rooms and directors' box.
The Centenary Stand is a two-tiered stand. Originally a single-tiered stand called the Kemlyn Road Stand, the second tier was added in 1992 to coincide with the club's centenary.

The Anfield Road stand, on the left side of the Main Stand, houses the away fans during matches. The Anfield Road End was rebuilt in 1965, and multi-coloured seats were added in 1982. Originally a single-tier stand, a further revamp, which was completed in 1998, gave the stand a second-tier providing additional seating.

The Kop is a large single-tiered stand. Originally a large terraced banking providing accommodation for more than 30,000 spectators, the current incarnation was constructed in 1994–95 and is single-tiered with no executive boxes.

Luis Suarez’s incredible goal scoring form against Norwich City continued into this fixture with an impressive 4 goals not forgetting an assist to Raheem Sterling’s goal. The Canaries scored a consolation from the head of Bradley Johnson with less than 10 minutes to go.

Norwich City supporters will be glad to see the back of Suarez with his record of 11 goals in 5 games against the Canaries alone!

Following the game, we made a quick escape into the masses and made our way back to Park View. Even with of fast exit, we still got held up in traffic many times. With only the one lane open on the M62 it meant we were amongst slow moving traffic out of the city. Further down the M6 and into Stoke on Trent, the Meir Underpass on the A50 was shut meaning we had to use the old road above before getting back onto the A50. Adrian encountered more problems on the A50 but this time in Leicester and eventually got home at about 12:30am.

A memorable trip to Anfield and one we would welcome again if the opportunity came about.