Deepdale

The home of Preston North End since 1878, read on for my digital garden entry on Deepdale, including a review of the logistics, catering and match day experience, along with details of visits to the stadium on this site.

Arrival

Getting into Deepdale was fairly straightforward. Heading North of Preston to take the A6 Garstang Road, we sailed in pretty easily - parking up outside the away end on Bill Shankly Way. I picked up my program right outside for £3.50 - first part of the proper football club test passed.

Catering

Taking the entire Kop, the concourse in the away end is pretty spacious, with all three kiosks open. While the prices seemed steep, at £4.95 for a pie, and £3.20 for a bovril, I think the combination went through as an early bird offer at £6.30. That's much better, though I thought the HM Pasties steak pie was different but fairly lifeless.

Stadium

Though all 4 stands are of a similar construction, and joined by a unified box construction, the stadium was rebuilt by stand between 1995 and 2008.

Away support are housed in the Bill Shankly Kop, which holds just under 6000 supporters.

The Invincibles Pavillion to the left contains the only executive and hospitality seting in the stadium that I could see, holding just under 4,000 seats, and the Sir Tom Finney Stand to the right holds just under 8,000. The Alan Kelly Town End behind the opposite goals also holds a little under 6,000, with a total capacity of 23,408.

At least this has the feel of a proper four sided football stadium, not yet another bowl. Not much remains though of earlier incarnations of the stadium.

Atmosphere

Proper football clubs do not need a drum. We kept it pretty quiet for the most part, but there is just no need. "Invincible's our Principle" does not require an apostrophe - the misdemeanor on the Sir Tom Finney stand corner banner was incredibly distracting, though thankfully the offending apostrophe was covered by another flag shortly before kick-off.

Departure

Being a local derby, we were held in a pen on Bill Shankly Way for a while until things had dispersed, so unfortunately it took us a wee bit longer to queue back out to the motorway.