A rough guide to Filbert St.
The first problem for any fans visiting Filbert St. is to get hold of a ticket! The tiny 21,500 capacity means that they’re always hard to find. Even for home fans, in recent years it’s been easier to get hold of a ticket for Wembley that it is for a prestigious home fixture!
Having gotten hold of your ticket, the next job is to find the place and fortunately that’s easy! Come off the M1 at J21 (Top of the M69). Follow the signs to the city centre. You’ll come to a railway bridge, and 0.2 miles after that is a set of traffic lights. Turning right along Upperton Road will take you to the ground, however I strongly suggest you carry straight on, and park on one of the side streets on the left. It’s 5 – 10 minutes walk to the ground, but – I promise – you’ll thank me after the final whistle! Just walk up Upperton road, over the big railway bridge and you’ll see the ground on the right hand side.
Next stop – a pub! Sadly, most of the pubs immediately adjacent to the ground are home fans only. If there’s a large group of you, you could try calling The Half Time Orange and speaking to Andy to see if you can pre-arrange something. This is on Burnmore Street, the same road that houses the visitors turnstiles.
Alternately, as you walk up Upperton Road, keep going past the ground until you reach a big ‘T’ junction at the top. Turn right there, and go past the Tigers rugby ground until you reach the old cattle market. You’ll find a pub there called the Counting House that has an open door policy. It’s safe for kids, and I can strongly recommend the matchday cheeseburger and chips!!
I mentioned the Tigers ground… If both teams are playing at home, then the pubs can get pretty packed. As they kick-off before the proper game, they usually get in the pub first, so it’s worth arriving early!
Wandering down to the ground before the kick-off, you’ll be spared the rip-off merchants and the repeated requests for “Spare tickets”, thank goodness! The only thing you’ll find are the raffle sellers and the “Award winning matchday magazine” (“Programme” to you and I!). I’m told by opposition fans that – unusually – it’s actually worth a read for the visitors, but don’t blame me if you hate it! If Leicester have actually won something recently, the price goes up (as it did – to our disgust – when Manchester United visited last season).
Eateries are a bit few and far between. There’s a chip shop you’ll have passed walking up Upperton Road (Incidentally, this is called Walnut Street as you get over the bridge!) that keeps getting renamed. If you’ve walked to the Counting House, there’s the Leicester City Fish ‘n’ Chip shop on the right (However, if you walked there, you should have ate there, too!). Whatever you do, don’t leave it too late and try to eat in the ground!
Speaking of the ground, Filbert Street has one excellent stand – the 9,000 seat Carling Stand and you ain’t in it! If you want to know what the visitors stand is like before you get there, find a copy of the 1936 “Sheds r Us” brochure, and turn to the ‘budget’ section in the back. It’s the second one down!
You’ll have entered through somebody’s living room, into almost horizontal “banking”. The visiting disabled supporters are carefully placed at the back, so when YOU stand up…..
The one good thing about the ground is that there’s nowhere else I’ve been where you can get so close to the players. Also, the tin roofing serves to reflect the sound back down to the visitors, amplifying the noise you make. It can deceive you into thinking you’re out-singing the home fans (sorry to disillusion you!), but it does (generally) create a terrific atmosphere!
Having mentioned the atmosphere, you’ll notice some large netting between yourselves and Krazy Korner in the Kop. That’s because they were so delighted to have visitors, they had a whip round towards your bus fare, and the local constabulary misunderstood it when they passed across the result of the collection (usually at pretty high speed)! Seriously, there is a small moron element at Filbert St., but no more than at other grounds.
Half time will come, and I hope you don’t want to go! ‘Nuff said! Instead, listen out for Alan Birchinall’s patter, as there’s often some seriously good piss taking and occasionally a “celebrity guest”, usually associated with both home and away teams.
We have been promised a shiny new stadium for the past couple of Christmas’. I’ll believe it when I see it…
Anyway, I really hope you enjoy your visit to Leicester. When you’re there, gimme a wave! I’ll be the one in the Leicester shirt….
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10 May 08 
Liverpool Football Club