Portsmouth: Away Day Guide for Bradford City fans

David Hopkin has left the building, with Martin Drury put in temporary charge for a big trip to Portsmouth on Saturday.

The Bantams will hope they can grab a valuable three points against a side who are out of form themselves.

It's a must watch game and, who knows, you might even get a glimpse of City's next prospective manager in the crowd - although the latest is the position won't be filled until next week.

If you're heading down south for the tie, we've got you covered.

From travel times and routes, to the best boozers - this Away Day guide will give you everything you need and we'll be doing this for every forthcoming Bantams trip.

We've even got a handy interactive map which incorporates everything we mention including routes (trains and car), parking spots, and drinking holes for away fans (see further below).

GROUND

Venue: Fratton Park

Capacity: 21,100

Address: Fratton Park, Frogmore Road, Portsmouth, Southsea, PO4 8RA.

TICKETS

Prices: £23* for adults, £17* for seniors (65+), £15 for 18-22-year-olds, £10 for an unaccompanied junior (U18), £5 for an accompanied junior (U18), £14 for wheelchair and carer and £15 for ambulant.

*Adult and senior ticket prices rise by £2 if purchased on matchday.

Tickets can be purchased at Valley Parade or online, but wheelchair supporters should contact the Portsmouth ticket office - on 0345 646 1898 - to purchase as wheelchair and carer spaces are located among the home supporters in front of the Fratton End.

The deadline for redeeming tickets at Valley Parade was yesterday at 5:00pm, and these can now be collected at Fratton Park on matchday.

Away fans (other than wheelchair users and carers) are situated in the north stand side of the Milton End (behind one of the goals).

Clubs are allocated between 1,400 and 2,800 depending on the uptake.

TRAVEL

The main concern for the big day is how to get there, how long it will take to get there, and where on earth you're going to park.

Train:

Being right at the bottom of the country, this one is unsurprisingly a bit of a slog and overall you'll want to be leaving enough time before kick-off for a total journey time of roughly four hours and 45 minutes.

The easiest way is to get a train to London King's Cross initially.

As is usually the case, you'll need to get to Leeds Railway Station first of all, then the journey from there to London roughly takes two hours and 16 minutes.

From there, you'll want to get the tube to London Waterloo.

Waterloo is your main vantage point for the next two options.

You can either catch a train to Fratton Railway Station which is the closest stop to the ground - this journey takes one hour and 30 minutes and is probably the best option.

Failing that, you can catch a train to Portsmouth and Southsea station which takes roughly one hour and 29 minutes, but it's a 27 minute walk from there to the ground.

From the closer Fratton Railway Station it's a 12 minute walk.

The only exit from the station is a footbridge - once you're over this you'll want to head left onto Goldsmith Avenue where you'll be able to see the floodlights of Fratton Park.

For the away end, you'll want to continue on this road until you get to Apsley Road where you turn left to get to the Milton End.

This one will be a pricey affair when factoring in travel to and from London, and a train from London Waterloo could set you back just over £30 for a one-way adult ticket.

By car:

This is a long old journey - the fastest route which we'll take you through has a travel time of just over five hours and is 261 miles.

Thankfully, it's relatively straight forward.

From T&A Towers in the centre of Bradford, you'll want to make your way onto the M1 southbound, heading for the A43 in Northamptonshire.

You'll spend roughly two hours and 12 minutes on Britain's backbone before heading off at Junction 15A for the A43 exit.

Then it's two roundabouts where you'll want to take the second exit on both to stay on the A43, before taking the first exit on the third roundabout.

You'll then follow the A43 until you reach two more roundabouts where it's the second exit on both to remain on the A43 once again.

There's several more roundabouts after this where you'll want to follow the same procedure of following the signs to stay on the A43.

Until you hit Cherwell Roundabout where you'll take the first exit onto the M40 S slip road and then continue onto exit 10.

Here you'll follow the M40 to the A34, and at the roundabout it's the third exit onto the A34.

You'll stay on here until you reach another roundabout where it's the third exit onto the M3 slip road to Southampton/Bournemouth/Portsmouth.

Then merge onto the M3, and when you come to junction M27, you'll want to use the two right-hand lanes to merge onto the M27.

At junction 12, use the left two lanes to merge onto M275 towards Portsmouth (W)/Sea port.

You'll continue on here until it becomes Mile End Road (A3).

There's then a number of roundabouts where you'll simply want to stay on the A2030 and when on Goldsmith Avenue look out for a left turning onto Frogmore Road and you'll see the ground.

PARKING

There is a club car park, accessed via Anson Road, off Rodney Road, but spaces here are allocated on a first-come first-served basis and it's a charge of £10 per vehicle here.

There is also limited parking around Fratton Park and parking restrictions might be in place in the roads around the stadium on a matchday.

But one source noted they didn't experience many restrictions on their visit.

Alternatively, Miltoncross School, which is a five minute walk from the ground, offers parking at £6 per car.

The school is located in Milton Road (PO3 6RB).

Finally there's a very large car park on the corner of Velder Avenue and Milton Road which is only a couple of minutes walk behind the away end and costs £5.

PUBS

There's a huge amount of options here, so we won't list them all.

Good Companion: This is the one to be at for away fans according to one of our sources. It's a casual pub, with lots of TV screens for sport - what more could you want? It's also only a 12 minute walk away from the ground.

The Shepherd's Crook: Another casual pub, which offers outdoor seating. It's probably your closest drinking hole, as it's only a five minute walk from the ground.

Milton Arms: Another option that is close by - just six minutes on foot. It's important to note this was originally a home fans only pub, but one source has said the new landlord has eased this policy.

The Old Barn: If you do have an issue getting into the Milton Arms, this one is right next door - so you won't miss out.

TEASER

As part of each guide we will put to you a trivia poser about the side City will face, or their ground.

Which ex-Pompey player once scored a "ghost goal" from the halfway line when he was playing for Tottenham Hotspur against Man United in 2005?

Last week's answer: A swift.

See last week's question here...