London Road

Sunday, 29 March 2009

Peterborough United 2-0 Leicester City

Birdseye view of London Road (Live Maps)

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 7/10

Ease of getting there : 8/10

Atmosphere : 10/10

Programme : 8/10

View of Action : 6/10

Quality of the game : 7/10

The "football" feeling : 8/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 6/10

Legroom : N/A

Surrounding area : 4/10

Overall : 64/100

The Programme cover

The Norwich & Peterborough south stand

London Road Terrace

Main Stand

Our 4,000 travelling supporters

The back of the Moyes End Terrace

The back of the Main Stand

The Cathedral from London Road

Peterborough United 2-0 Leicester City

London Road is home of Peterborough United (The Posh). Adrian and I caught the 9:30am bus from The Walkers Stadium to Peterborough. We finally reached Peterborough services where the police would lead us into the city. 11:45am - We were finally off the coach and crammed into the packed terrace for our 12noon kick off.

Peterborough deserved a 2-0 win. Leicester were awful which was a disappointment for our 4,000 travelling supporters. It was also Peterborough’s biggest attendance in modern time reaching 14,110 out of its capacity of 15,460. The last time I (Ross) saw Leicester City lose away was last year at the Ricoh Arena which was also a 2-0 loss against Coventry City. I can’t really complain!

In 1953, the new covered terracing behind the Moyes End goal with a matching facility following within a couple of years behind the London Road End goal.
By 1956, the steelwork for the pitch long main stand was taking shape behind the old wooden stand and the new stand, with over 2,404 seats and standing enclosures in front, was opened for the 1957-8 season. The old stand was demolished and throughout that campaign the pitch remained in its old position before being moved some 30 yards north.

This allowed a new standing terrace to be created on the Glebe Road side which later had four executive boxes, topped by a television platform, erected at the back. The modern look to London Road had been completed in February 1960 when Arsenal provided the opposition in a game to officially launch the ground's first floodlights, the actual switch on ceremony being performed by Football League chairman Joe Richards.

When Posh gained promotion to the new First Division after a Wembley play-off success in 1992, seated capacity was below the levels required by the Taylor report and the shortfall was solved by converting the Main Stand's standing enclosures with around 700 seats bought second hand from Leicester City, when they re-developed one of the Filbert Street stands, and with a further 300 seats from Millwall's Old Den.

By the mid-1990s Posh were looking to provide even more seats by building a completely new 5,000 capacity stand on Glebe Road side. The contract worth £1.4 million went to Lincoln contractors Linpave who had completed similar projects for Lincoln City and Burnley. The Football Trust contributed around £900,000 and the old terraces were demolished in the summer of 1995 and the new stand was brought into use for the final few games of the 1995-96 season.

The London Road and Moyes End terraces, little changed since completion in the 1950s, were re-roofed and fitted with extended crush barriers to comply with increased safety requirements.
The Cathedral can be seen from the London Road car park and is recommended a visit.