Burton Albion vs. NORWICH CITY

Match: Burton Albion 2 - 1 NORWICH CITY

League: EFL Championship

Stadium: Pirelli Stadium

Date: February 18th, 2017 - Kick Off: 3:00 PM

Preview

Norwich came into this game 7th in the league on the back of a 6 game unbeaten run, including a thumping 5-1 win over Nottingham Forest a week ago and a promising yet slightly disappointing 2-2 draw against the league leaders Newcastle, in the midweek game, having led the game with 10 minutes to go. They found themselves only 2 points off the play-off places behind 6th placed Sheffield Wednesday. Norwich are, however, notorious for being fairly poor away from home, having only won 1 game in their last 10 on the road.

Burton Albion are currently looking over their shoulders having lost 6 in their last 7, failing to find the net in 5 of those games, sitting only 2 points above the relegation zone before the game. Burton have, however, made a few promising loan signings in the January transfer window, that have boosted recent performances and were beginning to make a real impact.

Norwich were clear favourites on their first ever visit to the Pirelli Stadium, hoping to pile more pressure on Burton Albion, and keep up with the rest of the play-off chasing pack.

Tickets

Price: 20 Pounds

Tickets for this game were a very reasonable £20. Having paid over £30 for most previous away games, this came at a pleasant surprise. Tickets were purchased on a points system that Norwich occasionally use, mainly when there will be a high demand for tickets, or the allocation is low. Both of these were relevant for this game. It's a way of making sure only the most loyal of away supporters get access to tickets, building up your points every time you travel to an away fixture. The biggest attraction for these tickets is that we were placed in a terraced stand, all standing, which creates a better atmosphere and adds a bit of authenticity to the fixture.

Here is the view below:

Travel to Stadium

Method: Car

We travelled to the game by car, journey time was around 3.5 hours from Norwich, heading down the A11 and joining the A14 at Cambridge before heading up the M1 towards Derby. A pleasant surprise on the outskirts of Burton was driving past St George's Park, the state of the art training facilities used by the England National team.

We were very lucky to find parking right outside the stadium for a decent price of £5, this was helped by the small size of the stadium, meaning not many people were clogging up the car parks! From the car park, we headed down Derby Road, to the nearest pub with a sea of yellow and green outside of it!

Stadium

After a few drinks in the pub and watching Lincoln City's FA Cup giant killing of Burnley on the big screen, we headed to the stadium. With a capacity of less than 7,000, it didn't take us long to get in. After quick security checks, it was up one flight of stairs to the back of the stand, then walking down to take our place on the terrace, on the right hand side of the stand, near the corner flag.

This pitch wasn't in great condition, as you'd expect from a team of such small size and wealth. Threee of the stands were terraced, with just the main stand having seating, with the directors boxes, changing rooms and dugouts needing a little more luxury than the standing fans. Built in 2005, I expected a little more from this stadium, if this is an improvement on their last stadium, I could happily say I'm glad I didn't visit the old place!

Atmosphere

The atmosphere was expectedly quiet due to only 5,100 people actually attending the game, a fifth of the 27,000 I'm used to seeing at home games! Norwich did, though, sell out their allocation of around 1,700 tickets and we're creating a reasonable amount of noise before the start of the game.

However, when the game began, it was nothing like the match we were hoping for, with all hope and expectation going out of the window midway through the first half when Burton took the lead through loan signing Cauley Woodrow, after some poor Norwich defending! Norwich rode out the first half and came out fighting after the break, mainly thanks to the Irish Messi himself, Wes Hoolahan. Cameron Jerome equalised with a slice of luck, after a mis-hit shot cannoned off his face and into the bottom corner, leading Norwich fans into a sense of belief we could pick up a win. Only a few minutes later and Burton had retaken the lead, with Michael Kightly cutting inside and lobbing the Norwich keeper from around 25 yards. That goal would eventually be enough for Burton to record their most important win of the season. A poor performance from Norwich is not what they wanted a week before the enormous East Anglian Derby against Ipswich, the game we all look for on the fixture list!

Away fans packed into the terrace behind the goal -->

Injury Time (Overall Review)

On the whole, it was a bad day for Norwich and the fans, with angry chanting towards the players after the final whistle, I even witnessed a few fans fighting amongst themselves after a truly frustrating afternoon against a team they were fully expected to beat. Visiting the stadium was a good thing for me as it's ticked another one off the list and taking me closer to the famous '92'. Norwich's play-off hopes were severely dampened with the teams around them all picking up important wins. More pressure is building on Alex Neil after recieving his fair amount of grief in and around the Christmas period. One thing is for sure, is Norwich fail to beat Ipswich next week, more and more people will be calling for his head!

Burton, however, were delighted with the result as it moves them closer to safety in a league they'd only dreamed of being in, a few years ago. Nigel Clough is doing a great job there and you can really sense how much the fans love having him there. It's great to see the smaller clubs doing well, although perhaps. It at the expense of my own team!

Despite the football, a good away day in all, decent pub, good beers and friendly people. Burton is also very central to most of the country, making it easily accessible to most travelling supporters. Although 3.5 hours seems a long way for most, it's actually one of Norwich's closest games, due to being miles away from any other main cities!

Thanks for reading, I hope you've enjoyed, I'll be back next week with a review of the East Anglian Derby, or as it's known in the area, 'the old farm derby' in reference to 'the old firm' played out in Glasgow!

TTS (The Traveling Supporter) Rating: 7/10