We set off on the coach from Southampton at 6am with the intention of getting there for pub opening time!, good to form we turned up at 11:00am on the dot!, however once we got there none of the stewards had a clue where to put us, on asking some questions we were greeted with answers from them such as "I don't know where to put your coach" and "I don't know, I don't even like football!"

Once finally off the coach we set about finding a pub, after treking up and down what I decided to call "Mount Sheffield" we finally found a pub that was open, "The Wadsley Jack", this is a pub which welcomes away fans and did not seem to bother that a group of 40 away fans had walked into the pub together and even welcomed us, we did pass other pubs on our hunt such as Horse and Jockey and The Rose and Crown but they did not seem to open till 12:00.

The rain was pouring down and we made our way on mass down towards the stadium, the locals seemed very friendly and even had a laugh at us who some had come un-prepared being from the sunny South coast,and were left with the mile walk back to the ground in just a t-shirt!, these were greeted with chants of "Here for the Weather!, we're only here for the weather!".

Once inside the ground it was old fashioned but very spacious, we were housed on the upper tier which was spacious with plenty of leg room. They would not serve beer to away fans which was disappointing!, if you are in the upper tier then you can really get some noise bouncing out off the roof. Unfortunately for some reason there was not much atmosphere coming from the Wednesday fans, whether that is because they have got rid of that annoying band now I am not sure.

The game finished 1-0 to Southampton and we all left happy and even had time for some banter with the locals before we set off home for the long journey, finally getting back into my local at 10pm.

The final verdict being that Sheffield is worth a visit, although not an ancient ground it is "old-school" and has lots of character, the locals are friendly and there are plenty of pubs to drink in as long as you don't mind climbing a mountain to get to them!.