Burnley

Burnley v Reading

Sky Bet Championship
Turf Moor

Saturday 29^th October 2022

3pm

Journey Time to the ground: 5 hours.  We decided to leave nice and early for this one so were out of the house just after 7:15am.  We had a short stop at Stafford Services to have some breakfast and arrived in Burnley just before 12:15pm.  As we were so early we manged to park in Lebanon Street which is about a five minute walk from Turf Moor.

Ticket Price: £25

Programme Price: £3.50

Attendance: 18,684 with 691 Reading fans.

This was my first visit to Turf Moor and as we had arrived very early we headed into the town centre to have a look around and grab some lunch at The Boot Inn, ticking off another Weatherspoon's pub!  We walked back to the ground and had a look in the club shop before making our way into the ground.  We had tickets in the away end, the Barnfield Construction Stand, behind the goal at one end.  The Barnfield Construction Stand is a single-tiered all-seater stand which is shared with home supporters.  The view from midway up the stand wasn't too bad, although there were a couple of pillars in the way.  The leg room was quite tight but this wasn't an issue as we were stood up for the whole game.

To the left of the Barnfield Construction Stand is the North Stand.  This is a large two-tiered all-seater stand.  Opposite the Barnfield Construction Stand is the Utilita Jimmy McIlroy Stand, another large two-tiered all-seater stand.  To the right of the Barnfield Construction Stand is the Bob Lord Stand.  This is a smaller single-tiered all-seater stand but is still considered the main stand at Turf Moor and houses the team dug-outs at its front.  The most vociferous Burnley fans seemed to congregate in the home half of the Barnfield Construction Stand and half of the North Stand closest to the away fans.

Burnley were riding high in the Championship and looking good for an instant return to the Premier League however the first-half was a fairly even affair with neither side managing to create many clear-cut chances.

Reading took the lead against the run of play ten minutes into the second-half with a classic route one goal.  Goalkeeper Joe Lumley's long clearance was flicked on by Yakou Meite into the path of Tom Ince's who hit an excellent first-time finish past Arijanet Muric in the Burnley goal.  The Clarets were level ten minutes later with Manuel Benson hitting an excellent volley from the edge of the area into the bottom corner of the net.  The game ended in controversial circumstances when Reading were denied a stonewall penalty when Ian Maatsen felled Ince in the box, Burnley broke down the other end and Anass Zaroury headed in a 94^th minute winner.

Atmosphere: The atmosphere at Turf Moor was electric.  The Burnley fans really get behind the team and make some noise.  The atmosphere in the away end was also really good as we actually managed to make noise for the whole 90 minutes which added to the atmosphere as a whole.

Journey Time home: 5 hours 30 minutes.  We arrived back at the car just before 5pm, however the traffic was pretty heavy getting out of Burnley onto the motorway.  We'd decided we were going to make the most of the day and as the Rugby League World Cup was on, planned to spend the evening watching Australia v Italy in St Helens.  It took us just under two hours to get to St Helens from Burnley and after watching Australia batter the Italians we grabbed some dinner at McDonalds before setting off for home.  We left McDonalds at 10pm and got home at 1:40am, making it a pretty long day!

I really enjoyed my trip to Turf Moor despite the result!  It's an impressive ground and the Burnley support make for a really good atmosphere.  I can see the ground being somewhat of a fortress for the Clarets in the Championship as the atmosphere is very partizan and I would imagine a little intimidating to play in.