Sheffield United's Bramall Lane

Sheffield United's Bramall Lane is arguably the best all-around ground with a decent distance of Lincoln and the biggest local side. It's one of the few grounds you can reach directly on the train and is probably my favourite ground in any of the surrounding counties.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL PICTURES IN THIS REVIEW WERE TAKEN IN NOVEMBER 2009 ON A NON-MATCH DAY, HENCE THE LIGHTS ALL OVER THE PITCH.

With Sheffield being about 40odd miles away, the two Sheffield clubs (three if you count Rotherham as they play in Sheffield) are amongst the easiest grounds to get to in the country for Lincoln fans (if we ever play them that is). It is one of the few cities you can reach directly on the train from Lincoln and it's only about an hours drive. In terms of getting to Bramall Lane, only the two Nottingham clubs really rival it for easiness.

For both trips I went on the train (before getting a lift back due to no trains going back to Lincoln on a night game after about 8:30pm) and getting to the ground from the train station is easy enough. The ground is well sign posted and is about a 10/15 minute walk from the town centre, meaning there is plenty to do before the game. Specifically around the ground itself is quite a bit to do itself.

 THE GAC STAND

Once inside the ground, you're greeted with a brilliant all around ground and it certainly has a lot of character to the ground. The away end is a two tiered effort and is probably the least aesthetically pleasing stand within the ground. However, the view from the top tier is decent enough and a decent atmosphere can be created.

To the right is the GAC Stand, one of the more uniquely designed stands in the Football League, having two massive blades in the stand, a design you're not likely to see even slightly replicated elsewhere. It reminds me a bit of the stands at Preston North End's Deepdale with it's faces on the seats.

THE AWAY END - THE HALLIWELLS STAND

The stand opposite the away end is the Kop Stand (how many stands do we need called Kop in the country) and is offers a great view of the pitch from the back of the stand. You can see in the picture of the Visit Malta Stand that the view from the back of the KOP offers a very good view of the rest of the pitch. The main noise at Bramall Lane comes from this stand and it is probably the fullest of all the stands at Bramall Lane.

The final stand is again pitch length and although not as impressive as it's opposite number, is a decent enough stand. However, the view out of this stand isn't exactly brilliant as you feel like you're only just off of pitch level, even if nearly at the top.

 THE VISIT MALTA STAND

The atmosphere at Bramall Lane is fairly decent, it may not be a world beating atmoshere but it, from my experiences, is better than the atmosphere at their city rivals. The atmosphere does get better whenever they score before then dying back down to it's normal levels. I can't really say if they go silent when losing as they haven't conceded in either of my visits.

People around the ground seemed friendly enough, with the staff especially going out of their way to make people feel welcome. On the same day as getting the photos I also went to Sheffield Wednesday, they were of the "Don't do this, don't do that" attitude, whereas Sheffield United were pleasent, informative and just said "Feel free to just wander around and get as many photos as you want."

THE KOP

Overall I really like Bramall Lane and would happily go there on a more regular basis if I ever stopped going to watch City. THe only issue with the entire day out is that with a lot of Sheffield United fans living in places such as Gainsborough, Worksop and Retford, the trains to and from Sheffield do get really crowded on a match day.