WeAreBrighton.com

Towards the end of the 2024-25 season, I began to get frustrated at watching away games on TV, listening to radio commentary or craning my neck at beam-backs in The Terrace. All have their charms. But none compare to the live experience of supporting Brighton & Hove Albion away in Premier League stadiums.

So, I decided to make the effort to boost my loyalty points by going to the final few away games of the campaign. This was with a view to having enough points to attend any match I wanted to in the 2025-26 season.

If I do not hit the road now with the Albion now at my age, I thought, I may never visit some of the storied stadia of English football.

For those of you who have been regulars on the road over years if not decades, what I am about to cover will probably contain little that is unfamiliar.

But I know there are many fans who, like I used to, watch Brighton almost solely at the Amex. In which case, I hope you find my reflections on the monuments, cathedrals and tin sheds that made up the Premier League stadiums in 2025-26 interesting.

A journey through 1960s music, stadium catering and motorway service stations

The journey has taken me through any number of cheesy 1960s football walkout songs. I have eaten some dire and some excellent stadium food. And I have gained a familiarity with the motorway service stations of Britain I never anticipated experiencing.

There have been pre-dawn starts and post-midnight returns from and to the Amex Stadium coach park. I have had endless hours to think and daydream as the enormous warehouse distribution hubs that now seem to line every major road across the country rolled past the window of my coach.

Each stadium has offered something strangely familiar but at the same time different to where we watch our home matches as Brighton.

The one thing I will say about the experience is that it has me appreciate certain aspects of the Amex a lot more which I have come to take for granted over the past 15 years.

Hill Dickinson and Everton set new standard for Premier League stadiums

Let us start with a two of the modern cathedrals of football. Vast, screen-lined gleaming stadia on a par with anything Europe or indeed the United States has to offer.

I had followed the construction of Everton’s new ground with interest and was delighted when the fixtures computer decided the Albion were to be the first visitors to the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

An excellent feature of this new ground is being able to see exactly what the view is like from any given seat via their online system.

Had other grounds offered this facility, I would have been spared some truly terrible vantage points. The sort of seats experienced away fans know to avoid but which I as a novice was unaware would be like watching a game through a post box.

Not that somewhere like the Hill Dickinson has any seat with such a restricted view. It was clean, noisy and somewhere Brighton were never likely to get a point from given the occasion.

The away section at the Hill Dickinson is the opposite side of the Mersey. The journey in was via Liverpool suburbs and former port industrial areas. Offering only a distant glimpse of the Liver Building and the city’s famous cathedrals.

Surprisingly for a new stadium, there was no provision for away coach parking. The walk to the ground felt longer than it probably was because of the heat of an August day.

And it definitely felt longer going back after Brighton lost 2-0 and Danny Welbeck missed a penalty.

If you only visit one of London’s Premier League stadiums… make it Tottenham

The Hill Dickinson is every bit as good as the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Even if cannot compete with the awesome sweep of the South Stand holding almost 20,000 beneath the Spurs cockerel.

If you can only go to one away game in London, I would recommend the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (or whatever it ends up being called once they finally sell the naming rights) over any other.

I have been twice now. It is an incredible sight, seeing this enormous, futuristic stadium towering over terraced houses, food markets and streets lined with barber ships and phone/vape emporia.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is a long walk from the away coach parking and it takes you past the main home supporter pub.

A coat is therefore essential. Unless you end up on a coach carrying wheelchair users, as I did for this season’s 2-2 draw with Spurs.

The choice and quality of burgers and other food shows what can be done at a football stadium. In stark contrast to what Sodexo serve up at the Amex.

As I watched the sun drop behind the shiny façade of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, I found myself kind of hoping Roberto De Zerbi would keep Spurs up. Just so I can return again next season.

It was a strange, conflicted feeling to have. Part of me also wanted one of the ‘Big Six’ to be relegated to shake the Premier League elite out of their complacency and often mockery of #TeamsLikeBrighton (not to mention Bournemouth and Brentford).

De Zerbi obviously got the job done. “Balls, big balls” that guy.

Craven Cottage offers a taste of what football was like in its golden age

Craven Cottage is one of those rare Premier League stadiums which offers the best of both worlds. It is halfway between the modern stadia of Spurs and Everton but also firmly in the old school of football grounds.

The cottage itself remains externally unchanged, still sitting in the corner of the ground where I first saw it following Brighton to his corner of West London half a century ago.

Opposite is the huge new Riverside Stand. A stark contrast to the low, 1950s style stand opposite, which appears somehow to have retained its wooden seating despite the horrors of Bradford.

If Fulham club legend Johnny Haynes ever popped back from beyond the grave, he would still recognise today’s Craven Cottage as the same place he lit up over the 1950s and 1960s. He would also spot his statue outside.

Sandwiched between the Thames and the leafy terraces of Fulham, Craven Cottage is a taste of what football was like in its golden age.

A beautiful contrast with the ever-changing London skyline now dominated by tall buildings. And of course that state-of-the-art Riverside Stand.

I will not mourn Molineux missing off the list of Premier League stadiums next season

One ground I have been to twice and will not miss next season is Molineux. Crossing a busy dual carriageway to get there from the away coach parking is no fun but does set the tone for a miserable experience to come.

Its away section is stretched along the length of one stand. Just a dozen or so rows deep from the touchline. Meaning both views and atmosphere are awful.

The cheap plastic seating is cramped and uncomfortable – even sitting in it for just 15 minutes during for half time. Two stars, do not recommend.

Nottingham Forest is little better, although my experience at the City Ground may have been coloured by a rain-soaked front row seat whose view of the goal was almost entirely blocked by stewards.

It was no surprise to me that the flimsy away end seating did not survive the visit of enthusiastic Fenerbahce fans in a Europa League tie a few weeks after Maxim De Cuyper and Stefanos Tzimas gave the Albion a 2-0 win there.

Few Premier League stadiums carry footballing history like Anfield

One of the reasons I decided to hit the road whilst I still can was to visit Anfield. Seeing the vast, heaving mass of the Kop on Match of the Day was a staple of Saturday nights in my youth, along with a stern Jimmy Hill lecture about the overly physical conduct of whoever Liverpool were playing.

Few Premier League stadiums if any carry the weight of footballing history that Anfield does; Old Trafford excepted.

Modern-day Anfield is a Triggers Broom of a stadium. Stands have been demolished and rebuilt several times since the days of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. Yet you can still feel the history seeping out of the walls.

To a first time time visitor, it is perhaps a surprise that the ground borders a leafy park. But the iconic Anfield Gates with ironwork You’ll Never Walk Alone letters really brings home the tradition of where you are.

The broad, open concourse to the away end was oddly spotless. As if the ghosts of a thousand Liverpudlian grandmothers had scrubbed it clean the night before.

A steward of similar vintage to myself chided me for commenting on the cold Merseyside temperatures for the Albion’s December visit.

He implied a soft Southerner like me did not know what a proper cold day in the north west was really like.

I often sympathise with away fans at the Amex who have travelled long distances, only to face a long, post-defeat return journey.

Other than the last minute catastrophe at Elland Road though, most long trips back to Brighton in 2025-26 after losing have been little different to ones where we have won.

Seeing and experiencing places like Anfield and Old Trafford helps take the sting out of defeat – for a first time visitor at least.

Rivalry aside… Palace have the worst ground in the Premier League

All rivalry aside and with a grudging congratulations for their now bulging trophy cabinet, Crystal Palace have the worst stadium in the Premier League.

Selhurst Park is perhaps the ground I am most familiar with. I was a frequent visitor when the Brighton-Palace rivalry took off.

Including one game almost involving an incident of juvenile hooligan violence between myself and a Palace ball boy.

Parts of Selhurst have not changed since the days Alan Mullery thought Palace not worth that. The away end toilets are probably even older than me and the view from the back of the Arthur Waite Stand built in 1969 is nicely obscured by a wooden TV gantry.

If they are winning trophies and playing in Europe regularly, Palace supporters and visitors to Selhurst Park deserve better. The Sainsbury’s is handy though.

Vitality Stadium has a certain League One charm

If Selhurst does not seem compatible with hosting Europa League football in 2026-27, neither does the Vitality Stadium. What Bournemouth do have though is a certain League One charm and intimacy.

Other stadiums with tiny capacities on the continent have hosted European football before. Yet there have always been rumours the Cherries would have to decamp to Southampton if they ever qualified.

Those rumours have now been proven inaccurate. Although it is hard to imagine huge crowds of tifo waving, flare throwing ultras from Italy or Greece surging through the sedate, suburban cul-de-sac and across the cricket pitch via which the stadium is accessed.

Games between Bournemouth and the Albion are often wrongly called a South Coast Derby. The Vitality Stadium is actually twice the distance from Brighton as all the Premier League stadiums in London.

But it is still half-as-close as those in the West Midlands. Making it a convenient away day which ensures Seagulls get a journey along the A27.

Brentford is small but perfectly formed

Small but perfectly formed is perhaps an apt description for the Gtech Stadium. It is crammed into a seemingly impossible space, occupying a former rail siding next to a main line, hemmed in by newly built flats and slightly unnervingly close to the Heathrow flight path.

Smart, modern and with plenty of screens, I liked it. But probably because Brighton beat Brentford 1-0 for the victory which turned the season around.

I am struggling to offer much of an opinion on Burnley, oddly tucked behind another cricket pitch. Turf Moor was okay; another one of those old school stadiums.

It is off the menu for next season as the Clarets continue to yo-yo between the Premier League and Championship.

In any case, I may not have returned. Burnley is at the top end of how far I can travel in terms of distance and time.

Bland stands and average catering at Elland Road

Which makes it similar to Elland Road. Like Forest, Leeds is not a ground I am keen to revisit. It does not carry the same sense of history as the homes of England’s traditionally big clubs.

Elland Road has bland stands and average catering. Leeds fans understandably hold it in huge affection; just as Albion supporters would if the Goldstone Ground still existed.

The one positive I will give Leeds is that it is a stadium build on generations of families going to the same ground whatever the structural changes and whatever division the team are playing their football.

Easy to see why Arsenal wish they had Spurs’ stadium

Just as Everton fans found themselves adjusting to new surroundings this season, it was Arsenal supporters undergoing the same process 20 years ago when they said goodbye to historic Highbury.

I went to the Emirates Stadium for the Albion’s Carabao Cup defeat on a wet Wednesday night, so it was not hugely enjoyable for the football.

The Emirates felt much smaller in real life than it looks on TV – although you can say the same for most Premier League stadiums.

I can see why and how they want to increase the current 60,000 capacity. The extremely shallow rake of the lower tier feels like wasted space.

What Arsenal really need is to copy the dizzying slopes of the South Stand at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The best word I can think of to describe the Emirates is meh. But it is a short trip, an easy away day and I will probably be back again next season.

I keep going to Stamford Bridge and I don’t know why

Stamford Bridge was another one of my London repeat trips and I do not really know why. It is a long, slightly complicated walk from the coach drop off point.

For the return journey, my coach has been quite lucky these past two seasons in that we have been picked up right outside afterwards; but still not close enough to avoid the inevitable clashes as Chelsea and Brighton fans mix.

Stamford Bridge is basically a faded 1980s construction with a hotel (which Chelsea can sell to themselves for PSR reasons) bolted onto the front.

It must represent a disappointment to any visitors expecting something swankier from the Grand Old Lady of London football in one of its wealthiest boroughs.

Clearly, the vast sums of cash sprayed around by Todd Boehly and BlueCo on players and staff have left nothing to spruce up the dated, worn and mismatched stands.

Maybe Chelsea would have been better off spending some of the £250 million they have paid Brighton since summer 2022 on Stamford Bridge? Not that Tony Bloom and Paul Barber are complaining, I am sure.

Villa Park my favourite away day of the season even in defeat

So, you might ask, what was your favourite away day of the 2025-26 season, you miserable old git?

Obviously, any games where we came away with three points. Brentford and Chelsea were good. The 6-0 goal fest at Oxford United in the Carabao Cup was great fun.

And not just because the Kassam Stadium has a carpark and a bowling alley behind one of the goals rather than a stand.

Best of all though? Aston Villa. For reasons I cannot quite put my finger on, I enjoyed Villa Park the most even though Brighton lost.

I had been looking forward to visiting since catching a glimpse of the stadium from the M6 when driving to Wolves.

Villa Park is not too far but at the same time, far enough to represent a decent day out rather than a short hop to the capital.

From the stewards to the catering staff, everyone was friendly and wanted to chat about the Albion. The food was reasonable and so was the view. Villa Park itself was imposing and the right mix of the old and the new.

An away coach park located in a muddy and fairly remote industrial lorry stop was the only downside. Oh, and sitting in a puddle of my own spilled coffee for four hours on the way there.

Missing West Ham was probably a blessing in disguise

I missed the Premier League game at the Emirates and the late December visit to West Ham. Not that I was too upset about skipping the London Stadium.

Previous experience told me the only way to see what is happening on the pitch is with a pair of binoculars. Should suit Southampton in the Championship next season, then.

A midweek trip to the Etihad Stadium returning to Brighton in the early hours of the morning did not entice me to part with my cash.

Sunderland was a few hours and a couple of hundred miles too far. Similarly, the long journey to Newcastle only to watch from a stand so high you need oxygen and a Sherpa to reach your seat did not appeal.

In any case, I have been to Newcastle once before. It was a very different St James’ Park back in 1979 when Brighton beat the Toon to secure promotion to the top flight for the first time.

A friendly Geordie local put the window of our coach in with a freshly drained bottle of the eponymous brown ale, resulting in an extremely cold and windy journey home. I think I am still warming up from that trip almost 50 years later.

Four Premier League away wins for all those miles covered and stadiums visited

My back of the envelope calculations puts my combined travel this season at around 4,500 miles. That is roughly equal to a one way journey to the Kazakh capital Almaty or Tromso in the Arctic Circle. Where the Conference League may well take Brighton in 2026-27.

For all that tarmac covered and all those hours on the coach, I only saw Brighton win four Premier League away games. Plus the 6-0 in the City of Dreaming Spires.

My top tips for away travel, other than hoping to witness more than one victory for every one thousand miles covered?

Take your big coat for anything north of London. A power bank for your phone is a good idea. And choose your seat wisely in the away end if you can.

For me, the best part about travelling and watching Brighton in 2025-26 has been the atmosphere in the away sections of each of the Premier League stadiums we have visited.

At the Amex, the most vocal supporters are all dispersed and disjointed across the North Stand. At away matches, everyone is packed together. And everyone joins in. The noise Brighton fans have made on the road has been incredible at times.

Enough to take me back to my youth under the metal roof of the Goldstone North Stand. I even forget the aches and pains of my advancing years whilst watching; at least until half time when the strains of standing for an hour catch up with me.

Premier League (and Conference League) stadiums to visit in 2026-27

I am glad I made the effort to see some of the stadiums which were legendary when I was a kid. The homes of the biggest clubs in England and the pitches graced by greats of the game from George Best to Bobby Moore to Bobby Charlton.

Seagull Travel had made my away day season pretty straightforward, comfortable and affordable. From the Amex to whichever Premier League venue Brighton are playing at that day (or night).

Having someone take responsibility for the driving and navigating makes the whole experience much more enjoyable.

Nobody in their right mind looks forward to driving themselves back down the M1 at midnight in the pouring rain after a grim defeat.

Will I do it again next season? My credit card and bank balance says no. But there are still a couple of grounds to tick off the list.

The Etihad is one I am keen to get too. And the newly promoted sides of course. A weekend in my former university home city of Hull beckons invitingly. And I like the idea of heading to Coventry perhaps a little better than Ipswich, but we will see.

That all lies ahead. In a new season with the familiar and the new. A fresh domestic and European fixture list to pick and choose from.

And who knows? Maybe even a really big away game in Turkey to look forward to on June 2nd 2027.

Warren Morgan @warrenmorgan

Join the WAB WhatsApp Channel

Join our new WAB WhatsApp Channel to receive the latest Brighton news and opinion straight to your phone. Just click here and select ‘Join Community’ to get started.

Once joined, unmute the channel in the top right to receive notifications. No one will be able to see your personal information and you will only receive messages from WAB.

About The Author