Visited West Ham for the Capital One Cup game with Cheltenham, in the away end (of course!). A decent crowd of just over 22,000 turned out for what was a very entertaining game, with Town running their Premier League opponents very close.

Upton Park (as I insist on calling it) is close to a number of Tube stations on the District Line, with Upton Park Station the nearest. Be warned though - there is a long queue for this station after the game, so it may be better to walk to one of the other nearby stations such as East Ham. We parked at Upminster then got the train to Barking, and Tube from there to Upton Park. Had a pint in a very reasonably-priced Wetherspoons just outside Barking Station, which was busy but not packed so managed to get a seat. Only about 10-15 minutes from there to Upton Park as well, and about 25 minutes overall to Upminster.

The area around the stadium is typically suburban London, with terraced housing and multi-cultural shops and residents. There are loads of takeaways in the vicinity of the ground, but we didn't try any of them so can't vouch for their quality. We also only saw one pub (the Queens) next to the ground, but my understanding is that the pubs close to the stadium are very home-oriented so away fans may be better to drink further afield as we did.

Ticket prices for our game were a very reasonable £10 in advance, so I couldn't fault West Ham for value. The programme was excellent, with quite a bit of space given to the visiting team, which is unusual. The stadium itself is a "proper" ground with a good atmosphere, even when not full, although the away support did outsing the hosts. The only downside to inside the stadium was the food - the burger I got was tough, cold, and just generally poor. Wish I'd tried those takeaways outside...