'WHAT A DUMP' - Grim grounds, soulless stands and bad pies: English football's worst away days as our reporters name their stadiums to avoid

You know the feeling. Your alarm goes off. You leap out of bed like you never can for a day's honest graft. You meet your pals, board the coach or train and set sail on an away day you hope will be spoken about for years to come.

But sometimes, they are remembered for all the wrong reasons. A heavy defeat, pouring rain or just the fact the stadium you visited left a lasting bad impression.

Much is said, and written, about English football's best away days. So we asked our reporters to come up with the worst from their first-hand experiences.

With apologies in advance to any football clubs offended by the making of this article, here are Mirror Football's stadiums to avoid...

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To get it, it's a quick and easy one-two:

1. Head THIS WAY

When Luton were promoted to the Premier League, you couldn't move for internet memes about their away end. Football fans the world over were seemingly amazed that you had to walk through a row of terraced houses to access it.

As a result, Kenilworth Road seemed to acquire a certain charm. Cult status, even. For everybody except those that had actually had the misfortune of visiting. What a dump.

If you haven't had the pleasure, yes - the back garden thing is a bit of novelty - but it's soon forgotten about once you get through the turnstiles. There is no concourse to speak of, one small kiosk serving crap pies and the view from the away end is among the worst in the English game.

For clarity, I'm no football snob. I love old, traditional grounds. Oakwell and Turf Moor spring to mind. But Luton is grim. Both the mile or so walk from the train station and the stadium itself. Sorry, Hatters fans.

This might be quite a popular shout (or unpopular depending on your perspective) but the London Stadium is just not a ground that’s fit for football. Yes, it’s a great arena. But for the sport actually played there, not so much.

Just ask West Ham fans how it measures up to the Boleyn Ground. Simply put, it doesn’t.

The fact that you have to walk through a shopping centre to get there is bizarre. The huge gap between the two tiers of the away end is baffling. And the cost of everything inside of the stadium is eye-watering. It’s just a very odd set-up.

The only saving grace is that I was able to see a win there which given the form of Leicester City over recent seasons is notable.

You know those away days that stand out as soon as the fixture list gets released? This was one. Blackpool vs Carlisle - December 9 2023.

Carlisle had just been promoted to League One after triumphing at Wembley and Blackpool were among the host of decent-sized clubs in the North West we'd be visiting as fans. New owners in the house, Christmas just around the corner - let's have it.

It turned out to be one of the few away games I wish I hadn't bothered with. It all started a few weeks prior, when my grandad and I queued for three hours at Brunton Park just to get a ticket because the online system wasn't working.

After excitedly driving down the M6 on Saturday morning, our first stop in Lancashire was the car park near Bloomfield Road. Pulling in, all we could see was a huddle of bemused faces trying to work out how to use the payment app (we eventually got there).

It was, obviously for December in Blackpool, blowing a gale and lashing down with rain. We thought we'd be fine under cover at the match.

Which is your least favourite stadium? Let us know in the comments!

Wrong. Standing at the top of the away section felt like being up the Big Dipper, with the fencing doing little to quell the weather. This was back when Blackpool had a reduced capacity for travelling supporters and I'm still not sure how I squeezed through the narrow concourse entrance for a half-time pint.

Oh, and the football. One of the weakest displays from Carlisle during that wretched 2023-24 season - and that's saying something. A 3-0 defeat and a performance so bad it ended careers at the club.

Things only got worse at full-time, as Paul Simpson got an earful from a portion of the 1,977-strong following and subsequently went on Radio Cumbria to hit back.

"I don't need that in my life," Simpson bemoaned. I sometimes think that about supporting Carlisle.

The name is actually even worse now, with Select Car Leasing giving Reading's home stadium one of the most soulless sponsorship names in the Football League. That said, the ground itself has always come across pretty soulless.

This isn't even born out of bad experiences, I've seen my team win their numerous times, the last visit saw us nab an 86th-minute winner in midweek. Lovely that was.

I know it's becoming increasingly popular, but stadiums built on industrial estates on the outskirts of town are just the antipathy of football passion. Three miles, an hour walk, from the station. That stroll is part of the occasion.

For a pre-match pint, your best bet is the bar at a Holiday Inn 10 minutes away. The atmosphere? Largely absent. If your biggest compliment about a ground is how convenient it is to leave it, it's pretty dire. Thank God it's so close to the M4.

When I first started going out with my now wife, I agreed to accompany her on a trip to watch her side, Coventry, play Barnet in League Two.

It was October 2017 and I was full of hope for a jolly day out. I thought it was only a short hop up the Northern Line, but it turned into a much longer schlep, requiring a bus from High Barnet Station to The Hive.

The high ticket price had already soured my mood somewhat and the football we were subjected to on that fateful day still sticks with me.

It was an absolute dirge - the sort of match which makes you question why you bother, especially when you don't have any great affiliation with the side you're supporting.

It was extremely 0-0; the Press Association match report notes that it was "an even affair" with "neither side able to test the goalkeepers". I've held a grudge against Barnet ever since.