Cardiff International Sports Stadium

Cardiff International Sports Stadium

Leckwith Road

Cardiff 

Wales

CF11 8AZ

029 2025 0400

Official Site

Wikipedia Page

Ground Number: 1085
Saturday 9th July 2022
Cardiff City 3-2 Cambridge United
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LECKWITH STADIUM HISTORY

The original Leckwith Stadium was built in 1989. It had an attractive stand, holding around 2,600 and was home to teams such as Cardiff Grange Harlequins and Inter Cardiff. The latter played European football there, hosting GKS Katowice in 1994 and NK Gorica in 1999. It was also home to the Cardiff City women and youth teams. It was demolished in 2007 to make way for a wider development, including the new Cardiff City Stadium, the International Sports Campus and its replacement, the Cardiff International Sports Stadium. This has a capacity of 4,953 of which 2,400 is seated. Cardiff City women and youngsters play there as well as Canton Rugby Club. Cardiff City was using the stadium for their friendlies whilst their main pitch was being relaid.

MY VISIT

I first spotted this game when it was retweeted around social media and really fancied going. However, Cardiff City put the word out on social media that they would only sell to people with previous purchase history and I thought no more of it. However, after looking around, I couldn't find anything I fancied, so I turned my attention back to Wales. The main reason for this was that Canton Liberal had organised a game at 11.00 next door and with me spending my Friday in Broadwell, it would be ideal. I initially had a revisit to Corsham Town for my third game and based my middle game on that, assuming that I'd not be able to get a Cardiff ticket. It was highly frustrating as all options would involve a large detour and getting to Corsham late. So, on the off-chance, I emailed Cardiff on Thursday night. In the meantime, I asked on the Non-League Matters forum to see if they could find anything. User GCNC pulled a rabbit out of the hat with Wattsville v Llanhilleth Athletic which was a small detour on the way to Corsham and a railed pitch. I said I'd go there and was starting to look forward to it, more so than the Cardiff game to be honest.

 However, on Friday morning, Cardiff said to pop into the ticket office and they would sell me a ticket. This was great and proves that if you ask nicely, people are willing to help out. It would save me a few miles of petrol and as it turned out, it was a blessing in disguise as I'd later change my third game following a tip-off from a fellow hopper. From my game at Canton Liberal, it was a few minutes' walk to the ground. There were the usual bag checks but it was all friendly enough. When I went into the ground I saw the hopper that I'd earlier tipped off about the tickets and said a brief hello. The Cambridge United fans had travelled well and were in good voice and the place was pretty busy. The Cardiff fans were wearing quite a few retro shirts from the 90s which bought back a few memories and I think it's something Wycombe should do.

The hosts started brightly and on 10 minutes they took the lead when former Luton man James Collins bundled home a deflected cross from close range. Cardiff thought they had doubled their lead on 21 minutes but Andy Rinomhota's excellent 20-yard shot that went in off the post was disallowed for a foul in the build-up. Cambridge took full advantage of this and on 38 minutes they were level when Harvey Knibbs headed home a cross from ten yards. The second half saw multiple changes, including former Wycombe keeper Ryan Alsopp making his first Cardiff appearance.  The hosts retook the lead on 55 minutes, Max Watters turning in a left-wing cross at the near post. On 76 minutes, it was 3-1 thanks to a run and through-ball to set up Joel Bagan. The game looked as good as over especially when Cardiff came close to scoring a 4th. However, on 89 minutes, Cambridge pulled one back on the break thanks to Saikou Janneh.

THE GROUND

THE CARDIFF INTERNATIONAL SPORTS STADIUM is a decent setup but isn't really suited to watching football. Thanks to the eight-lane running track and another large area, the stand is set well back from the pitch although its height means that the view is not terrible but you do feel really detached from the action. The stand holds 2,400 although it looks bigger. There is also lots of standing available around the pitch although only half of this was available on my visit. Outside, there's a huge retail park with places like Mcdonald's and this is probably your best bet. The food inside the ground is very pricey and although the £7 burgers looked nice, the £6 cheesy chips looked terrible - a small portion and the cheese wasn't even melted. They also sold £2 cans of drinks which were available from a vending machine on the concourse for £1.