Away ends: the highest, the oddest and the best

Where the home club puts you changes the whole away day. Behind the goal with a low roof and you are part of the game. Parked in a top tier or strung along a side stand and you are watching it from the next postcode. This is a tour of the away ends worth knowing about before you travel, drawn from the checked away guides on our ground pages.

The climb: St James' Park

Away fans at St James' Park are housed in Level 7 of the Leazes End, one of the highest vantage points in English football. The view over the city is genuinely spectacular, the view of the near touchline requires faith, and the climb to the top deck is a lung test. Leave time for it; the stairs at ten to three are a pilgrimage.

The wedge: Elland Road

The away section at Elland Road is known as the Cheese Wedge, the corner in the lower tier where the John Charles Stand meets the East Stand, seats fanning out across the angle. Corner sections like this are common for away fans, Old Trafford and Villa Park do the same, and the diagonal view splits opinion: you lose the straight-on goal view but see the shape of the game.

The houses: Kenilworth Road

The famous one. The away turnstiles at Kenilworth Road are built into a row of terraced houses, and you enter the Oak Road Stand through what is effectively someone's back garden. Nothing else in the league prepares you for it, and it is worth doing while it still exists.

The terraces: standing survives

Proper standing terraces for away fans still exist in the lower leagues, and they are worth seeking out:

• The Big Bank at Exeter's St James Park, standing only behind the goal.
• The Coppice Terrace at Accrington's Wham Stadium.
• The Cravens End at Barrow's Holker Street.
• The terrace at Bromley's Hayes Lane, a happy hangover from non-league days.

If your club draws any of these in the cup, go. Standing behind the goal at a tight ground is the original away day.

The setting: Craven Cottage

The Putney End at Craven Cottage backs onto the Thames. You walk to the ground through a park, along the river, past the actual cottage. No away day in the league has a prettier approach, whatever happens in the ninety minutes.

The side-on view: Selhurst Park

Away fans at Selhurst Park get the Arthur Wait Stand, a lower-tier side allocation looking across at the Holmesdale rather than down a goal line. Side-stand away sections like this trade atmosphere for sightline arguments, and Selhurst's low roof at least keeps the noise in.

The honest note

What we will not do here is rank 92 sightlines we have not sat in. Our away guides note how each section is laid out, where the turnstiles are and what the allocation is, all checked, all on the ground pages. For the pillar-by-pillar seat reviews, the away fans' forums of each club remain the unbeatable source: they sit there every other week.