Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Recently I joined the official Away Travel Club. Your chances of getting a ticket to away games are not guaranteed. For ordinary away travel club members most of the big games require credits (which you get one of everytime you go to a game). So realistically I can forget about going to Old Trafford or White Hart Lane anytime soon but places like Villa Park, St James Park and The City of Manchester Stadium should all be accessable to me. Of course it was the latter which was the venue for my away day christenting, which along with my friend we went to yesterday.
This is my diary of the day:
5:57 *Alarm clock goes off* Aghh I got to be at Highbury for 8:15am! Maybe I should just call my friend sick and attempt to watch the game off the internet. Sure you only get about 10 seconds of action followed by 10 mins of still frames, but its got to beat being up this time of the morning!
6:00 *Second alarm goes off* Why exactly did I set a second alarm? I remember this is because I knew I would ignore the first and lambast myself for being so lazy. Get up and start to get ready.
6:04 It’s too cold (for me at least) to wear an Arsenal shirt and my long sleeved replica 70’s shirt is in desperate need of a wash. Make a mental note to not only buy Arsenal stuff with short sleeves and look through my wardrobe again. I have a choice between a dark blue addias training top or a light blue jumper. Remember we are playing Citeh and go for the former.
6:27 Leave my house to walk down to the train station.
6:28 Realise I have left my Travel Club membership card at home and that they have said it must be produced at the Coach! Now I know what Rio Ferdinand felt like about a year ago (except of course I did not bugger off to the shops for a couple of hours afterwards.
6:31 Get back to my room and realise that the card was actually in my wallet after all! I’m tired, im cold and for some bizarre reason, all I can think about is Kevin Keegan’s perm from the 1970s and where I was when he fell off his bike on Superstars. This is even more worrying as I was not born until 1982. The day is not going well!
6:33 Leave house again vowing not to turn back no matter what I have forgetten this time.
6:35 A teenager approaches me from the opposite direction and asks me if I have any cigarettes. I tell him I do not smoke and he moves off. He then however turns back around and asks me if I instead have any “Riffers”. Unfortunately I did not bring any sweets or confectionary with me so I have to disappoint him. Its a shame he had not asked me for some ganja though as I could have put him in touch with Rio who I am sure could have helped him…
7:04 Board train for St Pancras station. Start to wonder if the youth is now breaking into my house…
7:36 Arrive at St Pancras. Have agreed to meet my friend at the coach at around 8ish and with Arsenal tube station only 3 stops away I am in plenty of time. I got into WH Smith to stock up on supplies and reading material for the trip and see a couple of Arsenal fans in kits. I curse myself for being such a wuss.
7:53 Arrive at Arsenal tube station and await my friend. She calls me and tells me to go round to the North Bank entrance where the coach will leave from. I do this.
8:03 My friend arrives with a McDonalds breakfast for me! Yay! No time to eat it though as me get straight on the coach. Of course they do not ask to see my membership card. Bastards.
8:04 The coach is pretty much full so my friend and I cannot sit next to each other. Boo. She can sit behind me though so its not all bad. I start to eat my breakfast while realising the guy next to me is giving me seriouly dodgy looks. This should be fun.
8:15 The coach starts to leave and I finish my breakfast, most likely to the relief of the guy next to me. I turn around and point out to my friend that if she had arrived when I did we would have probably got a pair of seats. She tells me to shut up and its all my fault anyway. I ask her if there was any possible scenario where it could NOT have been my fault. She says no. At that moment I had never felt so glad to be single in my life!
10:43 Have been on the road for two and a half hours now and I have read all my magazines. The traffic on the roads are pretty heavy so we are only in the midlands. I try and get some sleep even though my backside is starting to hurt.
11:30 Arrive at a service station in Keele and are informed we will be having a break for 45 minutes. So much for arriving at Manchester early and getting to have a look around…
12:17 We set back off on the road after having something to eat. Having had a bacon double cheeseburger meal from Burger King and sharing some of my friend’s popcorn chicken from KFC I am beginning to feel like the guy from Supersize me!
14:07 Arrive at City of Manchester stadium. It’s raining and our coach has gone the wrong way. Oh joy.
14:11 Get off coach and head towards the turnstyles. My decision not to leave my bag on the coach seems a poor one as it takes two minutes for the steward to check it. In the end she gives up and lets me through. Just as well I was not a terroist! Like how the ticket is electronic and by swiping it on the turnstyle it lets you in. A featue of Ashburton Grove maybe?
14:14 We take our seats and note how similar to the one at Highbury the pitch is.
14:26 A guy with dreadlocks sits in the row in front of us. Nice. He starts spouting GO WEST INDIES! and THERES ONLY ONE BRIAN LARA at random intervals inbetween Arsenal songs. Okaaaaaaaayyyyy…
14:35 Realise he has headphones on and is listening to the cricket. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. That explains it!
14:59 Same guy starts being abusive to the City fans near us. Uh-oh. A steward takes him out of the stadium part and back to the bit behind us. Surely being ejected before the game has to be some sort of record?
15:00 Teams come out and it is announced there is to be a minutes silence for the death of Brian Clough. Aww.
15:01 The silence is interupted by the return of the dreadlocked guy. With seconds left of the minute he turns around and calls the steward a “muppet”. I can’t help but think Cloughie would have approved.
15:02 Game kicks off. Thirty seconds later Freddie is played in and we nearly score. The Arsenal fans are buzzing. This looks like it is going to be fun!
15:08 Shaun Wright Phillips does a foraging run down our left hand side. The Citeh fans start singing “SHAUNY WRIGHT WRIGHT WRIGHT!”. Heh. We respond with “SHAUNY IS A GOONER! SHAUNY IS A GOONER! LA LA LA LA!”. The Citeh fans shut up. I should bloody well think so too!
15:11 As an act of reconsiliation we start a “STAND UP! IF YOU HATE MAN U!” chant. A few hundred Citeh fans stand. Phillistines.
15:14 GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL! Even though its obvious Cole has scored for us, a few people start chanting José Antonio. Hmm. We start singing “THATS WHY! WE ARE CHAMP-I-ONS!”. The Citeh fans look pissed off.
15:21 ANELKA THROUGH ON GOAL – flag goes up for offside!
15:22 ANELKA THROUGH ON GOAL! – flag goes up for offside!
15:23 ANELKA THROUGH ON GOAL! – flag goes up for offside!
15:23 ANELKA THROUGH ON GOAL! – SCORES!!!
15:23 Nah, I was lying, he was offside AGAIN 😉
15:29 Lauren does a lovely combination of tackle and skill. Some fans sing “WE HAVE NO SONG FOR YOU”. Ha!
15:36 Henry goes close! Dam thought that was in.
15:39 ANELKA THROUGH ON GOAL! – Great save by Jens! Oh the flag was up for offside. Didn’t see that coming!
15:45 We are playing well and looking comfortable. No sign of the fourth official though.
15:47 Henry forces a good save from James. Guess he only wants to mess up for England.
15:49 HALF TIME WHISTLE BLOWS! MAN CITY 0 ARSENAL 1. Boo-yah!
15:57 Reach the front of the food queue and get a cheeseburger and chips. Am now considering a career as a sumo wrestler.
15:59 Watch 30 seconds of MCFCTV. Realise it is completely pointless and go back to my seat with my friend.
16:05 Second half kicks off. A lot of the Citeh fans have not come back yet. Little differnce in the silence from them though.
16:11 ANELKA FREE 6 YARDS OUT! – Fluffs his kick totally! BWHAHAHAHAHA!
16:20 Some fans start to sing “BUP BUP BUP! WE’VE GOT KO-LO TOU-RE! DUH DUH DUH! HE PLAYS FOR ARS-EN-AL!” Catchy.
16:27 We are not looking as dangerous going forward and they are starting to dominate. That song is still going and is starting to get annoying.
16:33 Citeh fans burst into “CITY! CITY! CITY!”. We respond with “WE FOR-GOT! THAT YOU WERE HERE!”. Its true you know. Unlike those singing the Kolo song, despite my best efforts I cannot forget them.
16:36 Long range effort from them is easily saved by Jens. Some of our fans start singing “YOU’VE ONLY GOT ONE SONG! YOU’VE ONLY GOT ONE SONG! ONE SONG!” to the Kolo fans. This gets them to shut up. YES!!
16:42 Robin Van Perise comes on for his debut!! Wow, hes not locked in a cupboard somewhere! Touré makes a great block to stop a shot on goal. Want to guess what song that leads to?
16:48 The points are looking quite safe now as City are tiring. RVP gets within an inch of punishing David James for spilling a shot.
16:51 Into stoppage time now and a corner for them. James runs up for it. Surely he cannot score! The ball is crossed in……. its a loooper….. JAMES AT THE BACK POST………….. misses the ball completely and clatters into Lehmann! Ah the joys of him being mal cordinated!
16:53 FULL TIME WHISTLE GOES! MAN CITY 0 ARSENAL 1! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS! We are not the only team who can win one nil Moroniho! In fact we were doing it years ago!
17:06 Approach the coaches in good spirit. Some fans are still singing the Kolo song. I pray they are not on my coach on the way back.
17:08 Get on the coach with no sign of said people. Phew. We ask the person my friend was sitting next to if I can swap with him. Jokingly he says sure, but for a fee. I offer him a night with her in return. Upon hearing this she appears both appauled and intrigued at the same time. I will have to bare that in mind for a later date.
17:17 Leave the City of Manchester Stadium and start the journey home.
18:48 The good people from the travel club give us hot drinks and put on a film for us. Nice touch. The film is Starsky and Hutch. Cool.
20:39 Are now well down the M1 and in Hertfordshire, We go on a bridge which goes over a road which leads to my house a mile away. Think about jumping it but think better of it, if I died it would be a real detriment of my attempt to have a season ticket at Ashburton Grove by 2023 (im a realist!)
21:15 Arrive back at Highbury tired but happy about the days events. Say goodbye to my friend and leave to go home.
21:43 Am now on a train home. A family opposite me is talking about football with their boy who seems to have speech difficulties. They start talking about club nick names and when Man U is mentioned the kid says “The Devils”. His mum then tells him they are called “The Eagles”. He keeps on saying Devils over and over but she responds with “you keep saying they are the Devils but they are actually the Eagles”. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
22:10 Arrive home. Find my house has not been ransacked. A good day out, a bit of a sing song, your team gets three points and for a bonus your possessions have not been nicked.
What more can you ask for?
