Long & Happy away days!!
We`ve all been there, stuck in a club at 2.30 am on Friday night/ Saturday morning, swaying on the spot with a bottle of newky brown by your side. Maybe the venue, Isadora`s or The Brick house, with a crumpled up match ticket in your pocket with a face value of £9.00 & a mostonian Coach ticket somewhere at home & your off to the capital next day?. Get the picture!!
You`ve got to get home for a wee bit of welcome shut-eye & you haven`t even had your Pizza yet!!
Remember those 3pm kick offs? Full schedules & 22 teams in Division 1? When you strived to do the full 42 games? Ever manage it?
You stumble out of your cab & low & behold, 4 hours later you stumble back in!!
“Chorlton Street mate” This time, your eye is not only on the meter, but on the clock too!!
You always get there though & on time where you wait patiently with 20 other die hards hardly dressed appropriately for the biting cold. But with your bag full of provisions & a copy of the Sun under your arm, you are ready willing & able to complete the arduous & emotional yet generally fruitless day ahead!! You feel a sense of pride & unswerving loyalty safe in the fact that you support the best club in the land. You felt appreciated by the club. Your support & attendance mattered.
What else would you want to do on a Saturday & why doesn`t everyone else feel the addiction?
Don`t know about you, but Away Days in the 80`s & 90`s were something else!
You could do the day on £70 as apposed to today when that price wont buy you 2 tickets at st Andrews!!
You would stand up behind the goal, crammed in yet half the terrace would be left empty with a sprinkling of police in the empty terrace. Eventually the terrace would reach bursting point when her majesty`s police force would begrudgingly open the next paddock!
The stands were crumbling, The toilets would overflow with urine, the pies would be stone cold & you couldn`t get a pint for love nor money!!
Yet, all things considered, if you were there, you wouldn’t change it for the world?.
You can have your brand new plastic all seater-stadia & there is no question that the facilities have dragged the beautiful game from the seat of it`s arse and into the 21st century & created the best spectacle in Europe cosmetically, but oh for those long & happy away days.
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