MUFC: The Religion
My Old Trafford quest started years ago, since i was about 5 or 6 years old, living in my town of birth, East Grinstead int he South of England. Football didnt come on too often back then, but when it did it was usually liverpool games, but i was never drawn to them ... my pops is a huge West Ham fan, and football fan in general, and i remember every sunday and monday reading the sports news int he papers with him and looking at the results, and i became drawn to manutd...we dont have a say in where we are born, but we do get to choose which club we support, all for different reasons...
i lived across from a big park and me and my bros lived 90% of our lives there playing football mostly, using t-shirts or bicycles as goal posts and there was always this one kid who was a couple years older than me who was a real prick...and he would always play in his liverpool jersey, he thought he was the best, maybe because liverpool had reigned in the 80's and he was just cocky. Well my dad decided he was gonna buy me and my brother Manchester united jerseys, maybe to piss him off further, or maybe because he had noticed a keen interest from me in the team. I remember soon after making a 50p bet with my older bro that i would one day play for man utd lol .. guess that didnt happen ... even back then games were relatively expensive to go and watch, and the closest club to where we lived was crystal palce... so one year i went there for my 7th birthday to watch them play Spurs, a game which produced to this game one of the best goals ive ever seen, Klinsman strike from the half line. Yet i wasnt satisfied because it wasnt man utd playing...but we couldnt afford to go all the way north to see them play :( ...i remember soon after laying out 11 pieces of paper, and i painted the heads of the 11 starting manutd players of the time lol they all looked the same except for scholes and his ginger painted hair lol
I think its more than just a coincidence being born the same year Alex Ferguson became manager lol ok maybe not, i just sound obsessive haha ... but he has built an empire, the greatest sporting brand in history...getting financial backing due to the success of the team... ppl in jamaica dont know much about the history of the club, the haters seem to think they popped up out of nowhere with all this money and success, which is y most ppl dont respect the fans in jamaica because they themselves dont know the history, and simply support them for their success...which i guess is only natural...noone spoke about arsenal before the success of arsene wenger, due to that success has brought financial backing and the building of an amazing new stadium...in my view Wenger is trying to produce the new busby babes, but he has failed (his own words) i really thought they would have done better this season, but yet again their frailty hasnt done them justice
its been one of, if not the most dramatic seasons i have ever been able to view from start to finish, at the beginning of the season chelsea were seen as favourites, they have such a deep squad it was no surprise and with the departure of Ronaldo from manutd it didnt seem as if anyone wud put up a fight with chelsea...although i did put money on arsenal winning the league, and had they of kept injury free i think they probably would have .. i was tryign to be realistic by expecting a 3rd or 4th place finish for my side...and a couple months in didnt help either ... serious defensive injuries saw oshea, brown, vidic, rio and evans out even rafael and neville, and forced fergie to trust carrick and fletcher to hold down the defence with the mighty evra...it worked on occasion but it wasnt enough and we dropped points...
we kept fighting...and fighting ... and fighting ...kept in touch of the top . then the Ancelotti meltdown vol.2 happened and we were back on top for the final stretch...then a 2 yrd offside drogba goal ... sighz
but I HAD to go to OLD TRAFFORD .. the theatre of dreams ... its never died as one of my childhood dreams...even if they didnt win the league it didn't matter, i just had to see them play this year because you neva know 2012 is just around the corner :P lol
again this trip started from my town of birth, buying a season ticket for a game, it was mailed to me in the post...most exciting envelope i had ever opened...more exciting than any pay cheque, any job or school application response latter, even more exciting than any love letter
it started with a train to london victoria station, where i linked up with an old best friend for a few hours of drinking...then caught my coach(bus) from london up to manchester (4 hr trip) didnt get much sleep as i was continually anxious. i Couldnt wait to be at old trafford, my dream was finally becomming reality, the closer i got the more the excitement bubbled inside.
i arrived in manchester at 4am sunday morning (gameday) where i got a taxi to a friends house to crash for a few hrs before i headed to the stadium...i woke up every 45 minutes or soo in fright thinking i had missed my alarm and missed the game ... caught a 9:30am bus to old trafford...................
OLD TRAFFORD .. there it was , the towering skeletal structure of the roofing was only half a mile away, i was in awe ... i was just staring and taking pictures, when i noticed it started to get further away again , i was sitting next to an asian buy on the top of the double decker bus, he had come all the way from australia, to hopefully get a ticket to the game...its amazing how this amazing club attracts ppl from all over..we were wondering why the bus wasnt going to the stadium .. so i panicked and went down to ask the driver...she said i have to get out at the next stop and walk ...and that i did, jumped out without telling the asian upstairs.. i ran out and waved to him to get off also but the bus drove off.. i hope he got off at the following stop and walked to the ground also, i neva saw him ...
the adrenaline was pumping as i walked towards the stadium, occasionally catching glimpses of the skeletal roofing between buildings...i had purposely gone 6 hrs before kick off so i could make a day of it and take it all in...walked around the ground 3 times, reading all the memorabilia and banners that decorated the ground with reminders of its rich history, the highs and the lows, and the progress the once publicly owned club had endured ... taking pictures of all my surroundings, the game wasnt even close to starting and i was already worrying about space on my memory card lol ...
i spoke to probably every ground staff official, any question i had i had to ask, so one showed me the tunnel, and showed me where the team buses pulled up and dropped of the players ... so i set up shop, got the best spot to see the players enter the theatre ... i wasnt even bored, i had my game porgram, and had numerous supercars to gaze at wondering who drove which...when soon enough came more fans, who all knew exactly who drove which...giggs the R8, VDS the porsche cayenne GTS, Rooney's white ford minivan :P nah jus kidding lol he had the lambo ... and Fletcher's toyoto Prius LOL .. was a joke at the club that its his mums car...
Anderson drove up alone, with his gf...walk in, picked up an envelope, and left ..odd
stood there for 2 hrs waiting on the team buses, the official told me 2pm they would be arriving, and dead on 2pm they arrived ... and i was there to take the paparazzi pics...fergie was the only one to acknowledge the waiting crowd and grace us with a wave ... but i guess they all had their game face on
waited til 3pm for the gates to ope, i was the first through...climbing what felt like a billion stairs to the top of the stretford end ! .. i felt soo dizzy as a walked out into the stadium, i felt soo high up, which it was, i was used to the bleachers at jamaica stadium yooo, this was new...even the stands i had been to at fulham, crystal palace or swindon could even compare to this...it was epic
sat there taking it all in, taking pics, chatting to the seating stewards...man i wish i had that job ...
the stadium gradually filled as the teams came out for warmups ... it soon filled and it was kick off time... i had been on my feet all day and was looking forward to a great game in a nice seat ... i soon had to forget about the seat as its the STRETFORD END !!! which means u stand and sing the whole game , fucking fantastic ! and im not being sarcastic .. the pain in my feet soon faded as the game got underway, all i wanted to see was some goals an a scholes' yellow card ... the atmosphere was like none other, until wigan crumbled ... it calmed the crowd, yet the stretford never stopped " HE GOES BY THE NAME OF WAYNE ROONEY...NEMANJA, HE'LL FUCKING KILL YA...GLAZERS DIE...WE WANT GLAZERS OUT....SCHOLES SCHOLES HE SCORES GOALS " ..... songs to kill... even songs about diego forlan, jaap stam, andy cole
everything else is a blur...moments of brilliance and moments of frustration...story of our season
4-0 :) but chelsea had won the league...sad...but we far exceeded expectations...no one thought we had a chance this season with the loss of ronaldo and tevez ... this season saw another masterclass from rooney, evra, VDS .. with fletcher, nani, valencia and the young boys evans and rafael really stepping up .. giggs and scholes putting in another good shift...it will be sad to see them leave :( when or if they ever do lol
but thats just how the cookie crumbles ... some say our own goals were luck...but what about the penalties chelsea have been awarded ... they have been awarded quite a lot this season, lampards scoring record this season proves that ... put pressure on a defence, and they are forced into mistakes, whether it be committing a foul or accidentally putting the ball into their own net
my club was built from the ground up ... not from the sky down
as Jay Z seh ... you can buy grades but you can't buy class
working on a bar i hold countless football conversations with customers...there's one general trend ... "i hate manutd, but i do respect them" ... "i do hate chelsea, and i don't respect them" ... im not trying to bash chelsea, im just the messenger...
all in all i think chelsea does deserve the title ... JUST ... i think ancelotti has changed their style, and malouda has been the difference for them .. theyve scored a lot of goals , and also beat us twice, even though both because of dubious decisions .. next season we'll surely bring it again !
we tried to do it the hard way again, this time just wasnt enough ...but my experience wasnt any less amazing because of it ...seriously considering buying a season ticket ! The bus ride from the stadium back to town centre was dramatic in its own right .. some randoms guys started singing man utd songs in the back and literally 80% of the people in there started to join in ... i fell in love with the city, the people, the life of manchester
peace :D
P.S. : GLAZERS OUT !
By: Matthew Ross
