Your matchday experience

[mank!]

So, those of us who actually go and watch football regularly what does your matchday involve? Any rituals? Any superstitions?

No rituals or superstitions for me, just make sure I always wear my team colours. Have some lunch, leave the house about 1:30 and drive to Swindon and listen to Radio Swindon on the way to get the important team news, park up Shrivenham Road and walk down to the ground - mighty sight as you walk down Shrivvy Rd and the ground comes into view and all the expectations and hopes start to play around in your mind. Meet up with a few people my Dad and I know and have a chat for awhile and amble into the ground about 2:45, get a bottle of fanta and take your seat.

Game over, applaud the boys off the pitch and make the long trip back up Shrivvy Rd to get back to the car to catch James Alexander Gordon giving the classified football results. Drive home and listen to the post-match interviews and mull over the game then log on to www.thisisstfc.co.uk and post my thoughts on the game. That's one of the best things about football, the opinions and the arguments that follow!

Repeat 23 times a year.

 

[JingleBells]

When i was a season ticket holder during my a-levels, i used to leave the house at about 2.00pm and walk round to a mates, then we'd walk to the ground arriving at about 2.30. I'd buy my usual programme (one day they will become worth £1000's) and find our usual spot on the terraces behind the goal, and chat to our mates there.

Now as I'm not home often enough to warrant a season ticket I usually leave at about 2.15 with my dad and my brother, get in and find a seat along the side of the pitch (dad complains he can't see anything behind the goal).

After the game, trudge home moaning about the slowness of the old centre back we have on loan from swindon, but comment on how well he gets to the ball, wish that the referee was collina and not some useless bloke from gloucestershire, and look forward to us improving next season. (Oh the joys of lower league mid table mediocrity)

 

[Mobius]

Used to go Arsenal all the time when I was younger with my dad. We'd leave at about 12pm, takes about an hour and a half to get to Highbury train etc. Go into one of the 3 pubs right outside the ground for 45mins, get some chips (in real newspaper, old school ) then walk around the ground just taking in the atmosphere. We bumped into the same old fans. The badgeman (every club has an 80 year old fan with about a thousand badges on a scarf don't they? )

We'd go and sit down about 30 minutes before the match, read the matchday programme (don't know who used to write it but it was fucking hilarious..during the George Graham/ Bruce Rioch days...)
I remember when Bergkamp signed, it was class.

After the game we'd spend time in the pub, arguing with idiots about the game and that, then come home. Good days, wish I didn't work Saturdays...Arsenal is always sold out nowadays too.

 

[Xtro]

I'll get up about 7am, have a plate full of jellied eels before we set off up on the long haul up the M1 and further North. We leave really early to avoid the traffic on the M25.

I'll usually take along a tape of the Bow Bells to listen to in the car and will discuss Eastenders during the journey with my mates.

When we finally arrive at Old Trafford we'll join the other thousands of Cockneys who make up the Man Utd faithful and whine like little girls if we lose.


(ho hum, chortle, etc )

 

[mank!]

Arsenal is always sold out nowadays too.

Strangely enough, I don't get that problem at Swindon very often. Except when we're doing well and another 10,000 people suddenly appear from thin air.

 

[Mobius]

Yeah, Highbury is quite small for such a large club. Ashburton Grove is going to be class though. Theres always touts outside but they charge an arm and a leg.

 

[mank!]

How much is a ticket? I read they're upwards of £40. Proper tickets I mean, not tout ones.

 

[Mobius]

Think we used to pay about 28 quid for a ticket, shit seating though...always got stuck behind a huge piece of metal or something. That was 6 or 7 years ago. Now your looking at over 50 quid for half decent seats.

 

[mank!]

That's extortionate. I paid €20 for a seat six rows from the front behind one of the goals at Real Madrid, that's about £13.

It's £23 for a matchday ticket at Swindon, £21 if you book in advance. It's a rip off for that quality of football but I'm still stupid enough to go every week.

 

[Mobius]

Oh I must've exxagerated a bit.

East & West StandsUpper Tier next to Centre Blocks

£50.00 Upper Tier Wing Blocks
£44.00 Lower Tier Centre Blocks
£36.00 Lower Tiers Wing Blocks
£33.00 North Bank Upper Centre Block
£51.00 Upper Wing Blocks
£42.50 Lower Centre Block

£42.50 Lower Tier Wing Blocks
£33.00 Lower Tier Outer Wing Blocks
£28.00 South Bank (Clock End)

All Areas £33.00

Not to bad, probably cost more once the new stadium is up. There sold out for almost the entire season though.

 

[mank!]

Christ. I paid something like a fiver away at Bournemouth last season!

 

[Jonaldo]

Christ. I paid something like a fiver away at Bournemouth last season!

I'm a Spurs club member and wanted tickets for us Vs pool the first game this season, however to get tickets for more than just yourself you can only get them the day before they go on general sale (you can get yourself a ticket about 10 days prior I believe). The only seats left where I could get two close together were £55 each. Much as I love the mighty Spurs I'm not about to pay that much for a team that finished 14th last season, it's not like we'll be challenging this season either.

 

[Turamber]

Just booked a ticket for the home game against Chelsea. Best seats at the Villa cost £29, which is a bargain to the prices quoted above ... but also indicative of the North/South divide economy wise.

Will cost more in lost time from work but c'est le vie! (but spelled properly )

 

[echo]

Leave the house about 1 Saturday afternoon, into Nottingham a bit before 2.. Get into the Meadow Club for some Castle Rock Bitter, get a programme and a few 50/50 tickets and into the ground. £16 well spent. Jimmy Sirrell stand, Block Y.

Invariably, watch Notts throw the game away in the last 10 minutes.

No superstitions, no rituals. Always wear black & white. Always sing the wheelbarrow song.

 

[Tom]

Slightly different for me. Get a callsheet a few days earlier, see what game I'm doing, and what the crew call time is (usually 5 hours before kick off). Hop into the car on the day, pick up anyone around me who is also working there. Arrive on site, park in the Sky car park (has its own security), walk over to the OB vehicles, and have a brew. Have another brew, gossip, another brew, shuffle my feet, then go and do the facilities check (make sure the cameras work). Have lunch (catering truck and a double decker bus for seating), then sit in the car for about 2 hours reading the paper. Buy my drinks, and any snacks, walk to my camera, sit and read the paper for a bit more. Film the match, dismantle the camera, box it up, and go help any other cameramen do the same. Then grab a large trolley, and with a few other lads walk around the stadium collecting all the boxed cameras/lenses etc. Dump it all at the truck, go back for any more gear, and finally jump in my car and drive home.