LOADS have done it — given up going the match. Temporarily or permanently, whether it’s the rise in ticket prices, the ‘match-day experience’ or just falling out of love with it all, the make up of the Anfield crowd has changed as long-term match goers turn their backs. So what happens when you walk away from a lifetime of Liverpool and try something else? RICHARD FELTON did just that — and he couldn’t be happier.
——————
A ‘DESERTER’ and a ‘turncoat’. Just some of the comments levelled my way when I abandoned my Anfield season ticket following a quarter of a century supporting the Reds.
I made the ultimate protest against rip-off ticket pricing and the abomination that is modern football. And in desperation at the loss of the game I loved, I turned to a team several leagues and 167 places below.
Welcome to affordable, family friendly, fan-owned-football following Marine AFC in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier Division.
There are no Ferraris in the car park, or millionaires ducking training to buy the latest iPhone. Just hugely talented semi-professional players who know the fans’ names and chat over pie and peas in the bar after the match.
In this last post of frontline footy there is no segregation, opposition fans mingle with each other and drink real ale in a real glass. There’s not a Dunkin’ Donuts advert in sight.
There are no season ticket waiting lists, kids get in free, and if you are lucky you’ll become as hooked on this life as I am.
I once watched Liverpool FC at the Nou Camp and the Stadio Olimpico, but now I’d much rather go to Matlock, Kendal Town or Gainsborough Trinity — it’s the equivalent of watching football along B-Road Britain. ‘B’ standing for ‘Best’.
Clubs are largely run by volunteers; men and women who are there for the love of the game and nothing else.
People, wake up. Football is not the national game any more. Non-league football is.
I started going to Anfield aged 11. By 13 I was a season ticket holder. And from 1987 to 2012 I witnessed my team win the lot.
I still remember my first game v Stoke City on February 23, 1985. Sat in the Anfield Road, I gawped in awe at the players. These were not just heroes, they were mythical Gods: Grobbelaar, Hansen, Whelan, Rush, Dalglish.
The off-field surroundings were just as wondrous. All those faces, all those people, the noise, the famous Spion Kop.
The first year I was a season ticket holder was 1987-88 when the team were unstoppable: Barnes, Beardsley, Aldridge… It’s difficult to put into words those early feelings of going to Anfield.
Maybe I should leave it to my Spanish teacher who wrote on one piece of particularly shoddy homework: “It’s time you grew up to your responsibilities and stop considering Liverpool FC to be your entire life.”
Finals at home and abroad ensued, league titles, away trips everywhere from the Baseball Ground to Bucharest. Wins and losses in derbies, great goals, Rush goals, Fowler goals, ghost goals…
I lived and breathed Kop culture. “Hat, cap, scarf or a badge”, the clickety click of the turnstiles, wafts of hops from the vaults of The Albert, Operation Anfield Exercise, the celebratory hugs, the flag days and oh those European nights.
This. Was. My. Life.
But after Istanbul it all started falling apart. Hicks and Gillett, the Athens ticket fiasco, the chop of Rafa.
Then Kenny getting the elbow and the revelation from Liverpool top brass that even if we had won the FA Cup it would not have saved him because: “The cups don’t matter.”
I was losing interest in the top-flight game week by week. The main reason — ticket prices. My Kop season ticket in 1990 was £65. By 2012 it was £800-plus.
In 2009 I became a father and I had every desire to make my lad a Kopite. But the lack of child tickets in the ground is shocking. You have Kop kids paying adult prices. That’s not just wrong, it feels almost criminal. At least at Everton a kid ticket is a kid ticket — wherever it be in the ground.
At 14 months old I took my lad to his first taste of Anfield (a youth game v Manchester United). The Liverpool FC steward tried to confiscate the top from his milk bottle. Seriously.
This 30-year-relationship between man and club was falling apart.
The weekend I made the big decision to leave was in the Autumn of 2012. I was sat in a Crosby cafe reading The Mirror and noticed that my local non league team Marine had an away FA Cup tie at Trafford. I just dropped my paper and went.
And that’s the beauty of football at this level. You don’t have to build up your away credits or log on to some unfathomable website to get tickets (with booking fees). You just decide to go.
I jumped a bus into town, caught the train over to Manchester and within an hour I was inside a non-league ground for the first time in years.
Marine had 100-plus away fans there and the atmosphere generated was amazing. They went one down but came back to win 3-1. The Marine players celebrated with their fans at the end. It was a joyous day and a real eye-opener.
I worked out that with transport, ticket, programme, two pints and one pie, I’d spent the grand total of £26. And this for an away match.
The next day I was back at Anfield for a bore draw against Stoke City. The public address system announced various commercial activity before the game. And I just thought: “this is not my Anfield any more.”
It was also the game that Luis Suarez dived to try to win a penalty. Liverpool’s star striker cheating and me forking out £44-plus for the privilege of watching it.
And that was it. The end.
I’ve got more and more involved at Marine since I left Liverpool FC. I’m chairman of the supporters’ club and help encourage people to attend the matches home and away. We raise funds for Marine and increase the profile of our fantastic little football team.
Last season was one of the most remarkable campaigns ever. Marine were involved in a relegation fight all season. They changed the manager with 12 games to go and Sean Hessey (an ex-Liverpool FC reserve player) took over.
Despite being 12 points from safety Hessey and his assistant Phil Hackney began to work miracles.
I went to every single Marine game home and away from January as our season took on epic proportions. Marine had never been relegated in 121 years.
It all came down to Blyth Spartans away on the final day. We took more than 120 fans and sung through the entire game to support our lads.
The odds were stacked against us but we managed to win and other results went our way. Marine fans were in tears at the end. Tears of joy. I was overcome and ran on the pitch to sink to my knees. Players hugged fans in disbelief and delirium.
If this had happened in the Premier League I’d probably be facing a banning order. And the players would probably be fined for inciting a riot.
I know no-one reading this will believe me. But those last 12 games and that eventual survival win at Blyth was better than my evening in Istanbul in 2005. Seriously. It just seemed to mean so much more.
Over the last few seasons I’ve been writing a book about leaving Liverpool to follow Marine. Tentative title: “From Millionaires to Mariners: A non-league love story”.
There’s flashbacks to some of my days watching Liverpool but basically it’s an account of life on the road with Marine.
Now, my lifetime dream is to watch The Mariners progress in the FA Cup and get a big away game against a Premier League side.
Can you imagine if we got to play against Liverpool at Anfield? The two cultures would collide. Rich v Poor, David v Goliath — and me facing my lost love.
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Pics: Marine AFC, Richard Felton, David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
Very nice. Glad to see you have found something to be passionate about again. I am still supporting the Reds but it just doesn’t feel that great anymore.
I for one also was a big big fan of Rafa but H&G just killed it all didn’t they? I wonder what Rafa could have done had he the support that Rodgers has. Anyway, it’s history now. Hopefully he takes Real Madrid to new heights.
Don’t know what to say about Rodgers. He clearly has the ability but keeps shooting himself (and us) in the foot with his over thinking. Does he think he is too clever or is he just not that clever at all? I don’t know and the way things are going, my interest in watching the game this weekend is quite low.
Maybe I should start following a local team but doing that where I live wouldn’t be as much fun as where you are I’d imagine so I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that Liverpool can wake up from this self induced coma they are in.
YNWA. Go Marines!!! :)
I gave up my season ticket when they put seats on the kop – didn’t have the seniority to get a seat there and didn’t fancy anywhere else. Blessing in disguise really. I live “darn sarf” and shortly after that I was made redundant and wouldn’t have been able to keep going anyway. When you live 250 miles away, every game is an away game.
I’ve been a few times in the last few years and it isn’t as good as my rose-tinted spectacles remember it, but prices these days would bar me from another season ticket even if there wasn’t a 200-year waiting list.
That said, I went to see Welling Utd. Vs Tranmere Rovers on Saturday. Great fun, cheap, and 30 minutes from home. I might be giving non-league footy a bit more time from now on.
Said to my mate after the West Ham game, this could be my last season. For all the reasons above and the fact that at every game I feel like smacking at least one of our fans for being inane, booing, general titish behaviour etc. It hasn’t been the same for a while now but it’s getting closer every game. But I said the same at around the same time last season!
Great article. I’m a New Jersey (USA) based Liverpool supporter and in March I made my 3rd pilgrimage to Anfield. This time I was staying with a buddy in Bristol, so wanted to see as much football as possible in a short time. Luckily I was able to see 4 fixtures in 5 days: Fulham v. Leeds (Championship), Bristol Rovers v. Aldershot Town (Vanarama Conference National), Aston Villa v. Swansea (Premier League), and one of the biggest fixtures in world football Liverpool v. Manchester United.
Of the four, the best atmosphere was hands down the Bristol Rovers match. Sure it helped that this game was the only one of the 4 that went in favor of the home team, and that Rovers were in a tight battle for promotion, which they ultimately secured via a playoff, but the ground was electric. There was standing room in the home end, tickets were cheap, pies were cheap, and Goodnight Irene somehow felt more emotional than You’ll Never Walk Alone which I’ve heard too many times by drunk hipsters in American “soccer pubs” for it to have not lost at least a little of it’s original sentiment.
It felt very much like the stereotypical Friday Night Lights high school football culture we have here in the States. Very community oriented. Not quite the personal level described in the article but much moreso than a Premier League game.
In contrast for such a big game Anfield felt dead to me during the United game and there were far too many supporters shouting total negativity from the very beginning in the Anfield Road end where I was sat. My one game in the Kop was a better experience.
I realize I myself am very much part of the problem. A Yank coming over to see a game, more than willing to pay the outrageous ticket prices by your standards (not so much by ours) but the game has just gotten so big where they can easily fill the ground charging whatever they want. We’ve seen it destroy professional sports here. We’ve gone through the same things. Yankee Stadium used to be an incredible atmosphere in the late 90s, the Bleacher Creatures vaguely comparable to the Kop. Success brought an increase in ticket prices and ultimately a concrete new stadium that has sucked any noise and atmosphere out of the ground and every last dollar out of your wallet. Games look comical on tv with the whole lower bowl remaining empty due to outrageous ticket prices in the thousands of dollars. Same for American football and the NBA. We still have our college sports, which can provide a good atmosphere, but professional sports both here and abroad seem to be all headed in the same direction.
Are you kidding me about the Yankees? They’ve won the American League 40 times, it’s not as though they suddenly started being successful in the 1990s. And your statement about low attendance is BS when it comes to the NFL, which has the highest attendance of any sports league in the world (yes, even higher than the hipsters’ beloved Bundesliga).
I was just describing that late 90s as an example. I wasn’t alive in the 60s and 70s but I’m sure the atmosphere was just as electric then. And in the second part perhaps I wasn’t clear. Most NFL games sell out not matter what, much like Premier League grounds are usually full even with the high ticket prices, especially the big teams, but my point with the NFL is that the new Giants Stadium is a concrete monstrosity that has sucked so much atmosphere out of the building. And the NBA is just a PA hype show with a side of basketball now
This is the best thing I’ve ever read on here. The arguments, the feelings, the stats, the facts and the truth all put together beautifully.
Its sad what modern football and by extension modern LFC has become. I see some people wonder why the attitudes of fans (up and down the country, not just at Anfield) are different now to what they were 30 years ago. They should read this.
Brilliant stuff Richard.
A great read..thank you… I share your disillusionment for many of the same reasons… The game I grew up to love has gone…
I started full time work in Sept 86 after some of the greatest days of my life watching the mighty red army take it all…. £5 got me a bus there and back, 10 B&H and a book of matches, my proey, entry to the Kop, Mars Bar and Bovril (what a combo) and a pink Echo!!!…. The best Saturday’s ever after school Saturday morning footie. I even went to Wembley for £6 on a coach full of Red and Blue…. And the games were better I think… 24 blokes, not 28, knocking their pan out… Hansen, Lawro, Molby, KEnny, Rushie…..
There’s a myriad of reasons why I am slipping out of like, never mind love with it…. And I have two teenagers who love it… That makes it harder……
Rodgers spoils a lot of it for me…. The fact that we have a no mark running LFC is hard for me to swallow…I lived in the States for a few years and the Yanks will love all his shallow bullshit management speak…..he is turning us into a laughing stock and his mediocrity is an embarrassment…. But I will always support and love LFC the club…. I am ill at ease for whatever we stand for now and for what footie stands for in general…
Maybe it’s high time I scoured the local lower eschelons and started to really love it again…. Thank you again for nudging me towards it..
“..he is turning us into a laughing stock….”
Rodgers didn’t turn Liverpool into a laughing stock. Hicks, Gillette, Hodgson, and (unfortunately, and at the end of what was otherwise a brilliant career) Gerrard did.
I live in South Africa today but do also support Marine. My grandson played for them at under 7 in 1014 and we watched quite a few home games.
did the same myself 3 years ago,now go watching skem united home and away
Great article. The diving, injury-prone, felled-like-they’ve-been-shot antics of the modern professionals makes me sick of the top-flight.
I love a non-league game as much as the next man , watched AFC Liverpool at the Arriva last seasonand got caught up in their senior cup run, but I think you’re maybe trying too hard to convince yourself you made the right decision … you’ve thrown yourself wholeheartedly into supporting the Mariners and that should be applauded but doesn’t justify decrying everything that surrounds LFC.
Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, should surpass Istanbul as the footballing event of anyone’s life – it was the ultimate triumph of team spirit over circumstance.
The reality of modern life is that professional football is an entertainment industry and not a sport anymore, supporters have to accept that and deal with it in whatever way suits them.
One thing remains certain, it’s never going back to how it was, however hard everyone wishes for it …
To be fair Rob, it’s his life. If he feels that it surpassed Istanbul or any other Liverpool FC achievement, then that’s him, not you or me.
I don’t think he’s trying to convince himself at all. He sounds very happy and, if anything, he probably is over justifying himself to a bunch of strangers who have no right to judge him on his life decisions
Can’t wait to read your book. Hopefully you’ll be on one of the TAW shows speaking about it when it comes out. Cheers.
Show your LFC, EFC or TRFC season ticket at the turnstile at Marine and you get a reduction on admission for league games.. £5 only. Always free for under 11s with a paying adult.
Part of this club died at Hillsboro Trophies were won after but it was the the end of the golden summer and it was never the same
Great article, hugely enjoyed reading it.
I loved reading this and hated it too. I have supported my home club for 50 years, first season ticket for the Anfield Road in 1967/68 (£4. 4s! 21 homes too) and moved to the Kop in 1970. Today’s ‘product’ is a world away from those days and an experience I no longer relish so much. My Main Stand ticket costs an arm and a leg and I’m waiting for the letter telling me I’m being moved so some corporate tw*t can have my seat in the new stand. Will I give up? Probably not, well at least as long as I can afford it, so I expect to linger on for a couple more years. It is so sad that this working class game we cherished has become an entertainment experience for Sky customers. To have to listen to the moronic Ayre crowing about signing up some obscure ‘partner’ as great news while the Kop is dying on its ar*e is not how I saw my beloved club becoming.
I could have written this article it’s just that I haven’t started going to watch Marine yet.
For those of us whose life has been dominated by supporting Liverpool it is excruciating watching everything that we love unravel over the last couple of years even though we have all been predicting it for a decade or more.
It is strange at the moment as I probably read and talk about the reds more than ever. I love going for a pint after the match and love listening to the Anfield Wrap stuff.
However I find myself pretty much hating every minute that I am in the ground. I have pretty much had a season ticket all my life(I am 45) but couldn’t bring myself to paying 870 pound to renew my upper centenary seat.
The United game at home last year was the final straw. No passion – despite the opposition, a home support that just wanted to slag our team off, inept over paid shite on the pitch and people sitting around who had paid 60 pound each all waiting to watch this Anfield magic they had read about.
The pathetic Crystal palace thing at the end of the season was the final nail
I will watch every game on the tv or internet and like Dickie will probably end up at College Road
The thing we fell in love with is gone forever and it is now someone else’s game – they are welcome to it!!!! YNWA
I blame Thatcher.
For anyone who enjoyed this, read “Richer than God. Manchester City, Modern Football and Growing Up” by David Conn. A great book showing how football went from the MCFC’s to the MCFC plc’s.
I’ve not made the full jump yet, me and my mate share half a season ticket which I’m giving up at the end of this season.
Partly it’s the price but mainly it’s our Fanbase and the atmosphere at Home – just not worth paying to be involved in anymore. It’s just no fun anymore, no banter with the players, no banter between the stands, just fuck all apart from moaning and people getting off early. Sad really.
Off to Southport against Tranmere next week.. £15 and it will be a laugh..
Absolutely fantastic piece, this.
I have been in a smilar situation and I too have began to nail my Marine colours to the mast.
As a former Marine player who spent 7 years at Rossett Park (now the Marine Travel Arena), I used to regularly be torn between whether I should go the Liverpool game and admittedly on occassions, I missed training to go and watch the Reds at Anfield in the champions league.
Saturday’s were always out of the equation for me to attend the Liverpool game but as the years past I my football ground to a halt, I found myself able to get to more Premier League action. However, I soon established that premier league prices don’t mix with a new born daughter and I have recently gone back to watch the Mariners for the first time since I was pulling on the jersey myself.
I am currently in the army so I don’t always get to attend as much as I would like but I thoroughly plan on attending this weekends FA cup clash. The marine fans were always absolutely amazing with me. They are the nicest set of people you could wish to meet and the club is run with the community in mind. LFC have lost their values, in my opinion. LFC want customers but Marine want fans. There’s a huge difference in that ideology.
I can’t wait to get to the game on Saturday and I think I might even get myself a Marine jersey to take back to camp with me for good measure.
I’ll never forget the fantastic game you had at Burton Albion for Marine, Lee, when you were the best player on the pitch at the age of 17. You’ve given an accurate account of what Marine is all about and good luck with your army career!
Thanks very much, Barry. It really means a lot that.
I’d love nothing more than to go back to being 17 and playing again. Just wish I’d of had a few more of those Burton performances in my locker. Haha.
Great article I supported Liverpool as a kid and still support Liverpool but moved away due to work circumstances. The cost of going to a match with a young family was killing my love. I ended up following Matlock where I now liveand when they play marine take my dad who lives in Liverpool. We have had a great experience, it brings back his memories of playing for Marine. Sad to watch my first and true love become a friend but money now rules the beautiful game.
As someone mentioned, probably the best ever piece written on here, and there’s been plenty of crackers.
Football capitalism may not yet have burst, but I think it is too far gone already to make it magical again, magical it definitely isn’t.
I might take up the Marine/Tranmere matches myself just for something different, distinctly lacking in quality compared to what we’re used to but without most of the shite, annoying bits of ‘modern football’.
Having said that I’ve been threatening to do it for yonks and ha e always found myself back at Anfield, fuck knows what for because 90% of my buzz for the place, and football in general, has gone.
I think the main problem, apart from the disgraceful ticket prices, is the lack of fan involvement and acknowledgement. The German model had been mentioned plenty of times on here, they have a say, they feel involved and that can only ensure interest and passion in supporting the team for generations to come. The latest flag dispute is just another damming indictment of the contempt modern English football clubs, and regrettably ours just as much as any of them, hold for their fans.
Sorry, I meant customers.
I go and watch my local team now and again. What I’ve found is, I moan about the atmosphere at Anfield. I moan about the price. I moan about the quality of football. I moan about not being able to sit with mates. I moan that I can only take my son 3 or 4 times a season but worst of all after a lot of games I come out (and I’m ashamed to say this) asking myself did I get value for money.
If I go and watch Chester, the price of the ticket is irrelevant, really. I meet mates who all sit in the same area and if I’m honest I get a weird kind of satisfaction from being at a non league game in my home town. Although I don’t get involved myself, I like the fact the fans around me abuse the away fans throughout the match and vice versa. Occasionally, you hear something quite witty and funny. Also, I’m always impressed with the brutality of the game compared to the ‘non contact’ Premiership. It’s not the full story though.
The reality is, despite the above, if I’m at a Chester game I’m devoid of emotion but at Anfield I just buzz off it. I’m not a huge football fan I don’t think. I get bored watching it but if it’s Liverpool or watching my lads team play then it’s like I go under a spell. I’m fully engaged and engrossed. I feel fully alive in the hour leading up to kick off. I experience every emotion. I really don’t class myself as a mainstream type of person but I have to say, I love the bright lights of the Premiership. I love the circus that goes with it too. At Chester it all seems a bit naff if I’m honest. Almost a bit backward. So, much as I agree with the all the reasons you’ve cited for stopping going, I can’t tear myself away from it. I think it’s great despite all it’s problems. I just don’t feel it at Chester whereas at Liverpool I do.
I’m from South Africa and never had to experience the frustration of expensive season tickets. However, I do share the pain of mediocre football being dished up by my beloved Liverpool FC. I was there as a fan when we were the all-conquering team, when we were the best in Europe. It is a torture to see LFC being beaten 6-1 and 3-0 by teams that played their football in lower tier leagues back then. Istanbul was a flicker of hope. But I cannot jump ship, it does not feel right. What if they become good again, would we then jump back onto the Liverpool ship. I will carry on hoping… You’ll Never Walk Alone.
I think you are missing the point on this. It is nothing to do with the results, it is that the culture of supporting the club that you love is being eroded. Even if/when we become great again it will be virtually impossible to rebuild that unique special bond that made supporting Liverpool different. As has been suggested it is too far gone. This really is a crying shame!!
You don’t get it because you, and people like you, are the main reason why attending home matches at Anfield is both boring and shit.
Tell your Spanish Teacher that this article gets 10/10.
Am 46 and have had my Kop season ticket since I was 19. I’d be surprised at myself if I renew it next season. I don’t believe in FSG, I think they are turning us into West Brom but charging Chelsea prices.
I work in an office full of Man City and Man U season ticket holders and mine is the most expensive. LFC is making tens of millions every year and we’ve just seen another net spend of just £20 million this summer. It doesn’t add up. £735 for a Kop season ticket that had to be paid for when the last season hadn’t even finished, exploiting the fans to the hilt.
My missus works with a guy who had his season ticket in the Main Stand for about 30 years and his missus accused LFC of running and ruining their marriage. She organised around 5 or 6 family get togethers over the season, things like their daughter coming over with their new first grand child, his elderly mum and dad coming over for Sunday dinner and he missed every one because of ever sillier kick off times, i.e. Monday nights, Saturday mornings etc. He went away thought about it, agreed with her and sacked it off the following season. He’s got no regrets and watches it in the pub now and again. I feel the same way. I want to go the match at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. We’ve had West Ham and I think Villa is a 3pm Saturday, how many more between now and Christmas? Probably none. Friday nights next, they are having a laugh. if you have a season ticket you can’t have a life outside of football as well its that or nothing.
Modern day football is geared towards those who watch it on the tv and not for those who go week in week out. Thanks to FSG and the Premier League I think I will soon be joining them.
I did the same myself and i now follow Liverpool ladies £30 for a season ticket and you can also use it to get into cup games.I end up spending around a tenner and that includes a programme
Beautiful piece, heartfelt and sombre.
With the way things are, and the flag furore, it’s getting harder and harder to justify going to Anfield.
The aways are usually much better, though it seems even that is not protected by the sponsors infiltrators and tourists.
A few years ago at Old Trafford, the row behind me were 50 tourists who got their tickets through a certain corporate sponsor of our club. I think of the club swerving our most loyal for those and it really sticks in my throat.
I have a three-day old son and he will grow up a red and I will be one for life, but I wonder whether he will ever be able to go the match and follow Liverpool the way I have done. I genuinely think it’s more unlikely than likely in spite of it being his birthright. It’s heartbreaking.
The only joy football supports get is seeing their team win trophies. That’s the pay-back for our support and loyalty and cash.
Nowadays, owners like FSG and those at Arsenal don’t care about winning things. They only care about the money. Come 4th and they’re delighted because of the cash involved. Win the league cup like Kenny and reach an FA Cup final and it means nothing to these type of owners.
Arsene Wenger has become a poison to football in England. He has conditioned many Arsenal fans, and other fans, to think coming 3rd or 4th every year is success. It isn’t, of course, unless you’re making lots of money out of it like Wenger and his board do.
FSG just want to make lots of money out of Liverpool and top 4 ensures that. The hunger and fight to win trophies isn’t there anymore and the disease is coming for the top. It’s no wonder many fans are growing tired of it.
Excellent article and all too familiar. I lose interest by the year now,even the away games I went to last season were not as fun as they used to be,it’s all part of the corporate machine now and I used to enjoy the match so much because that was my one escape from that very thing. Nothing gold can stay I guess but sad all the same. Great to see you have found a new love and long may it continue. I have a feeling they’ll be more and more stories like yours soon I know that’s where I’m heading. David.
Excluded from Anfield by disability and price I now watch the ladies team. Natasha Dowie now 12 goals in 13 games, hello BR, is a goal machine. No need to queue for hours. £5 a ticket. Semi finals of Continental Cup and CHAMPIONS LEAGUE to come. Having an up and down year having won league title again last year. Spirit, talent, exciting footy. Widnes Vikings stadium.
Now THAT is value for money and a cracking good time.
Tasha Dowie Dowie Tasha Dow ee
Just incase anyone comes back to this.
Southport v Tranmere.
Sending off, four goals, near capacity attendance, home end outsung the away end (although both were bouncing), both ends got the pyro on, dodgy ref – the lot..!
£15
Massive group of lads in the home end who all knew each other, all dressed up in the latest football gear with spotless trabs and smart hair, nobody pissed, no trouble, no racism just a massive grin.
Glorious night, football in the lower league is alive and thriving and sadly it’s a world apart from a match in the kop…
Yeah, really fancied going to that. Flu though. The fucker.