Away Day Tales: Episode 5 - Old Trafford (16th March 2013)
Having visited 3 small clubs in a row, I've decided to return to another one of the big clubs and I welcome you to Old Trafford.
☝ My Photo
It was nearing the end of the season and Man Utd were running away with the Premier League. We were the late kick off and Man City had been beaten by Everton earlier in the day. Villa had beaten QPR earlier in the day too so we were 7 points adrift at the bottom of the table and had just sacked our manager, Brian McDermott.
Source - before any of the matches
I was living in London at the time so got the 200+ mile train journey up to Manchester with all of the Man Utd fans. As was customary for my travels, I got a discounted 1st class ticket for £15 each way. Bargain. Comfy seat and a meal. Expecting it to be the highlight of my day out.
☝ It's a real shame I'm crap at taking photos.
We got to the game in good time, found our teeny weeny little seat and prepared ourselves for the onslaught. I'd even taken the bold step of captaining Robin van Persie in my FPL team to minimise the disappointment.
What we got though was an abject Man Utd performance and went home ruing what might have been. Lee Mason's inability to give a penalty against United at Old Trafford proving decisive on the day. I can still see it as vividly as it were yesterday. Nemanja Vidic with a blatant push, arms outstretched in the middle of the penalty area. And nothing. From the crappy highlights I was able to find below, they captured the blatant penalty beautifully at 1:10. Still to this day, I cannot believe it wasn't given. It's not even subtle.
If only we had VAR.
Other than that, we lost 1-0. It was a deflected Rooney goal that proved to be decisive in an otherwise forgettable match. I got my comfy seat home on the train feeling incredibly hard done by but knowing that my prediction had been correct and 1st class was the highlight of my trip.
As with many of my long journeys up north, getting off the train in London was entertaining as the Man Utd fans disembarked to the drunk fans of London clubs. If you missed my return from Anfield in Episode 1, this is what we enjoyed as we got off the train:
Source
It's strange when I look back at some of the matches I've been to and some of the players I've seen play live. Man Utd's weakened team that day contained David de Gea, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidić, Ashley Young, Ryan Giggs, Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck. Some of the greatest Premier League players of all time are included there. Chris Smalling helped to make up the numbers.
Unfortunately, decent highlights of the game are hard to come by. Possibly because there weren't any decent highlights to the game so this is the best that I could find!
Highlights
☝ From JesmesPro's YouTube Channel
As usual, if there are any teams or grounds you'd be interested in hearing my story from, then please let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading.
Previous Away Day Tales
Episode 1 - Anfield (20th October 2012)
Episode 2 - The Manor Ground (17th March 1998)
Episode 3 - Griffin Park (20th April 2002)
Episode 4 - Upton Park (31st March 2012)
Debe ser increíble ver jugar esos talentos, desafortunadamente hubieron malos aspectos en el partido pero siempre debe ser un lujo poder apreciar algo así, más con Wayne Rooney dentro de la cancha debe ser especial.
It truly was. David Silva and Santi Cazorla are probably the 2 players who were exceptional when I saw them. Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Frank Lampard all did well. As I write these pieces, it makes me appreciate it when perhaps at the time, I didn't.
Hola @el gorila como me gustaría ver jugar a esos talentos del football en vivo debe ser emocionante, en algunos partidos siempre hay malos aspectos pero igual debe ser emocionante.
It's only in taking the time to write these stories that I've ever really thought about it. Football has always been so easily accessible to me from a young age watching players like Paul Merson, Darren Eadie, Egil Ostenstad. To think that one day I can say I saw Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and so many others play is quite sobering.
Me alegra que para ti sea accesible y puedas disfrutar de los juegos y jugadores, la lamentablemente no todos tenemos esa oportunidad, que la pases bien.
Well printed! The journey must have been overwhelming @the-gorilla.
I used to travel everywhere and have been to so many grounds from Plymouth to Newcastle. I'll have to choose a small ground next I think. One where I got to shout at a Goalkeeper a lot 🙂
Oh, alright that would be something!