Does moving ground ruin your football club?

Middlesboro Ayresome Park -

Image credits

Copyright:Robin Dale / Mary Evans Picture Library

Yesterday, I was brushing up on my guitar technique prior to a recording session with the The False Dots, listening to sports radio. As I gently strummed,there was a mention of Middlesborough, followed by a mention of Sunderland. Both of these "sleeping giants" moved from their tribal homes of Ayresome Park and Roker Park to magnificent new grounds, which would supposedly herald a new golden age. As a cup of tea was required,getting up to make this, and selecting my Barnet FC tea mug, made me think of Barnet FC, currently languishing in the National League. Barnet too moved to a new, more modern ground, however sadly unlike Sunderand and Middlesborough, without even the support of their local authority. Iin fact Barnet were forced out of the Borough to The Hive in Harrow.  I never visited either Ayresome and Roker Park,  I was however a regular visitor to Underhill. I would meet with mates for a swift pint in Ye Old Mitre, take a brisk stroll down the hill, for a bit of fun footie and trot back for a couple more beers rounded off with a tasty Ruby Murray at The Shapla. Barnet FC were, for decades, my second team.  Then they moved to their marvellous new ground.

Underhill - Pic www.stadiumguide.com

Although I've  been to the Mitre a few times when Lee Thompson and The Silencerz have been playing, I've not been back to the Shipla since Underhill was abandoned. My nephew, Alexander Sarychkin, has been writing a blog about Non League football in Barnet. It is worth a read if you like our cultural history. He mentioned that although I took him to see Manchester City FC, I never took him to the Hive, although I did take his younger brother, Vik once. There was more of a reason to this than he alludes to in his blog. Until my son was old enough to appreciate dire football in the freezing cold, I used to go with mates and have a bit of a boys day out. Much as I loved Alex, dragging him along as a kid would have meant curtailment of jollity, so I didn't ask him until I took Vik and Matt.

When Barnet moved to the Hive, my Barnet based mates, who I so enjoyed the trip with stopped going. Not because of any drop in their love of football, but as the footie was simply part of a ritual of beer drinking, curries, football and bad behaviour, they simply couldn't be bothered to make the 17 hour trip on buses to a completely different Borough to watch their "local team". I have been to the Hive more than they have. The reason, one of my best mates is a Wrexham fan. We usually go whenever they play. Keith is from Croydon, we have a few beers in Cannons Park and a curry at Cannons Curry house as part of the ritual. I stand in the away end and cheer on the "Sheepshaggers" as they are lovingly known by English fans. Keith is always highly amused by the indignation of the uninitiated "right on" brigade at the mildest of slights. He has spent the last 40 odd years since he moved to England from Rhyl in North Wales being called a "sheepshagger", merely for being born in Wales. Does he mind? he sees it as an essential part of the banter. If you can't bear having 36,000 drunken yobbo's accusing you of one of the most disgusting forms of sexual deviance, expressely forbidden by Noah in the bible, then what sort of a man are you? But I digress, that is more or less the sum of my visits to The Hive. Bizarrely, with the Wrexham fans I feel a sense of belonging that I just didn't on the couple of occasions that I've sat with the home fans in the Hive. At least they know why they are there and whho their team are.  At the Hive, I just get nostalgic for the dump that was Underhill. At least with the boys from Wrexham, I just feel as if I'm at just another soulless ground, being abused by an opposition who lack the class and pedigree of the fine Welsh club. In short, the move has ruined the Barnet experience for me. These days, I tend to get my fix of Non Manchester City football in our locality at Watford. I have plenty of friends who are Hornets who are happy to drag me along.

The Clock End  Pic https://theworldnews.net

As I reflected on this, I thought back to the first game of the season. A trip to The Emirates to see Arsenal. As a City fan, I was lucky to be given a ticket for the Arsenal section by a mate who is a season ticket holder and couldn't make it. I've been going to watch Arsenal play City since the days of Highbury in the mid 1970s when I'd stand in the clock end with the City fans. In those days, you'd just turn up. It was joyous. Now the atmosphere at The Emirates is referred to as a library. Against City, who played Arsenal off the park, it was equally bland. After 65 minutes the chief topic of conversation amongst the assembled Gooners was how early they'd leave to avoid the crush.

Upton Park - Pic The Brewer Family

Another London club that has moved are West Ham. Upton Park was the first ground I visited to see Manchester City play in 1975, hooking up with a bunch of drunken City fans who'd made the way down, they took me to the pub and bought me four pints of beer. I loved it. I didn't go this season,  I was in Australia when they played City at Home, a 0-5 thrashing, but went to watch Watford play at The London Stadium. However bad the atmosphere is at The Emirates, it is a million times worse at The London Stadium. Designed as an Athletics stadium and still retaining the running track, it is probably the least fit for purpose ground in the country. You are miles away from the pitch and given the bizarre layout, even miles away from the fans in the lower tier if you are in the upper tier. Given that it was half empty, the whole experience was rather strange. Watford won comfortably, so by the end there was not a Hammer in sight.

Tottenham Hotspur are soon to move to a new stadium. I used to love White Hart Lane, a proper footballing palace. I also went to see Watford play Spurs last week, again down to a mates spare ticket. Whilst Wembley is great for a cup final, when it is half empty it is a very sorry place. I've seen City win the FA Cup once and The League Cup twice in the staduim, but watching Spurs scrape a last minute win against Watford to a half empty stadium was a rather dispiriting sight. The only passion we saw was from a steward at the end of  block 118 around row 18, next to us, who started taunting and abusing Watford Fans when Spurs scored what proved to be the winner. It was quite bizarre that the only Spurs fan in the place with any passion was getting paid to ensure Watford fans behaved. Rather unbelievably, when the Watford fans objected, they were threatened with ejection, whilst the rather excitable steward simply stood there smirking. As an unbiased observer, I commented to my Watford supporting friends "he wouldn't have done that if it was Millwall fans in there". As Watford are a family club and many around us had small children it was a very unseemly incident. If he worked for me, I'd sack him. Stewards are meant to represent the organisation they work for. If they make obscene gestures at vistors, that really conveys a poor image of the organisation. I've always liked Spurs most out of the big London clubs, I was disappointed with them. After the game, it did make me wonder whether the new White Hart Lane avoid library syndrome?

I made a list of the clubs that have moved grounds that I could quickly think of, Sunderland, Middlesborough, Barnet, Arsenal, West Ham, the MK Dons, Stoke, Northampton Town, etc, it struck me just how few are living the dream. One notable exception being my club. Manchester City FC are enjoying a period of success unparalleled in their history. Visiting the Etihad is a joy as we see the likes of Aguero, Silva, De Bruyne and Fernandinho setting record after record and smashing clubs that less than a decade ago saw us as easy meat. It seems that the success has written a new chapter and that has warmed fans to the setting. Contrary to what United fans would have you believe the atmosphere is amazing.

 The Kippax at Maine Road - Pic Dakovich

I first visited the old home at Maine Road in 1977 to see City play Spurs, travelling up on a Football special with Spurs mates. City won 5-0 and relegated Spurs. It was a difficult day for them, but I loved the place. I have visited as often a I could ever since. The golden period for me visiting was between 1986 and 1988 when Clare was at Manchester University and I'd go up every fortnight to see her on the train and catch a game whilst there. At they time they were rubbish and got relegated. I learned that football is not about victory. The City fans didn't care about the result, they cared about belonging. When I went to the Etihad for the first time, City had yet to have the billions they inherited. It was a game against Portsmouth in 2007 most notable for a sending off, I was sat in the Gods at the top of the stadium.  I didn't much enjoy the atmosphere. It was so staid that I didn't really understand the severity of the sending off offence until I got back to the hotel and watched it on telly. I had deliberately avoided going to the Etihad for a couple of seasons, but was working locally and the match was on, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

Now the experience is different. I think that with the success, the fans have grown into the stadium. The last game we went to was the match against Everton just before Xmas. I drove up with my nephew Alex, collected my son Matt who is now at the Uni and went to the game. City played Everton off the park. As Matt and myself cheer Watford as a second team, it was especially nice to see their manager, who left Watford in acrimonious circumstances, get a football lesson. We were right by the pitch, near the corner flag, in a section where City fans stand and sing throughout the game. It was almost like the old days at Maine Road, as Colin Bell, Peter Barnes, Dennis Tueart and Dave Watson would sweep all aside. Almost but not quite.

Nothing will really ever be like Maine Road ever again. In truth it was a dump, especially towards the end. The team were in a seeming spiral of terminal decline. In the season that Manchester United won the treble, I took Alex to the League 2 Play off final for City vs Gillingham at the old Wembley. I explained to Alex, who was torn between supporting City or United at the time, (our family is split with my brothers both being in United households), that City was the harder road. I told him that for United fans, it was all about boasting about winning trophies, boasting and singing along to trite recordings of "Glory Glory Man United" at the end of games, but for City fans it was all about belonging. It was no surprie to me that whilst United produced Mick Hucknell, Ciy produced Oasis.

We knew there were better teams, the best being our neighbours, we knew that Trophies were a distant dream, but we also knew that on the terraces, we were there for the right reasons. We were there because we wanted to stand with our team through thick and thin. United fans wuld sing lame songs about their latest victory, we'd bring our inflatable banana's and celebrate our awfulness. We weren't there for prawn sandwiches or glory, we were simply there because we wanted to experience the pleasure and the pain with like minded people

That season in the third teir was in many ways for me the most memorable.A United fan recently taunted me on Facebook that when United were in Div 2 for a season in 1974, they still had the biggest attendence in the league. It seems to me that United fans are addicted to boasting and winning, even when they have nothing to boast about and have won nothing. I did note that City actually saw attendences rise on the previous season, after a decade of abject football, but what is the point argiung with people on a different spiritual plane.  As for that final, the Leage 2 play off final. I am sure that it was the Trophy that City have least wanted to win in their history, apart from on the actual day, when it was vital. It was a cathartic game. The team were 2-0 down in the 89th minute. They levelled in injury time to win on penalties. Sure United had the treble, but we had our soul. Had City not won that match, I have no doubt that things would have been different. No rich investors, no premier league titles, no Ageuro, Silva and De Bruyne, if we were lucky we'd be dusting up with Leeds and Norwich for promotion, one of those sleeping giants in a perpetual cycle of misery, like Sunderland and Middlesborough.

One of my friends locally is a postman called Mick. I was at primary school with him. He is a Sunderland fan for his sins. For years we would always exchange tales of misery about our respective clubs. Both have wonderful shiny new stadiums, but I almost feel gulty now. We bought that lucky ticket and have escaped. I think of Mick rather like like a criminal feels if he successfully busts out of jail, digs up his millions and is living the life of luxury in Brazil. Mick is the mate who didn't make it out of the tunnel before the wardens came. Every year I'd send him a picture from the beach, surrounded by a bevvy of beauties slurping on champagne and lobsters, as he ate his porridge. It would be rude not to send him a card, wouldn't it?

I suspect for Mick and all of the other fans of under achieving clubs who thought the move would be the dawn of a bright new era, only to find themselves watching rubbish football in empty, soulless palaces, the real dream is not that a bunch of rich Arab investors buy them and they start winning trophies. I think the real dream is that they could buy a Tardis and get back what they lost in the old, crumbling stadiums that saw the birth and death of so many dreams. Does moving ground ruin your club? It looks very much like it does to me.