Less than a week after I created this blog and cleverly called it Notes from the Armchair, circumstances dictated that I was to attend my first match at Anfield for almost five years. And luckily it turned out to be a game where the said armchair wasn't needed to hide behind due to the all too familiar horror show we have been treated to this season.
A seat in the Lower Centenary stand was an excellent vantage point, although somewhat disorientating after being used to watching from the roof of the main stand for so long. everyone seemed to be kicking in the wrong direction. And where were the action replays. We scored four goals for goodness sake, surely one of them was worth a second glance.
I've recently seen the official website have been plugging a survey on match day experiences. My first game was over 30 years ago in the same stand, albeit, without an extra few seats added to the top 18 years ago. Was my experience that different from then? I still got a thrill when emerging from the underneath of the stand and saw a lush green pitch lit up by floodlights (Your first match always has to be floodlit. It's the law). The smell was more of a sanitised aroma, probably because of an improvement in the toilets but also because the plastic facilities below the stands didn't have the character that they used to have.
In 1976 ,under the Kemlyn Road Stand, as it was then, it was efficiently lit, you could smell the Bovril (or was it Oxo?) and the pies mixed with the faint whiff of drainage. Coming out of the gloom into the radiant stadium was a sharp contrast that fair took a 5 year old's breath away (It might also be that I had been holding my breath whilst under the stand). Last night there was little aroma to tempt me to part with my cash. I could walk past the refreshment kiosk without turning to see what wares there were. And I hadn't even had my big tea. The lighting under the stand was as luminous as the floodlit turf outside so the contrast didn't strike the same resonance.
For me, progress has been made in the hygiene, health and safety standards of the match day experience but it has been made at the expense of tradition and character.
Showing posts with label Liverpool FC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liverpool FC. Show all posts
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Why now?
OK. I need to set the scene first. I've not always been an armchair fan. I did have a season ticket for a number of years. I went to as many games as I could before I got my season ticket. I only gave up my season ticket during my extended period of unemployment and after that circumstances change and life is easier when watching from home.
Yes I miss the atmosphere of being at the game. I miss joining in the singing and chanting and I miss the tribal feelings of togetherness. I don't miss the queueing, i don't miss the journey home listening to the inane comments of inexperienced supporters who had obviously been to a different game than I had witnessed although listening to the enthusiastic chattering of an excited schoolboy who had been to his first game with his dad always puts a smile on my face.
I can still remember my first experience of a first team game at Anfield. It was a winters evening, New Years Day 1976. I was with my uncle and that wonder as we went up the Kemlyn Road steps out into the floodlit stadium still remains with me to this day. We did win that day, beating Sunderland 2-0. But then we won most of the time then and we were on the way to claiming another league title, confirmed at a memorable game at Molineaux later that year.
I don't go to the match very often now. In fact I can be seen more often at non league games than at Premiership games. Am I any less of a fan than the stalwart that travels to Romania to ensure that they never miss a minute of any game? Some will argue that I am not a true fan. I don't contribute financially to Liverpool. While this is factually inaccurate (You should see my wardrobe. There is very little in there that wasn't bought from the various official club stores)I can understand the opinion that if you don't go you don't really love the team.
While I don't have a vast wealth to donate to the cause, I have invested a great deal of emotional effort into the club and can honestly say that my mood can be directly affected by the goings on on a patch of grass miles away from where I am.
So why start blogging on Liverpool FC now? Well after almost 40 years of partnership between The Reds and myself, I feel the need for a bit of marriage guidance counselling and hopefully you will be that sounding board that will keep us together.
I have just watched our team being beaten in an inferior European competition. The fact that we are in that competition at all worries me, that we struggle in it is galling to me.
No individual is bigger than the club and I will expand on my feelings on this in future posts. For now I feel better just for introducing myself to you.
Yes I miss the atmosphere of being at the game. I miss joining in the singing and chanting and I miss the tribal feelings of togetherness. I don't miss the queueing, i don't miss the journey home listening to the inane comments of inexperienced supporters who had obviously been to a different game than I had witnessed although listening to the enthusiastic chattering of an excited schoolboy who had been to his first game with his dad always puts a smile on my face.
I can still remember my first experience of a first team game at Anfield. It was a winters evening, New Years Day 1976. I was with my uncle and that wonder as we went up the Kemlyn Road steps out into the floodlit stadium still remains with me to this day. We did win that day, beating Sunderland 2-0. But then we won most of the time then and we were on the way to claiming another league title, confirmed at a memorable game at Molineaux later that year.
I don't go to the match very often now. In fact I can be seen more often at non league games than at Premiership games. Am I any less of a fan than the stalwart that travels to Romania to ensure that they never miss a minute of any game? Some will argue that I am not a true fan. I don't contribute financially to Liverpool. While this is factually inaccurate (You should see my wardrobe. There is very little in there that wasn't bought from the various official club stores)I can understand the opinion that if you don't go you don't really love the team.
While I don't have a vast wealth to donate to the cause, I have invested a great deal of emotional effort into the club and can honestly say that my mood can be directly affected by the goings on on a patch of grass miles away from where I am.
So why start blogging on Liverpool FC now? Well after almost 40 years of partnership between The Reds and myself, I feel the need for a bit of marriage guidance counselling and hopefully you will be that sounding board that will keep us together.
I have just watched our team being beaten in an inferior European competition. The fact that we are in that competition at all worries me, that we struggle in it is galling to me.
No individual is bigger than the club and I will expand on my feelings on this in future posts. For now I feel better just for introducing myself to you.
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