No matter how your team are performing there is something special about the experience of travelling around the country to support them.
In the summer of 1985 I decided with my friend to start following Carlisle United to away matches. It came as alarming news to our parents being just after the Bradford and Heysel disasters, but we weren’t getting talked out of it. However aged 13 we were still too young to be negotiating British Rail on our own and with parents not willing to drive us we had to rely on coach travel.
This involved putting our names down at the tiny supporters’ club shop in town, and hoping there would be enough interest for a coach to run. Our first trip was to Hull’s Boothferry Park (where years later I’d take my son to his first Carlisle match) for a 4-0 defeat. We were late back on the coach after the first of several lengthy service station stops, and blushed at the heckles and ironic cheers that met our return, but now we were proper away fans and we loved it.
Undeterred, on a Friday night in December we visited Bradford’s temporary home of Odsal Stadium. The game was played on a Friday evening as Bradford Northern were also at home that weekend, so we had to get notes from our parents excusing us from school in the afternoon. Not many went to the same lengths – we counted fewer than 100 fans in the away end; we got home long after midnight.
This story is from the February 2018 edition of When Saturday Comes.
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This story is from the February 2018 edition of When Saturday Comes.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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