Caveblade
Active Member
Thought I would give a brief view on my day at Old Trafford as a corporate whore!
We arrived at 2.30 to make the most of the free bar and have time for the 5 courses of food. We were laughing at the sheer number of fans / tourists who were already there to take advantage of the many commercial opportunities around old trafford. We suggested that if you arrived 3 hours before kick off at the Lane the only people you would see would be a lady laying out a load of scarfs and badges on a table and a bloke setting up a burger van in the corner of the car park.
We walked up to the ground and received our first pleasantry from a local. One of many half and half scarf sellers tried to sell me his wares as a "souvenir", when I jokingly suggested any real football wouldn't be seen dead in one he aggressively told me to "Fuck off".
We then had a walk around the shopping emporium (superstore), relatively quickly my eyes were bleeding at the prices being charged. 80 quid for a shirt, boy oh boy those are one set of gullible fans. We were laughing that as we pay by the letter for names on shirts, how on earth does Mata cost the same as Schweinsteiger!
We then wandered up to the Gallery restaurant to partake of our 5 courses. I have to say the food was excellent and the service very good. It is the first time I have been provided with a flask of coffee to take to my seat. We had excellent seats on the corner of the Fergie Stand just to the right of the Blades Fans (as you looked at the pitch).
I have to say you did us proud, bollocks to any glory hunters who say otherwise, for 96 minutes you out sang 60 odd thousand plastic grumbling fans.
I Thought we had a Blade behind us, it turned out to be a Man Ure fan from Kent with a half and half scarf! (He left with 10 mins to go and missed the goal!)
I enjoyed the game and the more it went on the ore you realised that this was probably the most pedestrian Man Ure side in history, whilst we coped comfortably we were simply sat too deep to effectively turn defence into attack.
We reached half time and stood up to make our way inside for a drink only for the snooty plastic lady behind us to suggest to us that we keep it down in the second half as people were getting annoyed. We had clapped when United defended well and laughed alot as we sang about the shit Billy Sharp. As we said we weren't being loud, we were in the most expensive corporate seats in the ground and if you can't cope with fans from a third division club clapping their team, you need to get a life.
2nd half much of the same and I really thought we were going to get the nil nil. A fantastic effort from all the players. Our host was a Villa Fan who after we described Connor Salmon, perversely went and put a bet on him as first scorer! Even he started to agree with us after about 20 minutes. Fair do's, even Salmon put a great shift in, he just struggles with controlling a ball, heading and passing!
For the last ten minutes we had some numpty in the next row trying to stare my mate out. When 3 of us turned round and returned the favour he suddenly came over all shy. I was quite staggered at the efficiency to empty the ground which started at around 10 minutes before the 90 was up (so 16 minutes missed) added into the prawn sarnie brigade who took 10 minutes to filter back after half time, it tells you all you need to know about those true football connoisseurs! We pissed ourselves at the "Is there a Fire Drill" chant.
Hard to call the penalty from our vantage point, even at the time he seemed to rise to a glorious height before crashing to the ground. Having watched TV, Hammond made contact and the inevitable swan dive followed. True to form the Blades still sang and gave a great ovation to the team.
We made our way back towards the Gallery and credit where it is due had a pleasant chat with one Manchester fan who had talked to us at half time. He was very complimentary about our support, but its hard to feel too sorry for them when they complain about how dire the football is, try swapping places!
The day was nicely finished off for me by Steward number 155. We walked up the steps right next to the Blades fans and as usual there were a few handing out abuse, I waved and gave a thumbs up. This steward looked round at them and turned back saying "Fucking Mongs". So nice to see that political correctness has reached the employees of Manchester.
So to sum up, a great effort by the team but back to the grindstone of league one. The day has totally reinforced my perception of Manchester United, a great big blood sucking monstrosity of a club with, in the main nasty, arrogant plastic fans (bar one exception). If that is what £250 million buys you, you can keep it.
Up the Blades.
We arrived at 2.30 to make the most of the free bar and have time for the 5 courses of food. We were laughing at the sheer number of fans / tourists who were already there to take advantage of the many commercial opportunities around old trafford. We suggested that if you arrived 3 hours before kick off at the Lane the only people you would see would be a lady laying out a load of scarfs and badges on a table and a bloke setting up a burger van in the corner of the car park.
We walked up to the ground and received our first pleasantry from a local. One of many half and half scarf sellers tried to sell me his wares as a "souvenir", when I jokingly suggested any real football wouldn't be seen dead in one he aggressively told me to "Fuck off".
We then had a walk around the shopping emporium (superstore), relatively quickly my eyes were bleeding at the prices being charged. 80 quid for a shirt, boy oh boy those are one set of gullible fans. We were laughing that as we pay by the letter for names on shirts, how on earth does Mata cost the same as Schweinsteiger!
We then wandered up to the Gallery restaurant to partake of our 5 courses. I have to say the food was excellent and the service very good. It is the first time I have been provided with a flask of coffee to take to my seat. We had excellent seats on the corner of the Fergie Stand just to the right of the Blades Fans (as you looked at the pitch).
I have to say you did us proud, bollocks to any glory hunters who say otherwise, for 96 minutes you out sang 60 odd thousand plastic grumbling fans.
I Thought we had a Blade behind us, it turned out to be a Man Ure fan from Kent with a half and half scarf! (He left with 10 mins to go and missed the goal!)
I enjoyed the game and the more it went on the ore you realised that this was probably the most pedestrian Man Ure side in history, whilst we coped comfortably we were simply sat too deep to effectively turn defence into attack.
We reached half time and stood up to make our way inside for a drink only for the snooty plastic lady behind us to suggest to us that we keep it down in the second half as people were getting annoyed. We had clapped when United defended well and laughed alot as we sang about the shit Billy Sharp. As we said we weren't being loud, we were in the most expensive corporate seats in the ground and if you can't cope with fans from a third division club clapping their team, you need to get a life.
2nd half much of the same and I really thought we were going to get the nil nil. A fantastic effort from all the players. Our host was a Villa Fan who after we described Connor Salmon, perversely went and put a bet on him as first scorer! Even he started to agree with us after about 20 minutes. Fair do's, even Salmon put a great shift in, he just struggles with controlling a ball, heading and passing!
For the last ten minutes we had some numpty in the next row trying to stare my mate out. When 3 of us turned round and returned the favour he suddenly came over all shy. I was quite staggered at the efficiency to empty the ground which started at around 10 minutes before the 90 was up (so 16 minutes missed) added into the prawn sarnie brigade who took 10 minutes to filter back after half time, it tells you all you need to know about those true football connoisseurs! We pissed ourselves at the "Is there a Fire Drill" chant.
Hard to call the penalty from our vantage point, even at the time he seemed to rise to a glorious height before crashing to the ground. Having watched TV, Hammond made contact and the inevitable swan dive followed. True to form the Blades still sang and gave a great ovation to the team.
We made our way back towards the Gallery and credit where it is due had a pleasant chat with one Manchester fan who had talked to us at half time. He was very complimentary about our support, but its hard to feel too sorry for them when they complain about how dire the football is, try swapping places!
The day was nicely finished off for me by Steward number 155. We walked up the steps right next to the Blades fans and as usual there were a few handing out abuse, I waved and gave a thumbs up. This steward looked round at them and turned back saying "Fucking Mongs". So nice to see that political correctness has reached the employees of Manchester.
So to sum up, a great effort by the team but back to the grindstone of league one. The day has totally reinforced my perception of Manchester United, a great big blood sucking monstrosity of a club with, in the main nasty, arrogant plastic fans (bar one exception). If that is what £250 million buys you, you can keep it.
Up the Blades.
) I have been in several and only enjoyed it once ,even when I hired one myself. You can instantly tell the difference between the regulars (like Brian the braindead) and the guests (like cave) . Not the way to watch football for me and I have turned down more than Ive been to. I once had an entire end at Molineaux going barmy at me when Michael Tonge scored our 3rd after being 1-0 down ,my host got into a bit of trouble but I couldn't help it. Met Brownie ,Shaun Murphy and Paddy after ,Nathan Blake was a prick but he was playing for them. That was my most enjoyable ,the rest you can keep.
