Greenwich Blade
Hitch-Hike General
It is with a heavy heart I have to announce that the man responsible for making me support United, my dad, has finally lost his battle and died peacefully at 10 o'clock this morning. You'll be glad to know that as he lay on his bed having gasped his last, I laid my Blades scarf across his chest, and not for the first time, a red and white scarf had to dry my tears. He might have had "a family of idiots!" (the London Blades' favourite quote of his when I told the tale of how he had to come and pick me up from near Peterborough on the A1 very early on Christmas Morning in 1989) but he did a pretty good job of making me the person I am, for good or for bad, and I am so proud that he is my dad. He also managed to touch the lives of everyone he came into contact with, as those who listened to his wry observations at Bramall Lane will testify. I am already missing the phone calls after we've lost which missed out all pleasantries and introductions and got straight to the point - "Were they rubbish?" 
