I should begin this post with a little background information: I’m from Ipswich originally and am a lifelong Town supporter. But I moved to Yorkshire almost ten years ago and I’ve lived in Leeds for three and a half of those.
So, before anyone expresses concern that I’m jumping on the ‘we
hate Leeds bandwagon’, I’ve lived here long enough now to know what I’m talking
about.
I have met numerous Leeds fans, some of them are even quite
nice (wash your mouth out Amy), my best friends' fiancee is one... but I still loathe them with a passion.
I even
dated one, for my sins, and though I’m probably tainting them all with his
utter shitness, I put up with him for two and a half years – so I’m allowed.
As we prepare to head off and support Town at Bellend Road…
sorry, Elland… I thought I’d share with you all why it’s the club I love to
hate:
The away
stand with a restricted view. You pay almost 40 quid for a TV gantry and
three poles to get in your way.
The
endless rounds of the same bloody song. When people tell me the atmosphere
at Elland Road is excellent, I laugh at them. Singing ‘We are the Champions of
Europe’ for 90 minutes straight doesn’t make it good, it makes them a bad joke.
The
concourse. If you have more than 100 fans up in the terraces, beware,
you’ll be packed in like sardines and there won’t be a route through to the
toilets. Plus, the food is terrible and the cider is warm.
The away
fans pub. Actually, I quite like Drysalters as a football pub, but it’s too
far for away fans to travel if they’ve come by public transport so it’s always
dead and going there means you completely miss out on the amazing city we live
in. Town fans, bypass this and head to Whitelocks.
The
constantly looking out for trouble. Don’t get me wrong, I have never seen
an ounce of trouble at a Leeds game, but that doesn’t stop the constant worry
there might be some because of their reputation. They need police escorts to
away games for goodness sakes and they take pride in the fact people think this.
The
superiority complex. Yes, you were once a big club, but you’re not any more
and no amount of sold-out away attendances are going to change that. Get over
yourselves.
The fact
most of their fans don’t actually go to the games. Before I moved to Leeds
I lived in Wakefield and there were many Saturdays when I would pop into a pub
to see how Town were getting on. Every single one was packed, filled to the
rafters with Leeds fans getting hammered and watching the game on telly. You’re
literally a 15-minute trip away – be a supporter and go to the chuffing game.
The time they threw coins and bottles at our disabled fans because we'd relegated them with a draw. Enough said.
The fact
it’s the closest game to me so there’s no way I can miss it. Living so far
from home, I can only really go to a small number of games and travel is an
obstacle because of the cost. In truth, I simply can’t sit here at home and not
be down the road watching my boys. No matter how much I hate the ground, the
club, and a huge number of their fans.
Anyway, to those Blues fans making the not-so-enviable journey up the A1: be safe and I hope you have a lovely time.
Well... as much as you can when watching the current Ipswich side at that place. Halloween is about to come a week early for the Tractor Boys.
2 comments:
You've never seen any trouble but call us trouble makers? And the ticket price thing you do realise Ipswich have been known to charge us more than that to sit in a shit side stand
I also moved to Yorkshire (muy wife is from Harrogate) about 10 years ago, and duly took my Father in Law - who had never been to a match in his life - to the game in which Leeds were relegated, and the match was interrupted for 10 minutes to clear the pitch of Leeds fans, many of who had headed towards us full of bile and hatred. Shame - i have never taken him to a match since.
Amy, if you were at that match, you have seen trouble.
Never seen anything like that back in Suffolk at PR.
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