‘The match day is sacrosanct’

The year is 2034. Bristol City have just beaten Real Madrid 3-0 in the second leg of a Champions League semi-final to reach consecutive finals in Europe’s elite competition.

This, dear blog readers, is no wild fantasy dreamt up in a moment of absent thought while waiting for a bus or suchlike. The truth is, I have just put aside my football-managing game that I still adolescently turn to every now and again for an evening with a glass of wine, usually as I watch football too.

So, yes: that’s watching football, while pretending to manage football, before writing about football. It’s fair to say this sport takes up a fair bit of my time. Yet a lot of people still find it hard to understand the allure of twenty two people kicking a piece of inflated leather around roughly two hectares of grass for some reason.

Many only see the multi-millionaire player with his bad dress sense, flash cars and a lacking vocabulary. But, as I am sure you know because you have read thus far, there are many aspects of the game that people find wonderful, beautiful, appealing, special and so on, beyond the slightly more obnoxious side of the contemporary game that admittedly exists.

Over the next few weeks I will, as well as looking at the trials and tribulations of Bristol City, look at various aspects of the sport specifically focusing on what it’s like to be a fan.

A huge part, obviously, of the fan’s experience is the match day. I was once mocking an ex-girlfriend for her obsession with Heat magazine and how pointless, meaningless and devoid of value the celebrity world was. She poignantly, and rightly, retorted that the soap opera that accompanies modern day football is equally as vulgar, morally.

The match day, however, is sacrosanct: the day when the deluded followers attend their church to worship their false idols. But as all fans who attend matches regularly know, the match day is a stressful ritual in itself. And things always seem to go wrong.

Last Saturday’s home match to table-topping Hull City was one such day. I had been away from the Shire for a few days and was attending the game with a good friend visiting me for the weekend.

Our train arrived at Temple Meads delayed. Our original plans to have breakfast at the new Bar and Grill at the ground were cancelled due to overcrowding. The pub we chose as an alternative demanded the production of a match day ticket that needed to be collected from a friend and as I left the pub I ripped my trouser leg, exposing my inner thigh to the elements on the coldest day of this winter so far.

Anyway, more to come on such match day experiences in the weeks that follow. As fans will know, Bristol City managed to win a wonderful point in the match in question. Hull may have not been at their best but a spirited performance from a City side, who look more assured in this league with each game, ensured the visitors didn’t take away all three points.

Three points away at Rotherham this weekend would give us a healthy gap above that all important 22nd place in the table. As ever, fingers crossed.