Live and let Dai

I’ve just heard that the supporters’ bus scheduled for Kings Lynn (or KL as we say in the tea houses of Vaynor) has been cancelled. Apparently we didn’t manage to impress 34 of my fellow Martyristas that 8 hours on a bus was worth it just to see Jon Brown take KL Town United Athletic (or whatever they’re called these days) apart. It’s the first game of the season. Come on. The … First … Game … Of … The … Season and we can’t run a bus. What has become of us? What happened to our away support? We used to run a bus to every game back in the day, so have times changed that much? I’m asking a lot of questions here. I probably need to add some answers. We have to face the fact that the average age of our support is getting older by the season and those of us heading north of forty have other stuff circling our lives; where are our loud, boisterous, frankly annoying adolescents who should be using Merthyr Town trips as a rite of passage? You know the score, trips to dull towns, watching the mighty Martyrs, drinking too many cans of fizzy lager, taking photos of your mates asleep, making up new songs, planning that next big trip with Wales, lying to your partner that you’ve only a couple of drinks when you obviously can’t speak, trying to work out why a trip to Hereford costs £13.00, begging for cans when you run out, surviving Chippenham, all in all learning about life, friendship and the fact that there is no meaning to life apart from love, life and the pursuit of three points. I suppose there are more attractions in the borough these days, it’s not all about buying Strongbow and park benches anymore. There’s another theory in that live football in dying, especially at non-league level. Why actually leave the house to see a game when you sit on your arse and watch as many games as you like over the weekend? Why on earth would you spend 8 hours with me on a bus talking about absolute nonsense when you can get the same effect from Charlie Nicholas and Phil Thompson through the TV? This is a problem though as there is nothing better, if you really love football or for that matter any sport, than going to a match. The noise, the smells, the colour and there’s beer. Did I mention cob & chips? And to be honest we have so much football on the TV at the moment that the games are becoming meaningless, however much hype surrounds Everton v Burnley do you really care? In my house the football is becoming like lift music, it’s there in the background and I tune in every now and then. I must get round to cancelling Sky this week too. Whereas the live game experience is different; a chance to catch up with mates, an opportunity to hear the tackles, jump around with strangers after a goal, get the week’s frustrations out of your system by berating the opposition full-back and just getting out of the house. The away match is even more rewarding as you are in foreign territory, representing the club and the town, a hardy few sometimes, sometimes loud, sometimes sad but always proud. I could get a lift in a car I suppose but where’s the fun in that? Putting up with the driver’s shit musical tastes, cramped up in the back seats maybe, empty cans around your feet, a stop at every services to empty someone’s bladder, getting lost of course and I’m probably sitting next to Hulby so I get tinnitus for a week. We’re going to need to target matches in order to attract more of our supporters to the away day experience (ice cream not included), here are my choices as a starter; Hayes & Yeading (Beach Party), Weymouth (decent ground with good home support), Cambridge City (Christmas jumper day), Dorchester (annual overnighter) and of course Chippenham (you have to go there, it’s just hilarious) so can we all agree that we make more of an effort this season? We’ll also have a Cup run to the 3^rd Round and Sunderland to manage too, we can finally get around to hiring that plane, we got a quote for KL for a flight but my expected lottery win failed to materialise. Shape up and travel away. We’ll be coming down the road ….