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 3rd 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 ….
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