TRUE BLUE STORIES

Sebastian Harvey

I have read with interest many of the WHY BLUES since being a very early subscriber (about number 30 I think). It has provided me with a sense of the tradition and history of the club. My support for City began much more recently, so I hope I can provide a slightly different perspective.

Born and bred in Melbourne I have never left Australia. As a true Melbournian, I love my sport. I follow Australian Rules Football (anarchy with a ball), cricket, rugby - really anything we can do better than the poms. What about football I hear you say? Who made the the 1970 World Cup says I. We now have El Tel as national coach - but only as second choice.

Seriously though, I have followed the English football since the early seventies when grainy month old match highlights were shown on Saturday afternoons. FA Cup finals became an annual tradition as about the only live overseas sports event. I have a vague recollection of following the fortunes of Wolves, but never really connected with any of the teams, although I usually went for the underdog.

If I used my Australian Rules club (Collingwood) as a guide I would be following a team in black and white stripes with the nickname of the 'Magpies'! But now I would just look like another glory hunter (and there are plenty in Oz). So what made me blue?

It was actually the inspiration of another City supporter who had emigrated to Australia with his family and with the Kippax in his veins. We met about 1989, and when he discovered I was a follower of the game with no allegiances he set out with missionary zeal to convert my heathen ways. Firstly he set me straight about the other 'team' in Manchester (variously referred to as 'scum' or 'filth'). Next, he piled up the stories of greatness, in the players (Quinn, White, Reid and Coton being the mainstays at the time), the style (one-touch football was his favourite phrase) and the club, with its commitment to home-grown talent etc.

One hour packages of that weekend's games were now being shown each Monday night, and we would discuss the highlights and disappointments each week. I could barely make sense of him after 5-1. But what really sold me was seeing a 'live' game at a pub in 1990. A couple of pubs in Melbourne put on a live telecast of the 'Match of the Day' (funny euphemism that sometimes, as they almost all involve U know who). City were playing Liverpool at Anfield. I thought I'd walked into the Liverpool supporters club rooms! There must have been over 200 of them (this room only held about 150). I eventually found a group of a dozen Blues in the corner just before kick-off - and they were singing as loud as you like. The atmosphere was fantastic and all due to the City supporters. I completely forgot about having my car stolen earlier in the night, sang till I was hoarse, drank till I fell down - a true blue conversion experience. The game finished 2-2 but we thrashed the dreary Liverpool 'fans', and I knew I had found something to savour.

So now I tune in to the BBC World Service early Sunday morning and MCIVTA twice a week to keep up. I have not joined any supporters club nor been to another live telecast, but I intend to follow this up (another new year's resolution). My mentor returned to England soon after and was last heard of living in Oldham. When I found out the most common names for MCIVTA subscribers were 'Andrew' and 'Johnston' I thought maybe my mentor was not real at all, but was an angel sent by City to save my soul. This was reinforced when I discovered that many of my ancestors came from Stockport - a classic 'second' team for City supporters.

My continuing support for City has often been frustrating, but it is too late now. At least I have good reason to hate the rags, with MCIVTA ammunition that comes in handy when I cross paths (and you thought London was a long way from Manchester).

I will be making my first trip to the UK during April and I think it would be fitting if the first City game I attended was a relegation battle. Let's hope we're out of the woods by then. I even hope to find Andrew 'the city angel' Johnston, possibly somewhere in the top tier of the Kippax....

Black, white and blue all over.