TRUE BLUE STORIES

Julian Griffiths

It's in the family I suppose. I don't really know why I support City, I just always have done. I wasn't really an avid supporter until a few years ago - since I could never get my dad to take me to a match when I was growing up in Manchester, I was happy enough to watch them on telly. Then when I came to Loughborough University I saw less of them on telly, and started to feel these strange urges to go and sit in the cold for two hours watching grown men kicking a ball around a field, and pay for the privilege. But Lufbra is 70 miles from Manchester, the trains are expensive and s***e and always at least half an hour late (it's not actually written into the timetable, but it should be), and I was a poor student with too much work to do, so it didn't happen.

Anyway, last summer, after three long years, I graduated and got a job, still at Lufbra university. Everyone in my lab is a fanatical supporter of some team (mostly Leicester - for such a s***e team, they must have the second most loyal supporters in the world) and, shockingly, no Rags. Naturally, at the start of last season there were a few City jokes flying around the lab (what's the difference between a lift and Man City? A lift doesn't take three months to go down. What's the difference between a cocktail stick and Man City? A cocktail stick's got two points. How I laughed) and I started to get drawn into this football supporting thing. I also bought a car, making getting to Manchester much easier, so it was only a matter of time. Then one weekend I was visiting my cousin, who had a spare ticket for the Sheff. Wed. game, and that was that. City weren't great, but Wednesday were worse, and City seemed to have the best of the game. There were a few missed chances in the 1st half, but no shots that really had enough power. But then on came Quinn and Phillips, and before I could really take it in, Uwe had scored and I was out of my seat shouting my head off and singing Uwe's name. The last ten minutes must have been the most nervous of my life. I was hooked. Couldn't get a ticket for the Liverpool match, and now the close season is doing my head in. I even (briefly) thought about going to China for the tour this summer. Still, less than two months to go. We'll **ss on the 1st division.