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Despite
being rock bottom in the league and half expecting
a cricket score in favour of the home side, this
was a fixture that I had been looking forward to
for some time. I had seen the impressive
stadium from the train on several occasions, while
travelling to other grounds, but I had never
actually been there. I even avoided the
work’s Christmas drink, the night before, so that
I didn’t feel awful for the trip.
I went by train, arriving at Manchester Piccadilly
at around 11am. The weather was grim, in
fact it never stopped raining all day. The city
was full of soaked Christmas shoppers. I’m sure
that there are numerous pubs in the centre, but to
the stranger, they weren’t really obvious. I
headed through the shopping centre and found the
Printworks. Here there were several bars and
restaurants and I had a drink and some lunch in a
Lloyds Bar/Wetherspoons pub.
Getting to the ground was easy. I walked back
towards the station and turned down Dulcie Street.
From here, the ground was signposted as Sportcity
all the way there. Unless you have a real aversion
to walking, I would recommend getting there by
foot. After the final whistle, I stayed back to
applaud the Reading players and still made the
half-five train. I passed two pubs on the way; one
shut, the other up for sale with a ‘Home Fans
Only’ sign at the door.
Don’t expect to find much to do enroute to the
Etihad. The stadium is in a residential area,
consisting mostly of post-war housing. There is an
athletics stadium, with covered seating, adjacent
to the much larger football ground. Outside the
ground are several outdoor bars selling both
alcohol and food. I decided to go into the ground
early and have a few beers on the concourse while
watching the Wigan v Arsenal game on TV.
Unfortunately, the match was not being
shown. The screens had only something called
CityTV, where you could watch Tevez and Balotelli
struggling to wrap up Christmas presents. Before
getting through the turnstiles, away fans were
given a full head to toe body search. Reading fans
are hardly a notorious bunch and this seemed
rather over the top.
The food was the usually overpriced stuff; for
example £3.50 for a pie. John Smiths was on
offer at £3.40 a pint. The loos were fine
and coped even at half time, though admittedly we
didn’t fill our allocated area.
I paid £40 for a ticket in the lower tier behind
the goal. The stand was not steep enough for a
really good view and if people stood, it could be
difficult for kids and shorter fans to see
properly. I reckon the upper tier would a better
option if available to the visiting supporter. If
you are in a seat in the first five rows or so and
it is raining, you’ll probably get wet. I was on
the end of a row, close to the City fans, to my
left. Rows of three empty seats and a human fence
of stewards, one on every step, separated
us. here were even more stewards stood next
to the home fans and police on standby to the
rear. It seemed a bit like a throwback to the
hooligan days of the eighties.
At kick-off, the Reading fans sat down to watch
the game. This really riled the City fans, who
presumably hoped we would remain standing, to be
more easily baited. The stewards sat when we sat
and stood, when we occasionally got excited and
stood up. At times they displayed some strange
manoeuvres and on 75 minutes, they all suddenly
left their seats in unison, with military
precision. I was surprised by the venom
hurled at us by some of the home fans. It
was neither a tense nor aggressive fixture and
there is little rivalry between the two clubs. I
got the impression that the stewards would not
hesitate to throw out a visiting fan who responded
and I avoided even glancing across to the baiting
home fans. It should be said that they were in a
small minority and most of them were fine.
hey struggled to get many songs going and the
atmosphere was honestly, worse than Wigan. Rarely
did any songs ripple around that ground as I had
expected to happen.
The game was hardly a classic, which perhaps
accounted for some of the lack of atmosphere. City
were the best team, but Reading, with players
behind the ball, nearly held out for a
point. An injury time header from Gareth
Barry really ruined my day. The home fans that had
not already left, finally had something to cheer.
The wet weather and the score didn’t help matters,
but the whole experience was a bit of a let
down. It was a visit to supposedly one of
Europe’s top clubs, but it just didn’t feel that
way.
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