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football<br />
...........................................<br />
The road to Wigan Athletic<br />
Albion away? Piers Benjamin will be there<br />
The first away match I went to<br />
was in 1992, an FA Cup Second<br />
Round replay against Woking<br />
FC. We won 2-1, and John<br />
Crumplin scored with his arse. I<br />
was hooked.<br />
Pretty soon every game was an<br />
away game. After the Goldstone<br />
was knocked down the Albion<br />
were banished to Gillingham,<br />
and after Bellotti [former director<br />
David] had gone I went to every<br />
game. It was only the stupid,<br />
the sad and the lonely in those<br />
games. That group is still the<br />
core of the group I go to away<br />
games with. I go to every away game.<br />
Things have changed a lot since the mid-90s.<br />
Cities have got a lot nicer. Even Rotherham has<br />
got a couple of places in the good pub guide. Going<br />
to Blackburn is still a horrible day out, mind.<br />
It’s a bad situation when the best pub in a town is a<br />
Wetherspoons.<br />
However far we’re travelling we make sure we<br />
get there by 11am, even if this means getting<br />
the 5.50am out of Hove. You’ve got to make a day<br />
of it. We don’t do much sightseeing, though we<br />
usually go through the town centre. It’s all about<br />
the pubs, really.<br />
We don’t wear colours. Not because there’s<br />
anything to worry about. It’s just the habit, really.<br />
Goes back to the Gillingham days when the pubs<br />
around Victoria Station wouldn’t let you in wearing<br />
colours.<br />
There was a bit of a flare up of the old-style<br />
violence around the turn of the millennium, but<br />
there’s no trouble any more,<br />
unless people are really after it.<br />
Football at this level has become<br />
a middle-class game. Even going<br />
to Cardiff is OK.<br />
There’s a better crowd atmosphere<br />
going to away games,<br />
though it’s not what it was.<br />
There’s a contingent who try to<br />
act like European Ultras, and a<br />
lot of the songs they try to sing<br />
are too complicated for the bulk<br />
of the fans to pick up. Spontaneous<br />
reaction songs are much<br />
more effective.<br />
How much have I spent on<br />
going away? I wouldn’t like to think. You do get<br />
expert at getting the cheapest tickets, but it does<br />
add up. What’s £30 for the ticket plus £25 for<br />
the train plus £50-70 spending money times 18<br />
matches? Over two grand, I guess. And then there’s<br />
the England matches. Still, you’ve got to spend<br />
your money on something. Other people spend a<br />
fortune in garden centres.<br />
If Albion got into Europe I’d definitely go to all<br />
the games. Might help me tick a few new countries<br />
off if we drew teams in Armenia or Kazakhstan.<br />
The furthest I’ve been with the Albion is for<br />
friendlies in Galway and Aberdeen. In all I’ve been<br />
to over 130 different stadiums.<br />
Last season when the final whistle went at<br />
Middlesbrough we all breathed a collective sigh of<br />
relief. This season’s success has been an unexpected<br />
surprise: as we’re still in with a shout at the<br />
business end of the season I’m expecting a lot of<br />
company in the away end. As told to Alex Leith<br />
....89....
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