bristol city 2013/14

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BARRY LANDY

Once a labour of love, football is losing the battle to convenience

You see them all the time. Shuttling up the steps of the stand, into the concourse and off in search of a hotdog, some chips or if they’re lucky enough to be a follower of one of the Premier League elite, something more artisan. Here’s looking at you, Delia.

Now, before you jump to conclusions, hear me out. This column doesn’t seek to berate those football fans who use the time before a game or at the interval to avail of culinary delights on offer, sample a pie and thus support club revenue, all the more vital the further down the league pyramid you delve.

This is a plea to the new band. The supporters to whom convenience is king. To those for whom beating the queues brings greater satisfaction than watching a game, it would seem.

Such are the large swathes of people who seem to dart for first the concourse at half-time and then the exit when the clock is hardly beyond the 80 minute mark, it’s impossible not to draw attention, for this writer at least.

Be it in live games or on television, whatever the score, wherever the action, something seems to be tussling for the attentions of match-goers. Rarely it seems, is the prospect of a goal or a scoring chance what wins out against a sausage roll or a beating the rush at the Park and Ride.

For U’s fans, rising ticket prices aren’t to be contended with, with news that season ticket prices are being frozen ahead of the 2014/15 campaign but for many ticket prices form the crux of cost of football debates.

It seems odd to me that those who plough their money into seeing their team, and

remember this is non-specific to any club and more a general trend throughout this country at least, then contrive to miss anything between five and 20 minutes in total of any given match, bowing instead to external factors.

From the 40th minute onwards, is it just me that’s drawn towards the trickle of supporters heading for the Bovril? The game could be scoreless, or more often than not at the break, there’s no more than one goal between the sides. A change could be instant. A flick or a slip, a moment of genius or calamity.

There are of course other considerations. The game could be already won or lost and it’s reasonable that when a victory or defeat is decided all but for the final whistle, fans can point to a job well done or that feeling of despair ahead of turning their attentions elsewhere. There are long journeys too.

I always wonder when watching a game about just how aware the players are of what is going on in the stands around them.

Not so much the sound or lack thereof, but of the stands emptying. What effect does it have on them should they notice, knowing large sections of their support has given up, for today at least.

I’ve heard only good things of the crowds at Colchester United, especially when times explicitly require it.

I’m making a long overdue return to the stadium today and the only abandon I expect to see is of the wild variety, on the pitch and from the boots of a player in blue and white.

Fans who left Wigan Athletic’s 3-3 draw with Yeovil in midweek may have missed the five goals in the final eight minutes just as fans at Birmingham’s six goal stalemate with Burnley the week before would have missed two injury time strikes.

They won’t make that mistake again. You wouldn’t walk out of a Hollywood blockbuster just before the explosive ending, would you?

www.downinthebox.co.uk | @BarryLandyDITB

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Barney RonayThe Guardian