Fantastic! It was just like the Unibond North days. Less than an hour’s drive on a Saturday afternoon and we’re there, we even had time for lunch before setting off. Obviously, without proper planning we arrived in the outskirts of sunny Manchester by 1.00 pm and dispatched Trainspotter John on a random street on his quest to find love and the only Weatherspoon’s in town.
Ewan Fields is a good old fashioned northern football ground. Surrounded by lines of red brick terraced houses with washing lines criss crossing the network of back alleyways, we managed to find our way to the club though a small gate at the end of a street. With the Social Club welcoming away fans, we took advantage of the incredibly cheap £2 a pint or only 60p for my lemonade, enough to make any Yorkshire man happy
Inside the ground, we were given a choice of either standing on the terrace behind the goal or in the raffle ticket controlled setting next to the tunnel. Given that the terracing had the added bonus of the world’s biggest netting between spectators and pitch, (it’s either Health and Safety gone mad or one too many footballs have been lost on local streets), we decided to pay the extra £2 for controlled seating.
The big news on today’s journey was Megaphone man proudly showing off his pair of tickets to next week’s game at Turf Moor. Even an offer of an exciting day trip to with us to Welling to cheer on the Shaymen couldn’t change his mind. The revelation that the other ticket is for Mrs Megaphone seems to suggest that romantic days out are still alive and kicking in the Megaphone household, even if Burnley is the destination!
Having had the experience of all previous away games this season, we had absolutely no idea what the outcome would be before kick off. The match turned out to be as comfortable as the league table suggested, the final few goals generating little more than applause from the travelling Shaymen. Football is a simple game and it feels like we win away every week. Credit to the Hyde faithful, no home wins all season but full support for the team regardless of the score, seasons won’t get much tougher than this.
Next week we’re off to Welling and with Megaphone man’s seat already taken, who knows if and when he’ll ever resurface on an away trip again, perhaps they’ll keep him in Burnley.
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