Inside Old Trafford

By: Rob | April 10th, 2008

Its quite strange walking into somewhere you have always been excited about, watching two teams you have affection for battle it out in the best (for all its flaws, it obviously is) club competetion in the world. Thats what walking into Old Trafford is like for someone like me.

I guess it might seem odd to some, as to why a clash between Manchester United and AS Roma at Old Trafford might stir up such feelings for me - after all I’ve no obvious connection to either club. Maybe a little information about myself for those who don’t know is in order.

I grew up in the footballing wasteland that is the South-West of England. I’m from Bristol, and the biggest club in Bristol when I was growing up was Bristol City. They still are that of course, and while they now look like they might climb into the top-tier, there was no such thing happening when I was growing up. Both City and thier local rivals Bristol Rovers were stuck in what-was Division Two in the 1990s. Rovers were my local side, and after visits to City’s Ashton Gate and Rovers Memorial Stadium, i decided I much preferred the local-family atmosphere of Rovers. I’ve been a gashead ever since.

Manchester has always seemed very romantic to me though (in much the same ways as Paris or Rome). So much music (The Stone Roses, Oasis, Joy Division, The Smiths, Buzzcocks all influeced my youth to varying degrees) film (Danny Boyle was a big filmaker for me) and stuff has come out of the city.

Man United were, undoubtedly the iconic team of the 1990s in England. They won the league year after year, and I followed them as my Premier League team as most of my friends took to supporting Liverpool. The team of Cantona, Giggs and company was iconic in the school playground (for the record - while the other kids faught to be Giggsy, I just flicked my colour up to be the laconic Frenchman).

To show what an influence Manchester has had on my life - in the summer i’m moving in with my Mancunian girlfriend there.

With Roma, its not as clearcut. They are my Serie A team of choice, but its not entirely obvious why I was drawn to them. The reason I got into football in the first place, was the 94 World Cup and the Italian team appealed to me deeply. Baggio obviously lit up the tournament. In the 94/5 Season i looked to Serie A for my football fix as much as the Prem. I settled on Roma as my team - odd considering most English picked either; Milan who were the best team, Lazio because of Gazza, or whichever side David Platt was at - Sampdoria at this time I guess.

Anyway - Roma is my italian team, and I reserve a little affection for Man United (if not as much as it once was) so a match between the two sides is quite big - and its happened alot recently.

I won’t talk too much about the game - Adam and Sam will have had a much better view than I did frankly - but the atmosphere is really tense. Old Trafford has been compared with Funeral pressesions by even Sir Alex, but as someone who grew up on a terrace with an average crowd of 8,000 Old Trafford is incredible. When Gary Neville was coming on, the noise was absolutely immense.

A couple of things about the game - Hargreaves had a great game. Tirelessly ran around, I dunno how much will have been seen by the masses, but he bossed the midfield. Rio Ferdinand also, at least before he started limping around, is absolutely pivotal to united. He works alot harder than people give him credit for, and United needed him last night, no doubt. At the other end, Pannucci does alot of leading for Roma that doesn’t often get seen, and Mexes is great. Though he should have got goal side of Tevez.

When DDR missed the pen, there was an ironic cheer from those around me, but I cringed for the fella.

All I can really say is that it was an incredible experience. Its obviously so utterly different from watching a game on the TV its not true, and the game wasn’t the greatest, but still worth doing.