John Shammas is a Manchester United fan. And that can be a pretty joyless existence right now.
Rubbish football, rip-off prices, dreadful food, VAR, packed trams, a leaking roof and angry stewards. It all adds up to a match-going experience that is, in John’s words ‘a bit s***’.
“I don't remember a time when I wasn't in love with Manchester United,” he writes. “My first memory is the 1994 FA Cup final (and the celebratory chippy dinner after). And I will always love them... but at the moment it's quite hard to like them.”
So towards the end of the season, John broke with the habit of a lifetime and stopped going to the match. It started with a walk in Lyme Park after work instead of schlepping to Old Trafford for a midweek game.
John decided to sample football away from Old Trafford
And then he dipped his toe into the joys of non-league football. At Trafford FC he saw a dad feeding a baby while supping a pint, bought a hot dog, a Freddo and a Diet Coke for £3.40 and met a bloke from Aberdeen who was ‘really into flags’.
At Altrincham he watched as the subs signed autographs while warming up, and tucked into one of the ‘finest dishes invented’.
And at West Didsbury and Chorlton he experienced a ‘true rejection of traditional football’ among a crowd that’s ‘determined to have a nice time rather than to 'win things',’ and heard what must be one of the best chants anywhere in the game.
It’s a really lovely read. And if like John you’ve found yourself becoming more and more dispirited with the beautiful game, it might just just help you remember while you fell in love with it in the first place.
This is what it means
Oldham fans celebrate at Wembley(Image: Sean Hansford)
Here’s another reminder of exactly what it means to be a football fan. As the final whistle blew at Wembley yesterday, grown men wept, fathers hugged their sons and daughters while others simply roared with joy.
After a three year absence Oldham Athletic were back in the football league. M.E.N. photographer, and Oldham fan, Sean Hansford was there. And his pics sum up the moment better than any words ever could.
Occasionally united, often divided
Dear England is showing at The Lowry(Image: Marc Brenner)
Staying on a football theme for a moment longer, Nicole Wootton-Cane has been to see the Olivier Award-winning Dear England as it begins its four week stint at The Lowry. The play looks at how Gareth Southgate managed to turn around England’s fortunes and oversee one of the most successful periods in the national team’s history.
But, Nicole writes it also, ‘addresses so much more than football, telling the story of an occasionally united, often divided England that feels entitled to glory and stuck on the questions - what does it mean to play for England? And what is it to be English?’ Read more
The Facebook ticket scammers duping Oasis fans
Scammers are hijacking fans' Facebook accounts
An M.E.N. investigation has revealed how Oasis fans have lost hundreds of pounds in a Facebook scam targeting those desperate for tickets to the band’s UK tour. The ‘sophisticated’ and ‘creepy’ con involves profiles being hijacked by fraudsters and used to scam the account-holder’s friends.
One victim lost £550, while another says she chased Facebook 13 times asking for her hijacked account to be deleted - but it remains online six months later. Beth Abbit reports.
The plug and the thug
Dougie Joyce and Liz Truss
Dougie Joyce and Liz Truss (Image: Instagram / dougiejoyce_iam_manchester2023)
Liz Truss has done plenty of bizarre things since her disastrous spell in Downing Street was cut mercifully short. But appearing in a video to plug notorious Manchester thug Dougie Joyce’s whisky brand might be the oddest yet.
Joyce, 36, who has recently served a 19-month jail sentence after viciously assaulting a 78-year-old in a Northern Quarter pub, posted the clip to his Instagram page. In it, he and the former PM pose together at a table with Truss holding a bottle of Joyce's brand of Irish whisky.
Joyce hands her the bottle of whisky in the clip, saying ‘just remember - Dougie Joyce loves ya’, with Truss then adding ‘Liz Truss loves you’. Kit Roberts has more here
Weather etc
Long hot summer: We're twice as likely to have a hot summer after the sunniest spring on record, the Met Office has predicted. The forecasting body also warned of an increased risk of heatwaves after the country's sunniest spring on record.
Roadworks: There are temporary traffic lights on A56 Manchester Road in both directions at Redvales Road. Expect delays.
Manchester headlines
Crash death: Race Across the World star Sam Gardiner has died aged 24 following a car crash in Stockport. The former BBC show contestant died after his car came off the road on the A34 in Cheadle and flipped onto its side on Monday. Sam had been working in Scotland and travelled to Stockport to attend a family birthday celebration earlier in the week, his uncle has said.
Sewage fight: United Utilities has won a long-running court battle to run a new sewage pipe into the Manchester Ship Canal. A panel of High Court judges have ruled the canal's owner, the Manchester Ship Canal Company, does not have any grounds to oppose construction of the 1.16km long pipe from Eccles sewage works in Salford. More here
Balcony fall: A teenager is fighting for his life in hospital after falling from a balcony while fleeing police. The 19-year-old suffered critical injuries after falling off an 'upper balcony from height' in Tameside on Saturday night, said GMP. A 14-year-old boy was also seriously injured in the same fall. Read more