Cod Almighty | Diary
Beware the last-minute equalisers of Moss Lane
18 August 2015
If you live in Manchester, the problems that Devon Diary discussed yesterday of fostering a good and proper respect for good and proper football teams in your children is particularly difficult. About a decade ago, Middle-aged Diary's son decided he supported Man City. At the time, I was vaguely relieved. We live a short bus ride from Old Trafford.
One thing I learnt is that young children are not quite so susceptible to the consumerist crap that nowadays surrounds supporting a club as one sometimes fears. One of his friends invited him to a party at the Man United ground. He came back with a goody bag full of branded toys. I still occasionally find myself writing down a phone message with the pen he was given. The experience and the toys had no discernible impact. Sustained support is about an accretion of experience. Its achieved with a solid diet, not the sugar rush of gimmickry.
My son's support for Man City waxes and wanes. Last year, he paid only passing attention to a team that he has seen, in the flesh, no more than four times. On the other hand, he is steadfast in his attendance whenever I suggest a trip to our really local team, Trafford, a fifteen minute walk from our house. Trafford provided his first experience of watching grown-ups play football, and the headline details of that day - that Curzon Ashton were the opponents and the score was 2-2 - are ones neither of us will ever forget.
As Devon Diary suggested, there is something about family in that. Taking your child to the football for the first time is as much a red-letter day for the parent as it is for the child. But it doesn't trump all. My son's first League game involved Grimsby, and he has watched them more often than he has watched Man City. But he still treats them as a plastic baton with which to taunt me, just as nowadays I take no trouble to hide from him my contempt for everything that Man City stand for.
After Trafford and Man United, Altrincham are our next closest team- a slightly longer bus ride than Old Trafford. However, I cannot provide the inside track. The suburban team in a metropolis gets only a fraction of the media coverage enjoyed by a team in a conurbation of its own, like Grimsby or Torquay.
What I do painfully recall is that our two visits to Moss Lane have both ended with injury time equalisers for the Robins. Both, in slightly different ways, illustrated our shortcomings at the time: a tendency to try and do the minimum; a loss of concentration that could have been about nerves or arrogance, or even both. Altrincham I suspect feel that staying in the Conference is the summit of their ambitions. Just like us in our second flight days, they can be adept prickers of inflated egos and teasers of insecurities. If we win tonight, it will be a real mark of progress.