Male Bonding - The Reality

As road trips go travelling to Wigan from Manchester isn’t much of an adventure, about 20 miles, involving two motorways and some small back roads. Clearly for a five year old it’s a big deal though. The excitement built steadily from early yesterday morning, until by almost noon I had to agree to leave, just for the sanity levels in the household generally. Even though the match didn’t start till 3pm and I wasn’t savouring the idea of keeping him entertained before the football started. As it transpired it was a wise move – we covered a lot of ground quickly, and were off the motorways by 12.15, but I hadn’t counted on a hold up that saw us travel about half a mile in half an hour. The cause? Road resurfacing in a place called Hindley. The real exasperation? The flow of traffic was being controlled by a couple of men with those old reversible Stop/Go signs. Incidentally whenever I see them now, which isn’t often these days, they never fail to remind me of Roadrunner cartoons for some reason. These guys had obviously either received instructions to only let two cars go either way at one time or were having too much fun using their walkie-talkies to let traffic flow efficiently. Still, it meant that we arrived in Wigan around 1pm, leaving me only two hours to kill before kick-off. The stadium car park was free, an unexpected bonus, and only left us with a short five minute walk before we were at the ground. As we approached the stadium he was struck by the number of people wearing the same shirt as him, the scale of the occasion seemed to dawn on him. “Do all these people like our team too?” A trip to a nearby pub provided the necessary sustenance, and thankfully supplied his new favourite accompaniment with his chosen pasta dish: garlic bread. Along with pizza, garlic bread is the closest thing to culinary perfection for him. After a visit to the pub’s play area to burn off some excess energy we made our way back towards the ground. The facilities were excellent, but then it is a relatively new ground. We went into the “Marquee”; a facility for away fans, which was decked out with material to resemble the inside of a marquee, whilst providing wide screen TV and the obligatory beer. Quite possibly the best surroundings I’ve ever experienced as an away fan. Normally the welcome you receive is akin to that reserved for Hannibal Lecter, and the facilities generally reflect that. We made our way to our seats with about 20 minutes before kick off, and as we ascended the stairs and the noise grew I felt his hand grip mine, I looked down expecting a nervous face, but instead excitement was painted almost like a cartoon. I can’t express how relieved I was. The crowd turned out to be around 17,000. I was expecting a lot more than that, but perhaps on reflection I’m glad it wasn’t. We were amongst (at my best estimate) 4,000 Middlesbrough fans, and thankfully we had end of row seats, so the throng wasn’t too daunting. The noise built steadily as kick off approached and he held his ears, he’d never experienced such volume before. When the teams came out the volume went up another notch, and you certainly knew you were at a football match. The biggest frustration for him was people standing up in front at the first sign of any excitement, meaning that he had to step into the aisle to see. But he was so absorbed, he wanted to see, and I knew then that everything was going to work out fine. Fifteen minutes into the game and our team scored, a slick move ending with the ball being thumped into the goal in front of us. The place around us erupted and he first looked startled, then a huge wide grin played over his face, we’d scored and he truly felt part of it. That became even more apparent when towards the end of the first half when we hit the crossbar and he leapt from his seat in anticipation of another goal. Half time score: Wigan 0 Middlesbrough 1. My fears of him getting bored proved unfounded, he actually complained that the first half had gone by too quickly! During the interval he drank in the atmosphere and surroundings, pointing out a fan being arrested by the police and commenting on the cheerleaders. The second half was subdued, a terrible defensive mistake gifting Wigan an equaliser. As the game ended he seemed less concerned with the score than the fact that he’d really enjoyed it and wanted to know when we could go again. Full time score : Wigan 1 Middlesbrough 1 Taking a different route home we passed another football ground – the home of Bolton Wanderers, and he asked if we could go there soon. So having checked the fixture list we may be going there on December 28 – perfect really as it’s just after his birthday. All in all the day went better than I could have hoped (apart from a win!) and I have accrued lots of Dad points.