Steve Horton Gets Locked Out The Theatre

Old Trafford has never been my favourite place to go for various reasons.

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They include the sometimes poisonous atmosphere from both sets of fans, getting kept in for ages, and the fact we rarely get anything there. As such, I often use any excuse not to go, which led to me missing the 4-1 and 3-0 wins in 2009 and 2014 respectively as they coincided with my wedding anniversary.

Given my trips there have included the 1-0 defeat in 1987 that ended our title hopes, 3-1 collapse in 1989 after we have taken the lead, 2-1 last minute Cup defeat in 1999, 4-0 Grand National Day hammering in 2003, I know I am somewhat of a jinx when it comes to this fixture. So this year when a very good friend who has never been there and is emigrating in September asked if I could find him a ticket, I was happy to send mine his way.

Rather than watch it at home though, I decided to make a day of it anyway with him and the lad I usually go to games with. Having survived getting the train to both games there last season, we opted to do so again. However our plan to repeat last year’s league day out and take a train to Eccles and have a few beers there, then take the relatively quiet tram route to Pomona, was scuppered by Network Rail. It meant the only option to us was to take the train into the city centre and head to the ground from there.

After getting off at Oxford Road station around noon, we encountered what has been a common problem in Manchester for us over the years; the fact that pubs you would expect to be open all day Sunday when there is a match on remain closed. This wasted a good 10-15 minutes of our time finding out that Lass O’Gowries was shut. This was the scene of a memorable event prior to the 1996 FA Cup semi final where we poured half a pot of vinegar into someone’s pint and they didn’t notice.