Pulling power Proposals, tears and flying pies - my life behind the bar on football's concourses

From proposals and tears to flying pies, Honor Pullman shares her experiences working behind the bar at various football stadiums, from Millwall to Manchester's Etihad.

- Honor Pullman

I was 17 when I started working at football grounds for some extra cash on the weekends. As the youngest of three girls, I could easily have followed my older sisters into a Saturday job at a local cafe. Instead, I signed away my life (and social life) to a hospitality agency, in exchange for a tenner an hour, flexible shifts and a variety of unflattering uniforms.

As a diehard Hull City fan, I was no stranger to the concourse, but I wasn't prepared for the trials and tribulations of working in them. From Millwall to Manchester, I've seen it all - proposals, tears (mainly my own) and flying pies.

In a baptism of fire, I was thrown into the Lions' den (literally) when my first shift behind the bar was at Millwall. My attempts to make conversation with the other teenagers lining up at the staff entrance were futile; they were the first team and I felt like the wide-eyed apprentice. Like a line of children on a school trip, we snaked around the stadium, allocated to kiosks by a woman in hi-vis armed with a clipboard.

I felt out of my depth, sweaty and embarrassingly overdressed; my patent school shoes were literally shining out among the sea of Nike trainers. I had no idea what to expect, or what to do, but it became obvious when the kiosk contained only plastic cups, three Carlsberg taps and some Twix.