Sport
The fan - Hunter Davies learns a thing or two in Barnet
Published 06 March 2006
There was outcry in Carlisle after the plastic sheep was kidnapped
I'm so 'cited, as one of my children always used to say. Going to see Real Madrid at Highbury, can't wait, compared with last Saturday when I woke up and thought to myself hmm, not much on today, Hunt, where are you taking me.
Neither Spurs nor Arsenal was at home, most unusual. What shall us do? Watch the rugby on telly? Nah. Watch the Scottish FA Cup? Hmm. I could go up west with my dear wife, if she'd let me, and have a culture blitz. Every Saturday she does an exhibition, then a theatre or film, but really, I've rarely trailed off to see anything cultural. Not since Glenn Hoddle retired.
Then I noticed that Carlisle United were playing at Barnet, just eight stops up the Northern Line. I rang my son, Jake. He hates me watching Arsenal, as well as Spurs, but approves of following Carlisle even from afar, as it's my home town. He said let's go, as long as you bring your stick. Cheeky sod.
Last season, Barnet were runaway winners of the Conference while CUFC managed to creep up through the play-offs. Early this season, Barnet beat Carlisle 3-1 at Carlisle, a game I was at, and I thought heh up, we could be going down again. Since then, Carlisle have been near tops. Barnet have slumped.
On the Tube, we had the carriage to ourselves, oh if only
getting to Arsenal and Spurs was like that, and I worried perhaps
I'd got the wrong day, then it was a short pleasant walk to the ground. He who attends too many Premiership games can get tired of life. I'd forgotten that going to a game can be, well, so civilised. No obscene, heaving crowds, all bad-tempered or brutal. No nasty, smelly, lethal-looking burger vans.
Inside, it was quite noisy, all thanks to roughly a thousand CUFC fans who had made the long trek south, about doubling Barnet's normal crowd. (Their previous home game, against Lincoln, attracted only 1,695. The gate for Carlisle was 2,870.)
I talked to two CUFC fans, each carrying a sheep, not real, blow-ups, do be sensible. One told me how an officious steward at Shrewsbury had confiscated a blow-up sheep after it had somehow landed on the top of the Carlisle net. Carlisle's mass media, ie, the Cumberland News, reported the story, which by then had become a kidnapped plastic sheep. There was a local outcry, naturally, then it mysteriously turned up for sale on eBay. It was bought for £60 and returned in triumph to Carlisle.
Carlisle are the Man United of League Two, with the biggest gates, home and away. Barnet's modest little, ramshackly Underhill Stadium made Brunton Park look like the San Siro. Two ends are overlooked by the backs of suburban houses. I stared hard - but no one was looking out from any window. I wrote down one of the stadium adverts: "Door too small, sofa too big? Call Translution . . ." You never know, could happen to me, though I hope never during a football match.
One of the Barnet directors told me they had their eye on a neighbouring site where they would like to move and build a new stadium, but some posh local residents were not pleased. Those who could be affected include . . . Arsene Wenger.
I also talked to Carlisle United's medical officer, John Haworth, and learned that for eight years he has been pushing for rugby-style "blood bins" in football. Teams with an injured player are often seriously handicapped when a player is off for some time being treated, while a doc doing stitches has coaches shouting at him, "Fucking hurry up, doc," which doesn't help the doc, the player, or the stitches. Far better for a temporary substitute to come on, thereby protecting players and docs.
Doc Haworth now has the backing of the FA, the PFA and Carlisle's local MP, Eric Martlew, who has put down an early-day motion so far signed by 30 MPs. Good, eh? Things do happen at grass roots.
At Arsenal-Madrid on Wednesday the skills will doubtless be better, but I can't believe for one moment that I'll learn so many fascinating things.
Carlisle won, by the way, 2-1. Cham-pee-ons . . .
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