{"id":11386,"date":"2025-06-29T17:41:37","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T16:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11386"},"modified":"2025-07-04T08:47:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T07:47:22","slug":"on-the-road-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11386","title":{"rendered":"On The Road Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The author and son at Portman Road, Ipswich<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This piece originally appeared in the Online Gooner a couple of weeks ago and is reproduced here by kind permission of the Editor. Four GHF writers write for the Gooner, TTG, myself, CER and 21CG. If you don\u2019t have a subscription to both the Online and Print editions, why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to following The Arsenal, I am a fortunate individual. I have a season ticket in the North Bank Lower and since 2013 have been building up my away credits. Therefore I go to a lot of games. More than most, but not as many as some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In season 2024\/25 my son and I went to 43 games, 30 at home and 13 away. My stamina and health (I\u2019m 68 and walk with a stick, with my son being my constant companion and co-driver) mean that I can\u2019t manage European aways. The grounds at Bournemouth and Brentford are too small for me to have any chance of getting tickets and Crystal Palace and Fulham sell out before they reach my level, being \u201ceasy\u201d London aways. So the only grounds where I could get a ticket, but circumstances meant I couldn\u2019t go, were both Newcastle games, Everton and Liverpool. Kudos to those who went to all 58 games last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The away games I did go to were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aston Villa
Spurs
Manchester City
Preston North End
Chelsea
West Ham
Brighton
Wolves
Leicester
Nottingham Forest
Manchester United
Ipswich Town
Southampton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We drive to football, even at home (and I\u2019m not going to reveal my reliable, cheap parking spot 10 minutes from the Emirates), using parking apps, often on people\u2019s drives or company car parks. Last season we drove a total of 5,452 miles to and from football. Hence the title of this piece. I have no idea what it cost me in tickets, travel and food, and frankly, I don\u2019t want to know. My pensions are sufficient to allow me to do it, and I have a very tolerant wife, so once again I count my blessings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We began the season on 25 credits and finished on 38. In the off season my credits will be reset, taking off those from 2022\/2023. By my calculations I earned 10 credits in that season, so will start next season on 28 credits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best games<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is mainly about away games, but I can\u2019t ignore the magnificent home victories against Real Madrid and Manchester City. The Madrid game had the best atmosphere at the Emirates that I\u2019ve been to, even better than the game against Barcelona in 2011. The City game was cathartic, the first time we\u2019ve given them a thorough drubbing in longer than I want to remember. For away games, West Ham was great fun. Four up in 35 minutes we rolled out the songs. \u201cWho put the ball in the West Ham net? Half our fucking team did!\u201d When the West Ham fans began to leave on 30 minutes it was \u201cEverywhere we go, stadiums get empty!\u201d. One lad in the West Ham seats closest to us was all in, offering all 3000 Arsenal fans out after the game. So we sang, \u201cCry in a minute! He\u2019s gonna cry in a  minute!\u201d. All good clean fun. The game at Leicester was also fun. Eighty minutes of dross followed by ten minutes and two goals from Mikel Merino. A new song was born. The games at Ipswich and Southampton were easy, sunny and comfortable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worst game<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has to be Brighton away. A dour nil nil played out in the second half to lowering skies and increasing sleet. Queuing for 45 minutes in that, by now driving sleet, for the Park and Ride bus. Then real snow on the motorway reducing our speed to 30mph until we got north of London, scuppering plans for a curry. It\u2019s by no means all glamour (for the Preston game, thanks to roadworks on the M6 it was past 3am when we finally got home. Worth it for that Ethan goal though). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New stadium<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps surprisingly, I\u2019d never been to Portman Road before. Living in Cambridgeshire it was an easy drive, a short walk to the ground and very friendly natives. The only downside was wall to wall Ed Sheeran music \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Footy scran<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At home, friends from this blog had a few excellent boozy pre match lunches, usually at El Rincon (an Ecuadorian restaurant on Holloway Road) or The Alcedo which is right next door. For away matches the clear winner is the Bombay Bridgeford, a quite superb Indian Restaurant by the Trent Bridge Inn, close to the City ground. We had several excellent breakfasts at the American Diner near Grantham, when heading north up the A1. Honourable mention for the pies at Brighton (why can\u2019t we have pies near Block 7 at the Emirates?). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The away fans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh my word. The reason for going to away games is to be part of that crowd. They are positive, funny, loud, usually just the acceptable side of being well offensive, and never stop singing. Every team member has his own song. New songs this year included one for Martinelli, the somewhat hackneyed \u201cHe\u2019s one of our own\u201d for Ethan Nwaneri and 49, 49 Lewis Skelly. Even Raheem Sterling has a song, brought out at Ipswich and Southampton. \u201cIf Sterling scores, we\u2019re on the piss!\u201d Not, please note, \u201cwe\u2019re on the pitch\u201d as reported by the denizens of the press box. Chapeau to every member of every away crowd. I\u2019m proud to be amongst you. It\u2019s been nice to see fellow \u2018Holics, CER and 21CG steadily building up their credits this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next season<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We lose Leicester and Ipswich (both to my regret) and Southampton (not so much). Up come Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland. We\u2019ve been to all three of those grounds, so the highlight of next season will be Everton\u2019s new ground at Bramley-Moore Docks, to be called the Hill Dickinson stadium (who?). We\u2019ll miss Goodison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s another season done. Frankly I\u2019m knackered. Time for a holiday and some cricket at Lords and The Oval. We\u2019ve already been this season to Trent Bridge where we bumped into The Editor of the Gooner playing hookey. TTG was going to join us but unfortunately his wife fell ill and he couldn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My season ticket is renewed and I look forward (I think) to the transfer dramas and the new fixtures coming out. Next year \u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come on you Gunners!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This piece originally appeared in the Online Gooner a couple of weeks ago and is reproduced here by kind permission of the Editor. Four GHF writers write for the Gooner, TTG, myself, CER and 21CG. If you don\u2019t have a subscription to both the Online and Print editions, why not? When it comes to following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,28,13,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11386"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11390,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11386\/revisions\/11390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}