{"id":9682,"date":"2024-05-29T23:28:22","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T22:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9682"},"modified":"2024-06-06T05:19:07","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T04:19:07","slug":"travelling-with-the-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9682","title":{"rendered":"Travelling with the Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The Countrymen at the Etihad, about to collect a hard earned point<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve stated many times on this forum that I prefer my football live. In doing so I\u2019m very conscious of my privilege in being able to attend matches, home and away. Many readers of this blog cannot get to games, either because they live overseas or far away, find the expenditure of time and money impossible, or, indeed, just can\u2019t get tickets. I have held two season tickets on the North Bank lower at the Emirates since 2009 and began attending away games again (I\u2019m not counting my misspent (or well-spent) youth here) in 2013. In the season just completed, we (my son and I) attended 38 games, 25 at home and 13 away. I\u2019ve written about my experiences in going to games since I first joined this distinguished community in 2012 and some of you have been kind enough to say my scribblings help you to connect with the away fans from afar. I\u2019ve been asked to write about the experience of \u201ctravelling with The Arsenal\u201d during the season 2023\/4. So here we go (apologies, it\u2019s a bit long).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were the away games we went to this year. An asterisk indicates that this was a new ground to us since we started going together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community Shield at Wembley (Manchester City)
Goodison Park (Everton)
*Stamford Bridge (Chelsea)
London Stadium (West Ham, League Cup)
St James\u2019s Park (Newcastle)
Villa Park (Aston Villa)
The City Ground (Nottingham Forest)
*Bramall Lane (Sheffield United)
The Etihad (Manchester City)
*The Amex Stadium (Brighton)
Molineux (Wolves)
*Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (Spurs)
Old Trafford (Manchester United)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The away games we missed (14 of them) were mainly due to not having enough credits (see below), especially at small grounds like Luton or Bournemouth, although there were a couple that were just inconvenient (e.g. Anfield on December 23, which clashed with family commitments). I don\u2019t go to European aways for several reasons, but mainly because these days, at 67, I just don\u2019t have the stamina for them, or a taste for mixing with certain police forces or fan groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you get away tickets?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club has now closed its away season ticket scheme (I was never on it) so the only way to get tickets is via the credit scheme. For each game attended you get one credit. These add up over three years, with the first year of the three deleted at the start of the new season. We started the season with 22 credits and finished with 35. I\u2019m not sure what we will start the new season with. The maximum at the end of the season was, I believe, 72 (three year\u2019s worth of going to every away game). This graphic shows the number of tickets allocated, plus the credit level it sold out at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This graphic was put together before the Spurs and Man Utd games. Both sold out on 25 credits on allocations of about 3000 – 3500. Very unusually there were no tickets available at zero credits, although there were five at 5 credits or fewer. The main reason for this was firstly, the enthusiasm for the team and secondly our lack of success in domestic cups. The allocations are 5% (some give more, e.g. Brighton) of the ground for Premier League, 10% for the league cup and 15% for the FA Cup. These cup games offer the best chances of getting on the ladder. Going away midweek, to watch the kids, is not for everyone, so zero credits can often apply. We built our credits up going to places like Preston, Blackpool and West Brom for the cups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we get to games?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are lucky enough to live in London, you usually have the option of the train or club coaches. Living in the wilds of Cambridgeshire this would mean travelling for two hours in the wrong direction so we drive. I\u2019m lucky enough to drive a large, comfortable, German saloon which eats up the motorway miles and for the last two years, it has been affordable to insure my son (now 25) on my car, so we can share the driving. For parking I use two parking apps: Your Parking Space and Just Park. I don\u2019t walk so well these days so try and park within 15-20 minutes of the ground. I usually pay \u00a310-\u00a320 per game. The only game we stay overnight for is Newcastle. It\u2019s 200 miles away, a four hour drive, and it\u2019s just too far to drive both ways in a day and go to the game. This season we got a nice two bedroomed house in Gateshead (a \u00a36 Uber ride from the ground) for \u00a385.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Of course the true joy of travelling away is to be part of the travelling Gooners. Committed, loud, often a little worse for wear, it is incredibly rare for our away fans to be anything but totally positive about supporting our team. We see many of the same faces as we go from game to game, often from our section of the North Bank. I have never known them to be anything other than kind and supportive to an old fella who sometimes is a little slow going up and down the stairs. When a goal goes in the \u201climbs\u201d are spectacular and unrestrained. I have taken a tumble in previous years down the rows at Old Trafford and at Burnley (and very nearly at St James\u2019s Park). Safe standing bars are making these events much less likely thank goodness. At Old Trafford this year, the singing began 20 minutes before kick off and never stopped. We are in the great position that most of the team have their own songs. Virtually all of these started at away games. We first heard the Martin \u01fedegaard song at Goodison. The Trossard song at Molineux. The Havertz song began at Bournemouth (I\u2019m told \u2013 we weren\u2019t there). We first heard the Gabriel song at Brighton but I believe it started at a European away. A few years ago we were at Leicester and went to an away pub before the game to find a guy on a table leading the singing of a song we\u2019d never heard before:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dani Ceballos
Dani Ceballos!
Drinks Estrella
Eats Paella
The boy is fucking magic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of these gradually transfer to the Emirates and helps build the usually great atmosphere there. Those who went to the West Ham league game heard the genesis of the song \u201cwho put the ball in the West Ham net? Half our fucking team did\u201d. At Bramall Lane, when we were three up after 15 minutes, their fans started leaving. Cue chorus of \u201ceverywhere we go, stadiums are empty!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Emirates have many celebrity fans. It\u2019s often easier to spot them at away games, when they are not diluted amongst 60,000 others. I was stood next to Arseblog\u2019s Tim Stillman at Villa this year. I can report that his vituperation of the referee was as loud and foul mouthed as my own! In the concourse bar at the Etihad was Ian Stone. Alex Brooker was very close to us at Forest a couple of years ago. Proper fans, not so up themselves that they have to go in a box or the Directors area, but stand on the terraces with us plebs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favourite away games this season<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has to be Spurs (3-0 up at half time) and Man United (we\u2019ve been three times to Old Trafford in recent years and have seen us win twice. Not a bad record!). Brighton was huge fun. We got the whole lower tier behind the goal, sang our hearts out, played well and we were in row 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favourite away grounds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We tend to like the old, historic grounds. We\u2019ve made a special effort to get to Goodison in the last few seasons as it won\u2019t be there for much longer. The facilities are terrible and the view from the Bullen stand is dreadful, but when the sirens go and the teams run out to the snare drum and the Z cars theme, the hair stands up on the back of my neck. We very much like Villa Park and the City ground for similar reasons. Honourable mention for Anfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Least favourite away grounds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Ham. The way they treat visiting supporters is rubbish and the design of the stadium means it\u2019s an atmosphere vacuum. The Etihad. The worst, chippiest fans on the circuit who really don\u2019t like Cockneys. Southampton (back next season) for reasons I rehearsed in the last drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

When you are away at football for many hours, you\u2019ve got to eat. TTG referred to me once as someone \u201cwho likes to travel round the country eating unfeasibly large breakfasts\u201d. Fair comment. The season started badly at Wembley where both my son and myself had a dodgy burger on the concourse and got very unpleasant food poisoning over the following week. We rarely eat in grounds (that includes the Emirates) though an honourable mention to Wolves where a Guinness and a beef and onion pie were excellent. Top of the shop though, is the Bombay Bridgeford near the City ground (and opposite Trent Bridge) which is simply one of my favourite Indian restaurants in the country, with celestial garlic naan bread. Honourable mention to the Masala Club in Burgess Hill, on the way home from Brighton. The Etihad has a nice little fish and chip shop just opposite the away entrance. The motorway services at the top of the M6 toll road and at the junction of the M1 and the A50 both have a wide variety of different and tolerable food outlets. All suggestions gratefully received!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving home<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, especially for evening games in the North West, you\u2019re not going to get home until the wee small hours. The powers that be have an irritating habit of shutting motorways for roadworks after 9pm. It can take a long time to get away from the ground and back on the motorway, even though Google Maps tries its best with the back doubles. Manchester is usually an hour to get out of the city. Southampton is often two. The drive home is also influenced by the result. If we\u2019ve won, we\u2019ll happily listen to the football phone ins (unless Jamie O\u2019Hara is on). On a Sunday night at 9pm the excellent Trans Europe Express, presented by Danny Kelly on TalkSport is well worth a listen. If we\u2019ve lost we listen to music instead. We\u2019ve merged two of our play lists and tolerantly (well, most of the time) listen to each other\u2019s music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does next season bring?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We lose Luton (too small for us to get tickets), Sheffield United and Burnley. We gain Leicester, a city well known to us (my son was at University there) with a nice ground, great curries and only 60 miles away. Ipswich town of course. Only 1.5 hours from us, but with a capacity of only 30,000, so for a league game we\u2019ll only get 1500 tickets which will be touch and go for us. And Southampton (nuff said). Here\u2019s hoping for some good runs and away draws in the Cups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year was our best ever for games attended, and for away games. I\u2019m fortunate in a tolerant wife (who enjoys having time to herself when we\u2019re away at football) and a supportive and caring son who looks after me. A complete reversal to when I first started taking him to games 20 years ago!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve stated many times on this forum that I prefer my football live. In doing so I\u2019m very conscious of my privilege in being able to attend matches, home and away. Many readers of this blog cannot get to games, either because they live overseas or far away, find the expenditure of time and money […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9682"}],"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=9682"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9686,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9682\/revisions\/9686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}