In a Time Warp.

Last night I went to watch Leeds United play a pre-season friendly at York City. Well it was like going to a match in the 1970's.
England as come a long way with stadiums since "the good ole days" with all seater stadiums been the law, good facilities, family stands, etc. However Leeds are now down in the third tier of the English game and York are actually in the fifth tier so for a start non of the regulations for the top teams are in force. To have this for a minnow like York is maybe acceptable when they only get home crowds of under 2,000 but for Leeds with their history its a real culture shock.
Anyway I checked the website before travelling to see what the ticketing arrangements were, with it been a friendly they were only expecting around 500 away fans and it was pay on the gate at the Grovsenor Road end of the ground. The message don't worry about getting in this stand hold 2,000 so there will be plenty of room.
Anyway on to the story it was a quick dash from work then on to the railway station to catch the train to York, the weather was poor its was pouring rain. Arriving at York Station you realised the match was on as half of North Yorkshire Police Force were parading around the place looking for the notorious Leeds hoards. I think nobody bothered to tell them it was a friendly and Leeds actually like York and the type of fans they were looking for anyway won't march off the train wearing Leeds shirts and waving their scarfs about.
Moving on we went to a Pub getting very wet in the rain had a couple of Beers and a bite to eat which was very nice, I think we'll call in that place again. We set off to the ground and it became obvious that there was going to be slightly more than the 500 Leeds fans than expected. Every Pub you passed the songs were echoing out this traditionals "Marching on together", Glory Glory Leeds United, etc.
We called in another Pub packed with Fans to get out of the rain and were treated to renditions of "Champions of Europe", "Go Shoot the Chelsea Scum", "No one Likes us but we don't care" plus a few anti Red Vermin efforts. There were also the new songs preparing for life in the lower leagues like "Yeovil here we come", "We hate Millwall" and "Bournemouth Remember us" despite the aggresive nature of some of the songs it was good natured but did remind me of the 1970's attitudes.
Anyway on to "Kit Kat Crescent" yes the Ground is called that, and into the Leeds end, then it became apparent that it wasn't big enough. Not only that it didn't have a roof but lukily the rain had actually stopped. Eventually before an Hillsboro type incident they opened up half another stand for Leeds fans to sit in. For the first time in years our supporters were packed behind a goal that was not seating which actually pleased them. For the record Leeds fans notoriously refuse to sit at matches in protest over all seater stadiums.
For the record the pitch because of the rain really was unplayable and the match should have been called off. It wasn't probably because it will be Yorks biggest crowd of the season and they would make some money. It was a typical friendly with very little real tackling which can only be expected, the pitch was dangerous, and nobody was going to risk getting hurt in a friendly.
For the record it finished scoreless and Leeds actually used two completely different teams in each half, with a mixture of senior players, juniors & trialists.
For the Leeds fans amongst you (or Airliebird) Rui Marquess looked good at the back just covered everything, Eddie Lewis looked solid, Jermaine Beckford looked sharp up front but should have scored when he danced around the home defence only to pull his shot wide.
Among the trialists David Prutton looks a must sign and Curtis Weston also looked ok. We also had two trial Goalies the one in the first half looked ok but the other couldn't kick.
To be honest the game was poor not helped by the conditions and all the team changes so the fans did start making there own entertainment. Throughout the match occasionally a fan would wander onto the pitch to show the players how to do it, this happend two or three times much to the amusement of the Leeds following as the stewards removed them.
At half time the 2nd half team were having a kick about when two more Leeds Fans strolled on and pinched a ball, one went in goals and the other lined up to take a penalty in front of the fans. Before he shot two stewards marched on to tell him he couldn't do it and would have to get back in the stand, now his mate the goalie went without argument but he was having his shot. Now let me explain this bloke was about 6'5" and built like a brick outhouse, the stewards would be lucky if they were 12 stone between them wet through so they just didn't know what to do. He took his shot and the useless prat missed an open goal the rest of the Leeds fans gave him a bit of stick.
As he climbed back in the crowd suddenly the calvery arrived, about 10 Police Officers and they were last seen chasing the fan who dissapeared into the masses.
One final thing that reminded me that the seventies wern't such a good time was the state of the toilet facilities, if I say to go you had to be prepared to get wet and it wasn't raining you may understand. I'm taking Wellington Boots next time I visit the "Kit Kat".
Of course when we left the ground the Police despite not a hint of real trouble decided to make the Leeds fans walk a different route back into town than the heavily outnumbered Home fans. Of course it had started to rain again and we got the long route, yes last night certainly brought the memories flooding back.