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Sao Paulo vs. Palmeiras
Sao Paulo, Brazil
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Rivals, The Offbeat Guide To The 92 League Clubs, is one of the best derby books available.
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| Manchester United - Manchester City (0-0) |
| Premier League, 07 November 2004 |
| Stadium : Old Trafford |
| Attendance : 67.500 |
This was my first away derby following Manchester City FC at the place we love to call 'The Swamp'.
I left work at 1pm from my home in Wythenshawe and got a bus into town. Got to town at around 2.45pm and went into McDonalds for a bite to eat, where I was accosted by the first Manchester City fans heading to the game. A few chants and renditions of 'Gary Neville is a Blue', which all the other customers looked shocked at, we set off to the game.
We got the metro, which had lots of police monitoring the fans, to Old Trafford Station, and walked down Warwick Road to the ground. I never felt any hostility, as Man United attract a totally different fanbase to the bad old days of the 70's and 80's Red Army.
I got into the ground at around 2.45pm, for the 4.05pm kick off. Hardly anyone was around so I took some pictures on my camera phone and went into the concourse for a pepsi and a singalong. Beer was banned for this derby, so everyone was drinking in town.
Everyone started arriving around 3.30pm, and the chanting started in earnest. Chants of 'who the f*ck are Man United', 'Hark, now hear the City sing...' and 'My old man said be a United fan...' boomed out. By kickoff everyone was standing by their seats and in full flow, chanting obsceneties and doing gestures of the rude kind to the Man United contingent to the left and right of us. The K stand to our right tried winding us up by displaying banners saying '28 years', a reference to how many years we have gone without winning a trophy... our counters of '28 years and we're still here', and 'USA USA USA' in reference to the proposed Malcolm Glazier takeover boomed out.
The game kicked off, and Bosvelt crashed into the showpony, Ronaldo, how we goaded as the Portuguese crybaby crashed into the floor. A brilliant clearance off the line by Stephen Jordan and resolute defending meant that we went into half time 0-0, singing 'Oh when the blues, go marching in...', all 3000 of us were singing that as the boys trooped off, kept singing it for the hell of it during half time, and were still singing it when the boys re-emerged for the second half, to an aggressive bray from us... it was going to be alright, we would win.
Turned out we didn't, but a draw was celebrated like a victory by us lot, and we left Old Trafford with smiles on our faces. This was the worst part of the afternoon for many though. Some United fans, bitter at drawing to us 'bitters', smacked an inoffensive looking bloke, only to be steamed by loads of City boys. We then got seperated by the horses, and I trooped off down Warwick Road back to the metro in my City shirt. Got no aggro, apart from a few looks and people barging past me, and some kid mouthing 'W*nker' at me from the other side of the platform... they sure are brave, these Man United lot.
Got back to town for 7pm, and was home by 7.45pm, great day out.
City til I die.
Report added : 24 November 2004
Report by : Ben Harrington
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