Old Trafford - Manchester United

Old Trafford - Manchester United - 2010

January 3rd 2010. Leeds were fortunate to draw Manchester United in the 3rd round. Having drawn with Kettering Town we were the last name out of the bag to play away at Old Trafford. Having finally seen off Kettering by virtue of injury time at Elland Road we were all set for the Manchester United game. A game which saw the 8500 allocation sell out in 6 minutes. I was very, very lucky to get hold of a ticket! I had a really good feeling about this one!

I left my house at 6am to head to Euston. Being a sunday I had to get a bus to Collier's Wood and then hop on the underground (first train at 7am, I had to wait around in the cold for about 30 minutes). The underground and Euston station were rammed with fans in red, with all the minority Leeds fans wearing their colours and giving each other the salute. The train to Manchester was similarly full of red with Manchester United fans discussing how many goals they were going to beat us by whilst I sat there in silence hiding my Leeds scarf in my bag! I'd got a first class ticket which was excellent news!

I met up with my good friend Martha in a pub near Manchester University, got a cab close to the stadium and walked the rest of the way. We got a good welcome past the Old Trafford pub and then moved on to the stadium.

Old Trafford stadium is in Salford, not Manchester. It's true to say most of the fans are in fact from all over the country - such is the nature of the beast. Being a London-based Leeds fan I can hardly comment, however success on the pitch isn't my motivation. You cannot expect to win all the time and it'll be interesting to see what happens when they eventually start to slide.

Old Trafford itself holds 80,000 fans and is the biggest club stadium in Britain. Only Wembley stadium is bigger. It's a lot smaller than Wembley and is built up to 3 tiers on three sides with room to increase the capacity to 90,000. It's actually a lot smaller than I expected but this makes for a great atmosphere.

I had a good walk around the ground. The famous statue of Matt Busby and a newer statue with Dennis Law, George Best and Bobby Charlton, Jack's less famous younger brother!

Leeds fans were sat in the Clock End - with the clock with the time stuck when the plane carrying a good young side crashed in snow in Munich airport just over 50 years ago. Also the 'Munich Tunnel' which runs the length of the South Stand. Leeds fans were also placed in the South East Corner - all facing the Stretford End and with Manchester United fans in the tier below us.

Leeds fans were on their best behaviour. No ghastly chants about Munich and mostly it was baiting and banter with the fans around us and songs about Leeds and hopes of promotion.

Old Trafford is a good stadium and it sounded great when filled with fans singing. 8,500 Leeds fans jumping around when Beckford scored made a massive amount of noise! Also quite a bit of damage with several seats accidentally broken in the celebrations.

After taking an unexpected Lead, Leeds played really well and Ferguson was forced into bringing on some experienced wingers (nameley Giggs and Valencia) and Owen to bolster Rooney and Berbatov. Every Leeds player played fantastic. Paddy Kisnorbo deserved MOTM over Beckford and Crowe's clearance from Rooney was great. Casper had a good game keeping goal. Manchester United played poorly by their standards but Leeds deserved it through my tinted glasses

The final whistle eventually came after a goalmouth scramble in the 93rd minute almost gave an equaliser. When it did the Leeds fans went mental and Old Trafford emptied very quickly. It was a fantastic day and a great journey home.

My train again was filled with red fans, though this time sulking with me basking in the glory wearing my Leeds shirt and scarf. Pretty much everyone I saw when I got back to London, even Chelsea fans, had a chat with me and offered congratulations. Someones, just sometimes, being a Leeds fan is awesome.