If there is one place you are more likely to see a man with a Hitler moustache than in the audience of an Al Murray gig, it is amongst the crowd at a York City match. They do have the reputation of having a somewhat thuggish following.
And as if to prove all your prejudices correct there was indeed a man with a Toothbrush Tache at York City's match at Wembley stadium, just as there was one at Al Murray last night (who I am told shocked the ITV sports commentator Jim Rosenthal who commented incredulously, "Is that a Hitler moustache?")
It was me.
I finally got round to seeing the club I have supported for thirty years live, rather than just following them on Ceefax or the internet. York had somehow made it through to the final of the
FA Trophy. I am not totally sure what that is, but I had to be there to see the boys lose at Wembley, after they had totally proved how magic they were by narrowly avoiding relegation from the Conference. They aren't showy with their magic powers and don't use them to get to the top of the Premiership, as they surely could, but instead get through to the Finals of a minor cup competition and come 17th in the Non League's top division.
I had never been to Wembley either old or new, but it is now a very impressive and seemingly well organised modern stadium.
I'd been concerned that my moustache might lead to some problems, but again it seemed to pass largely unnoticed. I think the test will come when I get into some kind of random situation with a stranger, like an argument or where I have to complain about something and then whoever I am interacting with might be freaked out. But so far so good, for my physical well being, though so bad for the show I guess.
It was very exciting being at Wembley waiting for lowly York City to walk out on the pitch which looked like a green carpet rather than grass. Obviously the place wasn't full, but there were still around about 30,000 people in there in the end, which created a good atmosphere. I was up high in the mid section near the centre point where things were calm, but the York fans behind the goal were rather over excited and were letting off flares. There was quite stringent security, so it was surprising that they'd managed to get some explosives into the ground. It looked vaguely dangerous as that section of the crowd filled up with smoke. Security guards grabbed the red flares from the miscreants and 30,000 people laughed as they failed to put them out. It was mildly thuggish but fun and although there was some good natured booing from the rival fans when the team were introduced, it was a fun day out for us all.
At half time it was 0-0 and though Stevenage were clearly the better side, York had a couple of good chances and it felt that with luck it could have gone either way. I had expected the standard of play to be a bit rubbishy, but there were some great moves - mainly from Stevenage to be honest, but still.
Alas in the second half York were outplayed, and though we had an appeal for handball in the penalty area waved away, the relentless attacks from our rivals kept coming. As they got a corner, I turned to my friend Toby and said, "It's only a matter of time before one of these goes in." Ten seconds later we were 1-0 down and never looked like getting a goal. Stevenage got another one right at the end though. I had known we were bound to lose, but had hoped we might get lucky.
I still love my Yorkies though, even though they have lost 100% of the time that I have seen them and never scored a goal. I felt surprisingly dejected as I left the stadium with the York fans, especially when I heard the roar of the crowd as the Stevenage team were obviously receiving the trophy. But I felt proud of myself for supporting such a rubbish team where failure was all I was ever going to experience, rather than being one of those twats (like my glass smashing nephew) who just supports the best team in the country, because they always want to win. Where's the pleasure in that? Better to have loyalty to the hopeless, so that when a rare success comes along it actually means something. You can keep your Man Uniteds. Anyway York beat them 3-0 the last time they played them at Old Trafford. So who is best? It is Man United.
And I got home unscathed, so that's a mini victory.
