Football Matters

By John Taylor

The now seemingly inevitable move from Saltergate to the former Dema Glass site on Whittington Moor had me wondering the other day what the new stadium (not ground) would be like and what it would actually feel like watching home games somewhere else. That then brought back memories of my early games at the Rec and a consideration of what has changed since then. It's quite significant.

My first Saltergate experience was an early night game versus Bradford (Park Avenue, not City) reserves and my first impressions other than the excitement of the thing were of a fairly dark place. The stand paint was brown and all the metalwork (the barriers on the terraces and the stanchions of the goal) was painted Corporation Transport green. As an aside, I didn't discover until a couple of years ago that this was actually the first competitive floodlit game at Saltergate and, not unusually, it was a massive disappointment to me. Bradford turned up late and so we had to leave before the end to catch the bus. We left with 10 minutes to go with the score at a predictable 0-0. Town won 3-0. It didn't put me off though-I was hooked.

Transport to the game is an interesting change also with early games being by the old green corporation buses, packed, noisy and smoky and fairly intimidating for a small lad. Walking back into town after the game on a Saturday with my Mum (Dad wasn't a footy fan) with what seemed big crowds at the time always had the anticipation of buying the Star from the chap at the corner of the Post Office so we could get the other results. We kicked off at 3.15 unlike most others, so with what seemed like magical speed, the results were in a little panel in the late addition of the Star. I thought the paper seller a strange fellow-always dressed the same whatever the weather with long, heavy coat and flat cap and shouting "Star paper" with odd intonation every few seconds. You don't get characters like that in Town any more! Now transport to the game is by car so you get isolated from other folk until quite near to the ground. This will be very different, however, when we move to Whitt Moor, as we'll be able to walk or cycle to games-how freaky will that be!

One of the biggest differences now in the matchday experience from the late sixties is that smoking is no longer allowed, much to my joy, as I'm sure it contributed to my weak lungs. Grounds used to be phenomenally smoky in the early days with more people than not smoking and inside the stand it could be like fighting your way through a fog to reach the toilets at half time. Another thing that's better on most grounds is the toilets since they are now generally covered and reasonably clean with facilities for washing your hands. If you want a delve into some unpleasant social history, investigate the gents at the corner of the kop and Compton Street-all football ground loos used to be like that-well the gents at least. I've never been in the ladies loos, but I have it on good authority though that Town's are amongst the worst in the country.

Fans attire has always been an evolving thing that changes the feel of the match as the years speed past. When I first attended, the spectators were almost universally clad in brown, grey or navy with lots of traditional headgear, mainly flat caps or more formal hats in the stand. Youngsters often had hooped bobble hats in club colours and traditional bar scarves to match. Military green then came and went with the parka and the toughs on the kop started wearing baggy white breeches that looked like they'd been purloined from Mother's Pride bakery. Silk scarves tied at the wrist or to the belt also came and went, but the ever-changing replica shirt, which emerged in the eighties, looks like it's here to stay. With this, it's much more colourful with ski hats, baseball caps and some fairly bright coats on display including Howard Borrell's famous mustard fleece. The phenomenon of not wearing a coat even when it's cold for a goodly proportion of the crowd further ups the colour rating, as shirts are generally brighter than coats. Even the stewards and Police are brighter these days now they wear the high visibility clothing so they don't blend into the background.

Staying with fans, segregation of opposing supporters is now so entrenched that it's easy to forget that it started only at the dawn of the seventies. Before that anyone could stand or sit where they liked (except reserved seats, of course) and that meant that you were likely to get into lively debate with an opposition fan next to you at the game. That is rare now. Before the formal segregation, however, it was still the norm for the fans to flock together and half time would usually see a troop of spectators swapping ends to be behind the goal that their team was attacking. You only ever see that at non-league games now and that involves generally a few dozen fans rather than hundreds. On a similar tack, standing has, of course, supposedly vanished from the higher leagues and the bigger stadia following the Hillsborough disaster and the Taylor report. I still feel strongly that Taylor got it wrong in that it was the penning of fans behind fences that was the problem, not standing as such. All that this led to is a problem, at big games in particular, as a certain element of supporter refuses to sit down in the seats. That then forces others who want to sit to have to stand and this causes friction and resentment and is, in my opinion, far more dangerous than standing on terraces. It is also the worst thing about watching England as you are rarely able to utilise your seat for sitting, especially at away games.

Apart from the all-seater nature of most grounds now, the actual structure is generally different from my early days of watching. Many stands then had a considerable wooden element to them (like Saltergate still has) which made them far warmer for watching football than the plastic, steel and concrete we have now, though the potential for fire was more evident as the 1985 Bradford City fire demonstrated. Unhealthy asbestos roofing has now thankfully gone to be replaced by brightly coloured cladding in many cases and even terminology has changed with Coventry City's stadium even boasting vomitoria rather than exits from the stand-pretentious or what!. Even on the pitch we've had changes with the style of goalposts, nets and stanchions altering over a period of time and the tan coloured ball of the sixties was replaced by white and now we've got multi-coloured or lime green things in the modern game that don't even behave as the old balls did, being lighter and not picking up moisture. We briefly had a period of artificial pitches at QPR, Luton, Preston and Oldham and they certainly made for a different and very negative experience. It was a great day for the game when those pitches disappeared.

Commercialisation has made a massive and increasing impact on the matchday experience over the years with additional advertising around the ground starting the process. Originally, Saltergate's advertising was only on the Compton Street and kop frontages below the roof, then it was added around the pitch and the front of the stand. At the more up-market venues, it's even digital and electronic and forever changing throughout the game. It means you don't get peeling paint at least. Electronic scoreboards, corporate boxes, coloured programmes, club shops (giving way to superstores at bigger places) matchday mascots and sponsored kits have all added to the commercial mix over the years with the consequent change in the feel of a game. Allied to the commercial scene, catering has changed over the years on most grounds with more than just tea, Bovril and terrible pies on offer. Pies even contain meat now rather than gristle or pulp that was the norm in the 70's. The quality has actually risen significantly with the passage of time and some grounds even offer beer, though it's rarely worth drinking.

Technology has made a big difference also with substitute boards, action replay screens and every game now being filmed whereas back in the late 60's it was a rarity even to see a photographer. Many venues now have a media centre to cater for the television, radio and internet reports, but Saltergate still manages with the quaint old press box, though it has seen a few improvements such as electricity over the last 40 years. Electricity in the Town stand brings me onto another Saltergate change that has affected night games and how they feel. Back in the old days, the lights in the stand were turned off during the game, which made it easier to watch the football, but health and safety reared its head some 20-odd years ago, so the lights have to be on all the time during the hours of darkness when there's a game. It's not as good for watching the match and does feel very different in my humble opinion.

Other much-missed oddities of Saltergate are the old half time scoreboard on the Cross Street end with the fixtures printed in the programme to coincide with the letters on the board, the clock on the floodlight pylon at the junction of the Compton Street and Cross Street terracing and the enclosure in front of the stand. The scoreboard went with technology as it was easier to look at teletext and read out the half times, whilst the clock just gave up the ghost, though it lasted much longer than the digital affair that sits forlornly in the Compton Street facia, never to work again. The enclosure was closed in the wake of the Bradford fire with the additional exits constructed at the front of the stand.

So hopefully these ramblings will have prompted a few thoughts on the evolving experiences of attending games over the years, whether you've been watching 10 or 50 years, and consideration on what is to come. I've doubtless missed loads of things that others will think of, but one thing is for certain: the experience will continue to change.