So we got a real kick out of the little boy in the shot above, who was innocently standing below the warning sign regarding behavior in the family section at Leeds United.  Neither of us even noticed him being there when we snapped the photo.  Poor kid, I hope Larkin did not scare him completely to death ….

We had great front seats for the match last night at Blackpool, hosting Huddersfield.  Even though it rained the entire time, we remained dry because the stadium is built like the old Texas Stadium where the spectators were shielded from rain by the partial roof, but not the playing field.  This match was loud, loud, loud, with non-stop chants, songs, and taunts betweeen the two sets of fans.  Sadly for the Seasiders, the Huddersfield team wound up on top at the end.

So don’t we look just like a couple of Blackpool home supporters??  A nice fellow in the stands loaned me his scarf for the picture, Larkin ponied up for the 7 quid needed to buy his own!  A quick trip to concession stand shows a somewhat limited selection of items for purchase, but the top seller by far was the Wigan pie, though they are unwilling to call it that outside of Wigan.  Like other stadiums, you can place bets in concourse before the match, all the way up through the end of halftime.  Blows my American mind that you can place bets like the horse races right there at a sports event stadium.  But if you try to scalp your ticket, you’d be breaking all sorts of criminal laws.  It’s just the exact opposite of what we have in the USA.

Had a great opportunity to meet Mr. Dave Allison, head of referees at the Football League at his offices in Preston.  Dave is a charming and passionate guy and we both share a love of the Dallas Cup event and the people involved.  We are standing in front of a bust at his offices of William McGregor, the founder of the first association football league (known now as the Football League)/professional sports league, on the planet, right there in the north of England.  Thanks to Dave for his hospitality and tour of the League’s offices.  Dave has a staff of three lovely ladies who help manage his professional duties and responsibilities, and a special thanks to Gemma for the ride to Blackpool!!!  This fine group went out of their way to make us feel welcome and at home during our brief stay at their offices.

At the national Football Museum in Manchester, they have a display with the original rule book intended to be a simple set of guidelines for a gentleman’s game.  This was pretty cool to see and read in the English style back in the 1800’s.  Larkin and I kinda chuckled about how a simple set of rules grew into what we have today.  Not sure how easy it was to play with the replica original ball back then.

after match view of stadium

So immediately after the match with Arsenal, the Etihad empties immediately, and the crew of push mowers hit the field.  Ton of fun to do whatever a Texan can to blend in with the locals.

Up in the nosebleed seats at City v. Arsenal.  Only supporter for either side wearing both a City scarf and a Texas Rangers ballcap!  Easy to pick him out of the crowd, dontcha know.

Really enjoyed all the songs and chants, but could not understand a single word!  Passionate fans, made the Texas OU fans look downright sedate.  These folks are stone-cold serious about their respective teams.  They won’t let fans from opposing teams sit together, the away fans are segregated into their own sliver in the corner of the end zone.  If only NFL, MLB, or NBA could even come close to the loyalty these fans have for their clubs ..

That was the headline quote in the Guardian today regarding the Manchester United coach’s comments to a player.

The comments were not the issue for Larkin and me, it was the actual meaning of the slang term “grassed me up”.  We were totally unsure what that meant.  So while riding a train from Manchester to Preston we resorted to that “go-to” website, Urban Dictionary, which was not totally clear in this British slang context.  So we resorted to another resource at hand, the nice young kid who is the train conductor.  He gave us a cute, detailed, but equally vague response but we did gleen from his explanation that it basically meant to “rat someone out”.  Ah.  Crystal clear now.  So as we read the rest of the newspaper, we continued to laugh out loud at the sarcasm and cynicism of the reporter’s stories.

Headlines were along the lines of :

“This Fella’s a Real Booty”, “Palace Feast on Murray’s Mints”, “That’s Snore Like It”, “El of a Day”.  It only got better from there!

Off to our meeting in Preston with the Football League offices.

Larkin and I enjoy our first full day in Manchester and Wigan.  Immediately upon arrival in Manchester yesterday, we dropped our bags at the hotel and hustled off to our match in the lovely small town of Wigan.  The place is undisturbed as far as NOT being a tourist mecca, but is an easy train trip from Manchester.  Arrival at Wigan gave us a large selection of local dining and pub options, including a few stores selling famous Wigan pies of all varieties  (think chicken pot pie in your grocer’s freezer section, only fresh).  Our match was at DW Stadium, where Wigan hosted Fulham to a 2-1 loss for the home team.  The absolute highlight of our day was meeting up with Dallas Cup academy lad from Wigan, Alan Bennett at a wonderful pub called Moon Under Water.  He had just returned from officiating a match in Blackpool and was still wearing his travel suit with FA pin on his lapel.  We had a great time catching up on things since his visit last spring.  He’s planning a remarkable wedding March 23rd, it will be held at DW Stadium with part of the reception photo shoot at midfield!  Remarkable.  His fiance Charlotte is planning a unique wedding event that would be a blast to watch!