Watching another team play.

Chesterfield fc is my team, but there are odd occasions where they have no game, oh no what to do, don`t panic.
I have some very good friends who support Macclesfield Town fc, they also play in blue and white so I willingly go and support them, not just for the shandies, the banter and catch up is by far more important, yes many a laugh has been had with the mac lads. There`s also been the odd occasion that the wife has tagged along (best behaviour Stu lad, well I tried my best to conform).

Macclesfield at Swansea, the Vetch Field no less, enough said, lets` just say it wasn`t a very welcoming atmosphere, ‘get me on the coach, I am out of here` springs to mind.

The two legged league two play-off final versus Lincoln (yes, bizarrely I went to both the home and away legs) was a strange occurrence, supporting a team for two games that wasn`t rightly in my blood was a strange feeling, if they made it would I go to Wembley with them (as it turned out, the question never needed an answer). The away leg went by fairly uneventful apart from the sunburn on my head, it was a scorcher and sorry the memory bank can`t recall the score. The second leg was a great game end to end, the odd feisty tackle here and there, Paul Harsley (later of Chesterfield) ran the show for Macclesfield, but all to no avail, they lost, the Wembley dream was over.

The second leg ended and we scuttled down to my favourite hostelry is Macclesfield, it was fairly full due to the FA cup final between Arsenal and Man Utd been on the big screen. A few Lincoln fans and a Man City one started talking to me, nice polite bunch of lads, they were amazed that I`d gone to see the game because neither was my team, to me my mates are more important than the divides football rivalry can cause.

Whilst talking,and having the odd glimpse at the television showed the final had gone to penalties, I knew some of the people where Man Utd fans who were intently watching the penalty outcome, I didn`t care for them to be honest they lacked respect and always made it clear they didn`t like me, was I bothered, not in the slightest, when Paul Scholes missed the light switched on in my head, ‘payback time`, a Patrick Vieira penalty hit the back of the net, that was the signal for stueys question time, I turned round and all I asked was ‘if Arsenal got 5 and Man Utd 4 what does that mean’, I also found out at this precise moment not only did they lack respect they lacked personality and a sense of humour too, all I`ll say is pandemonium broke out, everybody on that table wanted a piece of the big man.

It`s not at all in my gender to upset people but some people deserve the stuey look or put down, banter is my rule as well as acting the fool.

Like I say the mac lads are in all a good bunch, just the odd waif and stray lets them down, on one occasion two of the mac lads were stewarding so after the match they invited me and the wife into the clubs pub, we walked in, I went straight to the bar, ‘pint of Guinness mate’,he only just picked the glass up when someone shouted ‘Stu mate, I`ve got you one in’, so immediately I cancelled the Guinness and said ‘sorry just a glass of coke mate’. His reply shocked me ‘mess me about again, and there`s trouble, do you understand’.

I wasn`t having that, even an old bloke at the bar said ‘who are you talking too’ to him and ‘smack him’ to me, I`m not like that no matter how tall I am, it doesn`t mean I`m going to fight at every turn. As it turned out someone saw what went off and got the head of security, the barman was dressed down and was told to apologise to me, ‘I used to be soldier and I`ve got to apologise to someone like you’ was his feeble apology, he was sacked immediately.

I`ve even met the famous actor Marshall Lancaster, yes you do know him, he was Chris Skelton in Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, a lifelong Macclesfield fan and all round nice guy.

Two outstanding memories from the Macclesfield trips are, one occasion we walked into a pub and it only sold the local ales, no names recognisable, we were looking quizzically trying to work out what to try when a likely lad turned round and said ‘I recommend this lads, its` never done me any harm’. the guy had no teeth, we left. The second one is we occasionally stopped at one of mac lads houses, on one occasion my mate decided to put an adult movie on and his mother came and sat down to watch it, I went to bed (alone before anyone asks).