Our Hull City fan columnist Natalie Murphy hopes the Tigers will be ready to sing again after the international break
Hull City fans during the Premier League match at Chelsea(Image: CameraSport via Getty Images)
Bing, bong went the public address system at Boothferry whenever someone needed to get a message to a fan. More often than not, the supermarket-style chime was followed by a registration number and a warning for the owner to move their vehicle sharpish.
But occasionally, in that pre-mobile phone era, the announcement would summon a supporter because their other half had gone into labour. As the crowd cheered, I often wondered if they did actually leave the ground or not.
When my own son was due 17 years ago, my husband, then a freelance football reporter, started covering matches closer to home just in case. As it turned out, after finding out I was pregnant on Valentine’s Day, it was almost Halloween before the boy arrived and only then after some persuasion.
Since I was definitely going to be there for the birth, I fully expected the expectant dad to be there too and so it was that we welcomed the newest member of the black and amber army together.
The infamous MUFC flag declares ‘Utd Kids Wife In That Order’ but for me, football is family. It’s listening to the match on the radio at my Gran’s. It’s a summer BBQ at Mum and Dad’s for the World Cup. It’s passing on the love of a club to the next generation.
Then there’s the football community itself, a family of its own, summed up in our owner, Acun Ilicali’s vision for the club, ‘One Family, One Dream’. I’ve travelled to all three away games this season by myself but have never felt alone. And the latest trip, to Newcastle, was thanks to another member of the Hull City family who had a spare ticket after his partner went into labour.
So, after spotting his message on social media late on Friday evening, I was on the train at 8.30am the next morning.
Cancelled services meant I had no choice but to arrive early, though this meant faring better than others who, I understand were caught up in traffic problems that meant they missed some of the match.
If Chelsea the week before sparkled as a place, here it was the people that shone. I killed time in the brilliant indoor Grainger Market, where you can browse, eat and drink in a place that has been welcoming shoppers since 1835.
After a ham and pease pudding bap (£3.20), I got chatting to a Newcastle fan from Australia over a half-pint of ‘Toon Broon’ from a local independent brewery. I couldn’t quite follow his story about why he’d ended up supporting a team thousands of miles away but this is certainly a city whose passion for football is clear to see.
Many in the market, whether going to the match or not, wore Newcastle tops or t- shirts, including one, in the style of the Sex Pistols album cover that read ‘Sunderland are b——-, we are Newcastle’. A deli, for the avoidance of any doubt, had a laminated print out of the club crest pinned to the premises.
Inside the ground, I felt the full force of the Toon Army. Only a few yards of material draped across the intervening rows – along with a line of stewards and police – separated my seat from what sounded like their most vocal fans. They are loud, but with seats in this part of the stadium so high that you have to climb 140 steps to reach them, they need to be.
Concentrating away fans in this upper tier has a neutralizing effect, and not just because of the tiring climb to get there. The view is brilliant, you can see everything – apart from the actual football being played on the pitch. Our players were about as likely to hear our songs about playing in Europe as they would have been if I’d opened my window and sung them solo from my own front room.
Was this a factor in us going 2-0 down so early? Or did the traffic problems leave the travelling choir short of numbers until later when we more than got back into it? It’s one I’ll be mulling over as we rest our voices during the international break.
Newcastle, if you are going to stick us up in the sky, you might at least give us a few loud speakers to help us be heard.
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