Love for grassroots

29th of April 2011 I am stood on the grass my arms leaning on wooden advertising board, my heart is beating out of my chest while the players on the pitch who were only moments ago kicking a ball around stand still. People around me are talking saying we have done it, we haven't done it, then all of a sudden the crowd raise a cheer, an almighty joint sigh of relief and they have done it. In their first season as Chester FC they had won the league! As with most teams that win any football league the fans joined the players on the pitch to celebrate. As Kate and Wills basked in the frivolity of their nuptials there I was basking in the glory of a team I had followed from their very first away match. 

That match came on the 10th of July 2010 at the North Wales based Colwyn Bay. Only five months before that had the team even received its name when City Fans United (CFU) had come together and reformed the club that had dissolved previously as Chester City FC. A team who had been established since 1885, albeit it had been known as Chester FC from that time up until 1983 when it reverted to Chester City. My last 'grass roots' football match came in the form of Wrexham FC vs Everton FC, in fact little did I know Wayne Rooney scored his first two goals as a senior blue in that game! This game was a little different to that one. We arrived early with a group of reporters from the local press and radio station. I don't normally have a drink at the game but it was a nice day and I wasn't driving so thought why not! The game didn't turn out to be the most exciting spectacle and in fact Chester got beat but the buzz of the fans and the feeling of being part of a football team's history was amazing. The end of the day was marred with some low level holliganism but all in a all it was a brilliant day out! Now I had set off on this journey I wanted it to continue. 

We started going to home games after that first away game. Whenever Everton weren't at home we were stood on the cold hard steps of the Harry McNally stand. This was one of things I loved about Chester games, standing up! Maybe near the latter stages of pregnancy it was not so good but when are you in finest singing voice I ask you? When stood up of course! The other thing was the blues bar, ok so I said I don't normally drink at games which I don't in the main and it wasn't the Strongbow on tap that pulled me in. My fellow Harry McNally supporters would tell you I was lying. But they are in fact the reason I loved it so much. We made so many friends! We did also have our wedding party in said Blues Bar but that is beside the point. Before and after the games there was such a sense of comradery in there, I think being around like minded people was refreshing. They would put Sky on so you could catch the late kick off game after you had enjoyed 90 minutes of the seals. Sometimes the players would come in for a drink, my absolute favourite George Horan, captain of the blues made a fair few appearances! Much to my delight. The man of the match would also be brought through after the game and given his bottle of champagne, like the excited kid I was I would always try and get an autograph. In fact on Chester's first home league game against Trafford I managed to get fan favourite and hat trick scorer that day's autograph, Michael Wilde. 

One of the best ways other than the Blues Bar to celebrate with my Blues friends was the annual end of season awards dinner. It was always a glitzy affair at Chester Racecourse, nice 3 course meal, everyone wearing their posh clobber and a celeb of course. For those who don't know the story, a certain Colin Murray got involved with Chester FC at the beginning of their story after he heard what was happening on his Radio 5 live show. He along with Pat Nevin and Perry Groves signed up for Chester FC at their first home league game against Trafford and on a few occasions could be seen hidden in the crowd with his baseball cap on! Although Chester didn't usually fare well when Colin was in town. At the first awards dinner I managed to scoop a pic with him! He is quite lovely, for a red anyway! 

It was also at the awards evening that I got talking to the late great Paul Walker who ran the club shop back then. As Chester FC was a fan owned club the staff were all volunteers and I really wanted to do something to be a part of it, so I spoke to Paul and organised to help out in the shop. It became a regular occurrence and I got to know even more wonderful blues (although not Harry McNally faithful but we can overlook that). The people who volunteer at the club in the main had full time jobs as I did on top of their work they did and Mr Walker being one of those very people, sadly Paul passed away in 2013. The passion and motivation the volunteers had for their club was something I'd never seen before and it was an honour to be part of it. I also met one of my closest friends whilst folding football shirts ready for the start of the new season. It was so nice to meet another female who had a passion for football. Lots of my girly friends especially when I first found football as a past time really didn't get it. They didn't feel like I did about the great game so I could never really talk to anyone about it and when you are feeling really passionate you just want to talk about it all the time. I would be sat with a group of girlies and I'd see a tweet about football or we would be out shopping and a score would come through and there was no one I could share that moment with. Until I met my Chester FC friend who also happens to have a love for Everton too! We would text at the match or meet at the away games she was much more devoted to the away game than me! And we could enjoy the awards parties, now I had an ally to get autographs off the players with (well a partner in crime). Now we have got little ones so we don't get to games together but we still get our footy chats every so often. 

So my taste of Everton had led to a love for grass roots and footy mad girl was born! Maybe I will tell you about some of my exciting Chester FC away days soon.......