My best road trip ever : Journey to the best city in the world

Let me start this post by biting from one of Naija’s finest rappers, did you miss me? since my last article did anyone eclipse me? Gist me. I am so sorry I haven’t written in a while. I got caught up with some stuff. I will try to be more consistent.

It used to be a dream, I never imagined it would come true at the time it. Even when I was close I didn’t put my mind there. I always told my friends I must go to this place before I die. Now where is this place I am talking about? Where else could it be than the European capital of trophies, the Theatre of dreams, the home of the best football team (Manchester United) in the world. My bro gave me the news when I got home from class on Friday evening (15/10/2010). He said Swizz you need to sleep early because we are going to Old Trafford first thing in the morning to watch the league game between Manchester United and Westbromwich Albion and I was like it’s a lie. He is not a man of many words so he didn’t say more, I asked him for the ticket and he didn’t answer me focusing on the news he was watching. The guy can watch news ehn.

At about 5am the next morning my bro’s wife woke me and told me to go and have my bath. I still didn’t believe but I got up and I did as I was told. Wore my new Man Utd kit and faded blue jeans matching it up with my favourite knock about sneakers. A pair of shoes that really suffered, I wore it almost every day. We all have one. I heard someone honking his horn continuously so I raised the blind to see who it was and it turned out to be my brother’s friend. He was also a Manchester United fan and he was also going on this trip I had doubts about. I went outside to meet him to ask if we were really going to Manchester and he asked why he would come to our place in the mad cold so early and I responded we could be going to play footie since it was a Saturday. He told me were going to the City of Manchester and that he was driving. 20 minutes later (6am) all 4 of us were in the car and our dear friend started the car and in 30 minutes were driving out of Aberdeen. He set the sat nav to our final destination (Manchester) and it was then I now believed we were truly going to Manchester. I thought about the sat nav and I was like do these things actually work, make we no go lost o.

We had loads of stuff to eat and drink from sandwiches, sausage rolls, muffins, chocolates, coca cola, red bull and not to forget JD (you know this). Did I tell you Snickers is the best chocolate ever made? Now you know. This trip was to last about 8 hours. We passed through many places I would still like to visit later. Places like Newcastle, Sunderland, Liverpool, Stoke and Bolton. We got to the City of Manchester at about 2pm and 15 minutes later we were at the massive car park for fans of the Red Devils. The game was to kick off at 4pm. We got out of the car to walk round and take pictures. One of my life long dreams had come true. We went to a pub where strictly United fans drink and men it was crowded. After a few drinks we walked back to the stadium and watched the players come out of the coach with squeals from myself, our friend and other Man Utd fans. My bro and his wife are Milan fans so I didn’t expect them to yell in excitement. We went in and had a few more drinks before going into the stadium to have our sit.

My GOD, it was a wonderful atmosphere. I felt like I was in heaven (not that I have been there before). United as expected took control of the game from the onset and scored two 1st half goals through Chicharito and Nani to take the lead before the break. You needed to hear the chants of the Brom fans after the Red Devils conceded a goal no thanks to a Van Der Saar own goal. The Brom fans took over Old Trafford with their noise and I even thought they were leading for second. Westbrom got another goal to level scores and the roars got louder. What amazed me the most was when Man Utd fans started screaming Rooonneeeeyyyyyyyy which was their way of telling Sir Alex to bring Rooney on. 30 seconds later the Liverpool born Rooney was warming up and a few minutes later he came on. United didn’t however win the game as it ended in a 2-2 draw. I will never forget the old man that sat behind me, jeez if he had his way he would have gotten on to the pitch to strangle Rafael Da Silva. He just kept shouting Rafael chase the ball will you, Rafael you lazy dude how did that dude get pass you and so many other things I can’t remember. Rafael looked lost in the game quite frankly.

After the game ended, we waited around for a bit to take pictures. I am sure those oyinbos would be like see this ones o, they didn’t win and they are smiling to take picture. Na dem sabi, I wasn’t going to let 2 points dropped kill my joy of coming to the Theatre of dreams for the first time. At the end of that season, the 2 points dropped on this day were the only points dropped at home by Manchester United. As for how the tickets were gotten. My bro worked in a company that usually buys season tickets so you see I went to Old Trafford like a boss.

We had to leave Manchester early the next morning because I had a coursework to submit on Monday and I had not wrapped it up. I will never forget the 16th day of October, 2010. Manchester is beautiful, Manchester is the city and Manchester United is the club.
There’s only one UNITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MANCHESTER UNITED

Thanks for your time…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. BLESS
Twitter handles: @dipoogun/@theswizzmemoirs