Bad atmosphere

Yesterday was my first away game in the best part of a year - possibly even longer than that. I am intending to go to more this season; whether this will happen, time will tell. But if I do then I hope to find a different atmosphere from the one I came across in the Anfield away end.

Pre-match, things were pretty normal. People inside, some having a drink and getting merry, some pre-match chanting in the concourses, that sort of thing. Getting to my seat (for reference, way too small; we wanted to stand anyway but there was little choice in the matter), I was situated in the lower tier and under cover. I was a fair way back. Aside from the seats, again, things were pretty normal.

Things started to go south just before kick-off when You'll never walk alone started. Several people around me got out their phones and recorded this. Some people toward the back of the stand took exception to this. "Put ya f*%king phones away!" "You're here to support Leicester not f*%ing Liverpool you c", and so on. To these people, it isn't enough to travel miles, pay a fortune in the process and cheer for your team. Instead, they have an attitude that the away end must be legendary, noisy, dominant. If you look up Toxic Masculinity in the dictionary, you would see a picture of these people.

Through the first half, they were intent on following through on their beliefs. Sing loudly, ring out the regular songs, create a really good atmosphere for the team. But then of course Liverpool scored just before half time. The second half was a different matter. There was the occasional attempt at chanting, but most of their contribution was either sounding off about our own players to trying to incite the Liverpool fans. They tried to come up with most everything you could possibly think of, from the familiar chant of "Sign on" (to You'll never walk alone) to accusations that Scousers are always victims, to pro-Thatcher chants. And they threw their worst insults at Mo Salah, and occasionally Jordan Henderson. Some berated our lesser-performing players and one moaned that Barnes had done nothing in the second half, oblivious to the fact that he had been subbed at half time.

The chants started up again after Maddison's equaliser, then disappeared again at full time, as some of them decided that they hated Liverpool and Scousers more than anyone else for some reason. Some wanted to incite a fight with the Liverpool fans. Naturally, none were near enough to be part of it. And then a couple of them lit up and started smoking while we were all waiting to leave and had nowhere to go.

The obvious lesson to learn from this is to try to get a place closer to the front of the stand/tier in the future. At least then these people will be far enough away that I don't have to put up with them. But still what bugged me the most was the way these people were so determined that there should be a fantastic atmosphere that they should berate and bully their fellow fans for not being equally aggressive and drunk. Quite what they wanted to achieve from this is illogical, although perhaps that's the point. The people who were there were not going to join them, only be persuaded not to go to future away matches. There are no other fans like them who can't get tickets. We are a provincial club. We are not Leeds. We are not Millwall. This is a good thing.

Still, this at least provided something other than the result to mull over during a stop-off at Keele services that evening, where I encountered many Liverpool fans making the long trip back to Liverpool.