Author Archives: rick

About rick

Living in Poynton, close to Manchester, Rick is a co-founder of FC United of Manchester. He works at the Main Stand Bar at almost every home game and if you see him in the stand you'll hear him scream as loud as anyone. Rick has also been involved in greeting international visitors and hosting several pub crawls and dinners for FC United-fans from all over the world, making a lots of friends in the process.

An exciting week for FC

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So this week the whole atmosphere around the club seems to of been supercharged by events both on and off the field.

About 10 mins in to the latest FCUM.TV production is the latest on the ground developments with the South Stand now starting to take shape

And then we had the home match against Droylesden which was attended by a number of our German friends including Jens Lindahl -and we won 4-1

www.fcum.tv

Then last night between 7-800 FC fans including myself made the 50km journey north to top of the league Chorley.

It was a very tough encounter and both teams had chances -but our players grit and determination alongside our new found formation of 3-5-2 -paid handsome dividends with a tremendous injury time goal by Tom Greaves.

All hell broke loose for a minute or so with what we Mancunians like to call first class “Goonage” or wild celebrations. The result means a play off place is firmly in our grasp if we can maintain of 5 match winning streak a few games further.

Clip courtesy of Neilboo -there is poor quality singing and fruity language -be warned!

So we look forward once again to an exciting end of the season -but no predictions from me -it’s bad luck!

Rick

The Long and winding Road

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No apology for using a Beatles line to describe our journey to Moston.

3 years ago we thought there was to be a home for FC in Newton Heath -the birthplace of Manchester United, but a mixture of circumstances and big business conspired against us and in a very stressful and angry meeting we discovered our dream was to be put on hold.

But our board and broader membership do not give up easily especially when it comes to finding a permanent new home. Working closely with a very compliant Manchester Council, before long a short list of potential new sites was examined and Broadhurst Park in  Moston was deemed the pick of the pack. After several years and judicial reviews we have finally commenced work and with any luck will start the 2014 season in our new home.

Only a handful of people -Andy Walsh and Adam Brown being two of them will ever know just how demanding the last 2/3 years have been and how close we came to not realising our dream. Every FC fan today and over the coming years owes a huge debt of thanks for their indefatigability-or sheer bloody mindedness for never losing sight of the dream and constantly confronting complex issues head on and seeking ways around, over and under issues which would of defeated lesser people.

The day our team walk out on our pitch inside our stadium will be one of mind numbing emotion for all of us who have shared the journey -and pride will pour from every atom of our beings.

We are FC UNITED OF MANCHESTER-and doing the impossible runs through our DNA.

So anyone who has the privilege of visiting- do all of us owners the honour of sharing the passion by opening your mouths and contributing to what we hope and believe will be a very special home for a very special club!

 

Shining example of Fan participation in Italy

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I heard about this fan group a few months ago and along with many other fan groups across Italy and Europe they are starting to show that football fans can and need to get involved – partly inspired by FC United…. here is there story………………..Lucca United

Q & A with Stefano Galligani of Lucca United -Supporters Trust  of AS LUCCHESE LIBERTAS1905

Q. Can you tell us in England how Lucca United came about and it’s relationship with AS LUCCHESE LIBERTAS 1905

A. Unfortunately our club was demoted twice from League 1 for financial problems and irregularities, first time in 2008 and again in 2011 when  we had just regained League 1 after two promotions in a row. In 2011 the club had to restart from the 6th tier of Italian football and we decided that we   had to play a more active role  and needed to have our word in the matter.  We founded our cooperative in November 2011 and we currently have some 400 members.

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MRE v Main Stand – abuse and banter

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I have been asked on various occasions about a part of the fc matchday experience which is confusing to say the least for new visitors to Gigg Lane, which is our temporary home. FC United usually use two of Gigg Lane’s stands (one is called the Main Stand and the other is called MRE) and visitors can often hear the two stands abusing each other in a friendly fashion:

Main Stand v MRE

(During the last video the MRE was closed so the regular MRE-goers was also standing in the Main Stand)

There are probably two main reasons for this chanting between stands  -which can take any form from the simple and harmless “WE ARE THE MAIN STAND -WE’RE LOUDER THAN YOU” to the somewhat surprising and more threatening  chant which is a complete throwback to the 1970’s -“YOU’RE GONNA GET YOUR FUCKIN HEADS KICKED IN!”

The first and probably main reason is that a lot of the fans are of a similar age to myself and used to stand in the Stretford End in the 70’s and 80’s when the ground would fill up an hour or more before kick off and so to stop boredom the leftside, rightside or tunnel-(if you look at old photo’s of the Stretty you will see there was a large tunnel in the middle and above that was very small section of standing that used to be packed like sardines!) anyway we would all launch into “WE are the Tunnel” to get a response.

This also grew to include challenging other sections of the ground to sing such as the Scoreboard and Stretford Paddocks which were pretty large corners of the ground.

The Scoreboard in particular used to have a fair few nutters in there as they were next to the away fans and would give them at the very least plenty of abuse. Towards the middle and late 1980’s the United Road and k stand got a bit more lively as some guys grew out of the Stretford End mentality and wanted a bit more shall we say interaction with opposing fans.

So to bring things back to the present day we do sing at each other -but this is simply English humour, banter -if you look on people’s faces whilst we abuse our fellow fc’ers you will see at least a trace of a smile on our lips -we are ,making some noise and having a laugh -end of.

The second reason we do this -err- if you will pardon the expression -self abuse- is very few teams we play at our level bring any meaningful support i.e. ones we can hear sing -passion and naked territorrialism is one of the bedrocks on which football clubs have been built upon for 130 years – so until we get to a level where we can have banter and abuse with opposing fans -we shall probably carry on having fun and games shouting at ourselves.

One thing you will notice is there is much less of this at away games as we are once again truly -UNITED!

I look forward to bringing you some very exciting news regarding our new home in Moston later this week!!

 

My fc moment of decision…..

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This article is a follow on from the “how did we get here ” article in the AMF section….

3.20 pm May 12th 2005- I was at that time working from 3.00am and so I had got back from work and had an hour’s sleep then it was time to wake up with a bath. I took the radio with me as there had been a rumour all day about the Glazers takeover and I did’nt want to miss a word.

Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 2 broke into a record with the announcement that the takeover had gone through-the two Irish Millionaires who had had a very public dispute over the stud rights of a racehorse with Alex Ferguson had been persuaded to sell -the club was being bought by means of a leveraged buy out -ie they had borrowed the money to buy the club. That debt was very soon put back onto the club so the fans would pay the interest.

I was in shock………I leapt out of the bath -got dressed and told my long suffering but most understanding wife I was going to Old Trafford “they.ve got it -they’ve bought United” was all I needed to say -Cheryl know that United was an indelible part of my soul and although to many this buyout meant nothing -to me it meant everything.

I drove to Warwick Road in about 40 minutes -the place was in uproar -I joined about 1,000 other angry older reds and we marched into the middle of Chester Road and sat down! The police did not expect any of this and there were very few officers initially so they could do nothing -we sat there for 20 minutes or half an hour.

Eventually we were removed -I spent about another hour singing anti glazer songs and abusing corporate types attending some function or other -but I knew in my heart all this was to make little or no difference. I left just before a police officer had completely lost his patience with me -I kept reading out his officer number out loud -as if I was remembering it for future use-he did’nt appreciate it!

Thank goodness for the internet -these were alive with anger- what could be done and how-meetings were arranged-about two weeks later a madcap idea emerged about starting from scratch -building our own team. I thought it was nuts initially -but within another week a  collection was made to launch a new club -and I paid in what I could afford.

A few weeks later the second friendly was arranged that I could make it to, which was to be played at Staleybridge Celtics ground, I went along and from the moment I got into the ground and saw close to 2,000 like minded individuals determined not to let the Unted we had grown up with disappear down a corporate pughole -I know this was for me …………and every game in the 8 years that have followed has been a victory for the little guy, the ignored -the dispossessed…………………and long may we continue.

BRING ON UNITED

New season is coming………..

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After a few friendles during which manager Karl Marginson has tried out several potential new players the temperature was turned up with the visit of a Bolton Wanderers XI.

The official match report is below and I can only add that it was a very entertaining game with FC playing some very attractive football with the strong emphasis on playing with the ball on the ground with some great precision passing and movement. Ollie North in the midfield was immense -I just hope we can keep hold of him!!

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