Exodus

Quite remarkable news yesterday. Not only did we sell-out the 7000-odd tickets that Manchester United allocated us, but we have been given another 2,000 and will, most likely sell-out again on Saturday. Huge pat on the back to our supporters and something that may say more about our club than the lightweight and misleading sales pitch doing it's way around Investment Houses in the US.

I was one of those supremely confident that we would do very well to get 5,000 up there on a midweek game necessitating a stopover for many, so soon after New Year. Not only that but we have been very poor to watch in the last two months (all season really) and are in the throes of a another disastrous looking takeover. But wrong I was - our fans have answered the call, maybe because of the poor football, the lack of hope and the fact that we haven't had a really big match for many years, but whatever the reason, they have done it. 

Personally very disappointed that I won't be there. I had enough points to have applied on Tuesday as one of the lower Loyalty Points members but with news that there were 1600 left I was very hopeful that our plan to buy six together on General Sale day would mean we could all sit together (some of us didn't have enough loyalty points for earlier). Our volunteer took no chances, getting down to the Valley early and making third in the queue. At 2pm when the windows opened there were 60-80 fans queueing behind him. The first fan bought one ticket for himself but fans two and three (him) were told "sorry, sold-out now." That was that, no offer to take names and numbers (for returns) of those who had journeyed to the ground in the belief that would get them tickets. No mention of the possibility of an increased allocation and strong rumours from Manchester that we wouldn't get any more because Burnley didn't and because United had been selling tickets in all other areas.

First time in 45 years I haven't got tickets for a game. My disappointment caused me to cancel my hotel and train, and rely instead on getting a ticket for the two-legged semi-final 😂. At least I will be able to watch the match on TV.