The Real Robinho

Well, after a year of promising, I finally got my finger out and took my 6 year old nephew Robin aka Robinho to his first football match. I think he enjoyed it, he didn't get bored until the last ten minutes of each half although he did ask a *lot* of questions, "Which side are we?" "How do we score a goal?" "How many points do we have now?" "I want Stoke to score!" "can you die playing football?" I was exhausted just trying to answer him, never mind walking to and from the match. Anyway we won (not always a given for our beloved Manchester City, especially when you take someone for the first time) Fair play to the Stoke fans they kept on singing even when they were 3-0 down and the banter between the fans was good.

I still don't like the new Eastlands stadium; it's in a grotty area, the locals seem to despise us, the stadium feels synthetic, the beer is too expensive, (the staff are clueless and don't make a load of pints before half time like they used to at Maine Road), and the walk from the car is too long. Our old ground Maine Road was at times a dysfunctional place that beat you as much as it fed you, but it was authentic, it felt like home (and the curry mile was a five minute walk away if you needed warming up ;-)). I guess it will just take time to get used to the new stadium. It was freezing at the match though, time to get out the winter coat and long johns out if I go again before the end of the year.