Oval Muddle!

As I parked my car at the Oval grounds on Tuesday past (New Years Day), I was surprised to see United fans coming back up the 'hen run' as the visiting fans entrance to the ground is commonly called. At first I thought the match had been called off, but I then learned that the turnstiles at that end of the ground were not open and we would have to enter the ground by the same entrance as the home fans. This was no great hardship, but why oh why, were we not informed a couple of days before the game or better still at our previous home game. As we entered the ground we made our way behind the main stand and round the City-end terracing to the so called 'visitors' stand. The first thing we encountered was the tracks of some vehicle, which ran through the enclosure gates and round the back of the goals and to say that it was muddy, was an understatement. After making our way round, trying our best to avoid the clabber, we then found when we entered the 'stand' (I use this expression in it's loosest term), that the dugouts had been moved to our side of the ground, blocking out a large proportion of the touchline in the process. As if that wasn't bad enough, we then found that 'chicken wire' had been suspended from the roof to the top of the railings giving at best a poor view of the proceedings. The view in fact was pretty poor in the first half, but when the light's came on in the second, it was even worse and can best be described as 'blurred vision', in no way satisfactory. Added to that was the £10 admission charge, nothing short of a 'rip off'. On the plus side the match was exhilarating and it was obvious that the home team gave their all, as evidenced by their collapsing on the turf at the final whistle, United always give their all. If you can guarantee that sort of action and commitment, I'll gladly play £10 for a seat in the stand at all games, but , Please! Please! Please!, for the love of the game, let us have a decent view of it. As I have said many times in the past, never mind the rules about ground safety look after the supporters interests instead, for without them you will have nothing!