Match Day (3/3) By Andy Carrington

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3).

What ever happened to feeling safe? Did we ever feel safe? Even the closed-circuit-TV did nothing to enhance our feeling of security. Though the area had begun major regeneration, it still felt like an absolute shit hole to me. I found out the city was an early theatre of battle in the English Civil Wars, or so I read, and that probably explains it why it needed so much work.

No wonder this was the worst place to live in Britain in 2005, and second worst in 2007. I'm not hating, I'm just speaking from experience.

We did however find one good thing. A white phone box. Yes. Nothing amazing flash I know, but at least it was something. I had never seen a white phone box before. Of all things. We found the courage to ask one of the locals why it was unusually white (we were stood for several minutes mind; waiting on our chance to talk someone that we actually deemed 'safe' enough). So, along came a little old man supporting his weight on a walking stick, albeit he was wearing a shirt that said mile high fcuk. He told us the reason the phone box was white was due to the city having its own independent telephone company- Kingston Communications. This, he said, was the only locally operated telephone company in the UK.

That was kind of a big deal to us I guess, having witnessed the mass bigotry of football 'fans' patrol the town centre throughout the majority of our day. At least the place had something to show for itself, even if someone had made an obvious attempt to scrape some off some of the white paint, and etch the words City 4 Life into one of the glass panels of the door.

We were ready for home. So, Lee and I began retracing our steps to the Princes Quay, where we had parked, kicking the various Mcdonalds' cardboard packaging from beneath our feet, making our way back through the town centre. Wave goodbye, I thought, as the cheers and banter became distant in the background. Leeds beckoned. 'Think of it like this- At least the'll be none of these twats round tarn.' 'Keep yer voice darn will yer! And Lee, 'ave you not fuckin' read? It's Leeds V Millwall tonight yer daft twat! It'll be twice as bad! You've picked a rate day for it ant yer!'

Old rivals never die. I just had to think what to wear with the shirt I bought, and how the fuck we could get out of this place any quicker, before anyone mistook us for Leeds fans.

Hello! Hello! We are the city boys, Hello! Hello! We are the city boys, And if you are a Leeds fan, Surrender or you'll die! We all follow the city.

We heard on BBC Radio Humberside on the way back that score had ended 1-1, which, under the circumstances, was the best possible result the neutral could have hoped for; in restoring harmony to the city as soon as possible. Luckily, we beat the M62 rush hour too so all in all it wasn't that bad. So we just had to wait and see what would happen tonight. 'So? That was 'ull then eh?' Lee laughed. 'Aye.' He didn't know what else to say.

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