I was excited if I’m being honest to visit the “theatre of dreams” but my parents told me that its not all what is made out.

After what happened outside the away end the year Chelsea won the league 2009/10 season. Where United scum bags beat stoke fans up no matter who they were (old, young, disabled, male or female) I felt really intimidated when i walked out of the stadium, specially when I saw a large number of “lads” standing there hiding their faces chanting abuse.

When I stepped off the coach I was really impressed and thought what a nice stadium, then I got into the concourse and i changed my opinion straight away. I then just wanted to get to my seat to see if it was what i imagined, was it? No. Where the away fans are placed you cant see much of the ground which is a petty because as i said i had been wanting to visit this ground since my younger days, but when my team used to be in division 2 i thought i’d never get the chance.

Our little support out-sang the rest of OT and we just had Chinese people taking pictures of us all the way through. The loudest I heard the united supporters was after the game when “glory glory man united” came on.

I said to myself I would never visit the stadium again at such a ridiculous price also. But I am going again tonight as my younger brother really wants to go and with stoke on good form and man united not so good, I am dreading what the united “fans” will be like outside if we do get something from the game.

TIPS
- don’t wear colours there are to many mouth pieces.
- get straight to your transport when leaving the ground.
- don’t expect to much.

The atmosphere is rubbish – What you need to remember is that in a crowd of 76,000 you will unfortunately attract a number of “tourists” and yes this does harm the atmosphere but most of the comments above are from clubs who are visiting OT like a kid going to disney land, the comment from the Wigan fan was so funny i thought i’d wet myself laughing. Come on mate i think you were being a bit optamistic with 2-300 fans. I would say more like 20 to 30.
I have been to most away grounds in the country and the worst for atmosphere (even when playing United) are Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle (great when their winning, crap when losing). I think the atmosphere at OT for a big game is hard to beat any where in europe (and ive been to pleanty around europe) you have to ask your self is your team a big game? and if your team was at home to someone from league 2 what would your atmosphere be like.
One thing is for sure we sell out for all games and i bet you don’t.

United are probably the only prem club that sell out every away allocation they get and i have mates of other clubs around the country who can’t believe how loud our away support is.

As for Connor C the Everton fan, it is 2011 mate not 1970 – muppet

Why are City fans turning up at OT on coaches? i thought you werre all from Manchester!!!!!!

There are many fair comments and OT is not a place to be mouthing off in away colours.
If you want a pre-match drink then the city centre is the best place to go as the pubs around the ground are not friendly on match days.

The pub is just a ten-minute walk from the ground and the weather was glorious and sunny. I had a cunning plan to go into the Stretford End in disguise with my Norwich scarf pretending to be a hardcore United fan anti-Glazer scarf and a George Best T-shirt with a tiny Norwich enamel badge placed close to the area of my heart. In the end I saw no United fans wearing anti-Glazer scarfs so gave it to my brother just in case. You have to understand, with my slightly scouse accent, one word out of place would have revealed the sham of my disguise and put me in a bit of a sticky position. Norwich fans mingled with United fans on the walk to the stadium and I witnessed no hostility whatsoever but standing on the Stretford End (United fans don’t sit down on the Stretford End), I felt might be a bit more risky especially if my loyalties became at all obvious.

I’ve read a lot of disappointed descriptions of first visits to Old Trafford but I thought it was OK. I was high up in the stand but had a good view of the pitch although a lot of the stadium was obscured, which takes a little away from the atmosphere. The Stretford End also has a long down-sloping roof which ruins the acoustics. Old Trafford is surprisingly quiet and the away fans sounded like a whisper. Now, I know the Norwich fans will have been singing the whole match so the atmosphere has to be dull for other reasons. I thought the United fans were a decent lot but they need some good songs. A lot of their chants hark back to previous golden ages and the United fans almost sound bored. There was also an arrogance about a lot of the chanting that was completely humourless. At one point in the game Norwich kicked the ball out of play because a Man Utd player was injured. From the following throw-in the ball wasn’t returned to Norwich and City’s fans objections were met with chants of ‘We’re Man United we do what we want!’ This was followed with an even louder chant of ‘You’re Norwich City you’ll do what you’re told!’ Apart from the goals these were the loudest chants of the day. Such soulless arrogance is completely misguided and an awkwardness permiates the ground, preventing the United crowd from being the very opposite of a 12th man.

As the game progressed Norwich imposed themselves on the game and had four golden chances all missed before United scored. The crowd turned from muted support to irritated complaining and then back to a kind of relieved arrogance. Norwich had another three golden chances all hopelessly missed before United scored again. Given a bit more guile in front of goal Norwich would have won this although Rooney miised a couple of sitters too. Norwich must have been disappointed at the end. So near and yet so far. Miss your chances in the Premiership and you will be punished. I met Steve and Adam outside the stadium and we walked back to the car without any problems whatsoever. One United fan said ‘You got battered,’ to me. I replied ‘I don’t think so,’ and he sheepishly shut up.

We drove to the famous curry mile after the game and had a nice pint of Hydes in The Albert before enjoying a fantastic curry buffet at The Islamabad Grill for less than £9 each. Manchester is a great city. Only a fool would visit without having a look around. We had a great day. Shame about the score.