Not really because I was respectful to the Wednesday fans around me and tried to blend in.
I wasn’t wearing a half’n’half scarf (the Derby the other week had more h’n’h scarves than I’ve ever seen before, clearly not City fans because no City fan would ever wear ‘UNITED’ in red+bkack around their necks), I wasn't wearing City’s half of the h’n’h scarf on show to the annoyance of Wednesday fans around me, I wasn’t wearing a City scarf or City shirt to anger the Weds fans, I didn’t take a Sheffield United club shop bag into Hillsborough to take the piss and make the Weds fans want to rip my head off (has happened with a dickhead with a Rag club shop bag at the Etihad), I wasn’t a wearing football shirt of another club (I’ve seen visitors wearing Hajduk Split, Celtic, Bahia, Albania, River Plate, Mexico, Real Madrid - clearly headlining to everyone who can see them that they aren’t there for City - shirts in our ground and seen a photo on here of one wearing a United shirt in a derby), I wasn’t falling over seats pre-game to film City warming up, I wasn’t screaming City players’ names to get their attention through the game, I didn’t get there early to sit on the halfway line and ask the season ticket holder whose seat it was if he’d sit somewhere else and then act like a moody wanker when he said ‘no chance’ or get there early and sit with six mates even though they weren’t our seats and ask the season ticket holders whose seats they were to move elsewhere and act like a moody wankers when they said ‘no chance’ (regular occurrence on CL nights at the Etihad), my Father didn’t get clippers out and start cutting my hair, I didn’t get excited when City attacked, I didn’t anything beteeen cheer to goad Wednesday fans around me when City scored (happened loads of times at the Etihad when the opposition’s scored, resulting in fights breaking out), I didn’t look around at the home fans around me with a smile on my face when City scored, I didn’t film the City goalscorer, I didn’t get visibly excited when the ball went to my favourite City player, I wasn’t filming through the game talking to the camera, I didn’t stay sat in my seat looking visibly gutted when Wednesday scored, I didn’t get the tickets from a ticket tout website which is a plague to football these days as there are simply too many of them in swathes across stadiums (the Weds fan who tickets we had is our mate who went on holiday), we even joined in with a chant about SheffU getting relegated on the day.
We acted in a way that had the Wednesday fans shaking our our hands after the game and said we’d be welcome back any time. Rather than where I’ve seen these tourists getting twatted by City fans at the Etihad for acting like cunts.
I have a different tourist sat next to me every week at City. There have been a few times where I have been able to tell they’re a fan of the opposition but I make it so uncomfortable for them that they haven’t shown it too much… one Bayern fan ended up giving me a Bayern pin badge after the game as we shook hands as he’d been sound all game. Other times I’ve hated every second of being sat next to them as they’ve been itching for the opposition to score/win or have looked gutted when City scored (which made me shout at one against Brighton and he didn’t come back for the second half).
www.nytimes.com