Steve Cheeseborough

Why Blue?

Back in 1966, started attending the Academy at the grand age of 4 with my dad and uncle who are both Blues. Attended a lot of games in this era without really remembering a lot about them. Except falling out with my dad in 1976 because he went to Wembley without me! Then at the beginning of the 80’s I acquired my first season ticket. From this time I remember Sammy Lee’s non free kick in the League Cup semi final. But the biggest memories are being at Wembley in 1981 for the 1-1 draw and then being away with school for the replay. Started work not long after this and followed the Blues all over the country. Then in 1984 joined HM Forces and was sent to train “Down Sarf” for 2 years; managed to attend all the Blues’ games from here and was grateful for playing teams like Portsmouth as it was only 1/2 an hour away.

Then fate took a hand in leading me away and I had to give up my season ticket. In 1986 I was sent to Germany and from here could only follow the Blues on Telly or by Radio. However, I still managed to fit my leave in around the season and attended a few games a year.

In 1990 I was sent to the Gulf and whilst there received a letter from Peter Reid (still stored in pristine condition) in reply to a letter to the club asking for info as BBC World service did not offer that much in the way of football news. The letter was original in that Peter had just taken over as the manager and the letter has Howard Kendall’s printed name scribbled out and Peter has handwritten his own name instead. This is my best momentum from the Gulf.

Then in 1993 it was off to Hong Kong; again this was a little too far to come each weekend to watch the boys. Here I spent two years listening to Five live via forces radio to get the match results. Still remember listening to the second half commentry when Blackburn were beaten by Liverpool but still pipped TWGFC? to the title.

Then I returned back to Germany where once again I managed one or two games a year. Then, on recently leaving the forces and settling into a new job and a new area, I found myself in Blackpool and with the resources to return to being a season ticket holder. So off I trotted to Maine Road and booked my ticket for the 1999/2000 season. This then enabled me to get tickets for the play-off and then that day at Wembley.

Went with my boss who is a fellow Blue and his two young sons. Ged had a classic way of convincing his wife that his 3-year-old son should attend Wembley: “It is 18 years since we were last at Wembley and on that reckoning he will be 21 before we get there again so he is going!”

Anyway, I am now back into the routine of attending all home games; the only thing left to do is to convince my daughters, who live “down Sarf” with their mother, that there is another team in Manchester.

Hopefully this will start at the Tranmere game.

CTIDAMGSSTWGFC? (City til I die and my Girls stop supporting TWGFC?)

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #578 on