Victorian Dad and the XL Matchday Mascot

Now I have to be careful here, as I believe that there is no such thing as a good place or bad place, but that your experiences shape the way you view a place. It is especially disappointing when you go to a place you are looking forward to and then find out that it doesn't live up to your expectations. Cambridge City's City Ground on Milton Road was one of these places. I was expecting a happy and friendly community focused club, but what I found was a miserable bunch of bastards.

On the plus side the ground is fairly attractive and easy to get to as the bus to Ely stops outside the ground, the game was fairly open and City could feel hard done by that they didn't manage to win the game, as they had oodles of chances and the only real chance Worthing had was the penalty that they put away. The players were all sporting despite Worthing, who have the nickname 'the Rebels' having participated in the game with a record number of red cards in the previous week. On the other hand an experienced and ageing Cambridge City side should really have finished off a very young Worthing side who had obviously been shipped in to deal with the injuries and suspensions they were suffering from.

In fact perhaps age is the overiding problem at this club. First of all, and I'm not knocking the bloke involved, but the mascot was a geezer of late middle age, now if you can't get kids in for this or you're taking the place of a kid then a club that already seems to be on its knees has a very limited future. In fact at the game apart from my own family I saw one old lady with her granddaughter, and Victorian Dad with his son. Even the 'ballboys' seemed to be middleaged blokes. Any other families at the game were wearing Worthing shirts. Even the panda mascot didn't seem interested in anything other than having a kick around with the outsize mascot and speaking to commitee members from either club, and he disappeared as soon as the game started. It also should be remembered that to join the junior club of Cambridge City costs £30 and offers roughly the same benefits to kids as joining the Cambridge United Juniors (that's their local neighbours who play 2 levels higher) who charge £0. Not the best way to get the kids in is it? Mind you with parents like Victorian Dad around it would appear that they don't want kids involved.

Victorian Dad plumped himself down near us in the stand with his son who was about 8 just before kick off. He was one of those blokes who looked a little bit old for having a young son and was dressed like he had more money than brain cells. Not that I would usually have paid any notice to this fact. He informed his mates that his son, who was almost falling asleep was pretty tired because he had been caddying for him on the golf course all morning. After being forced to do that and then being told to sit quietly at a football match he will probably develop a phobia of spherical objects. However none of that is any of my business. What is my business is the fact that he was rude to my wife and 5 year old daughter. While I was standing at the front he informed them that they 'weren't the type of supporter this club wanted'. I don't know why. It might have been that my daughter was being boisterous or was maybe racist as they were speaking in Russian. Luckily I didn't find this out until after we had returned to Ely otherwise I would probably have spent the evening in a cell.

I'm starting to think that like a few other clubs who have been through some hard times they have created a community, but that it is a closed community, but that's their problem. I also have a few other issues that might have gone unnoticed under other circumstances. Firstly, the programme: It costs £2. Now considering that Burton Albion can produce a full glossy edition for £2 and even Aston Villa can produce a glossy programme for £2 for friendlies and games against lesser teams I find this a bit of an offence . It is no better than Ely City's programme (priced 50p) and actually isn't as good as Rocester's (£1). Most of it is advertisements, patting themselves on the back and pleas for you to give them yet more cash, as well as all the stuff you would expect in a Step 5 programme, although they are a step 3 club and the pictures are more pixelated and poorly formatted. In fact the formatting of the pictures in the programme does actually look like for once a 5 year old has been included in the club activities. Therefore I can only assume that the proclamation of 'Blue Square South Programme of the Year' on the front means that they have downgraded the programme but not the price or they are being economical with the truth.

Come to think of it the section in the programme about Worthing doesn't mention that they are a full step below City and almost deliberately misinforms you into thinking that they are a Ryman Premier League team, which of course they aren't.

They also talk a load of balls. In the Southern League there has been an ongoing debate regarding the use of GX Balls, that many clubs have now complained about them that the league has decided to change over to mitre. GX obviously aren't happy about this and are taking the league to court and one of their supporters is Cambridge City. Now, in last week's edition of the Non League Paper Cambridge were quoted as saying that they would use GX Balls in cup competitions where they could choose the balls, well weren't they Umbro balls I saw them using on Saturday?

Anyway I was probably just a victim of circumstances on Saturday, but if they think I am willing to fork out another £22 for their matchday experience or will be giving them any of my Tesco Vouchers that they are on the scrounge for they have another thing coming.

Notes on photos from top to bottom:
The entrance to the ground
The main stand
The main terrace
XL Mascot and the lazy panda line up with the teams before the game