Watching Morecambe FC at the Globe Arena

Those that know me well realise at heart I’m a Morecambe FC fanatic. Let’s face it, a home game for me used to involve a 500-mile round trip from Wiltshire, sometimes midweek - to see us play in the Conference. That after a week working away from home and a very understanding wife!

I duly followed the advice the club are always giving us and took along a friend, we deposited more than £40 for our tickets and made our way up for a drink. I told my fellow footie follower it would be packed in the bar and we would be lucky to get served before kick-off. This time I was wrong.

It seemed Mansfield Town at home on a chilly Tuesday night in January was not the biggest priority on people’s minds in Morecambe that night.

The atmosphere in the ground was also muted as the drummer was not there to beat out a samba like rhythm.

We certainly didn’t get much noise from the dwindling faithful as it was about 40 minutes gone before the home end broke into some sort of song.

By then I’d made my mind up to watch the second half in the bar: on TV. It was dire entertainment.

My companion summed it all up on her first ever visit to a home game. She eloquently articulated the club has spent a lot of money on one side of the ground and neglected the facilities available to the masses.

What she saw on the pitch did not reflect or match the comfortable ambiance of the Wright and Lord Suite.

How right she is. I was watching a team and a game unrecognisable from years before. A pity. The team was my life a few years ago.