‘Paying on the Gate’ by Jason McKeown
Published in 2011 by Peakpublish
With the blog named ‘payonthegate’ I couldn’t resist this book. It was not my usual charity shop find and I had to pay over the cover price to get a copy.
The book is about a schoolboy Manchester United fan who has little if no chance of ever getting a ticket for Old Trafford and by chance gets to go to Bradford City then in the championship. He is immediately smitten and embarks on a journey into the Premiership and then a quick decline to end up in league 2. This roller coaster of the clubs journey, that includes near death experiences for the clubs finances, is mirrored by Ian’s schoolboy to college, to Uni, to looking for a job, finally getting a job he enjoys, girlfriends to marriage all in a little over 10 years.
It is breathless but shows how the passion for your team grips you and determines your mood and life. It was worth paying over the odds for it and I applaud Ian’s frankness in the writing. Supporting your local team through thick and thin is certainly not boring and is more rewarding than clicking up trophy win after trophy win with a team you will never experience the physical relationship with the club.
Jason has written some of the history of the club since but again the prices seem too harsh for me so I will not follow that up. I wish Jason well and Bradford City who are now down there at the foot of League 2 with a very real danger of dropping into the National League. Their near neighbours Halifax will attest to the difficulty of getting out of that League.
Payonthegate 