What is it to be a fan?

At the end of a week where ‘The King’, Thierry Henry, returned to score the winner for his beloved Arsenal in a fashion no less predictable than the climax of any of the Mission: Impossible movies or an episode of CSI, I felt it important to discuss what it must be like to score a winner for the club that you support.

As all loyal supporters are aware, there is no feeling quite like celebrating a goal with upwards of 20,000 others, screaming, singing, jumping and even hugging. I stress the word ‘loyal’ as those of you who support Manchester United yet live in London and haven’t quite managed to make it to a game yet, don’t count (you know who you are). Even before I could walk, I have been a supporter of Portsmouth F.C., not that I would remember but I never really had a say in the matter. Nonetheless this blog has been inspired from my obsessive and, in recent years, frustrating love for all things Pompey. In fact the South Stand Upper Tier, the smashing title of this blog, was in fact where I held a season ticket for a number of years whilst we were battling for survival year in year out in the depths of the old Division One with the likes of Crystal Palace, Déjà vu?  

Having not visited too many games in a number of years I recently took my two younger brothers to see Portsmouth take on Watford in a bottom half of the table clash in the Npower Championship. Setting the scene it was an important tie between 17^th and 18^th, with Portsmouth only 3 points behind yet with a game in hand and a superior goal difference. A win for Portsmouth would leapfrog us above Watford and with Pompey’s home form being the third best in the entire league, having won 7, drawn 2 and lost just 2 of their home fixtures (clearly at this point questions are to be asked of our dire away form) many were optimistic. However it was not as straight forward as it seemed. Watford had turned us over 2-0 at their place just a month or so prior, a defeat that new boss Michael Appleton quoted as being our ‘worst performance of the season’. Now many of you reading this would not have had a clue or even cared about any of the pre-match hype that surrounded this game. You would easily be more concerned with your own team and similarly, up and down the country, not just on this particular Saturday in question, but on every Saturday (give or take, between the months of August and May) someone else would be telling an alarming yet perhaps just as melodramatic story of how their club would fare against the opposition. It is this enthusiasm of a fan, their affection for a team, which draws people together and gives us a reason to discuss and dispute the world of football.

Before the game on Monday night the majority of Arsenal fans would have thought they would have the game sewn up by half-time which would allow Henry a nice cameo on his return to the Emirates. Yet, like always, they needed to rely on the goal-scoring ability of one man, and for once this season it was not Robin Van Persie. Having scored 11 goals in his last 11 games against Leeds, it was to nobody’s surprise that with the most mechanical and recognisable of tekkers, Henry managed to slot the ball into the far corner, 1-0 to the Arsenal. I don’t think anybody in that ground, apart from a few Irish fans who still can’t get over ‘la main de dieu’ (the hand of god), didn’t applaud or enjoy the fairy tale return of one of the Premier League’s greatest players. It had that all too familiar feel to it, rekindling some of those final Highbury chapters in Arsenal’s history books. However what struck me was how surprised and confused Henry looked moments after slotting home that crisp finish. It was not the arrogant and nonchalant celebration that we had come so accustom to seeing from the Frenchman back in his heyday (a celebration whose reigns have now seemingly been taken up by Super Mario over at Eastlands). It was one with a complete contrast between bemusement and euphoria, one that perhaps you would only associate with someone who is overwhelmed with the outcome of scoring a goal like it was unfamiliar to them, someone who is unable to portray, through the medium of dance, gymnastics or theatrics, how much that moment meant to them, someone like a fan.  

Henry himself after the game admitted that he re-joined the club as a fan and was uncharacteristically flustered and speechless. It is no coincidence that scoring a goal as a fan has an effect on even the most seasoned of goal scorers. In similar fashion who can forget when that spotty, pale teenage sensation, Wayne Rooney blast onto the scene with that wonderful strike for his boyhood team, Everton against Arsenal (see video) or perhaps you could recall Neil Mellor scoring the winner for Liverpool against Arsenal (see video). It seems that the everyday ‘normal’ fan needs someone who they can relate to on the pitch, someone through which they can live out their dreams. Stephen Gerrard has done this every time he has worn a Liverpool shirt, as has John Terry for Chelsea and Dean Windass for Hull City. Joel Ward, a name that would not be too familiar to many of you, recently lived out his dream as a local lad and the dreams of many Portsmouth fans after scoring the equaliser against Southampton, our South Coast rivals. Today the association that fans have with their players is all important especially when your team are not doing so well. You could be sure as a Liverpool fan that regardless of the score, Stevie G would strive to ensure something is done about it. I just wonder that today with the influx of foreign owners, managers and players into our leagues will the fans lose this association and will this have a detrimental effect on the relationship between the club and its supporters. As a fan you look to players who aren’t simply playing for financial benefit, but are doing what they love for whom they love. Let us hope the fans don’t lose that one player that they can associate with.   

The game on Monday night was always going to be about Thierry Henry. The script had been written, the casting had been finalised, the ‘lights’, ‘camera…’ was all set to be followed by a cry of ‘action’, orchestrated by Arsene Wenger as he sent out his action hero. In reality though when you break down this Hollywood conclusion that had been played out on the big stage it was just a case of a fan realising his dream of scoring the winning goal for the club he idolises. With that goal Henry, like Rooney, Mellor, Ward and Gerrard, became a member of a niche group of players who each week realise the dreams of millions of fans all over the country. Long may this continue, starting with Joel Ward scoring against West Ham on Saturday, PLAY UP POMPEY!