Opinion: ‘Getting fans safely behind the Posh’

You don’t choose your football team. Not if you grow up in a football family, at least. Fate means your team is allotted to you by your parents or grandparents.

Some are lucky and are bequeathed teams that challenge for titles. They might even play in Europe and bring back impressively large trophies.

I was less fortunate.

Thanks to my father, I suffer from a life-long allegiance to York City FC.

I was born in York, but moved to Peterborough when I was five. My grandparents and my Dad supported mighty York City as they beat Arsenal, Liverpool and Man United in cup competitions.

My experience as a fan has been less glamorous.

York now toil in the National League North, but (and how could I be wrong again?) I feel in my bones that this is our year.

More understandably, my father also had a passion for Liverpool FC. I am thankful he lived long enough to see them top the league. But he knew that what’s local matters, so he took me every week to see our city’s team – Peterborough United.

I was a season ticket holder for a few years when I was at school, following the Posh all over the country.

I have vivid memories of trips to Shrewsbury, Bath (Bristol Rovers), and Birmingham City.

Before that, as a young child, I used to sit on the wall at the front of the (then) open terrace on Glebe Road.

I was routinely told by stewards to either “get off” or “get my legs round the other side”, in case the ball smacked me through a stray pass or clearance.

I was there when Peterborough toiled in Division Four in the late 80s, there for the playoff win to Division One in 1992, and there for the relegation two years later.

What I’m trying to say is that I am football mad and Posh have always been part of this obsession.

I know what the football club means to our city. I also know how tough things are without paying fans in the stands.

When the club’s chief executive, Bob Symns, called me last week, I had no hesitation in joining his call for action.

My colleague, Shailesh Vara MP, has the honour – by a matter of metres – of hosting the London Road ground in his NW Cambridgeshire constituency.

Together, we are writing to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport about allowing the safe return of some fans to the ground.

It’s quite obviously an open-air venue.

The stadium normally seats 15,000 fans, so it’s not unreasonable to think that some spectators could be accommodated safely. The key word is safely.

If cinemas, pubs and restaurants can open safely, getting a limited number of Posh supporters in the stands shouldn’t be beyond us.

By the time you are reading this in the paper, I will also have met leaders at Peterborough United to discuss this further.

Restrictions and lockdowns are damaging. They hit poorer people hardest. They affect our mental health, by preventing us from doing some of the things that make life worth living.

Of course, we must limit this pandemic and protect our NHS.

But if we can safely go to the gym, to a restaurant or to a football match, then let’s cheer what we can!