Longridge FC Forever

Chapter 1

Minnie poured the last dregs from her pint pot into her mouth.

"See you guys in there," she said, to nobody in particular, as she gathered her belongings and headed to the pub's exit. It was a nice enough day outside. She didn't need a coat, and her scarf was hanging limply over her arm.

She scanned the beer garden as she made her exit, looking for familiar faces. She spotted a few of the Academy players sitting on the astroturf, laughing hysterically at each other as they sipped their J2Os through soggy paper straws.

She saw Gerdie, their oldest supporter. For 100 years, Gerdie had attended all but one game at Liddleton Road since the day she was born. "And I had the bloody right to miss it. I was 4 hours old!!" she would always exclaim after someone new was introduced to her.

She heard the supporters club's chants coming from her right, but she couldn't see them. She pictured them on the other side of the shrubbery, drinks in hand, flags draped around their shoulders.

"Minnie!" she glanced over her shoulder to see Freya running to catch her up "Wait for me!"

Minnie pulled up at the lamppost a few feet in front of her and checked her phone for the time whilst she waited for Freya to catch up. 45 minutes until kick-off.

Minnie met Freya when Freya's dad brought her to her first game. Their season tickets were directly in front of Minnie and her Dad and she had seen Freya at every home game ... except for one.

"And no. I wasn't 4 hours old" She would always jest when anyone brought it up. "I went to Disney on Ice OK?".

Freya was 9 when they met and Minnie was 12, but at Liddleton Road she felt older. There weren't many kids there back then. Middle-aged men would nod their heads at her in recognition when they saw her on the concourse. The flask of whiskey-spiked coffee that made its way around Section W2 never skipped her during those cold December matches. Nobody ever watched their language around her. "Fucking shit that wasn't it Minnie?" her Dad's friend Carl had called to her across the concrete steps. Her Dad had laughed, so she nodded and laughed too.

When she had first spotted Freya in her oversized bobble hat, and a scarf that could have covered her entire face, she was ecstatic. Although it was nice to be treated like a grown-up, sometimes Minnie was desperate to talk about pop music, the latest episode of her favourite shows, and have her picture taken with the mascot Ernie the Eagle. On the day they met, she had leaned forward moments after Freya had sat down.

"Ignore the swear swords" were the first words she had whispered into Freya's ear "I sing them sometimes though" she had added smugly. Those were the first words her dad whispered into her own ear when she had taken a seat at Longridge Road for the first time. "My name is Minnie", she smiled.

"Hi Minnie, this is Freya" her Dad Joe had replied for her. He replied for her for the rest of the game too, offering up Freya's favourite player, her favourite subject at school, and her favourite singer. In fact, it took 4 games for Freya to finally communicate verbally with Minnie, but Minnie did most of the talking anyway.

Freya caught up to the lamp post and Minnie matched her pace as they proceeded to the pelican crossing. "They're doing my head in" Freya gestured her head back towards the pub "Moaning about the Scotts Stand". Minne's heart dropped. She had been trying to push that to the back of her mind all season.

"Why?" she said. "What are they saying?"

"They were just talking about where they're moving to. Carl says he hates Barry Bradford so he won't go in the Bradford End. Chloe says she's teetotal now so she said she won't go in the Brewery stand" Minnie burst out laughing at the suggestion that Chloe could ever be teetotal. Freya rolled her eyes in agreement. "What do you think?"