'United has taken over my life!'

If we were to start a mission to redress the balance, we couldn’t do much better than speaking to Sara Bonser, one of the Reds that participated in our iconic programme's handshake illustration last season.

 

“I’d always had an interest in United, but it was around about ’91 when I started getting really involved,” she begins. “Then, when King Eric arrived, that was my catalyst: From then, it’s just got stronger and stronger and basically taken over my life!

 

“My mum came with me for my first game and basically got as hooked as I did! She went for about 20 years, but unfortunately she had heart problems and had to give up her season ticket, which she was quite upset about. But she’s still an armchair shouter now! She still follows them passionately, just as I do.”

Bonser lives in Hucknall, about 20 minutes from Mansfield, and has been going with the Nottinghamshire-Mansfield branch for around two decades, since first picking up a regular stream of tickets. The manic magic of Old Trafford during the Ferguson era was the first thing to make an impact.

 

“Old Trafford? I was in awe of it,” she marvels. “I’d never seen anything like it. We have [Nottingham] Forest here and I’d been there a couple of times, but nothing in comparison. 

 

“I still get that buzz now, when you walk up Sir Matt Busby Way and get that feeling as you walk through [the turnstiles]. People who don’t support football find that quite odd, but when I walk and sit in my seat and look at the stadium, it’s still the same [feeling].

 

“I first went with my uncle. It was the songs, as well. Obviously, you start singing them and I’m getting this sly little look from my uncle, [as if to say]: ‘You shouldn’t really be saying that!’ or ‘I’ve never heard you say that but go ahead, we’re here and everyone else is doing it!’ There’s nothing else like a football atmosphere for me. You can totally be yourself at a football game. Everybody is there for the same reason, together as fans. That’s what I like.”

Our conversation spends plenty of time luxuriating over the glory games and the glory names, but what really comes across is the sense of extended family that following the Reds can add to people’s lives.

 

“There’s a couple of guys I know that used to sit in the South Stand with me with their dad, and one now sits alongside me in the Stretford End and has children, which makes me feel quite old!” she laughs. 

 

“But I’ve been sitting in that seat for nearly 26 years now and it’s the same people. You do get new faces but, even then, you’ll sit talking. I’ve known people in that Stretford End for nearly 20 years, which is quite special.

“We have a gentleman that sits near us and he wasn’t there for about five months. Instead there was a guy who looked like his son – you could tell the resemblance. You ask [about his father] thinking: ‘I don’t want to be nosy.’ But then you’ve known this guy all these years and you want to know that he’s alright. 

 

“Anyway, he was there the next week and did actually say: ‘Thanks for asking about me.’ You don’t know these people [in the conventional sense] but they are like a family.”

 

Then there’s the wider family on the supporters’ coach to and from every game, which further adds to the sense of a community.

“The people on the bus, again, I’ve known them for over 20 years now,” calculates Bonser.  “There are new people every week, which is nice, but there are about 20 of us that have been going [for decades]. Some are older than me and remember going to see the Sir Matt Busby days and all that, so it’s nice to hear those stories. They’re like my mini-family as well, so it’s a good atmosphere.”

 

‘King Eric’ might have been the catalyst for Sara’s support, with Bruce, Irwin, Pallister and the homegrown geniuses Beckham, Giggs and Scholes providing a stellar supporting cast. 

 

But when you put it all in a long-term context, the players are only passing through. What keeps Reds like Sara and thousands of the rest of us coming back is something beyond football, and closer to friendship and family.