MANCHESTER United need a lift big time after Tuesday’s derby defeat. It should come against bottom of the table Norwich at home on Saturday, but United’s record against struggling teams is a poor one this season and their confidence is fragile.
Fans want signings to bolster a squad that needs strengthening, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer plays down speculation of that happening in this window. He needs players back and Harry Maguire might return against Norwich. He’d rather keep Ashley Young than lose him right now. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. It’s all noise currently.
United’s players come and go, but fans are there throughout. Take Kevin Peek. Kev is a very familiar face in his wheelchair at games, so recognisable that Eric Cantona once spotted him after a game. “He asked me if I wanted an autograph,” Kev explained. “I froze and panicked. His aura was too strong for me. So I said no. I regret that to this day.”
I see him just by the Munich tunnel before games and stop for a chat. Kev is surrounded by friends, chewing the fat, doing what football fans do. Going to the game gets him out of the house. Lifers like him are the soul of Manchester United, fans in a small community which is part of a much bigger one. Kev’s there through thick and thin, home and away.
I went to Derby away with Kev in ’96 and Reading in 2012. Manchester United’s disabled supporters’ association (MUDSA) is brilliant and receives significant support from the club, but it was an eye opener watching the game through the eyes of a fan in a wheelchair. The number of intoxicated fans around made it a nervy experience. Kev said that he didn’t like Blackburn away, where wheelchairs were placed at the front of a usually beery away end and fans surged forward and around him when there were goals.
Disabled facilities continue to improve and United are building more spaces and platforms inside Old Trafford, adding 162 more to make it 282, but the disabled fan faces many more challenges than those who aren’t. Kevin has brittle bone disease and has put his body through a lot in the name of supporting his team. He dislocated his elbow at Southampton one year when the crowd pushed forward.
“I panicked and fell out of my chair,” he told me. “Putting us by the pitch with no protection from the crowd behind is not the answer". Kevin has been used as a guinea pig for new disabled sections: “I’m so small, so if I can see, anyone can.” He goes everywhere. “I wouldn’t wear colours at Liverpool, it’s too dodgy,” he said. “It was really bad in the late 70s and early 80s. You’d get coined in your wheelchair. I was once wheeled past the Kop and three stewards shielded me. At Everton, they put us between the home and away fans. They threw things at each other and we’d be caught in the crossfire.”
On Tuesday before the Manchester derby, Kev, 63, fell from his wheelchair and broke his collarbone in two places. A smoke bomb thrown outside the ground landed near him. Kev’s mate Martin tried to protect him but Kev took a tumble. Martin and Kev go everywhere together. They’re like an old married couple, arguing about everything from United’s players to women. They’re great company.
Kev was taken to Salford Royal hospital, close to Eccles where he owns a café. He was in a lot of pain and still is. Doctors cut his United top off with scissors to assess him. His proud red United shirt lies shredded. Kev’s spirit is strong but his body can be fragile and they can’t operate on his bones, but he's desperate to go to Norwich at home on Saturday. Doctors have advised him against it, but Kev is United. He won’t take no for an answer so easily. And because he’s got so many friends in MUDSA, an organisation which started in 1989, he’s had offers to take him to Old Trafford.
Ole Gunnar gets an ovation from 630 fans at the MU disabled supporters association dinner at Old Trafford tonight. pic.twitter.com/57eNWuu6k5
— Andy Mitten (@AndyMitten) November 8, 2019
Kev’s used to adversity and so are MUDSA, but they face continual problems. For the 1999 Champions League final, UEFA allocated United 15 disabled places from the 91,000 seats available in Camp Nou. A temporary wheelchair platform was then constructed so they could take 48 – but Kev and others were crestfallen when their view was like looking through a letterbox and neither of the two goals was in sight. Flags hanging off the upper tier obscured much of what else could be seen.
UEFA have since put proper rules in place facilities for disabled football fans. Moscow (72 wheelchairs, visually impaired fans, plus carers) and Rome (with 165 travellers, the largest movement of disabled fans in history) showed how things have improved considerably since 1999. And there has been some progress in the UK, too. It’s not like at the old Wembley, where disabled fans were, believe it or not, positioned on a ramp where the Olympic flame was – an afterthought from a bygone age. They were constantly in danger of rolling or tipping backwards.
The new Wembley has the best disabled facilities in the country. Old Trafford has upped its game. Ambulant disabled (fans who are not wheelchair bound) can receive commentary through headsets or on personal screens and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a recent visitor to their annual function. Sir Alex Ferguson used to demand every player turns up to MUDSA’s Christmas doo and wanted to know the names of anyone who didn’t.
The Norwegian was defiant that night, less guarded than he can be with the media. The fans loved him. Most still do, but his team require Solskjaer’s steelier side to come to the fore after that game on Tuesday. Let’s hope Kev makes it – Old Trafford needs stalwarts like him getting behind the team.
