lost that loving feeling - The Football Aid experience

It's probably fair to say that most football fans have at least had the fleeting fantasy of stepping out onto the hallowed turf of their heroes and sticking a chance into the onion bag. And now you can, quite easily (albeit expensively), except perhaps for the sticking a chance into the onion bag. Firstly a bit of explanation is probably in order: Football Aid is an organisation that organises friendly games for football fans at the ground of their club. It's an auction system and all the proceeds go to various charities. So it's an altruistic, as well as self-indulgent, activity in which to participate.

A few months ago I was instructed by my brother, Rich, to login to his Football Aid account and bid for a number nine shirt - preferably the home team, but failing that the away one. As the bidding hotted up and reached its ceiling we missed out on the home shirt (which eventually went for the princely sum of £500 plus!), and prepared for the away shirt auction which ended an hour later. Goaded on by my workmates I eventually succeeded and secured him the number nine shirt on the away side for £25 short of his limit. Which was frankly a relief.

At the time I must confess I started to cast a slightly tempted eye upon the remaining shirts - the number nine shirt was for 90 minutes up front, I knew I'd never last a whole game so considered the second half striker substitute to form a menacing all-Fisher partnership in front of a weary defence.

Common sense got the better of me - at the time job security wasn't assured and the minimum bid of £225 seemed somewhat expensive - although my Norwich-supporting colleague was enamoured with the idea enough to go and get the second half striker position for his beloved Canaries at Carrow Road. He went and had a great time and a couple of days after the Norwich fixture, Football Aid were in touch with Rich to see if he knew anyone who would fill a few last-minute drop-outs from the Forest fixture.

I should perhaps have known better, but with a bit more certainty on the job front, I bit the bullet and bought the number eleven shirt to play alongside Rich for the first half. At least my team-mates - as fellow Forest fans - would be accustomed to a number eleven with a penchant for not running around very much!

Come the day and it was nerve-racking to say the least! After a tour of the ground we retired to the dressing rooms to get changed and prepare - first thing to say is how grotty the away dressing room is! I suppose that makes sense really, but I was surprised that it ranked somewhat below our old school changing rooms! Which reminds me, I hadn't played on a full size pitch since school days!

After warming up a little we were back in the changing room awaiting the buzzer from the referee to get us out and ready to face the home side. And the game was underway, which I won't go into in depth, but suffice to say I was exhausted after not very long! I think I probably only had one chance of note which was less than a half chance, as well as a chance to cross which ended up in the Bridgford End. It was more satisfying to land a couple of tackles and a defensive header in a cameo at left-back in the second half (I always was a defender anyway!).

Rich managed to bag a goal as well as hitting the bar, and our team emerged victorious - not that the result was really important. That's probably a good way for things to wind up - having already had the experience of banging a few penalties past the now departed Pascal Forman in a half-time penalty shootout (with a crowd, no less!), I didn't quite have the goal-lust Rich had - so he was chuffed to have got himself on the score-sheet. I spent quite a lot of my non-playing time chatting with John McGovern who was 'manager' for both sides, as well as Ian Bowyer after the game, and all in all had a thoroughly enjoyable time of it.

The biggest lesson I learned though is how big that pitch is, and how it's bloody hard work to run around on it. I'd always thought of myself as reasonably quick over short distances but after about 20 minutes of the first half I needed a rest! Now, don't get me wrong, professional footballers are paid to play and therefore should have a professional standard of fitness, but I think I might be a little more forgiving next season before criticising a player for not putting in the amount of effort I perceive they should be capable of.

The other thing that was odd was when having a shower at the end thinking that the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Eric Cantona, Alan Shearer and countless other legends had used these showers, which despatched a burst of cold water before eventually warming up. They would then have squeezed into the tiny and shabby dressing room to get changed and get onto the team bus to go home. It certainly takes some of the glamour from that image!

However, don't let me put you off - what I would say is if you're going to partake then undertake some kind of training, because it is bloody hard work. Both in terms of fitness and skill, I thought that as a reasonable five-a-side player I'd be okay but playing on grass is very different to astro-turf! Get a bit of practice in, as well as some training - and you'll probably enjoy the experience all the more!

Bidding for next season's fixture won't be available for a while yet, but add www.footballaid.com to your bookmarks and keep an eye out for it. It's a great experience to have had and I'd urge any Forest fan who's had pretensions of pulling on the Garibaldi (or the away shirt) and running out that tunnel onto the hallowed turf to take the chance!

Thanks to everyone at Football Aid for organising such a great day - before the photos their photographers took had been sold (available immediately after the game!) we had already raised over £8,000 for some very worthy causes - add in the photo cash and hopefully it was significantly more. I must confess though, that even more than 48 hours later. my legs are still absolutely killing!

Related links: http://www.footballaid.com