Spaceship Arsenal

•FOOTBALL supporters who think that it is a “beautiful game” seem blind to the noise of police sirens and the mess of smelly, instant transfatty pulp that passes off as food. On a match day the stench of McDonald’s and KFC hangs in the air of Highbury Corner like a faintly rotting corpse. Greasy paper and food litter the ground. 

Ambulance and police sirens sound every couple of minutes. Riot fencing is put in place, police on horses, in vans, waiting to crowd-control on double time. Then there is the police helicopter with its forensic floodlight whirling overhead.

I imagine many, like me, feel housebound and carbound during a “match day”. If you do venture out you’ll find Holloway Road station closed, too small and old-fashioned to transport the teeming thousands. No coach park to offload supporters either. They all get off at Highbury and Islington station and walk down Holloway Road.

If you walk in the opposite direction you feel like a salmon swimming upstream. It is your job to dodge as hard, cash-spending men stride purposively to see their team, intent on the good time they’ve paid upfront for.

The infrastructure doesn’t support Spaceship Arsenal. It is a rude, fat stadium in a low-rise neighbourhood. 

DAPHNE CHALK-BIRDSALL
Compton Terrace, N1