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Main Listening Report: Do you remember the first time? Fulham 1972 / Man Utd 2001

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This week’s main report asks a couple of fans about their first ever football match experience. There is a transcript below, while explanations of key vocabulary (in bold) can be found at the foot of the post.

Transcript

Steve: Fulham-Sunderland 1972

Damian: Right, continuing our series of do you remember the first time you went to a football game we have Steve. He’s gonna’ tell us about his first football experience. Steve, how are you doing?

Steve: I’m very well thank you, very well. And I remember my first football experience very clearly. I would have been around 6 years old, it would have been about 1972 and I went with my grandfather who lived next door to the Fulham ground. And we went to see Fulham against Sunderland. And I remember we lost, we lost 2-1 but Fulham, when I say ‘we’ I mean Fulham, Fulham did score the best goal so that made up for it in some ways. And the other thing I remember really clearly at half-time my granddad got a flask of hot chocolate out of his bag and we sat there drinking the hot chocolate and reading the programme and I loved it.

Damian: Is there anything else that you can remember from that day?

Steve: Yes, I remember the first time of ever seeing a full-size football pitch. I remember coming up the steps into the stadium and then the pitch opening up in front of me and it just seemed enormous. The goals seemed so big and the roar of the crowd … the atmosphere inside the game and I think… I think from that moment I was hooked… I was hooked on football.

Lena: Man Utd – Bolton 2001

Damian: OK, continuing in our series of do you remember your first football game, we’ve got Lena here today. Hi Lena, how are you doing?
Lena: Fine thank you
Damian: So, Lena can you tell me a little about your first football memory?
Lena: Well, the first time I went to a game here in the UK was to go up to see Man United and they were playing Bolton and I remember there was problems getting there, train…whatever so we were late. So my boyfriend at the time was very, very angry that we missed the first bit and then thing just got worse because then they lost 2-0 which was … you know… shouldn’t have happened. So, yes, he was getting more and more angry and… everyone around us was just getting infuriated because, you know, they weren’t expected to lose against Bolton and … and I remember being very … well, quite shocked at how angry people were getting and just how, you know, they were just spitting with rage and red faced and you know, I thought they were just going to have a coronary these people around me. And I just thought this is not good. And that was my first impression of Premier League football.

Vocabulary

I would have been around 6 years old: Here Steve is speculating on his age at that time in the past – he is pretty sure that he was 7. (Note: It would have been around 6:30 when it happened – it was probably around 6:30)

made up for it : He took some comfort from the defeat; he was upset that Fulham lost but at least they scored a very good goal.

a flask: Something to carry hot or cold drinks in

reading the programme : Every team produces some information for each game and this is known as the match programme

opening up in front of me: The view before him seemed to get bigger (sense of enormity)

The goals: The nets, the place where players score goals!

I was hooked: I was addicted to the game

my boyfriend at the time: This expression means that they are no longer together as a couple

getting infuriated: Really angry

spitting with rage and red faced : Even angrier!

to have a coronary:They were so angry Lena thought they would have a heart attack

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