A Pukka day in Rotherham

posted by: Nick L | on: Saturday, 19 April 2008, 20:13

Just imagine the scene, two football teams battling it out at the end of the season. One, who if it hadn’t been for a ten point deduction because of going into administration would have been in with a good chance of a play-off position, the other at the opposite end of the table frantically struggling to stay in the league. Yet despite their differing positions both sets of players come out onto the pitch in similar HOPE not hate T-shirts.

This is what happened today at the Rotherham home game against Dagenham and Redbridge.

I have never seen anything like it. There was a HOPE not hate page in the match day programme. Every person who went through the turnstiles was given a HOPE not Hate leaflet. At half-time the club’s Chief Operating Officer joined HOPE not hate campaigners and young kids in the centre circle to reinforce the HOPE not hate message. After the game, the same chief executive promised to contact his equivalents in other clubs to encourage them to do the same.

Full credit to HOPE not hate Yorkshire who put this day together. They and the trade union movement have worked tirelessly over the last ten months to challenge the BNP.

This morning we parked up our bus in Rotherham town centre and despite the cold weather were entertained by Malty Miners Welfare brass band, some African drummers and street theatre. Shoppers stopped by to watch and some even joined in with the music workshops.

Local MPs Richard MacShane and John Healey spoke of the need to oppose the BNP, with MacShane putting the BNP firmly in the fascist camp.

It might not have had the glamour of our evening date with the Sugababes but it was probably far more important and left local activists buoyed up and ready for the final two weeks of campaigning.

I’d just like to make one final point about today and that is to mention the fabulous steak and kidney pie I had whilst I waited to interview a couple of the Dagenham and Redbridge players before the game. Pies at football matches have a bad name and sometimes quite understandably. But at Rotherham this is not the case. Their Pukka pies are the best, so good that Rotherham is alleged to have the best pies at football, well that is at least what the woman behind the pie counter told me. And who am I to differ, it really was a good pie.

And please don’t just take my word for it. I have just typed in ‘Rotherham United and pies’ into a search engine and sure enough the ground is famous for its pies. It was the first to sell Pukka pies “anywhere in the world”; the Internet guide to football ground recommends the “Pukka Chicken Balti Pie on sale at £1.70 each, which is made with puff pastry and is different to the other brand of Balti pie available elsewhere”; while fans from a whole host of clubs picked out the pies as one of the great memories of Rotherham’s Mill Moor ground. Finally, a visiting Cambridge journalist writing about his side’s dismal 4-1 defeat at Rotherham remarked that at least he was able to enjoy the best football pie in the country.