I had done the journey a thousand times or more before, even though I was a Blade by birth I'd been to Hillsborough on umpteen occasions but events on the evening of Friday October 19th 2012 were probably the most disgraceful ever seen in the history of the beautiful game.
It started as soon I stepped off the coach...
"Warnock you wanker!"
"F**k off you prick Warnock!"
"Die, die Piggy" said another, a massive group of bacon faced individuals in Blue and White scarves, at least half a dozen of them were abusing and booing me from the moment I set foot in S6.
I must explain the "pig" insult is unique to Sheffield football. Them lot call us Blades "the pigs" because we play in red and white, which bares a remote link to uncooked bacon, which comes from a pig, are you still with me? Wednesdayites are not a very imaginative lot, they also call us this insult because if you mix the colours of red and white you get pink which is the colour of some, but not all, pigs.
I think our own insult is better suited because after all that daft Owl badge looks like a pig, a bit.
In this day and age of social Internet, those vile insults hurled by those Wednesday fans could have been videoed and on Twitbook within seconds for poor Sharon and the kids to see. It was disgusting, all done under the nose of two stewards who shrugged when I pointed it out to them and carried on tapping away on their mobile phones.
The poisonous atmosphere continued inside the stadium. I thought the Leeds fans were magnificent, they still didn't sing my name enough for my liking but 5000 on a Friday night for a televised game,unbelievable.
Behind the dug-out was this man, with two kids, he had a baseball cap pulled down over his long hair and he was giving me dogs abuse. "Warnock ffin this, Warnock ffin that". The bile continued and rivers of spit rolled down his stubbly chin. I first thought it was Sean Bean but it were definitely a Wednesdayite cos he went ballastic when Becchio's hand accidentally touched the ball and Bothroyd, another summer target that went begging, put them 1-0 up.
The abuse got worse and worse. I thought "Neil how can they tret one of their own like this" just because I supported and managed the team over the other side of town, and made some throwaway comment about what'd do if I'd taken the Wednesday job you could see the hatred etched on their faces and tumbling from their tongues as I made my way to the dressing rooms at half-time with us trailing 1-0.
Funnily enough it was a Tongue who f***ing shut them up. Michael Tongue, he let rip with a howitzer past Kirkland, a screamer then he had the audacity to cock his ear at the Wednesday lads who had given us all so much grief. "FAKINYESSSSSGEDDINYAAAFAKINBEAUTY!" I yelled, clenching my fists and punching the air in delight. I was expecting Jeppo and Mick Jones to be jumping on my back but they were stood motionless in the dug-out, ashen faced.
"What the f***s up with you pair" I said through a massive grin.
"Some nutter has just run on to the pitch and clouted their keeper" Mick Jones said.
"Oh!" I climbed back into the dug out trying to catch the eye of the twat in the hat but he wouldn't look me on the eye and left ten minutes before the end.
One of the Sky lads showed me the video of the Kirkland incident, I was not impressed, for a big lad he went down like a sack of spuds. The boy who shoved him, Cawley, showed great movement in the box I thought, sensational positional awareness and a turn of pace which our side was clearly lacking. Even though he slipped, he still managed to get away and remain undetected for 48 hours before the police arrested him.
It was a mad idea I know, but I'd got away with signing Dioufy, so why not give Cawley a trial?...unfortunately a magistrate did and that idea was dead and buried.
I might as well have been too, I did the post-match Sky and made one of my cheeky grin throwaway comments about Kirkland going down like a tonne of bricks and within minutes Sharon was on the phone lecturing me about my obsession for hating Wednesday and I had to put her on hold to take a call from Bates who was seething because of the effect it might have on the takeover.
Any resemblance to any living person etc.
Part Five: Leeds Dis-united