I've only been to the Arkells a handful of times over the years, but remember one occasion in the mid 1990s when I went with some work friends. They introduced me to one chap they knew only as 'The Football Purist' who would yell 'Jus' kick it!!' every 30 seconds or so. It was like watching someone with Tourette's, as I'm not sure he was really in control.
Quite often, you can translate the rant of a habitual football moaner as follows:
'FFS, I hate my job. My kids hate me and my ex-wife is taking me for every penny. I'm getting a bit lardy in my middle age, my hair has buggered off never to be seen again and these piles are seriously starting to annoy me. Frankly, shouting at you lot is the only opportunity I'm going to get all week to let off steam...so you're getting it with both barrels.'
Last time I sat in Arkells was in around 1995ish, took my then girlfriend to her first football match - it was a coca cola cup (or whatever the JPT was then) match against Cambridge United.
We ended up sitting behind some old woman who not only had bought a cushion from home to sit on, but also spent the whole 90 minutes shouting topical Cambridge based abuse against the referee... my favourite being something like...'my daughter might only be at Swindon college but that doesn't make us worse than Cambridge University' it was possibly the funniest but also most irritating 90 minutes of my life.
We split up shortly afterwards which wasn't a bad thing...
