Within the past week I’ve bought three sets of tickets, all of which needed a wheelchair space. Two tickets for Man City v the mighty Blackburn Rovers at Eastlands, two tickets for David Haye v Audley Harrison at the Manchester Evening News Arena and two tickets for West Ham United v Fulham at Upton Park. All very exciting and yet equally all very frustrating.

The reason for the frustration is that I’ve despaired with all three of these purchases as I’ve been told that the ‘carer’ ticket has to sit behind the wheelchair user. Two things annoy me about this, firstly it’s the assumption that I need a carer and secondly, and most annoyingly, is that people who sit in wheelchair spaces don’t mind sitting apart from the person they attend the event with. If a couple buying tickets in general seating were told they had to sit apart from each other would this be tolerated? I didn’t think so.

Now I understand that in some respects I’m lucky because generally I only have to pay for the wheelchair ticket and the ‘carer’ goes free. I admit this is a small thing to put up with if it means I’m sharing the cost of one ticket with the person I’m going with. What I cannot understand is why when building a new venue such as Eastlands that a space for a wheelchair isn’t left next to a seat? A great example of where this works is at the new Wembley. The wheelchair section is fully integrated into the general seating and it is brilliantly done. It’s not difficult and it drives me crazy the amount of times my enjoyment of an event is tempered because I can’t share it with the person i have chosen to go with.

Whilst I’m having a bit of a moan I’ll also say that going to Man City has definitely lost some of its charm. I’ve been too Eastlands many times before and I’ve always really enjoyed it. The staff have been great and there has been healthy banter with the home fans. On the last visit though there was a decidedly unfriendly feel to the place. So much so I was asked to sign in a bottle of water so I wouldn’t get ejected if a steward saw me drinking from it. What’s more I was told by a policeman to return to my allocated wheelchair space when I rolled back to talk to my brother about the game. Apparently, I was blocking the walkway and would stop the police getting to the away fans to stop them celebrating too wildly if we scored. Nice! Still, it was nice to hear that the police thought we might actually score.