GOAL accompanied the Red Devils' travelling supporters to Wolves and Aston Villa to get inside the mind of those who follow the team all over the UK

It’s 4.30pm in the centre of Manchester and most of the city dwellers are leaving work and heading home. But on the corner of Chorlton Street, scores of men are waiting for a bus to take them not home, but to Wolverhampton to see Manchester United play.

The coach is operated by the fanzine United We Stand, but to the regulars it is known as the 'Monkey Bus'. And it has been ferrying fans to matches since 1991: it stops at every domestic away match (apart from Manchester City) and the occasional European trip, most notably a 24-hour each way voyage to the 1999 Champions League final in Barcelona.

The majority of passengers live in Manchester, but John Fitzgibbon is from Ireland. His journey to Molineux began at six in the morning, when he boarded a flight from Cork to Manchester, before checking into a hotel near the bus station and passing the time in a snooker hall. He, like a handful of others on the bus who were lucky enough to get tickets, had been to south Wales just four days previously to see United play Newport County in the FA Cup.

John has been following United from Ireland with his dad since he was a child, but did not go on an away trip until 2018, to see United play Tottenham at Wembley. He had a six-hour coach journey each way, without stops, and the game could hardly have got off to a worse start as Christian Eriksen gave Spurs the lead in the first minute. Phil Jones then scored an own goal as the game ended 2-0.

It was the type of experience that would make many people think twice about doing it again, but Fitzgibbons has been hooked ever since. He goes to about 10 away games per season, plus the majority of European away matches. He also has a season ticket at Old Trafford and has to be super-organised and book flights from Cork as soon as kick-off times are confirmed. Delays in booking can see matchday prices soar from £20 to £200. Late kick-offs mean he often has to stay over, too.

Asked how much he spends following United per season, he estimates between £5,000 and £10,000. “I keep meaning to do a spreadsheet but I don’t want to truly think about how much it costs me,” he says. Would the cost ever make him stop doing it? He shakes his head.

Twelve-hour journey back from Arsenal

The coach picks up more passengers outside Manchester Airport. Hearing that the coach was in traffic, some of those waiting took the opportunity to have a swift pint before climbing aboard.

Among them is Steve Black, who has been running the coach since 1996, and his two sons. He goes down the bus greeting each passenger and asking them about how they are faring with away tickets, which are notoriously hard to get hold of.

Just to apply you need to have had a United season ticket for at least three years, and then you have roughly a one-in-four chance of getting an away ticket, unless you are part of the loyalty pot.

Black, who has been writing a feature on every match in United We Stand since the 1990s, seldom misses a game. Very occasionally, however, life gets in the way. He missed Portsmouth away in 2006 when his father died and “the odd game” around the time his first son was born.

There is a core group of the same 30 or so faces each week and a revolving cast of another 20 who go when they can get tickets. Whenever something goes wrong, it falls on Black to sort it out. Such as when, after United were beaten at Arsenal in January 2023, the bus hit a bollard and needed a new tyre.

"Seven hours later, we were still 50 yards from the ground," he remembers. "But we found a pub and half the people got wasted in the Wetherspoons and had a fantastic time!" They eventually got back to Manchester at 5am, over 12 hours after the game had kicked-off.

AdvertisementGetty 'Ridiculous experiences'

Black often feels like a school teacher looking after unruly pupils, but he stresses: “We’ve had some good adventures, some ridiculous experiences.”

On the way back from Chelsea one year, a group at the back of the bus “decided to get the emergency hammer and play dare with the back window”. Somewhat predictably, the window smashed. At least one of those involved offered to pay for the damage.

Then are the surreal moments, such as when after an FA Cup tie at Exeter City, a home fan got on board the bus to "berate" the passengers. He would end up regretting jumping aboard, as the doors quickly locked behind him and he was driven all the way to Manchester, some 240 miles up the road. “He just accepted it in the end,” says Black.

Another time, there was an unknown man standing on Chorlton Street just before the bus was about to leave for Sunderland. He had had a drink or two, to put it mildly, and was taken under the supporters’ wing.

Black recalls: “He couldn’t speak. We took him straight on the bus and we got him in the game. He had a great day with us and we dropped him back in Chorlton Street afterwards. Still to this day no one knows whether he was a United fan. No one had a clue.”

Getty Broken tooth after Aguero strikes

What about the worst days? “Liverpool last year was hard,” admits Black when recalling the 7-0 loss at Anfield. And then there was the time that Manchester City won their first Premier League title while United were away at Sunderland.

For a few minutes, the fans and Sir Alex Ferguson thought United had won the league, but then news of Sergio Aguero's 93rd-minute winner against Queens Park Rangers began to filter through. It was a particularly bad day for one Monkey Bus regularm who was due to get married the following week and had his front tooth knocked out after a gloating Sunderland fan had thrown a coin at the United contingent leaving the ground.

“He kept saying ‘I’m getting married next week, what am I gonna do?’ As if what happened wasn’t bad enough, he got a broken tooth the week before his wedding," Black says.

But win, lose or draw, the camaraderie is what gets people coming back. “The beauty of it is everyone on here gets each other,” Black adds. “You can go down to Brighton and lose and it’s sh*t, but by the time you’ve hit the motorway and half an hour’s gone, people are up and dancing in the aisles. It’s our Saturday night out.”

GettyDismayed with Rashford's antics

As the bus gathers pace down the motorway towards Molineux, attention turns to the match at Wolves, who have proven tough opponents for United in recent years. But the main talking point is the recent activities of Marcus Rashford, who has been in the headlines for missing training the week before after his tequila-fuelled binge in Belfast at the infamous Thompson’s Garage.

The fact Rashford is a local lad from Wythenshawe and has been with United since he was a child does not protect him from the ire of the fans. “What’s he doing going to Belfast? I could understand if it was somewhere more like Dubai or New York,” says one. "But do you not respect the fact he went to a local dive rather than a VIP venue?” Apparently not.

“I’d respect him far more if he’d said ‘I can’t be ars*d this week so you can keep my £350,000.’ But I don’t see him doing that.” Another joins the conversation: “When we have an early kick-off and we have to get the coach at 6am, we go to bed early the night before. Why can’t he?”

This is the mentality of the hardcore fans, who sacrifice so much to follow the team over land and sea. They are worlds apart from the millions who weigh in on social media and call for the manager to be sacked after a couple of defeats.

And yet, the match-going fans can also be fickle. Rashford goes straight back into the starting line-up against Wolves and inevitably gives United the lead with a classy finish. “Rashford’s on the p*ss” is promptly heard from the away end.