Eileen Roscoe has sat in Row F, Seat 12 at Nottingham Foresters for fifty-two consecutive years, a seat she first shared with her husband in 1974 and has kept every season since, including the three since he passed.
She says she couldn't tell you much about the current tactical setup, but could tell you the name of every regular who's sat within three seats of her for the last two decades, several of whom she now considers closer than family.
Since her husband died, matchday has become the fixed point around which the rest of her week is arranged — the same walk, the same seat, the same faces. “The football's almost beside the point some weeks,” she admits. “It's the rest of it I'd miss.”
The club invited her to present a matchday award for the first time this month. She tried to say no out of embarrassment, and was, by her own account, gently overruled by everyone she told.