Forever Blue With Ian Cheeseman: Fan behaviour has come a long way, but we shouldn't become complacent.

Change is inevitable. Nothing ever stays the same. When I was a child we used to build “bogies” (the name we gave to our home-made go-carts) out of old pram wheels and bits of wood.

We’d fly down hills with no fear. Can you imagine that happening today?

Football fans used to wear rosettes, made of ribbon and carry rattles (wooden L-shaped device that made a clicking sound when swung around your heads). There was a period, in the 1970s particularly, when football matches were not safe places to be. I can remember attending games at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, Upton Park and plenty of other grounds, where your accent being recognised or wearing your team’s colours put you at risk of being attacked by opposition fans.

As I walked along streets, near away grounds, I’d try to mingle in, to avoid getting caught up in any trouble. I was lucky, the worst that happened to me was being mugged on Merseyside, but I saw and heard far worse.

Things have been much better in recent years. Families have returned to football in droves with huge sections of stadiums designated as family stands. Manchester City have been particularly good in this respect. I wander around the Etihad Stadium a lot before games to interview people for my Forever Blue Youtube vlogs and I’m really impressed by the attention to detail City give to their young supporters.

It’s the same in and around City Square with “playmakers” encouraging mini games of football, table tennis etc. City mascots Moonchester and Moonbeam circulate and are willing join in the fun and pose for pictures. It’s great to see.

Despite all the positivity and progress, I have to report that I am starting to see a worrying development. I am among the fans at City away games and there appears to be a growing number of younger fans who have consumed a little too much of certain substances and don’t show the respect they should to families and older supporters. I’m detecting a growing tension wherever I go.

I’m not just talking about City fans either. They’re just the ones I am regularly among, home and away, but I attend a lot of other games. I can this deteriorating behaviour  everywhere. I’ve seen groups of charging fans, I’ve heard chants that are not acceptable. I’m not a prude, but there’s still a line to be drawn. At the moment the numbers of fans causing this horrible trend are relatively small, but it seems to be growing.

Life moves on and I certainly don’t want to sound like someone who is simply saying that things were better in my day. As I’ve said, there have been times during my era of watching City where things have been much worse than they are now, but that doesn’t mean we should be complacent. I’ve noticed, when watching games on TV, that there have been more incidents of objects being thrown at players. I just hope that the trend doesn’t continue or get worse.

Having said all that, the vast majority of football fans are fantastic. I love the noise City fans create, particularly at away games and it’s definitely been great being back inside noisy football stadiums after the long spell we had on the sidelines watching soulless football in empty stadiums. Football without fans is nothing!