Not a bit of it. Taking my seat in the front row of the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand an hour-and-a-quarter before k-o – a new experience for me, I have to confess – meant I was in prime position to watch the goalkeepers go through their intense, intricate warm-up routine with balls being pinged at De Gea and Henderson from all angles.
I heard an early roar from the Stretford End and looked over to see Ole finishing his pre-match interview and punching the air in jubilation at the sight of fans in the stands again. There was another huge cheer as the rest of the squad took to the pitch for their warm-ups.
The players looked around the ground as they jogged on, almost in disbelief, with McTominay notably beaming from ear-to-ear at the return of the Reds. Looking around myself, any fears that 10,000 fans might have been lost in the huge stadium proved unfounded, and when the chants started, from old favourites to new tunes formed in lockdown (‘Give it, give it, give it…’), it created a good old racket far preferable to the piped-in background noise we’d got used to over the last year.
