Love This City: Matt and Amber Lockley | OneFootball

I’ve got two little girls, the eldest doesn’t care about football despite my best efforts but Amber has taken to it amazingly and is constantly asking me to bring her to games.

It’s things like that which make the whole football experience so much better, being able to enjoy things together and doing something we both love.

My mum has been taking me since I was eight and I’ve had a season ticket since then. I had no choice but to be a Blue.

My first ever game actually came in 2000. Shaun Goater scored a hat-trick as we beat Fulham 4-0 on the way to promotion. Me and my mum sat in the Kippax and I was hooked from that moment.

This season, Amber was desperate to go to games for a long time so I took her to the Salford FA Cup game in January and she loved it instantly. Her only option was City!

She has been playing football every week too. We’re a City household!

On an Etihad matchday now, Amber loves going to the fan zone at the Joie Stadium a few hours before kick-off. She always gets her face painted and has a great time on the inflatable obstacle course.

We then head over to the Etihad to see the players get off the bus and she’ll sit on my shoulders the whole time to get the best view.

My family are mostly City fans, so I spend a lot of time with fellow Blues.

We’re a mixture of positivity and negativity so it spawns a lot of debates about how we’re doing and what we’re going to do by the end of the season.

If it was down to my mum’s predictions, we’d have been relegated and would still be getting beat 3-0 every week!

It’s been a rollercoaster ride being a City fan.

My first season ticket was in 2001/02 under Kevin Keegan. That was an amazing season with Benarbia, Goater, Huckerby playing such attacking football and getting us promoted.

Then we went through a rocky spell before the times under Mancini and Pellegrini which were amazing. But Pep’s time here has been ridiculous. Everything we all expected when he signed, but somehow even more.

A Treble?! Ridiculous. We’ve had domestic domination and the home game against Real Madrid in 2023 is the best performance of any team I’ve ever seen.

He’s a legend and is nowhere near finished. I hope he stays for another 20 years!

Matt Lockley