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Charlie Beckett

April 8th, 2007

Last team at Highbury, first team at Emirates

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Charlie Beckett

April 8th, 2007

Last team at Highbury, first team at Emirates

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

I know it’s got nothing to do with journalism but give me a break, this was good. I drove all the way back from a holiday in Snowdonia to north London to see my beloved Hammers survive an awesome onslaught from the Arsenal and then steal a glorious victory thanks to Robert Green’s goalkeeping and Bobby Zamora’s wonder goal. I was there last year when we were the last team to win at the wonderful old Highbury stadium, and now we are the first team to win at the wonderful but very different Emirates. Oh, here’s the media point of this post. Part of the experience of a game like this is now

 

the online culture around it. You can enjoy that Zamora goal on Youtube , where you can also enjoy mobile phone video taken by West Ham fans of the end of match celebrations, and you can also enjoy out-takes from old Fast Show clips of an Arsenal-supporting nouveau supporter. Never mind the copyright, enjoy the laughs. And when done, go online at the various West Ham webzines such as Knees Up Mother Brown to partake of the still-stunned happiness of fans who now have hope in their lives again. For me it proves that New Media has not fragmented or broken down old collective cultural acts like supporting football teams. It has actually made them more cohesive, more extensive and flexible and a whole lot more fun. If only supporting West Ham was as easy as running a blog…

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Charlie Beckett

Posted In: Media