KEY POINTS:
This is a dream come true. I'm walking down the tunnel towards the hallowed playing surface at Old Trafford and the crowd is going mad. The noise is deafening, and as we approach the end it gets even louder as the fans break into a chant, "Uni-ted, Uni-ted."
Suddenly I'm out of the tunnel and standing beside the legendary green playing area of what they call the Theatre of Dreams. The chant changes into the grand old Manchester United song "Hello, hello, we are the Busby Babes" and I look up to see ... row upon row of empty seats.
Sadly, I haven't suddenly become a member of the most famous football team in the world, this is just the grand finale of a tour of their museum and stadium. The noise is only a recording and there's a metal barrier between me and the pitch where the ground staff are manicuring the surface back to perfection after the previous night's match.
But just being there is the realisation of a dream. Although I'm a rugby fanatic, and most of the time couldn't care less about football, I've been a Manchester United fan for nearly 40 years, since I was on my OE in Britain and I watched the television coverage of their 1968 fabulous European Cup victory over Benfica.
That match made such an impression I still vividly remember two key moments: the incomparable George Best appearing from nowhere to snare a back pass to the Benfica keeper, and Benfica's great forward Eusebio working into a one-on-one with keeper Alex Stepney, firing a thunderbolt of a shot which Stepney saved, and afterwards going over and congratulating him ... I don't see that happening today.
Since then I've followed results, occasionally seen games on television, and acquired a Ryan Giggs shirt and a ManU cap, but like many fans I've never been to Old Trafford, let alone to a game. So when I knew I was going be near Manchester around Christmas, it was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with my team for the first time.
Looking at Old Trafford is easy enough to organise. If you go to the club's website you can do a virtual tour for nothing. Or they run tours of the stadium and museum for £9.50 an adult (about $25) every day, except when there's a game.
It's fascinating. The museum covers three floors and is packed with the magnificent array of trophies won by the club, photos of great players, signed jerseys, displays covering the greatest moments in its history and clips of the team in action.
I was even able to see the gleaming silver European Cup they won in 1968 and watch the high points of the match: two goals by the wonderful (now Sir) Bobby Charlton and one each by Best and Brian Kidd.
You could spend hours here and, looking at the way some visitors seem rooted to the spot in front of display cases featuring their special heroes, a few obviously do.
Then the tour goes round the stadium, the biggest in Britain, checking out the seats, the directors' box, the dugout with heated flooring where the substitutes sit, the dressing room - I sat in the spot where Giggs always parks himself - the players' lounge and finally down the steps to the tunnel to the pitch and the chanting fans.
But while touring the stadium is a simple matter - 200,000 people do it every year - getting into a game is different.
This is the most famous club in the world and one of the most successful. Even with extensions to the stadium, completed last northern summer, there is a shortage of tickets. They have a waiting list for season tickets, and individual match tickets are allocated to members of One United, the supporters' club, by ballot. There is a ticket exchange for spares but that is only open to members of One United and I couldn't find anyone who would admit to being a member.
VisitBritain, the British tourist organisation, and Manchester Tourism, the city's promotional body, approached the club on my behalf. Nope. On Boxing Day ManU would play Wigan so they inquired if Wigan might have spare tickets. Nope.
I sent an email to the club explaining that I was a lifelong fan who wanted to come to a game to write a story about it and was happy to pay for tickets. No reply. I sent an email to the hospitality section asking if I could buy a couple of its expensive hospitality packages. No reply.
In desperation I turned to the internet. Plenty of ticket agencies were offering tickets but the prices were fairly steep. ManU's website said the face value of tickets for the Wigan match was from £23 to £37 ($65 to $103). The online agencies offered those same tickets (plus a booking fee) for anything from £120 to £175 ($336 to $490).
Still, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It's a chance to see the best in the world in action and, really, that is priceless. So, a little nervously, I gave my credit card details to one of the websites, www.topticketshop.com, and asked for two tickets to be sent to the home of our friends in Yorkshire.
And, to my surprise, when we got to Yorkshire a couple of months later the tickets were waiting for us.
On Boxing Day we headed for Manchester, checked into our hotel and early in the afternoon set out to walk the three to four kilometres to Old Trafford. As we got closer we found ourselves part of a trickle of other fans, then a stream, then a river and finally a vast torrent.
Down Sir Matt Busby Way we poured and there it was - Old Trafford, with a statue of Sir Matt outside, a giant picture of Wayne Rooney over the entrance, souvenir hawkers and touts on all sides and mounted police keeping an eye on proceedings.
We found our seats easily and watched while the vast ground filled up. The Wigan fans, sitting in a triangle close to us, arrived en masse, several dressed in superhero costumes, and filed in watched by lines of security guards.
Most of the local fans didn't take their seats until the last minute because they were glued to television sets under the stand showing deadly rivals Chelsea playing Reading.
A bad result for Chelsea would give United a clear lead in the championship and a huge roar of joy signalled that unfancied Reading had equalised. A groan meant Chelsea had gone ahead again. An even louder cheer marked another equaliser. And a great cacophony of noise told us it was fulltime and Chelsea had fallen further behind.
Within minutes the seats were full - a record crowd of 76,018, they announced - the singing and chanting rose in volume and the teams took the field. What followed was a fantastic experience. The football, to my untutored eye, was superb, far better than the World Cup matches I had watched on television.
Rooney's anticipation and speed off the mark, on attack and defence, was incredible. The red-headed Paul Scholes controlled the midfield superbly and put through some amazingly accurate balls. Players like Park Ji-Sung and Christiano Ronaldo seemed to have the ball on a rubber band as they bamboozled defenders.
And the atmosphere was marvellous. There seemed to be songs for every player and every occasion, though I couldn't always understand the words. When Rooney created several chances the ManU fans burst into "Walking in a Rooney wonderland ... " When Ronaldo scored twice just after halftime, they sang with one voice, "He plays on the left, he plays on the right, oh Christiano Ronaldo ... " In between were songs about United's past glories, greats of yesteryear like Eric Cantona, something I couldn't follow which started with "Nick nack paddywhack ... " and, of course, "Hello, hello, we are the Busby Babes ... "
The Wigan fans were even more impressive, producing a remarkable volume, though their words were even harder to understand.
At 3-0 down they came up with a song about how that sort of score didn't bother them. Then they added a comment that ManU's players might be good but their supporters were ... um ... inadequate.
The ManU fans responded by singing, "Well did you ever, did you ever, did you ever ... fill your stadium." (The Wigan stadium holds 26,000, the same as one of Old Trafford's stands.)
When the Wigan fans roared at a rare shot which went wide, the ManU fans retaliated by giving exaggerated gasps every time one of their visitors got near the goal.
And so it went, back and forth, on the field and in the stands, until the game was over. United had won 3-1 and established something of a break on their rivals in the title race.
The Wigan supporters paid tribute to the superb skills on the field by singing the ManU song and bowing towards their rivals.
As we left we were still on a high. If you have even the slightest interest in sport and you're going to Europe, then you should sell the car, mortgage the house, pawn the family silver and get tickets to a big game. You won't regret it. Especially if your team is a winner. Like mine.
Checklist
Getting there
Every day Emirates has three flights from Auckland and one from Christchurch to Dubai, and flies from Dubai to several British airports including twice a day to Manchester. Basic round-trip fares start at $2460 plus taxes but there are frequent specials. See website link below or call 0508 364 728.
Further information
For general information on visiting the UK see VisitBritain website link below. Manchester Tourism has information on the city (see website link below).
You can access the Manchester United website via the link below and you'll easily find the websites of other clubs and a host of ticket agencies with a Google search.
* Jim Eagles visited the Lake District as guest of Visit Britain and Emirates
