We (my son and I) have been to every home and away game this season. Bristol on a Friday night, Yeovil on a Friday night, Southend on a Tuesday night...etc etc.

We applied for our tickets for the Carlisle away game (as per directed by the club) at 10am on Wednesday, May 7.

Our application was logged at 10.07. This was delayed by a couple of minutes because even the application form was wrong – it said you needed a start date for a maestro card when submitting your application, which a maestro card does not have.

I have heard, via the internet, that people have got tickets for the away game who have only been to a couple of away games, because they were quicker, luckier and less loyal.

We have bought season tickets already for next year, but why go to away games?

Thanks Ken Bates. You have probably saved us £5,000 per year when we stop our home season tickets and don't go to the away matches.

We will be armchair fans who feel they are TRUE supporters.

When you have been one of the 900 fans at Northampton, or one of the 1,100 fans at Hartlepool, you feel that you should have a ticket for the most important away match of the year.

But we don't even get a response from the club to say that we haven't got a ticket. Shame on you. But as I say, what price loyalty?


Thanks Mr B, and you won't see our massive flag (which has been displayed at every away game) or hear our loud vocal support on the night we play Carlisle.

Still, you don't need supporters, you just need our money.

ANDY AND JOE LUBGAN , Bitter & let down, of Leeds

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BEST soccer news of the week: Liverpool ditch 'sick note' £80,000-a-week Harry Kewell.

This is poetic justice for a man who, on leaving Elland Road, said he couldn't wait to get away from Leeds and pull on the red shirt of Liverpool after being nurtured from the age of 17 in the Thorp Arch academy by David O'Leary and Co.

Good riddance!

JOHN HARTLEY, West Park Cresc, Roundhay, Leeds

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I am a long-standing Leeds Rhinos supporter of more than 35 years and I've been all over the place, including Murrayfield, watching my team. But I am incensed at the ludicrous idea of taking the game to Scotland and, heaven forbid, Ireland.

Let me state a few facts from my side, as I see it, in defence of Cardiff.

I travelled to the Millennium Magic game with family and friends – eight of us in total (including Castleford Tigers fans) – on Friday, returning Monday evening, staying in the Novotel Cardiff Centre.

This was approximately 10 minutes walk from the stadium – perfect. No commuting from hotel by bus or train, just a quick walk to the ground.
After the game eight of us were in a restaurant within 20 minutes and the pubs within an hour of that.

If any of us did not wish to sit through any of the six games on offer we could, if we wished, walk out of the ground and literally fall into the city centre shops.

Which other city could you find a ground like that, smack bang in the centre?

Murrayfield is a fantastic stadium but for the life of me I feel there would be a need for special buses to the city hotels.

We found the Welsh people great. Breakfast, at the many city centre pubs, for £2.60, steak meals for under £13 at night, beer in the ground was 20p more than pubs and Great Britain rugby shirts in the stadium for £20 (£50 back home).

I say keep it in Cardiff!

TERRY CARNEY, via email

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Well said Amy Evans and Simon Whitehead, it is time to act and re-sign the best full-back in the game – Brent Webb – if it is not too late, as the word is he has already agreed terms with Warrington.

If this is not true, please Gary Hetherington sign him before others do and he returns to haunt us like lots of other players have done after leaving or being let go.

I know we have young players coming through, but we don't have anything as good as Webb.

I know Hetherington will not spend money – if he can get away with paying in Smarties, why should he pay in chocolates?

But now we have the money from Bradford Bulls, from the Iestyn Harris saga, will Gary Hetherington spend it on keeping Webb at Leeds?

To beat the salary cap he could employ him outside of the game. Better still, do what some of the other teams do – employ his wife.

Michael Kenworthy

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So Simon Lee (Letters to the Sports Editor May 7) wants supporters to show their support for top-flight rugby union in the county.

Maybe they will get their chance next year when Leeds – whatever they will be called next – will come up against Otley, Doncaster and Rotherham. I think these clubs are in Yorkshire so there could be a good fight on for top dog.

He wants to say thank-you to those who have made the club what it is – I take it that's a tongue-in-cheek remark about a club which has failed twice to show that it can "hack it".

Maybe a third name change could be lucky?

PAUL HATFIELD, Otley

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It appears now that satellite television stations can organise our football season to reach a thrilling climax, with Chelsea and Manchester United both screened live on the last day against Wigan and Bolton respectively in games which decided the destiny of the Premier League title.

In rugby league, they showed Castleford Tigers beating high-flying Leeds Rhinos with a result which defied logic.

But you can't beat the real thing in the flesh. In any sport, the clincher about what makes it great is the atmosphere.

When Test cricket was played at too slow a pace it used to provoke slow hand-clapping. The batsmen then used to protest at the crease.

The noise that is coming from the Indian Premier League now shows how popular Twenty20 cricket is.

One point I wish to make on the 2008 first-class cricket season is will the counties release attendance figures for the county games? I, for one, fear for the future.

Atmosphere has a large part to play when you attend a sports event and, for years, the cost to attend cricket was minimal.

But because of the huge effect TV is having now – and probably more so in years to come – what is the future for championship cricket?

A straight question to the powers that be at Headingley: How can you increase interest in what appears to be a dying segment of cricket?

KEVIN MAGUIRE, Batley