I’m a lifelong Arsenal fan (23 now) and back in April I went to see Arsenal play Reading. It was my first game at Ashburton Grove and my first Arsenal home game for years. I’m Hackney-born, Devon-bred and back when I was a kid in the 90s, I’d normally be able to get tickets two or three times a season, which was OK for me back then. I’d rip all the United fans back in Devon (as you can guess there’s thousands of the f***ers round there), mentioning that unlike any of them, I actually went to watch my team play from time to time and I actually had a connection with the city they play in.

Obviously, I would have wanted to go to every game but the 200 mile difference was a bit of an obstacle and I couldn’t see my parents forking out for every game anyway. But those two or three games a season were a special treat and I’d make the most of every one. I’d arrive at Highbury an hour before kick-off, shout my little heart out, and stay till beyond the final whistle.

As the Wenger years went on, the demand for tickets became higher and the only chance I’d get was going to watch them play was whenever they played Wimbledon away, as I had some extended family in Wandsworth who were lifelong Dons. Then they got relegated in 2000 and there were all these changes with the ticket registration scheme and tickets became scarce. Even after I moved back to London in 2004, such were the difficulties for a non-member to buy a ticket that I found it nearly impossible and eventually gave up.

Until last week. A female classmate’s boyfriend was a member and he couldn’t make it, so he very kindly gave me his ticket on the condition that I get a rendition or two of ‘We all live in a Perry Groves world’ going. No problem. Just try and stop me singing all afternoon, I thought, as I had a fair few years to make up for.

And the game went pretty well. True, we could have scored four or five given all the chances but in the end, job done. I had a great afternoon and my classmate’s fella said that he’d try and get me a ticket next time he went. But one thing really p*ssed me off - the people who insisted on leaving with ten minutes to go.

Even without the knowledge of the amount of late goals we may have scored this season, there’s always going to be a chance of a late goal. I’ve read some early leavers defending themselves on this website and normally their pathetic excuses consist of ‘it takes so long to get back home afterwards’ or ‘the tube is always packed’ or some other crap along those lines.

Well, boo-f***ing-hoo! You pay good money to watch one of the best teams in the Premiership play some of the most attractive football in the world. There are many other Arsenal fans along with myself, be they the working classes of Finsbury Park, Holloway and Stoke Newington or other lifelong Gooners from elsewhere, who have been priced or booked out of watching their team play over the last decade by some people who can’t even be arsed to stay until the end.

I don’t care that you have to get back to Guildford or Clapham or wherever it is you live as you have work in the morning or you have to meet Tarquin for a frappucino. I don’t care that you don’t like having to wade through big crowds of people after the final whistle - if you don’t like walking through large crowds of people then don’t go to a football match for crying out loud!

I really couldn’t give a flying fudge monkey that you can’t stand to be on a packed out tube train for a couple of stops until you reach King’s Cross. If you can’t watch the game for the full 90 minutes, don’t bother coming and let people who can stay for the whole game get behind the boys instead. Or you could ask Tarquin to meet you half an hour later, whatever.

There was a Spurs fan I went to school with in Devon who would go to the occasional midweek game once or twice a season with his dad. Driving from Exeter to Tottenham and back again is at least an eight or nine hour round trip but they’d never leave early. Neither did I (although I had the sense to watch weekend games) because we had a chance to watch our favourite teams play and we made the most of it.

And nowadays, whilst my erstwhile schoolchum still gets to see Spurs whenever he can make it to London (partly down to them being crap but there you are) I, along with many other Gooners, am losing out to these people who can’t be arsed to get behind the team for the whole ninety minutes. Personally, I’d pick out the early leavers and ban them. The pricks can have a refund if they like, there’s plenty of people like me who would be willing to take their place.