Ken Doherty, world champion snooker player
I started supporting Manchester United when I was about seven or eight - my school was divided between Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. I think the reason so many people here support them is that down through the years they've always had Irishmen in the side. I do my best to get to Old Trafford every year; unfortunately the snooker season is very similar to the football season, September to May, but if I have a few days off I try to get to a match. When I lived in Essex I would often drive to Manchester to watch a game and then drive back that evening, which took about three hours.
The worst thing about being a Manchester United fan is that everybody hates to see them winning - which is par for the course when a person or team is successful in any sport. There's a lot of . . . I wouldn't say hatred, that's too strong a word . . . but there are a lot of unsavoury comments about them because they are successful. And of course the Manchester United fans always let the other fans know just how successful they are - so when you are on top, you have to dish it out a bit, I suppose. There are always going to be bad defeats in any sport, but as long as you have more good times than bad times, that's OK.
Personally, my happiest memory of Old Trafford was after I won the World Championships when I spent the day there. Martin Edwards took me on a tour of the ground for about two hours. We had lunch with Bobby Charlton, Lou Macari and Denis Law. Alex Ferguson was very supportive - he's a big snooker fan himself, he has a table and loves to play, and he made sure I got out on to the pitch - out on the pitch with the cup in front of 55,000 people. It was absolutely brilliant: a really, really great day.