Britain’s oldest football fan Mabel Smith has vowed to return to the stands despite falling over and gashing her head – while celebrating a Peter Crouch goal.
The plucky 93-year-old needed seven stitches after fans surged forward when her beloved Stoke City took the lead on Sunday.
But the ardent Potteries fan, who still travels to every home and away game, has promised to return next season.
Incredibly, Mabel she has only missed two games after suffering a stroke in 2008.
The grandmother-of-15 – who was named Stoke City’s official fan-of-the-year in 2008 – crashed her head against the concrete floor when Crouch scored at Southampton’s St Mary’s stadium.
The pensioner had been sat in an end row seat watching the game when she jumped up with fans but was crushed against the floor.
She was taken to hospital and treated for a head injury before being discharged.
Recovering at home in Bucknall, Staffs., she said: “I will be watching Stoke next season because I love Stoke City.
“I was shocked when it happened, then I felt the pain later, but I am all right.
“If you stop me going to Stoke games you might as well put me in the box there and then.
“I don’t really know what happened, I think I jumped up when Crouch scored and suddenly the next thing I knew I was on the floor with my face pressed against the concrete.
“The chap who fell on me apologised and said he was pushed at me from behind. Four fellas were on top of me.
“They helped me up and then the ambulance men arrived
“The medics came and got me and took me into the first aid room, that was the first time I noticed I was covered in blood.
“I love going to the games, there’s no way a little thing like this will stop me going home and away.
“I think the only time I have missed a game was when I had a mini-stroke.
“They said I couldn’t go to the game so I went down to the ground to see the last game of the 2008 season on a big screen.”
Mabel has been to over 2,500 Stoke matches since her first game – against Bolton in 1949.
The former pottery painter lost her husband Jack to old age 25 years ago and recently became a great-great grandmother for the first time.
Her daughter Shirley Noyes, 51, was a few blocks across the ground when her mother was flattened.
She said: “I was a few blocks across and my sister, who is 70 herself, was with my mother.
“I got a phone call to say I needed to go to the first aid room, I was shocked, then I got down there and she was covered in blood.
“I was terrified for her, but she just batted away any help, she was in great spirits as she always is.
“There’s no way you’ll stop her going to the games, she lives for it, it would have to be a life-or-death emergency to stop her going.
“She had five stitches above her eye and two in the corner of the eye where I think her glasses cut her.
“Then there was grazes and bruises. She is lucky because it could have been a lot worse.
“She is doing well now and must be getting better because she is already on about making the supporters’ club annual dinner on Friday evening.”
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
god bless mabe you were like a mum to me at masons thanks for the toast and fond memories