With August almost upon us, the new football season is fast approaching, which means many hungry fans and mouths to feed as the crowds return to stadiums all around Manchester.
This means there will be plenty of need for cream chargers in Manchester as those who plan to take advantage of the passing trade will be getting ready to serve up products ranging from coffees to cakes, trifles to stodgy puddings.
It may not be Wimbledon with its strawberries and cream, but the fact is that many a match-going fan will want something different to eat than the traditional matchday fare of pies or chips and gravy.
The biggest crowds will, as ever, be at Old Trafford, where 75,000 will show up every other week hoping Manchester United’s new Dutch coach Erik Ten Haag can revive the club’s fortunes and enable the club to re-establish itself as the cream of English football.
Across town, the 54,000 Etihad Stadium will see Manchester City seek to maintain their position as England’s best team, having dramatically snatched the Premier League title from under the noses of Liverpool by coming from 2-0 down to beat Aston Villa 3-2 in the final game of last season.
The first matches will take place on Saturday August 6th, although United do not host Brighton until the following day. City will play their first home game on Saturday 13th against Bournemouth. As well as the home fans, it’s a fair bet some of the visiting supporters at both games will need some refreshments after travelling all the way up from the south coast.
Other clubs around the area will be beginning their Football League campaigns earlier, with Saturday July 30th bringing the first matches of the new campaign.
Across the Greater Manchester area, this date will include a home game for Wigan Athletic against Preston North End in the Championship, while in League One Bolton Wanderers will have to wait another week for their first home match, against Wycombe Wanderers.
In League Two, Rochdale, Salford City and newly-promoted Stockport County all start the new season with home games, playing against Crewe Alexandra, Mansfield Town and Barrow respectively.
Of course, there will also be decent crowds at some non-league grounds, including local clubs such as Macclesfield Town and Oldham Athletic, who have dropped out of the Football league in the last couple of seasons.
The latter will start life in the Vanarama Premier League with an away game before the first match at Boundary Park against Dorking Wanderers on August 13 th. They will be one of two Greater Manchester clubs in the division, the other being Altrincham, who start their Vanarama campaign at home to Maidstone United on August 6th.
Of course, there will be other big sporting action at Old Trafford as the neighbouring cricket ground hosts the England v South Africa Test match over the bank holiday weekend (August 25th-29th), where the crowds will be there all day and thus need more food.
With so much sporting action coming up, plenty of catering outlets will be getting their creaming equipment ready for a busy time.