The pain of queuing for a half-time pie and pint is disappearing. Never miss a 46th minute goal again!

In Off The Post prides itself in looking at football from all angles. I’ve covered Christmas presents, gambling options, football video games and even the best food to go with football. Something I haven’t covered enough of is going to a football match. Today I’m taking a look at something that brings out the joy and the pain in that activity.

I love going to the match, the buzz as you approach the stadium, buying a programme, going through the turnstiles and walking up the steps to view the pitch. It's unrivalled. But there is something that I dread about the whole day. It's one of the perennial downsides of going to the football. It has the potential to spoil the day or make you miss a goal.

It's the half- time queue for the toilets and your food and drink.

I can't do anything for the toilet queue, or at least anything I'd want to do myself. But I've found a solution to the problem of getting your pie, your burger, your pint or your cup of Bovril at half time. It’s called Qjacker. First, you simply choose from one of their venues-

•         Ricoh Arena, for conference and events
•          Old Trafford, the Theatre of Dreams, home of Manchester United
•          The National Exhibition Centre (NEC)
•          St Mary’s Stadium, home of Southampton FC

You then choose your event, let Qjacker know where you are sitting and then it’s time to order your food. Once you’ve placed your order you can walk past the melee that always ensues at half-time in the match to the front of the Qjacker lane and collect your food. No queuing, no searching for change, no messing around and no missing that vital goal that’s scored in the 46^th minute!

The scale of the problem and the solution are highlighted in the following YouTube video-

To get the full experience of Qjacker I followed a fellow fan called John through his experience at St Mary’s Stadium for the Southampton v Crystal Palace, The Emirates FA Cup tie at 3pm on Saturday 9^th January 2016.

I met with John the day before as he downloaded the app onto his smartphone, ready to make use of it and place the order. The app downloaded quickly and was intuitive to use – just click through the options and get to the menu.

• We’re at St Mary’s (one click)
• We’re going to Saints v Palace (2 clicks)
• We’re in the Kingsland Stand (3 clicks)
• And we’re in blocks 27 to 39 (4 clicks)

Only 4 clicks and we’ve got to the menu!

Once you are at the menu page, it’s just like standing in front of the food stand at the ground, but without the queue. You can browse the app in total comfort (lying on your sofa in John’s case) as you put together your food and drink choices. He’s ordering for both of us so we’ve got-

1. .       An All Steak Pie
2. .       A Standup Pasty
3. .       A Saints Ale (I just have to try this!)
4. .       A Sprite (John is driving)
5. .       A packet of Skittles
6. .       A Matchday Magazine

The amount of time it took you to read these 6 bullet points is the amount of time it took to put this order together. The menu is in sections for meal deals, hot food, beers & wines, soft drinks, snacks, hot drinks and the matchday magazine. This means it’s easy to scroll to the area you want. My only (very small) criticism is that I’d like to see hot drinks a little higher up the list when it’s a January FA Cup 3^rd round tie and the weather is tipped to be grey and drizzly. Perhaps a menu that changes order in reflection of the venue, the event and the seasons? Aside from the obligatory payment for your order, this is all you need to do pre-match.

Let’s recap this then. John has downloaded a free app, made only 4 clicks, chosen the food and drink we will consume (and a matchday magazine) and then made a quick and secure payment.

The next step is to get to the ground, savour the atmosphere, watch the match, get our food and hope for a Saints win. This is for two reasons – firstly John is a Saints fan and I don’t want to sit in the car with him after a loss; the second is that I’ve always had an irrational dislike for Crystal Palace, heightened by their hiring of Alan Pardew.

We get to the ground nice and early because it’s somewhere I’ve never visited. The days of the old 92 club are effectively gone but it’s always nice to tick another ground off the list. I make that 42 at first count, but it’s just a quick count from memory and I may need to check the facts when I get home. It reminds me in a lot of ways of my club’s ground, the Stadium of Light but with better players.

We decide to collect the food at half-time to get the full experience of walking past what resembles a rugby scrum at the other counters while we amble up to the Qjacker lane and collect our food with little effort. I can tell you readers – it works! We collect our food, drink and matchday magazine (can’t forget the matchday magazine) and are back in plenty of time to see the second half. It’s always been one of my dreads, paying good money to see a match and missing the vital play – a goal, a penalty, a sending-off, a disallowed goal or anything else that turns a match because I’m still queuing for my food and drink. The ridicule from your friends and family when they find out that you missed the most important play of the game and will have to catch up with the rest of the world on Match of The Day.

Those days appear to have gone at St Marys and Old Trafford. You don’t have to go through this anguish any more. Download Qjacker, make those 4 clicks and get your priority order!

http://uk.qjacker.com/#/step_1/

http://qjackerblog.com/

twitter.com/Qjacker