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

Take a look at a couple of free football games that will make the weekend's matches more exciting

I like to take a look at the different aspects of football in my blog. I believe that football is more than just the things that happen on the pitch, and about more than the things that happen in the Premier League. I've taken the time to look at the following in recent weeks-

The best food to eat while watching football - http://inofftheblogpost.blogspot.com/2015/09/whats-best-food-to-go-with-football.html

Perfect football Christmas gifts - http://inofftheblogpost.blogspot.com/2015/09/so-your-child-wants-to-be-footballer.html

This ultimate football quiz site - http://inofftheblogpost.blogspot.com/2015/10/take-look-at-fun-footie-quiz-website.html

And it's by looking at the periphery sometimes that opens up my eyes to the wonderful world of football.

A couple of things have been reignited in my eyes this week - both testing your skill (and luck) and both free of charge.

Super 6

This is a free app provided by Sky Sports and tests your football knowledge for a potential £250,000 prize. Each week they state 6 fixtures, all Saturday 3pm, and ask you to guess the correct scores. Be the only person to get all 6 completely correct and win the top prize. If more than one person gets them all current then the closest guess to the first goal time is the winner. With 5 points for a correct score and 2 points for a correct result, if there's no £250k winner then the top point scorer gets £20,000. The idea is a good one and gets people watching Gillette Soccer Saturday, gets downloads of their app and gives Sky a chance to market Sky Bet to an audience that already has expressed an interest in predicting football scores. And it's a worthwhile bit of weekly fun for you football fans out there.

Fantasty football

This is a development borrowed from American Football and allows the manager in you to compete against friends, family and the world. It's been here for 20+ years but is still going strongly, with the newspapers in particular pushing sign-ups. I prefer the official game on the Barclays site, as it allows you to build a squad, make substitutions and transfers. It does, however, take up a bit if time every week as you plot substitutions, transfers and captains. But once you are in a league against your friends or work colleagues it's all worthwhile and adds to the enjoyment of the football fixtures as well as provoking some friendly rivalry. If you're not yet part of a game I suggest you give it a try - most are free to join and will provide a little fun and the chance to win a prize.

I'll keep looking at different ways to enjoy football and I'll post all the angles on here!

What's the best food to go with football?

When you sit down to watch the big match, whether with friends or family, one question always comes up – what’s the best food to eat with football? Lager has long established itself as the drink to go with football - no matter how much Coca-Cola spend on trying to change that image! The debate on the perfect food to accompany the football has been more varied and has seen pretenders such as pizza and the burger chain that won’t be named trying to gain top spot. But there is a new contender who mixes heat with flavour to make the ideal football food for any football fan.

Mannys Sauces come in a great range of flavours from the genuine, original and unique Piri-Piri to the Chicken Marinade – available as Hot Chicken Marinade as well. In fact, the Piri Piri and the marinades are considered to be within the best sauces on the planet. The excitement of a football match needs food that excites the tastebuds and that’s where Manny’s Sauces comes in. There are 9 different sauces to choose from and each is packed with flavour, free from the top 14 allergens and suitable for vegetarians and vegans - ‘THE SAUCIEST ROAD TO DIVINE GOODNESS’ as Manny would say!

The variety of sauces and the recipe ideas contained on the leaflet and the website mean that you can have a different meal for every match of the season from the delicious Mannys Sauces range. Think about matching the spice of the Manchester derby with spice of the Hot Chicken Marinade, the refinement of the rich London clubs Chelsea and Arsenal and matching them with the Tomato Fusion or consider the classic Piri-Piri sauce with the classic Premier League encounter of Aston Villa v West Brom – both founder members of the Football League in 1888.

I’ve looked before in my blog about the balance between the traditional side of the game and how the new game fits in with those traditions. Going back to the games of my youth, I’d go to the match and have a pie and Bovril at half-time. The game has moved on beyond the point where Roy Keane complained about prawn sandwiches. Savvy football consumers are also savvy food consumers and they want something that is tasty, made with authentic ingredients and often with a bit of a kick. Mannys Sauces do all of these things and more. They have been making the best sauces since 1985, and that’s even longer than Arsene Wenger has been in charge of Arsenal!

Don’t have time to cook? Well, why not try Mannys Sauces range of continental meat lines that would go perfectly with the football as these are great for snacks, tapas and sandwiches etc. These are more great products and you can currently choose from Portuguese-Style Chorizo, Chicken Chorizo, Paio, Presunto or Pork Belly. These make a perfect plate if you don’t have as much time, or if you want something lighter.

The football betting industry has taken off in recent years, thanks to developments such as in-play betting and the use of mobile devices. I can see football food taking off in a similar way with Mannys Sauces at the top of the league! This journey to the top will be driven by Manny’s passion. Let’s take a look at his story – as told by Manny himself-

“As any other person in the world, I had a huge dream - to open the first Piri-Piri Chicken Restaurant in the world, and then spread this dream to every corner of the planet. It wouldn’t be easy to achieve, but neither was it impossible. I had the will, the courage, the faith and family support to make it come true. Early in 1985, I sold my home to open the first piri-piri chicken restaurant outside of Mozambique. CHICKENLAND was the chosen name and Johannesburg, South Africa was the birth place of my dream! After a short while, I was making, bottling and selling a range of 5 different Piri-Piri Sauces and Marinades. After a slow start, the business was a stunning success! The name quickly spread across the city and everyone was talking about this new food place that was taking the food industry by storm.

The business success was proven! The next step was expansion to other parts of the city, country and abroad, and many people tried to get financially involved. Expansion included a need for capital and people, and so in 1987, I sold some of my business shares to two young men: one of Portuguese origin and the other, a South African of Jewish origin. Shortly after they joined, the business name was changed to NANDOS. Chickenland was a nice name, but according to marketing experts at the time, it was felt that the business should be backed by a personal name before the expansion took place. BetweenMANNYS and NANDOS, I was out-voted two to one, and the latter name was chosen. Despite a few initial problems, the expansion started taking off and now more than ever, the success was tremendous!

A few years later, the rug was pulled out from under my feet and I was forced to leave my business. I lost my dream; one of the best things in my life after my family. After this happened, I opened a few other restaurants including Chickenland in Portugal, but these weren’t my dream. It was a way to make a living, but it wasn’t my passion. It took me a long time to recover from what happened, but I was determined and pushed through until another dream emerged; to make the best sauces and speciality food products in the world! MANNYS SAUCES is now my new dream! Once again I can see this new dream taking shape and growing strong all the way to the TOP! The passion is back and I again have the will, the faith, the support of my family, and the support of so many loyal customers that know and appreciate the high quality products that we make. I am forever grateful to my family and my customers for their support and the divine forces for showing me the way.

Manny x”

I don’t think that there is anyone out there that isn’t inspired by Manny’s story and now desperate to try one (or all) of these amazing sauces. So, I hear you ask, how can I get my hands on Mannys Sauces? Well, there are a few ways of going about this. It’s available directly from Mannys Sauces at http://mannyssauces.com 

Or from Amazon -



Follow Mannys Sauces -

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Mannyssauces
Twitter - https://twitter.com/MannysSauces
You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gSO1jGftyM&feature=youtu.be