IT’S really a present he’d rather not have, but on the 84th birthday of probably its longest-serving supporter, Worcester City FC is playing its last game at St George’s Lane.

Ken Freeman has been following the club, man and boy, for almost 70 years, but after today’s game there will be no more trips to his favourite seat in the stands at the old-fashioned ground backing on to the Worcester-Birmingham canal. So for Ken the day will be a birthday and a wake all rolled into one.

He said: “It was always a saying that if City kicked off towards the canal end, they would be all right. But if they played towards the dressing rooms they’d had it.” Another truism seemed to be that – with a couple of notable exceptions – the bigger the crowd, the flakier the team became. “If there were more than a thousand people in the ground they seemed to go to pieces,” Mr Freeman said. “People would come to see them and say, ‘That was a load of rubbish’, and not come again. Which was a shame, because they could be good.”

For someone who has spent a lifetime watching Worcester City through thick and thin, Ken Freeman is in remarkably fine fettle. But it hasn’t always been like that. He said: “I used to get really upset if they lost. It proper spoilt my weekend. It was a go-home-and-kick-the-cat sort of thing. But I’m a lot more relaxed about it now and we haven’t got a cat anyway.” Ken went to his first game in 1944, a 14-year-old schoolboy, biking the five miles to the ground from his home at Hallow. Then, after learning to drive during National Service, took to using the family’s first car, a Standard Eight bought for £40 by his father following a winning bet on the horses.

Since then, he has been to virtually every home game and many away matches too. For the past 10 years he has been a season ticket holder, so his favourite seat, Number 7, Row F, Block B was guaranteed.

His favourite players over the years? Barry Williams, Sammy Bryceland and, inevitably, Harry Knowles.

His favourite manager? Nobby Clark.

His biggest disappointment? When striker Roger Davies was sold to Derby in 1971.

His favourite game? Beating Liverpool 2-1 in the FA Cup back in 1959.

He said: “There were more than 15,000 in the ground that day. Now, because of health and safety, the limit is about 4,000.”

Before the club manages to sort something out in Worcester, possibly at Perdiswell, it is going to ground share with Kidderminster Harriers at Aggborough. “But it won’t be the same,” he said. “And anyway, the last time he visited the ground there was unscheduled drama. “I could smell burning and looked down to see someone had dropped a cigarette butt in my turn-ups and my trousers were on fire,” he laughed. “I got a bit of a hot reception at Kiddy that day and I’m not all that keen to go back.”