This Saturday is one of the jewels in the English sporting calendar’s crown as Manchester takes over London, with United and City meeting in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium.
It’s the first ever meeting of the two rivals in the showpiece event and is arguably the biggest FA Cup final in the competitions 150 year history.
While the strikes have been broadly supported by the general public, their disruptive nature have infuriated some, even alienating some who are normally supportive of industrial action.
The strike has been carefully chosen for a date that causes maximum disruption, and not for the first time – a previous walkout affected last months Eurovision Song Contest final as well as a series of strikes targeting dates in the run up to Christmas last year.
The travel plans of thousands have been affected with many fans having to take longer or more expensive routes to Wembley , with some even missing out entirely despite having tickets.
So, has this affected how football fans see the strikes?
Tommy Gorman is a Man United fan living in Sheffield who has been going to games for 15 years, but has seen his weekend travel plans thrown into chaos.
He explains: “We’re having to jump through hoops to get on a train, having to go from Doncaster, spending an extra £50 to get a taxi from Sheffield to Doncaster and then we may miss the last train home”.
The last train back from London is at 7:50pm, meaning that with a 3pm kick off time, extra time and penalties could further scupper plans leaving him stranded in London.
Despite this, he’s still supportive of the action being taken by the RMT and Aslef unions, saying: “I’m supportive of strikes and I can’t just change that because it affects me on this occasion. Of course I wish I’d picked a different day but I suppose that’s the point of strikes.”
He does warn that people could turn against the strikes if they continue picking large scale events, saying “the longer the strikes go on the more public opinion will begin to turn.”
Henry Cowling is also a United season ticket holder who finds himself in the same boat ahead of the final.
While also supportive of the right to strike and the unions cause, he fears that these targeted strikes are hurting the wrong people and could alienate the public.
He said: “A fair criticism would be that a lot of the fans travelling down are working class Northern people who would tend be supportive of the strikes and you risk getting on the wrong side of the people you need to get on board.”
“Personally its very frustrating for me so naturally its altered my position a bit because its affecting me.”
However he concedes that the very fact we’re talking about it today shows that the strikes are working and bringing attention to the cause, largely because of the inconvenience caused.
Ultimately, football fans are a committed bunch and come ‘hell or high water’, Tommy believes there will be 90,000 fans in that stadium on Saturday.
The result? Tommy reckons 3-0 to United with a Wout Weghorst hat trick, albeit with tongue firmly in cheek.