Holland U21 v England U21 Utrecht 9.11.2001

A v Holland (U21s in Utrecht)

We ventured over to Amsterdam for a couple of days. We caught the train down to Utrecht for the u21 match. When we arrived we were told the game was a total sell out. Eventually we managed to buy some tickets for a small section of about 1,000 set aside for England fans. The match finished 2-2 infront of 14,500. All I can really remember about the trip was that it was very very cold, my memories of Amsterdam are very hazy!!

For some reason nobody had a camera with them, so sadly no pictures! Oh well!





Some pictures of the ground found on the internet........

H v Greece (Old Trafford) 6.10.2001

H v Greece 6.10.2001

Worried. Not for a minute! Woo Hoo, roll on the World Cup draw on December1st! Saturday was a great day, in the end! We set off from Brighton on the 4am train, there were even a few Brentford lads on the train. They had come down for the Brighton match and done the same as us ie gone out for a night on the town then caught the only directtrain to London due to Engineering works. We were booked on the 7.30 from Euston to Crewe but sneaked onto the empty 6.30 so speeded up our arrival by an hour, well it was a Virgin train so we had no idea what time we would get to Crewe. At Stafford we got held up as a goods train had derailed on the track next to us and as it was sticking out the end of the platform was holding the signal on red. We eventually moved on and caught the 9.54 from Crewe to Manchester. This train was fairly full and there were fans from Shrewsbury, Hereford as well as ManCity and Man Utd all aiming for opening time in Manchester. The train came in via the outskirts of Manchester and we saw the new very impressive Commonwealth stadium. We arrived into Manchester Piccadilly to be met by the Police sticking video cameras in your face and then outside were lines and lines of Police just gagging for an opportunity to get stuck in. As we walked down the road the Police tailed any groups of lads and picked out individuals to be searched etc. We couldn't be bothered to drink around Piccadilly and headed towards Victoria station. We ended up in the Printworks complex and the Lloyds pub. Already seated and drinking cheap pints were the Rochdale lads, who took great pleasure in reminding us they had a nice late start. We also bumped into the Bournemouth lads we had met in Malta a while back, and we were soon joined by a few more of our Brighton mates, the usual Scunny lads, Sara fromCov and Careful Col from Birmingham. A round of 6 pints cost just £9.25 so we managed to down quite a few pints before heading over to Victoria to catch the tram to Old Trafford. It was around 2.15 and we met up with some other Cov lads we knew and joined the queue. This was the first hold up of the day. The first 2 trams for Old Trafford stopped but were held empty as the Police said they were trying to clear the queues at Piccadilly! They did eventually allow us on one, well every one was getting very agitated and the smug arrogant attitude of the Police didn't help!We arrived outside Old Trafford at about 2.55 and once we had walked round to the Stetford end, squeezed our way past the VIP entrance, we were through the turnstyle and walking up the many flights of stairs to the upper tier!We missed the national anthems and the first 5 minutes of the match. Around us were mainly Man Utd fans and a number of people who sat like statues through the 90 minutes and they didn't even really celebrate Beckhams goal. One bloke about 3 rows behind us slagged ever Liverpool player for every touch they had. The best moment was when he went ballistic when Utd reject Sherringham came on. Less then a minute latter and everyone was going mental around him celebrating and somebody even gave him a slap. No one else we travelling with had this sort of problem so I guess out of the 65,000 England fans at the match we had the one idiot who decided club allegiances came before country. No sooner had we got it back to 1-1, we gifted Greece the lead once again. As for the last 10 minutes, well we knew Germany was 0-0 and when the 4 minute board went up we knew we could still do it. When we won the free kick my mate said let Sherrinhgam have it as Beckhams free kicks have been poor. On cue up pops Beckham to curl in a brilliant goal. We went mad as did the lads in front and behind us, my mate then confirmed Germany finished 0-0 so we knew we had done it. A minute later the whistle blew and over the tannoy he announced and the score in the Germany match has finished.....0-0. The roar was deafening and the atmosphere electric. We celebrated back to the metro stop ( I was tempted to stop for a Burger because the food sold out in the ground before half time - complaint to theFA was the response behind the counter!). We got back to Piccadilly caughta delayed train to Crewe and then headed for the nearest pub to celebrate.Every one came back in small groups as people caught the next train back to Crewe. We caught the 7.21 back to London and celebrated all the way backafter visiting an offy in Crewe. The train was of course delayed back into London and we arrived into Euston at 23.35 so just had time to get the underground back to Victoria and catch the 00.05 to Brighton. This was of course diverted and delayed and we arrived back into Brighton at 2.30am, sonearly 24 hours after we left. I have seen England at all the recent venues and I have to say that my favourite for drinking, getting to and from plus atmosphere has to St James Park Newcastle (the furthest from Brighton but the best day out!). I understand Old Trafford was already booked for the play off hence the Sweden game is in Manchester, but I have to say the attitude of that one idiot behind us, and the deadpan non vocal support of many people around us did spoil my match day experience at Old Trafford. My next game will be the away friendly in Amsterdam. I hope they also arrange at least one friendly away in a hot climate before the WC finals, but I guess that may depend onthe Euro 2004 draw.

Right I better dig out my leave card and book June off!!!

Mark R

H v Albania (Newcastle) 5.9.2001

On to St James Park (Newcastle)






England struggle but still manage a 2-0 win

All pictures from 3lionsontour.com

A v Germany 1.9.2001

Tuesday 28th August

A v Germany 1.9.2001 Due to our obscene take off time of 7.30am from Stansted on the Wednesday morning our trip started by staying at a Phil Blackmans house in Crouch end on Tuesday evening. For those that know the Fatty Taxman it was scary towalk into a pub and the first song on the duke box to blast out was Tiffany!Ahhhh! Was it time to turn round and go home already! At closing time 5 of us piled into Phil's Fiesta and headed home, but due to excessive weight in the car the sparks were soon flying, not caused by arguments over Phi's driving but by the exhaust dragged on the road. We made it back but had to revise plans to drive to Stansted.

Wednesday 29th August
Phil dropped 2 of us off at Tottenham Hale station and we caught the 5.11 toStansted. Phil drove the rest up and we met up at the airport, met up with Kev K and his other half Ceri. We checked in and were soon on our way to Prague. We landed just after 10.30, jumped in a minibus-taxi and headed for our luxury apartment! From the outside it looked rough, the reception looked worse, the corridor dreary, but luckily the rooms had beds in. At £4.50 a night what did we expect. The Hostel was next to the National Stadium and once we had worked out our bearings there was a cable car (venicular I think they call it) into Prague centre so you were only 15 minutes away from the main places!We ventured into the City and I have to say that Prague is one of the best places I have visited. It has culture, history and cracking places to eat and drink! We hit some local bars and at one stage paid 85Korun for 5 beers. As its 50Korun to the £ , that's 34p a pint! Heaven! Pete and Phil took in more culture and took in a show (well they just had a quick peep at it if you know what I mean!!)

Thursday 30th August
A hot sunny day and time for some site seeing. We ventured to the famous Charles Bridge, Prague Castle and walked round the old town. Some stayed to see the famous clock, where on the hour it burst into life. (That's what the guide book said - in reality a figure stutters out, turns round a few times and goes back in leaving people slight bemused as to whether that was all they had waited to see!) I am sad to say I missed it as at the time we found a sports bar and watched the end of the Sussex v Lancashire day/night match on sky! It didn't last long as Sussex bowled them all out for under a hundred. During the day we also found a restaurant off the beaten track and had asuperb traditional Czech meal. Dumplings, duck, meats, red and white cabbage and of course one or two of the local brewed beers. We had a three course meal for less than £10

Friday 31st August
Rain - heavy rain, yet more rain. It poured down all day, so we were forced to stay indoors, luckily it was a bar so we managed to survive. We headed towards the station and after a pizza caught the 22.08 overnight train toMunich. This cost just £56 including a couchette.

Saturday 1st September
2am and everyone woken up by a cheerful, jolly Czech border control guard.2.01am in stomps the grouchy German police and border control. 2.02am backto sleep. We arrived into Munich at 6.30am and met fellow Brighton fan 'Snips' at the station. He had just arrived on the overnight train from Brussels, along with about 70+ other England fan. Every train that arrived into Munich had England fans on board, and you could tell we would have thousands at the match. We couldn't check into our Hotel until midday so went looking for some breakfast. We ended up in a beer hall near the Marienplatz. This was only a small one as held around 500 people, but we had a plate of sausage and sauerkraut and a beer, but as it was only just 9am was a bit of a struggle. The Germans already in the bar didn't have the same problem and they were all sinking beer after beer as if they were afraid it would run out! There were also 1 or 2 slightly dodgy looking people in the bar, who spent the whole time on mobile phones and eventually they met up with a couple of England fans. They had obviously never met and god knows what they were arranging! It was no surprise to find that the trouble later that day centred round that beer hall! After we had checked in we had a walk around, but there were small groups of lads about all over the place so decided to head towards the ground and the beer tents. We met up with Peter Jackson who had flown over from the FarEast and managed to persuade him to have a few beers with us! We met up with a few other Brighton lads at the tents and settled down for a good sing song, and of course a few beers. The place was soon heaving and the atmosphere good. It was a slight risk serving beer in proper glasses and serving food with stake knives, but apart from one small scuffle everythingremained good natured.We headed to the entrance about 6.30 and there were no ticket checks, no segregated entrance for England fans and not a policeman in site. We got in and you could walk round the whole ground. We were in block H2 which started off being next to an empty block then the neutral fans section. By kick off time it was a see of red and white and St George's flags all overthe place. England fans from all over the ground headed for the cornerblock and one poor policeman trying to stop it. At first he blocked the front walk way so people headed up a row or two of seats then climbed the small fence. He rushed up to stop them, so everyone at the front climbed over, so of course he dashed back down to stop that. To everyone's amusement this went on for about 20 minutes, he wouldn't give up and must have gone upand down the aisle about 50 times but failed to stop a single fan coming to join the other England fans. There must have been a good 15,000 England in the ground and the atmosphere generated brilliant. I won't go into the game as I imagine everyone saw it. When Gerrard scored on the stroke of half time the England fans started partying, and it was unreal. Shearer in theSky commentary box got a few songs, and once the second half started and Owen made it 3-1 it turned into the best England matches I have seen alongside beating Holland 4-1 in Euro 96 and the Argentine match in France. People couldn't believe what they were watching and everyone mercilessly mocked the German fans. 'Are you Scotland in disguise' and '5-1 to theIn-ger-lund' echoed round the Olympic Stadium and we also reclaimed 'Footballs Coming Home'. At the final whistle nobody could really believe it.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4BNkO9l318o

On the concourse outside there were thousands of singing celebrating slightly stunned England fans. The Germans appeared to have all gone home!No being kept in this time so it was straight on the Underground and back towards our Hotel. We found a pizza place open selling beer so settled down for a few celebratory beers. At first it was all fairly quiet as everyone was still trying to believe that we had just beaten the Germans 5-1 in Munich! Once the Pizza place closed we moved on to the bar next door and had a good old sing song with the other England fans (Mainly Portsmouth). It was an evening that you wanted to last forever!

Sunday 2nd September
At breakfast everyone was soon buzzing again. Plenty of sauerkraut's about on the other tables, the few occupied by the English were slightly more upbeat!! We tried to thing of 5 good reasons why!!We checked out and headed back to Prague. We had a 2 hour stop over in Nuremberg, and what we saw of it looked a nice place. We then had 5 hours to Prague and basically drank the buffet dry as we once again celebrated and relived the match the day before. The Fatty Taxman spent more time reminiscing about channel 43 in the hotel room!!! Once back in Prague it was like being back home and we soon settled back to the bars and cheap beer. We had a cracking Chinese meal for £8 and retired to bed some time later on.
Monday 3rd September
The day dragged a bit as our flight was not until 21.45 but we managed to while away the hours until the flight back to stansted. I finally arrived back at home in Hove at 2.45 and my alarm went off for work at 6.30am! Ouch. Better do some work now as off up to Newcastle tomorrow

5-1 to the In-ger-land , 5-1 to the In-ger-land , 5-1 to the In-ger-land.

Still seams unreal!

Mark R

H v Holland (at White Hart Lane) 15.8.2001

An interesting day out. Ventured up to London on the 1.20 Connex express and we were in Victoria just after 2pm. Couldn't get served in the Shakespeare's outside the station as had a football shirt on (England shirt but they still wouldn't serve us and they informed us you wont get a drink in any pub today with that on!) Went next door to the Stage Door and got served no problems! We had a chat with a West Ham fan but decided it was time to move in the direction of the ground so moved onto Highbury & Islington and a pub called The Famous Cock Inn. Not a bad pub and we soon got talking to a few Notts Forest supporters. Everyone you meet knows about Brightons problems and the struggle for a new ground. They were all getting disillusioned with football and mega buck players and some of them had actually stopped going to Forest last season due to Irvine Scholer being on the Forest board!Around 5pm we headed towards the ground, found most closed but ended up in the Red Lion about 5 minute walk away! We met up with Coventry fan Sara, Phil 'Yuppy' Blackman, a few more Brighton fans, Scunthorpe fans Darren and Mark and Careful Colin the Birmingham fan. The pub was fairly quiet but once more than 3 people queued for a drink it all went to pot. They only had 2 bar staff on as they hadn't expected it to get busy! We got talking to a few Stoke & Wolves fans, the Stoke fans looking forward to a trip toBrighton again as they always had a good laugh in Brighton.

We headed for the ground at 7.45, just got in and heard the kick off delayed by 15 minutes. We paid £40 for our tickets (once paid ticketmaster booking fees, handling charge, postage charge , rip of tax etc etc) and our seats were down by the corner flag next to the Paxton lane end. What a rip off! As for the match, we were out classed and Van Bommel and Van Nistlrooy were IMHO the two best players on the pitch. The team wasexperimental and got lost with all the substitutions. I'm sure Sven knows his team for Munich already. At half time bumped into Kev and Ash and watched the first five minutes on the second half on TV screens under the stand! We managed to miss the whole of the David James episode. We did a Mike Curtis and left 10 minutes before the end to beat the crowds.

We aimed for White Hart Lane station but it was complete chaos. The Policewere clue-less and we waited around 35 minutes to get on a train. The whole event had been badly handled, I cant believe the problems they have as the crowd was 3,000 below capacity, only around 1,000 away fans and yet they acted as if they have never handled big events before! Phil B was still on Tottenham High Road waiting to catch a bus home and that was in chaos too, couldn't really hear what Phil was saying but could hear plenty of shouting going on in the background (you still alive Phil?).We got back to Victoria in time to catch the 23.32 back to Brighton. I hopethis is just a blip, I guess we wil find out on the 1st September.

Roll on Munich!

Mark R

A v Greece 6.6.2001

So the last football game of the season (Brighton's first friendly is just 5weeks away!!!)The trip started with Phil Blackman picking me up on Sunday afternoon, thena leisurely drive up to Heathrow before parking the car up at one of thesetrading estate park up and get driven to the airport places. We arrived at Heathrow and had time for a couple of pints before checking in and then boarding our Virgin flight.We arrived into Athens new airport at around 2am, went outside to be confronted with about 500 taxis, got in the first one and we were off,driving speed either 0 or 100, nothing in-between! We arrived at the Athens Central Hotel, checked in and were in bed by 3.30am.

Not surprisingly we missed breakfast Monday morning, but were up around 11am. We ventured out into the city and eventually found a quiet backstreet bar. We ordered a few beers and met up with a Norwich lad, had a few more beers, then decided it was food time. Phil had Squid, Piers had meatballs and I had cheese balls! Strange dishes but nice. After that we wandered round, found another couple of bars, but then headed back to the Hotel to try out the roof top swimming pool. There was also a roof top bar with cracking views of Athens and a spectacular view of the Acropolis. That evening we ventured out again, ended up in a bar full of old people (beer was only about 50p!), then ended up in the red light area (by accident of course!). There was a distinct lack of England fans about, and it was all very quiet. On the Tuesday we spent most of the day by the pool, relaxing (with the odd cold beer or two) and Phil got nicely sunburnt. By the time we went out in the evening Phil was glowing! We headed towards the Acropolis and met upwith some Coventry lads we know. There were loads of bars/restaurants in the area known as Plaka and we had a meal, and of course a few more beers. A few more England fans were about now and we bumped into John (Sheff Utd) and his misses (Sheff Wed!!). They are coming down for the weekend when we playthem in the pre season friendly. By now Phil appeared to be suffering from sun stroke, felling hot, shivering and glowing like a nuclear reactor! We returned to the Hotel, and the agony of the musician at the hotel bar!

Match day and we headed back to the Plaka area, and it was soon packed withEngland fans. We met up with the Cov lads again and Brighton fans (andlistees) Andy S and Kev K. The beers were soon flowing and we met up withthe Northampton lads, and got talking to a few Rotherham, West Brom and aload more Coventry fans. The square was soon decorated with St GeorgesCrosses (including Phil's A21 flag). Around 8pm we decided to head to theground. We caught the metro and about 30 minutes later arrived at theground. The Northampton lads had got off the stop before for a final beerand apparently all hell broke loose. Gary got hit on the head with a bottleand they then got baton charged by the Police and put back on the nexttrain, glad we hadn't got off!We got into the stadium about 9pm and stood on the side at the back, asuperb view, and amazingly an almost empty stadium.








The ground gradually filled up and I would estimate around 8,000 England fans turned up - 4,000 with tickets, 4,000 paying on the day. We met up with fellow Brighton fans Worthing Liz, the Fatty Taxman and Ashford Steve as well as Dogsy (Palace),Scunny Daz and Villa Colin.I wont comment on the match as I imagine most people saw it. Beckham was brilliant and he milked it when he scored. I think the
stick the Greeks gave him when he took corners near them just spurred him on. At the end hecame over and was loving it, despite the few Greeks on the pitch trying to get his shirt off him. We were held in for around 45 minutes but the organisation for once was good and they had metros waiting for us to run us back into the centre of Athens. I saw Clive (Harts Shirt from North Stand Chat) very briefly but then our metro was full and we were off. This was the only scary part of the trip. As our metro approached the first stop back it came under a hail of missiles, the bricks smacked into the windows.The riot Police held their shields to the windows and ordered everyone onto the floor!!! The train moved on but we later learnt every train was attacked and in the one behind us several windows shattered and a few people injured!We decided to not risk Plaka afterwards but instead went back to the Hotel bar. It was soon packed with happy England fans and I vaguely remember staggering back to the room some time around 4.30ish. During the evening we met up with Tim and his girlfriend (Everton fans but live in Brighton) and their mates who we see at every England trip. We got talking to 2 Rotherham fans who had been on our Albania flight, (they had spent the night at Heathrow after Olympic air cocked up our flight). It was a great night and the cold bottles of beer went down a treat. Any and Kev crashed at our Hotel as they had left their wives/families on Aegina and the first ferry wasn't until 5.30am!

The next day was very quiet, we had a meal at lunch time but had to get a taxi back to the airport early afternoon and landed back at Heathrow ataround 8pm.

Roll on Munich!


Mark R

H v Mexico (Derby) 25.5.2001

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............on to Pride Park............On to Pride Park.............On to Pride Park............
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the two teams line up and flying the flag!


All pictures from 3lionsontour.com

A v Albania 28.3.2001

A v Albania 28.3.2001

Where do I start!

We left Heathrow on the 22.05 flight on the Monday evening, arrived in Athens
airport at 4am local time (first problem was adjusting watches, just changed for BST last Sunday, forward 2 hours for Greece, then back an hour for Albania, I think!). The connecting flight to Albania was due at 5.30am but was delayed due to weather, or lack of weather. Athens received no weather information from Tirana so wouldn't let the plane leave! It finally did around 6.30am and we arrived into Tirana about 1 ½ hours later.

On arrival into Albania you have to complete entry and exit visas and then pay a $10 entry tax. The poor woman had to write out individual receipts using a 100 year old bit of carbon paper!! It took about an hour for everyone on the flight to get through. The building was primitive and that was a taster of things to come. The taxi drivers were clambering to get our business and we sorted it with a bloke inside the airport and we were off. It cost us 25$ and considering the average wage is $22 per month, shows why they so eager! The taxi journey was interesting and as Jason said he wasn't sure which side of the road they actually drive on, we decided it was the ones without the huge pot holes. As we approached the outskirts of Tirana the roads became worse and everything was dusty and there were loads of people just hanging around the side of the roads appearing to be doing nothing. The main congestion on the roads was at junctions as there are no traffic lights or road markings. The taxis compete with people, horse and carts and the vehicles that you use to see in the old
Pink Panther (Peter Sellers- not the cartoon) movies, and also old bicycles with large baskets on the front. At this stage I think we were wondering what we had let ourselves in for.We arrived at the Hotel and what a result. We were paying $90 a twin room,but it was worth it. It was one of the best hotels we have stayed in on our many trips abroad following England. We left our luggage in reception and headed out as we couldn't check in until midday and it was only 8.30am.There was a bar over the road and we ventured in. We ordered a few cokes and an early morning beer. We dug out a map we had to try and work out where things were and we soon had different people coming over and trying to help us out. English is the second language of Albania (map reading is NOT!).Everyone was really friendly and interesting, and chatted to us in broken English. Once again this set the tone for the trip, they were fascinated in 'Westerners' as much as we were in the stark contrast of living in a country such as Albania compared to most of Europe.At midday we returned to the Hotel checked in showered and then headed out for the U21 match. We got to the alleged venue, a stadium ready to collapse at any moment. Apparently the team arrived and they didn't even let the players get out and refused to play there so it was moved to the same venueas the main game the next day. We arrived about 3.10 eventually queued up and got our 300 Lev ticket (About £1.50) and headed in. The ground was basic but we had a roof for this match which was lucky as it was chucking it down. There were probably as many watching the match from building sites as in the ground. England dug out a 1-0 win (Greening penalty - I think!). After the game we met up with Ashford Steve (Brighton fan), Scunny Daz, Scunny Mark and careful Colin the Birmingham City fan. We passed a supposed Irish bar so headed in and had a beer or two. We basically went on a bar crawl of Tirana and it was superb. We met some Stoke, Birmingham, Villa and Doncaster fans in a nightclub bar but went into a smaller bar around 11pm and discovered that bars were being shut on Police advice due to the reputation of England fans. The bar owners saw that everyone about was genuine and they all served us! The last bar we were in was the tops. The owner pulled down the shutters and we were in for as long as we wanted. I think it was 2/3am when we left as some of us had been up from 6.30am Monday morning and it was now 3am Wednesday morning with no sleep! We had no ideawhere the hotel was but set off determined to get back and 20 minutes later found ourselves back where we had just left! We did (eventually) find the hotel and crashed out


Wednesday morning was a struggle. I had to get up to do a Radio slot for Southern Counties Radio, and then we wandered into town again. Most Englandfans for this trip had come on organised day trips, they missed out on a place that had not a lot to offer, but everyone made us feel really welcomeand it was one of the best trips I have been on. A few local school kids decided to throw stones at us at one stage but a local Albanian chased them off and apologised!We headed for the ground around 7pm and the organisation was dreadful. They had moved the section for England fans and it was chaos getting in. There were baton wielding Police keeping (we think) ticketless Albanian fans out the stadium. We got in without showing ticket and the alleged reserved England section was full of Albanians! There were approximately 1,500 England fans at the match and room left for about 600. The only hassle we saw all the time we were in Albania from England fans was during the first 10 minutes of the game as they attempted to wedge us all in the top corner.A lot of people had had enough and stood in the other part of the top section that should have been reserved for us anyway. The few hundred Albanians in that section were soon moved out and we at last had some room.The atmosphere was good and the first half poor in football terms. At this point I should also mention that the ground had no toilet facilities - niceone!!!! I imagine most people saw the game, but we scrapped a 3-1 win.

Some pictures from the match................





armed police patrol the roof of the stadium!!.................

NORMAN WISDON - seen as a comic genious and a bit of a hero in Albania!!






After the final whistle it was the only nasty bit of the trip. The local thugs were throwing rocks/stones into the away end from outside with catapults. At first the Police did nothing but eventually armed up and chased them off. They held us in for 20 minutes or so and most people disappeared back onto coaches to go back to the airport. There was a group of about 20 of us wandering into town and we did get a few verbals from a few people
but safely got back into a bar the Scunny lads had been in before the march.We settled down, exhausted for the last few days and had a 'few' relaxing beers.

Thursday we had a 9.45am flight back to Thessaloniki and that was where it went wrong. We were supposed to fly back straight to Gatwick but last week they told us the flight was cancelled so had booked us a hotel and would fly us out Friday afternoon. When we checked in they told us that was wrong and we had to fly from Tirana to Thessaloniki to Athens to Heathrow. 9.45-12.05 13.10-14.05 19.10-21.10 (our time). Unfortunately for us Thursday was the day that the brand new airport in Athens opened. The building opened ok but none of the computer links etc etc worked!!! We were delayed for 3 hours in Thessaloniki and when we got to Athens it was chaos. They lost our plane(true) and found it 3 hours later! When we arrived into Heathrow at 23.15 they then announced that the plane had no luggage on board! It turned out that all flights that left Athens yesterday had no luggage. We had to fillin a claim form and they will be sent by courier back to us when they eventually get back to Heathrow!!! By then it was nearly midnight as some of our lot were going back to Lewes and Worthing missed the last train. We went to the Olympic air desk but they had all gone home and would be back at6.20am. BAA attempted to help us out but they could make no contact with Olympic so we got a taxi home and will make a claim today! So we set off from our Hotel in Albania at 6.30am (UK time) and arrived at 23.15pm (uk time) too many hours for me! Sods law - the next England away match is Greece in Athens, perhaps we can collect our bags then, if they can find them!

Mark R

Update
The good news is our luggage turned up yesterday and was delivered by courier. The Fatty Taxman had his luggage delivered to his local pub!!!!!!!!!!!Brighton are 2nd in the league, England just won 2 matches on the trot, so I wasn't worried about delayed luggage, but drinking more beer does help!

Mark R





...................................................drunk but happy......................