H v Finland (Anfield) 24.3.2001

H v Finland (Anfield) 24.3.2001

After finally getting confirmation just after 1pm that the Brighton match was off, Phil Blackman and I embarked on the mission to find 3 tickets for Anfield to get our weekend fix of beer and football. By 7pm we had 3 match tickets (approx £45 each) and train tickets from London to Liverpool for just £19. Those that had booked earlier in the week paid £45 but Virgin ran some additional trains on Saturday (especially for the football) so released additional cheap tickets!I set off at 5.45am from Aldrington as normal and arrived at Euston around7.30. I bumped into some Spurs fans we first met in Sweden in Euro '92, one of them had to suffer sharing a tent with me and the Fatty Taxman, but amazingly they still remains mates 9 years on! We headed for a café and then met up with a very 'Green' looking Phil Blackman about 8.30. Phil encountered problem number 1, they did have any tickets for him to collect(I will let him explain) but he ended up with a scrappy note from the travel office saying he was allowed to travel to Liverpool!We stocked up with some cans of cider and Phil sort of turned an even stranger colour and asked us to keep the smell of alcohol away from him. Due to Engineering works the 9.10 from Euston crawled into Liverpool Lime Street at 13.08. I had to meet a mate of a mate to get my match ticket, and it turned out to be a lad we see all round Europe and its was the annoying Palace fan. (Well we call him something different but as kids may read this will refrain from further comment!). We walked past a kebab shop and I heard my name called and it was the Gainsborough Trinity lads. One had just come back from Sri Lanka and was on a real high. He had been to the last text match in India and the final 2 in Sri Lanka so had seen three wins on the trot!! This bloke spends more time abroad then me and the Fatty Taxman put together!!!! Soon after Andy S and Kev K from the list arrived in 'The Liffe' pub and we settled down for a few beers and swapped ideas of how to get to the ground, the queue for taxis at Lime Street were fairly long!! We couldn't decide so had another beer to think about it!The Police were on overkill as usual and there were hundreds of them about.We met up with a Cov mate and also the Scunny lad that has won quite a bit of dosh of f the Fatty Taxman as we have failed to beat them this season! We started the long walk to the ground about 2.15 but luckily caught a cab after walking for about 5 minutes. It dropped us near the ground and we saw the Northampton lads we usually meet. They had played away at Oldham on Friday night, so had gone up to Liverpool Friday morning. They had such a good time (and so many beers) they forgot to go to Oldham, but they were not that bothered (they lost 2-1)!

Phil and Piers were on the Kop, but I was 4th row in the Centenary stand, and I had a brilliant view and it was strange being so close to a pitch compared to Withdean. Anfield looks small and to get 44,000 into it they restrict the leg room! McManaman (sp?) had an excellent game and he also had great banter with the crowd. Despite being at Anfield the majority of people around us were from London and the South plus quite a few Man Utd fans. All the Man Utd players got a great reception and Andy Cole was the only one to get stick but that was for his dire 2nd half display, not the fact he was Man Utd. The atmosphere was superb, and I'm starting to enjoy the England trips to different parts of the country. Last week we booked up tickets for the Albania/Greece home games at St James Park (Newcastle) and Old Trafford. There are also friendly matches confirmed for Derby, Spurs and Leeds so we will get to see some of the new improved Premiership stadiums.I wont comment on the match as most of you will have seen it, but for 45mins England struggled but once Owen had scored England took over. Beckham scored a cracker, but Litmenan (sp?) missed a sitter in the last few minutes. (My only complaint of the whole day was the fact the Centenary stand ran out of food at 3.10!!!)

After the final whistle we met up in a pub near the ground (bumped into the nutty Hull boys and the even madder Brentford lad who lives in Haywards Heath!) waited for the crowds to go and then caught a bus back to the City centre. We had a quick beer, raided the off-licence and then caught the 18.45 from Liverpool, well some of us did. Two were left behind as the train left 5 minutes early. Phil, Piers and I had to stand until after Runcorn and had the pleasure of the Merseyside constabulary for company in the area between compartments. We generously offered them some cans of beer but as they were working they couldn't indulge, shame!! On the train there were a few Orient, Millwall, West Ham and Sarfend. The Sarfend fan was so full of bull***t it was funny. He reckons we didn't take that many first game of the season, and we shouldn't believe the crowd printed in our programme.We got back into London 4 hours later and I think I got home around 1.30.Spent last night packing, ready for out trip to Albania which starts tonight with a 22.05 flight to Athens, hopefully connecting with a 5.30am flight onto Tirana. Who knows what will happen after that! If we get kidnapped can I enter a reserve prediction for the Seagulls Fantasy League of 2-1 Albion win every match Zamora to score crowd 6,600!!!If I get an emergency phone call I will phone in my cup semi-final prediction as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark R

H v Spain (Villa Park) 28.02.2001

We went to the U21s at St Andrews the night before. My sister was living in Birmingham at the time and we went for a rather hot Curry after the U21 match! It kept us warm the next night at Villa Park!

A v Italy (Turin) 15.11.2000

A v Italy (Friendly) - From Turin to Aldershot (via Milan!)

So another few days abroad following England, followed by the excitement of the FA Cup and then the nervous anticipation watching the second round draw! Our latest venture started on Tuesday evening as we headed up to the Burrells in Haywards Heath to watch the U21 friendly live from Monza before heading to listee Andy S's place in Cowfold as we had a 3.30am departure time to drive up to Stansted. (Cheers for driving up Andy!) The U21 matchlasted 10 mins before being abandoned due to fog! We arrived into Stansted just before 5.15am and boy was it cold. The cars in the long stay car park were frozen solid and we were the same despite only a few minutes wait for the bus to the terminal building. Our 6.30am flight to Milan was only half full and we soon nodded off and woke up just before landing. On arrival in Milan at 9.30am we went straight to the train station and for just £10 booked our return train tickets from Milan to Turin. (cheap as it takes 1 ½ hours on an express train). We decided to delay our arrival in Turin as we had been informed a 24 hour beer ban was in place, so settled down for a beer or two before catching the 11.20 from Milan. We arrived in Turin and dropped our stuff off our Hotel. We met some mates (Scunny fans!) before heading out in search of food (and drink). Everywhere appeared shut and after about an hour walking around we were just about togive up. Phil B then spotted a beer glass as we passed a small back streetbar. The 6 of us wandered in and what a result. The bar was quiet but soon a local madman arrived and engaged us in a strange conversation. He bought all of us a beer and then got up and left, top man! The bar also supplied free sandwiches and they accompanied the beer very nicely. We set of for the ground around 7pm (8.45 kick off) and by the time we had flagged down two cabs we were dropped off outside the stadium at around 7.45.



That's when the fun began. England fans were arriving in small groups and the waiting Italian mobs were loving it. As we were dropped of a huge roar went up and the Italians attacked a couple of England fans (in shirts) walking across the car park. We veered to one side and mingled amongst people queuing for food! We eventually risked attempting to get to the away entrance but two lads called us back as they had just been attacked walking around that corner. We were well and truly snookered! At last a couple more England fans turned up and we risked moving on. Once we gotround the corner it was a nightmare. They spotted us straight away and they started by throwing one of those rather loud bangers in the middle of us. That split everybody up and they then charged with chains, belts with buckles and bloody baseball bats. Most people got a few slaps and I was luckily pulled into the ground (Italian section of the ground) by some Italians who saw what was happening! It was a nightmare. The Italians turned their attention to the Police and had them cornered. Bricks, rocksand fire crackers rained down on them and a small group of Italian schoolchildren were caught in the middle but that didn't deter the Italian nutters! It only lasted a few minutes (probably 5 at most) but it was a little bit scary! We eventually met up inside the away end (I got my own 2 man police escort around the ground and into the away end) and thank god for mobile phones as the others had regrouped outside but I was missing! They were relieved as I was to find out I was still in one bit and already inside! Everyone was high on adrenaline and Phil B was most upset as when everyone split up he was passed by a speeding Fatty Tax-man. Being out run by the Fatty Tax-man eh Phil? Get down the Gym mate! The game passed of peacefully but one lad who was wearing a white stone island jacket (worth over £400 I was informed) was gutted as he had beencracked on the head and had bleed all over it! As for the match we played well but why the game was ever played in Turin is beyond me. Juventus fans will never forget (or forgive) Heysel and they were hell bent on revenge. After the game they provided free buses back to Turin centre so there were no problems as there were around 1,000 England fans bussed back and no one was risk attacking that many together! I would have estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 England fans made the trip - not a bad turn out as the crowd was only just over 22,000.In the ground the Italian fans were split into two factions. Torino fans at the end by us and Juventus fans at the other end. They spent most of the time abusing each other. Despite the low crowd the atmosphere was still good.



These pictures show Peter Taylor in his only game in charge. His first decision was to make Beckham captain. Unfortunately we lose 0-1!



The next day was much quieter and we had a look around Turin and everything had reopened. We headed back to Milan with the intention of going to the San Siro, but the weather was dreadful so we did not go.We arrived back at 7.30 Friday evening into Stansted (1 ½ delay in Milan)and thoughts turned to Saturday. We drank in Farnham so missed all the problems. After the match we remained in Aldershot for the cup draw and had a great evening, shame about Scunthorpe draw! I headed back with Jonny Rutter and Lulu but have no recollection of what time or route we took back!Any ideas Jonny?

Mark R(Back at work for a rest!)

A v Finland 11.10.2000

A v Finland (and a day trip over to Estonia)

I have been off-line since the Wednesday before Hull. I imagine I have missed many debates regarding Hull City and the crap view, no away terrace behind the goal open, the brilliant result (We won 2-0 away and finsihed the game with just 9 players after having 2 men red carded!). Then the England farce at Wembley (0-1 defeat to Germany), the dull draw in Finland, the signing of Wicks, the drab tactics of Scunthorpe and the news that Darlo and Chesterfield away games are all ticket! How many e-mails did I miss! Plus the news half of Sussex had been turned into a swimming pool. (Lewes even made the papers in Finland!!)Hull was a brilliant trip, we played like a team who knew what they were doing, shame the Hull stewards were clueless! We headed down to Wembley from Doncaster on Saturday morning and despite the showers had a good day until 3pm! England were crap in the first 45 minutes, but much better second half, Beckham was my MOTM.

On Monday afternoon we headed to Stansted to catch our cheap Buzz flight to Helsinki. The flight only took 3 hours but with the 2 hour time difference it was around 9pm by the time we had booked into 'The Eurohostel' (Only £12 a night so a bargain in Finland). We were soon in town and managed a few relaxing beers, before heading to a club and finally getting back to the Hostel around 5am! On the Tuesday some headed off for the U21 (2-2 draw) and others stayed around Helsinki. Many familiar faces turned up, lads from Northampton, Gainsborough, Bournemouth, Swindon, Coventry, Sheff Wed/Utd, Rotherham, Brentford, Everton etc etc. The weather wasn't as cold as we expected and talk soon turned to football once the team for the next day was announced. Not toooo many positive comments.


On the Wednesday we drank a bit away from the main drag and shared our beerswith many Finns who were also off to the match. One group had travelled 600km down fromthe north of Finland - a 7 hour train trip. They were allpredicting wins for England, we said we would be lucky to score nil! They knew all about the English team as they get live Premier league football,most were Man Utd/Liverpool fans but were amazed they had yet to find a single person who had travelled over who supported either! We headed to the Olympic stadium and once we had found the away end (segregated off and difficult to get to, made the walk to the old away end at Watford looksimple!) We were in a corner in the upper tier and the view was superbAround 3,500 England fans were in the ground but we were outsung by the33,000 Finns (Suomi (Finland) was the chant all night). The England corner was very quiet until about 15 mins from time when one England lad stripped naked and that suddenly seamed to kick the fans and the game into life. Parlour scored but the ref missed it (the ball hit the bar and clearly crossed the line - but the referee and lino missed it) and that was that. After the game we caught a tram back to the city centre and drowned our sorrows.

On the Thursday we caught the Hydrofoil to Estonia. Apart from the hassle of people attempting to flog cheap watches to you it is a great place. Wefound the famous bar that a Scotland fan had opened. He had gone over for aqualifier a few years back and said he would never return to Scotland.There was a huge tartan army flag at the back of the bar but that was all.He had gone bankrupt and had been driven out of Estonia by the local maffia!!!



We wandered around the old historic town and decided it was time for another drink. We ended up in a Depeche Mode tribute bar. It was sureal, did this place really exist or had we all drunk oursleves stupid!








The boat back that evening was a little rough and not helped by staff handing out sick bags to everyone! We all survived!

We headed home Friday, but before that we had a day in Helsinki. Everything was fairly expensive so we found an eat as much as you like Chinese buffet. I was stuffed after about 20 pork balls but we certainly ate enough to make it good value for money. We got home in the early hours of Saturday due to train problems.

As for the game (Brighton v Scunthope) 0-0 was a fair reflection of the match. Scuuny Daz was delighted with the fixture and the result, Brighton v Scunthorpe never seams to produce a thriller!! Neither side created much and their negative tactics were very frustrating. The defender taking goal kicks made it look worse (keeper injured the previous week and like Cartwright couldn't kick). I though Kuipers looked solid. We must win Wednesday (H V Hartlepool) to set us up for the big one on Saturday away at Chesterfield .When I went to the ticket office Saturday morning we had sold out the seats(300) and just over 1,050 terrace tickets. Can't wait!

Mark R