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