A v Scotland 18.11.2014

Scotland 1 England 3

What a day

So after the 3-1 win over Slovenia in the Euro qualifier on the Saturday, it was off up to Glasgow and the surprising choice of Celtic Park for the  "friendly" verses the old enemy.  I opted for a short trip so it was up early on the Tuesday morning for the 9.05 Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Glasgow.

Candlerigg Market  - ticket collection point

After collecting the tickets we moved on to a great pub called the Blackfriars, next stop was to the massive Weatherspoons the Counting House (were we drank before the 1999 Euro Play Offs match).  We then arranged to meet some other mates in a bar called the Committee Rooms.  The plan of taking it easy before kick off had by now gone out the window.

Drowned out in the Counting House

At about 5.30pm we decided to head towards the ground so headed to the station (via the Christmas market and oh a really good idea a glass of mulled ginger wine), and were soon at Bridgeton Station.  There are various pubs outside and they are all Rangers pubs despite being in the East End of Glasgow and just a 15 minute walk to Celtic Park.  The pubs were all rammed!

Definitely a pro-union pub!

The first pub was heaving so we decided to move next door to the Station Bar.  It was superb and we settled down for a few more pre-match pints before heading to the ground.

A Rangers pub in the middle of Celtic Land

At it was now 7.30 we thought we better head to the game.  It was an easy trouble free walk to the ground.  It looked quite impressive from the outside.  I was in the upper tier and it was a fair old hike up to the top!

One or two England flags

So for one night only Celtic park belonged to England, we ruled on the pitch and out sung them off the pitch. From the National Anthem to rule Britannia echoing round the stadium, love it love it love it.  Nights like this are why you follow your country round Europe and the World.  GSTQ! 

 

Flower of Scotland at half time

The Piggery in all its glory

Paddy McCourt?

So after the game we decided to return back to the Station hotel for another beer.  We only had time for one more as time was called, so it was the short train trip back to Glasgow Central.  Most pubs were shut but we found a hotel bar with a few lads we had been in Brazil with, so was rude not to join them.  I caught the 12.30am bus back to the airport and by 1.30am was nicely tucked up in bed, to be hideously woken by by alarm just 3 1/2 hours later as I was on the 7am flight back to Gatwick.  I felt dreadful, but there was a nice view of the sunrise above the clouds just after we had taken off,  I then fell asleep and woke up as we touched down at Gatwick.

A Beautiful sunrise for the journey home

So just 22 hours in Glasgow but what a fantastic few hours. Passionate fans for once match by a passionate team. Hopeful signs for the future. So that was the final away trip with England for 2014, from Brazil to Switzerland to Estonia to Scotland.  Roll on 2015

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A v Estonia 12.10.2014

So away qualifier number two for France 2016. This time is was Estonia but we decided to head out via Riga (Latvia) to get a new country in for me!!

Friday 10th October

After drinking a few of these in Estonia it was always going to end messily!

So we headed up to Stansted mid morning on the Friday, the airport was packed so we headed to the rather impressive bar in the Radisson Hotel.  After 7.30pm a "young angel" will apparently retrieve you bottle of wine from the bottle tower!

Erm can I have the third bottle on the right from the top row please, no not that, nope, next one, perfect, thank you!

The Cafe Bar

So it was a night our in Riga.Our flight did not land until 11pm, but we had soon checked into our hotel and then headed out to meet some mates already out and about.  We found the huge cafe bar and tucked into the local beer.  The place had various rooms and we ended up watching a live band.  At about stupid o'clock everyone had got separated, I got back to the hotel about 5am, Nelson turned up about an hour later and Mike never made it back!  

Saturday 11th October

I was woken up when Nelsons phone kept ringing and luckily that was about 9am and we had to be on the 10am bus from Riga to Tallinn!  We set off to the bus station and met up with Mike who had walked around all night as he couldn't get back into our hotel!  He had also not explanation when he took his coat off and found out he had lost his favourite Mr Messy T-shirt!  We boarded the coach and by about 10.01 everyone was asleep!

Riga coach station- well that was nearly all we saw in daylight!  We arrived into Tallinn about 2pm but headed to the nearest bar to wait for some mates on the later bus!  The quick drink and food stop ended lasting over 3 hours and it was now dark so jumped into a cab to our hotel next to the old town.

One quick beer, erm three hours later we finally get moving again

Cocaine in a test tube

A bottle or two in the Labor bar

Scott is delighted to still be alive after our first night in Tallinn.  It rapidly went downhill for Scott after this and we did not see him again until after the match on Sunday night!

Sunday 12th October

Old Town Tallinn

Kev is finally happy he has a beer big enough to last for an hour or so!

Our very very very very nice beer wench, 8 big beers in one hand, yes just one hand. Man City Dave was convinced he had found his new wife!

The outside of the Labor bar that has caused the carnage the night before, with this display how can you not go inside and not remember coming back out!

We headed up to the ground at about 5pm as a few of our lot didn't have match tickets.  There was not a lot going about so most headed back into the main square to watch the game on TV, apart from Scott who managed to stay asleep and miss the thriller!

Garlic Bread - mmmm that was the highlight of the catering in the ground!

So after the game we walked back into Tallinn.  It was about a 30 minute walk back which woke everyone up after the dire game of football.  We were soon back in the Beer Haus and then it was on to the Venus nightclub.

Once again the night did not end well for Mike.  First his knee went, then he was asked to leave the club we were in, then he was escorted out the club, the club was then closed down, he then fell down the stairs outside the club and when he woke up in the morning still had the ticket for his jacket which was still in the club and now closed! 

Monday 13th October

Luckily our coach back to Riga was not until 12.40, so after a long lie in we struggled back to the bus station and this time we had the posh coach back......but we were once again all soon asleep on the trip back.

We soon crossed the boarder back into Latvia - and after about 5 hours were back in Riga....

We had a few hours before we needed to head to the airport so went into a Steak restaurant!  One or two managed a few ciders, I managed a couple of Sprites!  Anyway it was soon time to get back to the airport and the flight back to Stansted.  I was dropped off at my car near Three Bridges station and was back home just after 1am.  A couple of mates had another night in Riga and took in the Latvia v Turkey match.

So another great trip abroad with England, next up the "friendly" at Celtic Park

Mark R

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My mates Scott excellent blog from Estonia can be found at
http://mccarthysfootballtravels.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/estonia-v-england-121014.html