Another eventful trip that included an expensive train ticket, a good following of away fans, a loss against ten men and lesson on how the West Brom Gareth Barry chant meant happy days for my PS4. All of this on New Years Day after a reasonably heavy one the previous evening.
Now, you can tell when things aren’t going your way on a day. I woke up to see that my vape which had been on charge all night had in fact not charged at all. Bollock! Not in a good mood straight away. Ask any smoker or vaper! I had to leave though as I couldn’t miss the train at Euston.
I had picked my tickets up at the station the previous evening, thinking I would be organised. I bought them online, through splitticketting.com. When I got to Euston I couldn’t find my Euston to Coventry part of the ticket. I knew I had picked up all of my tickets from the machine, WTF??
Virgin made me pay up as my email was not proof. An extra ‘nifty fifty’ to get on the train. This over doubled my cost. Genuine daylight robbery. Cheers. I kicked off a bit as I knew I was in the right. Ultimately, I had to get on the train though and I had no choice but to pay and investigate after. So far I have discovered I was right! Shock.
The trip to Birmingham New Street then involved making sure I was right on the ticket front. I was firing off some messages to the appropriate companies, finding a seat and having to try and charge the phone and the vape. Oh, and I left my bevvies at home, despite putting them out. Absolute shocker!
I got a few ciders in at New Street, where I had to make a couple of changes from there to get to Kidderminster. I asked a few away fans who were walking away from the Kiddy town centre where we were and I was told Weatherspoons.
The first thing I thought to myself when I entered the pub was that I had missed this kind of away following at the last few matches I had been to. It was absolutely rammed with Bulls fans in there and you knew there would be more inside Aggborough. At £2.25 a pint in there it would be rude not to have several and a double vodka coke. As someone who grew up working in the betting industry as a trader, I always know value when I see it. You don’t lose that ‘eye’.
I thought I better leave after that as I would no doubt want to have another swift one before kick-off. I didn’t time it particularly well as I left in-between everyone. Luckily, I bumped into a few of the lads on the way up and walked up to the stadium with them. It must have been a good 10-15 minute walk from the town. We were told up there we could drink in one of the bars by the away end but when we got down there they had stopped letting people in. Cheeky one from the Offie?
Inside, the following was decent, around 950 I think they said after. I was standing behind the goal with the vast majority and we were in good voice and made ourselves heard. This is what it’s about, matches, rivalries, atmospheres etc.
It completely went off when James Roberts expertly converted a short, in-direct free-kick fed to him by Owen-Evans, to put us one-up. He wasn’t far out but he absolutely buried it into the roof of the net. I had backed us to win ( I had randomly backed us at home to Kiddy and Chester, so thought I owed the lads one) and thought I was massively in here at 9/2.
The joy lasted less than a minute as they came straight up the other end and bundled a ball home after Yates could only push away the initial attempt. There were a few close calls before half-time but the hosts found themselves down to ten men after Ryan Johnson clattered Owen-Evans in the middle of the park. 1-1 at half-time looked decent, we had an extra man and the fact I could have a vape was even better.
In the second half, I had hoped we would go on to assert ourselves and win the match. It didn’t materialise like that though. They scored what I can only describe as an absolute screamer within a few minutes of the restart and we were in the shit. In fairness, they were the better side and thoroughly deserved the three points. We didn’t really create too much and it was only near the end in the last 15 we had the odd crack, here or there. It wasn’t for lack of effort that nothing materialised again.
Unlike other trips, I had to catch the train within the hour and I can honestly tell you I wanted straight out anyway. I just wanted to get home after. I had seen a CeX earlier on, so I thought I would pop in and buy Grand Theft Auto for my new PS4. West Brom’s chant of “we’ve got Gareth Barry” to September by Earth, Wind and Fire has obviously fired me up. I have no allegiance to the Baggies but fair play, a decent tune that.
A KFC was required by this stage and there was one near the station. It was then a long sulk back to London from there. Music keeps you sane at times like this. On a positive note, even though I wasn’t at the Chorley game it is great to see Keyon back. Think we have missed his creativity massively.
Al Davies
The Gubbage and the Glory! 