Since my move to Czech Republic, my opportunities to add to my collection have obviously become limited.
But my first visit to Elland Road in February 2018 inspired me to see how far I'd actually got.
34 so far...
Arsenal
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I’m
pretty sure I did Highbury, though I can’t remember the details
now. But I’ve definitely done the Emirates a couple of times. I
went with a mate to a midweek game against Charlton (I think), and
my abiding memory was deliberately waiting until we get to our
seats (right up the back) before turning around. When we finally
did, the view was frankly stunning.
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Aston
Villa
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went
with Sheff Wed mates to watch a League Cup match
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Barnsley
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did
Oakwell on my own while I was at uni in Sheffield. It was part of
Brentford’s Great Escape under Martin Allen, with Jay Tabb
scoring a stunning goal (lost to the internet) bursting through
from the halfway line. Otherwise my main memory was having a joint
en route, and then walking with the crowds from the train station
to the stadium - there was one bit where you turned and suddenly
you were walking down a long road with the stadium in sight at the
end. I was surrounded by loads of home fans and felt a bit
conspicuous and paranoid!
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Bournemouth
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a
fun day out but a painful visit, as Brentford’s attempts to gain
automatic promotion in 2005-06 finally gave up and died. I don’t
really recall the game now! But I know it didn’t go well. Nice
pub beforehand. Should’ve gone there previously for a New Year’s
Day game but had to pull out and suffer a very lame start to 2005
with a 24-hour stomach bug.
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Brentford
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the
stadium I’ve visited more than any other!
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Bristol
City
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been
more than once, but a bit vague on the details now. Remember
seeing us get spanked 4-1 there, which reminds me really that I’ve
been lucky enough not to see us get spanked often.
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Cambridge
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ah
well, that was a great day out - my first Brentford away game!
Watching us secure the fourth division title back in 1999 with
Lloyd Owusu netting the winner. Great day, great celebrations,
marred a touch by all getting back to Brentford (on the supporters
coach cos it was my first time) and waiting around the ground (in
a party atmosphere) with rumours that the team would come and
celebrate with us… Before word eventually got around that no,
they wouldn’t. Pity.
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Charlton
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FA
Cup 2006 - sadly the wheels were coming off a bit, so we were a
bit abject and easily beaten. Bit of a pain to get away from, so I
think in the end me and a few mates had a BIG night due to slowly
getting wrecked on the way home.
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Chelsea
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definitely
been there, can’t recall when or why now. It would’ve been
before they were such a big club, and the stadium was probably a
bit different to how it is now.
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Cheltenham
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an
interesting day out at Whaddon Road. We were at university and the
idea came up, a stoner mate who came from Cheltenham said “I’ll
take you and see the folks, do a few bits”. So it was a good
road trip but we were cutting it a bit fine… And then we went
from house to house and starting cutting it very fine… Until at
about 2:55 we said “mate, game’s about to start!” He took us
through side streets and back alleys and we got there (about 20
minutes late!). The game was terrible and had my mate cursing us
for wasting his time(!!), then of course Cheltenham
bundled home a last-minute goal to take the 1-0 victory. Anyway
the journey back was fun too - my mate had picked up an ounce of
green along the way, all bagged up individually and tucked in his
inside pocket of his jacket, and he proceeded to speed along the
motorway in his Audi convertible. Us strait-laced fellas started
to sweat a little at the prospect of arousing attention, but of
course we got back without incident.
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Crystal
Palace
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my
second-most visited ground after Griffin Park. Palace beating
Swindon in 1989 with two goals in a minute was my first ever game,
with Mark Bright and Ian Wright up-front. Within moments of me
turning up, the Eagles got to their first ever FA Cup Final (1990)
and then their highest ever finish (3rd in 1991), but they also
got thrashed 9-0 at Liverpool, which me and Dad listened to on
Capital Gold back in 1989 before the defeat was avenged later in
the season in one of the great FA Cup semi-finals. Palace got
promoted in my first season and played Man Utd at home in midweek
in their first game back in the top flight - I was there to see
the unveiling of the high-tech (!!) electronic scoreboards, with
their lame GOAL! graphic being exercised by Wright and Bryan
Robson that night. My last game at Selhurst was a nondescript 0-0
against Birmingham - my dad no longer enjoyed the experience of
going to a match, even though it was great to spend the time
together.
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Everton
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went
to see Everton coast past Leyton Orient in the FA Cup, only time I
ever saw Gazza play live.
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Gillingham
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two
trips to Kent to see one match, with the first being postponed
just before kick-off. We killed time in a few pubs before heading
back, but frankly it was a weird place. The second time was good
fun with some entertaining company, but the game itself was a
midweek battle with our promotion-chasers tearing themselves apart
in front of a big anxious bees following in their horrible metal
“temporary” (now semi-permanent) away stand.
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Grimsby
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really
fun trip to do (easier for us from Sheffield), but we lost and
Cleethorpes really did stink of fish.
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Huddersfield
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got
there a few times, including a great battle between two
promotion-chasers where Sam Sodje almost scored a sensational goal
(they almost bagged a worldie too, it was a cracking game!). I
remember going there for the opening game one season and we won
with Jamie Fullarton scoring, and we were singing (to “Can’t
Take My Eyes Off You” by Frankie Valli) “Your season’s over!
A-lalala, your season’s over! A-lalala…” - great fun at the
time, and they actually did end up getting relegated too!
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Leeds
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recently
added on a trip with my uncle and cousins – unfortunately, very
poor, nondescript game. Great evening catching up with family
though!
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Luton
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a
couple of trips including a great FA Cup win. Very close to the
home fans, always a worry for someone as conspicuous as myself!
One of the trips, we arrived early and went to a pub near the
station, just a few of us and mostly in Brentford shirts. We were
there just after it opened, but after two or three beers we
noticed that it had filled up and that the patrons… did not
particularly appreciate our presence. We hastily moved on.
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Man
Utd
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i
was studying in Sheffield when a friend (who went on to become a
Brentford director for a while) offered me use of his company’s
season tickets (as they didn’t have a client to entertain). I
went with Chris and it became a legendary night, with Chris going
for 5-0 on his bet and celebrating wildly (while the rest of the
crowd clapped politely) as Paul Scholes strode through to bag the
fifth in the last few minutes. That covered our petrol, one of
Chris’s mates was working as a steward and managed to find us to
sneak us both one of the leftover pies (half-decent at Old
Trafford, as you’d expect), and we went back to that bloke’s
place after the match for a joint. So a glorious free day out
(even if Chris’s stoned driving on the journey back along the
notorious “Snake Pass” was slightly terrifying!)
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Mansfield
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another
Chris trip, not quite as memorable as above! Went to see Leyton
Orient, and the home team won comfortably.
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Millwall
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went
to a Brentford preseason friendly (assuming no aggro!), but had my
nose broken by an elbow while playing football in the morning! Got
it for a proper match in the end too, another random FA Cup match
- actually saw Scunthorpe again, the same season as I saw them at
Doncaster (below) and after they beat Brentford in Round 2.
Millwall was actually the closest ground to where I lived for a
good six months or so, but it was a slightly scary area so I
didn’t pop down at all!
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Notts
County
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as
most fans know, there is a Hooters within walking distance of
Meadow Lane, so a load of people went up early and enjoyed a good
2-3 hours drinking in there. It was fantastic fun for a young man,
for sure. I remember that someone I knew worked as one of the
radio commentators and said that he saw there were only about 50
Brentford fans at 3pm, and then about 350-400 when he looked five
minutes later - we’d all missed the start, hanging on for as
long as possible in the pub! It was great on the pitch too, coming
back from two down with two late goals, with Marks Williams and
McCammon having some of their best moments in Bees shirts.
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Notts
Forest
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similar
to above of course, although Hooters wasn’t quite as good and we
made it up for it by drinking more, which wasn’t advisable too.
A friend came over at half-time to let us know that stewards were
pointing us out to colleagues and consulting each other over what
to do (I think we were collectively slumping and sprawling over a
load of nearby seats). We straightened ourselves up a bit and
survived, and the Bees won in a famous away day, so it all worked
out well!
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Oldham
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Coldham,
aka Ice Station Boundary Park. Went three times I think, including
a gutless display just before a painful transfer deadline. And yes
it was bloody cold and grim.
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QPHa
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definitely
went as a youngster (with a group of other kids and a well-meaning
adult or two - the details are hazy). But certainly went during
the irritating period when they finally came down to our level so
we played them three seasons in a row, and somehow didn’t win
any. I think it ended as four draws and two defeats in the six
matches. We were gagging to celebrate victory over our bitter
rivals, and the best chance was probably during our
run-in in 2002(?), when McCammon(sp?) famously headed down and
bounced it over the bar from about 10 yards out. Given my height,
we deliberately asked to be sat on the back row, and got given the
third row… And of course, there were kids behind me. We swapped
of course, much to the chagrin of the guys in Row 5!
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Reading
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a
recent one - left my wife to fend for herself in the
post-Christmas Reading sales, and went with the lads to see
Brentford win, with Sergi Canos scoring an absolute beauty. It was
my first actual game for around five years(!), and obviously I was
out of practice because I nearly went down when Sergi’s goal
went in - I was lucky that my mate saw me and held on! And my
glasses went flying in the process and could easily have been
smashed, but were somehow preserved - all this in the process of a
minute-long group hug!! The joys of football!!
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Scunthorpe
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FA
Cup 2nd Round - we played awfully at times and eventually lost.
Memorable for travelling with my mate from Sheffield, both in Bees
shirts, and seeing the stadium from the train… And then watching
the stadium recede from view and eventually disappear. And then
having another minute or two before the train pulled into the
station! So we knew that we were in for a bit of a walk. We got
off the train to be confronted by a large group of police - we
were the only two football fans on the train, it seemed! The
police looked at us and shrugged and turned to leave. We asked for
a lift but they laughed and drove away. Fortunately we turned the
route into something of a pub crawl (we had time), so it worked
out pretty well (aside from the game, but that’s quite
standard!).
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Sheff
Utd
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Chris
and I offered to organise a trip for the newcomers at our student
halls of residence in Freshers Week. Don’t think we made any
friends out of it, but still, it felt like we contributed!
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Sheff
Wed
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did
a fair few games at Hillsborough, with three of my best mates at
uni being Wednesday fans. I remember an insane duel between Gerald
Sibon and Peter Crouch which the former won 3-2 (I think Sheff Wed
won 5-2 overall, which I particularly enjoyed against bloody
QPHa). Also fondly recall a game where I went as an
away fan to see the Bees - we had a man sent off and they scored
the penalty early, but we held on and then scored two in a minute
late on, so the 400 or so of us in the away end went absolutely
potty. It was during that unfortunately brief run where Alex
Rhodes looked awesome before Paul McShane took him out (never
forget). We cleared a corner and Rhodes motored past them to set
up Deon Burton for the winner - you beauty!!
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Southampton
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the
infamous FA Cup debacle. Shambolic organisation from Brentford but
fortunately we got our tickets sorted, and of course the game was
a cracker (we were on Match of the Day and Isaiah Rankin was even
nominated for goal of the month!). We carried on enjoying
ourselves in the city centre until 9 or 10pm before getting the
last train back, but we were getting some seriously moody looks in
the pubs and clubs by evening - never really liked Southampton
fans since that day (apologies to any decent ones reading this).
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Southend
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my
Dad ended up moving to within walking distance, but I went a few
years earlier and saw them smash us 4-1. They ended up getting
promoted ahead of us that season - fair play to them.
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Stoke
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really
enjoyed the match I saw at the Britannia Stadium - think it was
the same season as we ended up meeting in the playoff final, which
was awful (for us), but the game at Griffin Park that year was
great too (their baldy Icelandic striker was sent off in front of
us, haha, bye bye!). The game at Stoke was brilliant, passionate,
intense, high quality - they ended up winning 3-2, and the noise
when they scored was very impressive (deafening us with bloody
Delilah for minutes afterwards). Another abiding memory was
looking for somewhere to drink near the station afterwards - and
being faced with an utter ghost town. I’m sure we found some fun
on our journey home, but it was totally bizarre to see how
lifeless the area around the station was.
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Swindon
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managed
to do a few trips here too, with a good uni mate in Swindon.
Unfortunately, my mind is playing tricks on me - I think I was
there for Paul Brooker’s wondergoal, but maybe that’s because
I’ve seen it that many times that I’ve confused myself. In a
possibly related anecdote, I remember having a couple of
pre-rolled joints with me in a glasses case for one of the games
there, and I remember a polite steward pointing out to me that I’d
dropped it (and them) on to the floor. He gave me a nod as I
picked them up, and he kept an eye on me at half-time, so I waited
until the walk back to the train station before sparking up!
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Walsall
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I
know I went to the Bescot, and I remember stopping back in
Birmingham on the way back, which was a good laugh. No idea what
happened in the game itself though.
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Wigan
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first
day of the 2001/02 season, weird place but some fun in the pubs,
and calling Adrian Durham up on the way home (me being a stupid
naive kid at the time) to set him straight about how Brentford
weren’t useless (was proved right, we made the playoffs that
year!)
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Special mention:
Bury
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we got all the way there (via train,
metro and local bus) before being told the game was called off as
we were two minutes away! Never made it back.
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AFC Wimbledon
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I’m not counting this, but I have
been to Kingsmeadow (can’t recall the game now, but it was
definitely a Kingstonian match, long before AFC were on the
scene).
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The lost grounds:
Brighton
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went to the Withdean but not been to
the new ground. The “Coca Cola Kid” Chris Moore got a late
equaliser for us and then we got very, very drunk.
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Chesterfield
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went a couple of times but now
they’ve moved. One was a blistering hot day where I foolishly
lit up a cigarette within moments of taking my seat in the
(wooden!!) away stand. Otherwise I remember Evo scoring a beauty,
and a late equaliser (not necessarily in the same game!)
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Colchester
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I had a good friend at Essex Uni so
Colchester-Bees games became a good excuse to visit. Again, this
was before their recent move. And another example here of taking a
friend to see dire lower-league fare, leaving the innocent
companion wondering why anyone bothers.
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Doncaster
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my friend and I for a few years tried
to find an interesting nearby game to attend for the First Round
of the FA Cup, so we wandered over to Belle Vue to see Doncaster
vs Scunthorpe (while we were studying in Sheffield). Little did we
know that there’s a fierce rivalry between the teams, with
plenty of aggro in the stands!
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Hartlepool
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FA Cup replay, young and reckless and
fancied a weekend in Newcastle. Quality trip including a Bees win
- got asked to calm down by a steward, naughty naughty.
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Leyton Orient
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don’t remember the game but Chris
lived nearby so eventually had to get it ticked off. Being able to
see into the nearby flats stuck in my mind.
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MK Dons
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went to the Hockey Stadium -
predictably naff, and there was a fair bit of animosity among
Brentford fans towards the Dons in general. I remember the city
was a horrible soulless place (for any modern reader who is
offended, we are talking a fair few years ago - I have no idea how
it is now!). Pretty sure we had an early red card, and that it
rained a lot (maybe just pre-match - I have a feeling that our
stand didn’t have a roof, but the match was bearable).
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Rotherham
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went to Millmoor and watched
Rotherham get promoted - think it was something crazy like we hit
the bar late which would have denied them, but they went down the
other end and banged one in to seal the deal, and they rightfully
celebrated (it didn’t matter much to us).
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Stockport
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another FA Cup trip, early start and
arriving in Stockport 11ish, terrorising the poor locals as we
marched through the town centre. I’ve got a distinct memory too
of irritating some locals in one of the pubs, but fortunately we
managed to calm them down. Nipped out for a piss early in the
match and wobbled back towards the stand, so some stewards started
to cast a suspicious eye on me - I pleaded my case, saying that I
was just excited for the Cup!
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Torquay
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a natural weekender with lots of good
fun (before one of my mates got far far too drunk and spoiled it
all - but these things happen!).
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Wrexham
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an epic! Late-season re-scheduled
match that was the only game on that night, apart from the
Liverpool-Chelsea Champions League semi-final! Scott Fitzgerald
scored late to secure our spot in the playoffs. But the real fun
was the journey home. Our car ran out of petrol near Birmingham
due to a “communication issue” between driver and navigator
(myself). It took ages to get sorted (during which time a lorry
almost wiped us out), so when we hit the road again our driver was
dangerously tired. We decided to take a break on the hard
shoulder, with one of the lads sleeping in the boot but not really
sleeping due to immense fear of someone driving into us. Don’t
know why, we left the lights on to avoid such an issue. Woke an
hour later to find that the battery had gone dead(!). I was forced
to join the RAC to get roadside assistance, which came an hour
later (so another quick nap in the meantime). Battery re-started,
got back to Staines around 7am, so I reasoned there was no point
going home to freshen up and just hopped straight on the train to
work! The other lads called in sick - lame!
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York
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went with Chris during the first
month or two at uni, with Orient as the opposition. Main funny
memory being that Chris didn’t know where the ground was, and
didn’t care much - his “plan” was that once we got there,
we’d just pull up and ask people on the street. A different era,
before smartphones etc! And York’s a big city that doesn’t
care much about its football team, so finding the ground took a
while, but we got there in the end.
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