I haven’t posted anything for about a year and a half. It is possibly the time to rectify that.
Our trip to Crewe Alexandria on Good Friday (15/04/2022) was designated the Volunteers’ Awayday for this season.
I have been volunteering on and off at the club for a few years now. I hadn’t actually intended volunteering this season. However, we had a major problem with our ticketing arrangements at the start of the season. One of the consequences was that the season tickets were not sent out on time. Season ticket holders were asked to pick them up in person from the stadium. Not having anything better to do on that particular day, also because I hadn’t actually been to our new stadium I decided to wander along.
I collected my ticket and had a look round the club shop (I ended up spending about £100). It may have been a ploy by the club to get us all into the shop. As I was leaving I bumped into an old friend, who I used to volunteer with back at Kingsmeadow and who I hadn’t seen since COVID-19 curtailed the 2019-20 season. We said hello, and got chatting. Then he said “Are you doing anything for the next couple of hours? Could you give us a hand with some advertising hoardings?”. I wasn’t, so I said yes, and ended up as part of the work party volunteers team.
My reward was a trip to Crewe, with lunch and a match ticket thrown in.
The trip up to Crewe was fine, the lunch was fine, things started to go wrong, as so often this season when the football started.
Actually the first half went quite well. Our on loan striker, previously known as a waste of space, scored a decent goal on about the twenty minute mark. We went in at half time, one nil up and on top without ever looking dominant.
It started to go wrong fifteen minutes into the second half. Our striker who we were thinking might just be OK, made a suicidal back pass to our ‘keeper. It was intercepted by their centre forward and we were back on level terms again. Every one was silenced, even the Crewe fans, a collective “WTF”. The heads dropped, two minutes later we were two one down.
That was probably the moment we were relegated, at least in my mind. We tried to get it back, but the belief had gone. Deep into added time, while pressing ineffectively for on equaliser, we gave the ball away and they scored a third. And that was it.
The full horror show highlights? Are shown above.
It was a long depressing trip back to SW19, only brightened by the landlord of the Alex inviting us volunteers back for a pint.
As one of our songs goes; “The Wombles had a dream, To watch our football team. Back at Plough Lane, where we belong, The journeys been long. And the F.A. were wrong, Were AFC Wimbledon, And we have come home.”
Following the publication of the Taylor Report in 1990, which introduced new safety measures for football stadia including the regulation that the stadia of teams at the highest level be made all-seater by August 1994,[16] the board of the club decided that Plough Lane could not be economically redeveloped to meet the new standards.[17] The work required to modernise Plough Lane would have been difficult and expensive, but not impossible as the board claimed.[12] A supposedly temporary groundshare with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park was announced the same year, to begin from the start of the 1991–92 season. This arrangement was only expected to last for a few seasons, but it would ultimately last for 12 years and would end in a very different fashion to what might have been expected at the outset.[12] Wimbledon’s final first team match at Plough Lane came on 4 May 1991, coincidentally against Crystal Palace. 10,002 spectators saw Crystal Palace beat Wimbledon 3–0, before swarming onto the pitch to bid farewell to the ground.
From Wikipedia
Tonight November 3rd 2020 we played our first game back in Plough Lane for almost thirty years
I only ever went to one game at (old) Plough Lane, and I can’t even remember who we played. I had recently moved down from Scotland after getting married and fancied going to watch some football. Vinnie Jones was booked, but that doesn’t really help to pinpoint the game. I then disappeared off to the Solomon Islands and by the time I came back the Dons were playing at Selhurst. It was there that I started supporting them. Mainly because of the 157 bus. It ran from the top of my road to Selhurst.
It has been a long and at times a hard journey. The old Wimbledon FC ground-shared with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park for twelve years, then were franchised to Milton Keynes. The Wimbledon fans decided to start our own club AFC Wimbledon like a phoenix from the ashes of the original club.
Open trials were held on Wimbledon Common, and from that we ended up with a team. We started in the Combined Counties League in 2002, nine years later we were back in the Football League. In 2016 we won promotion to League One. We have stayed there since.
Initially we were tenants at Kingsmeadow, ground-sharing with KIngstonian. We later bought the ground from them. Though many of us have fond memories of our time at Kingsmeadow, It was never really home. When the chance came to go back to Plough Lane the Dons’ Trust grabbed it with both hands.
Our problems were not over. There were delays in planning approval, mainly caused by our current Prime Minister (at the time he was Mayor of London). After it was approved we still had the problem of paying for the place.
We are a fan owned club though, the only sugar-daddies that we have are ourselves. Our crowdfunding/share issue raised about £2.5 million, but that still left us with a shortfall of about £11 million. The Plough Lane Bond was set up, allowing fans to lend to the club over periods of up to 20 years and to name the rate of interest we wanted. In my case I had a lump sum from my pension that was sitting around, safe but earing almost zero interest. I decided that, while the bond wasn’t as secure as the bank, it also wasn’t too risky, and I would get a reasonable return on my money. (I didn’t put all my lump sum in, it isn’t that safe) That and an investment by a local businessman closed the gap to a sum we could afford to borrow at commercial rates. By the way it is still open if anyone would like to earn a bit more interest than your savings account.
We had two more ground-shares to go through. Because the stadium wasn’t ready for the start of the season, we played our first home games at QPR’s Kyian Prince Foundation stadium and we also played Brighton in an EFL Trophy game at Crawley.
That takes us to tonight and our game against Doncaster Rovers at Plough Lane.
Just one big problem. I should have been there in the West Stand – Block 106 – Row J – Seat 28. Instead I watched an entertaining, but ultimately frustrating match in front of my computer. Due to Covid-19 no fans are allowed at the moment. When we will be allowed back is anyone’s guess. I hope we can get back before the end of the season, but I won’t hold my breath.
When we are allowed back that will be the time that it will really feel that we have come home.
I haven’t written anything on here for over a month. This was the last thing I wrote, but didn’t publish. Since writing this bit below a couple of things have clarified, The season has now started, behind closed doors, and we have a temporary home at The Kiyan Prince Memorial Stadium, courtesy of Queens Park Rangers. We played Oxford in the EFL Cup yesterday and lost on penalties. Disappointing, but apparently there were a lot of positives to take from our performance against the team that I thought was the best in League One last year. Work at Plough Lane has progressed as well, but we still don’t have a definite opening date. The first match could be against Blackpool on Tuesday the 27th of October, but we don’t know as yet. Whenever it is, I hope that at least some fans are allowed in to watch. I would hate the team to run out for the first time to an empty stadium.
Day 132 Sunday 02/08/2020
Yesterday was the first Saturday in August. It should be the start of AFC Wimbledon’s annual attempt to remain in EFL League One. Four seasons ago we stayed up comfortably. Three seasons ago it took a scrappy 0-0 draw away to Doncaster on the second last game of the season to ensure we stayed up. Two seasons ago, it was another even scrappier 0-0 draw at Bradford on the final day that kept us up on goal difference. The season just gone saw us stay up, just, on average points per game after the season was curtailed.
Last seasons opening game.
If we continue that trajectory, we are favourites to be relegated.
This year however The Cherry Red Records Stadium is no more. Kingsmeadow has reverted to its proper name, and is now solely the home of Chelsea Women. We are on our way home to Plough Lane. The only problem is that I have no idea when the new season will start. It is probably a good thing, from our point of view, as the new stadium is unlikely to be completed until October. When, or if, the season starts the first games will probably have to be played behind closed doors. It might be possible to do that at Plough Lane as the pitch has been laid and looks in very good condition. Otherwise, we will need to find a temporary venue. Possibly Kingsmeadow, if Chelsea are willing.
There hasn’t been much activity on the blog recently mainly thanks to these two …
Finn on the left and Sol on the right.
Diane’s daughter Aimee gave birth to them in the early hours of Sunday the 21st. Diane and I got to see them for the first time yesterday. Because of Covid -19 restrictions we couldn’t visit them in hospital, so we had to wait until they came home. The babies seem fine, but Aimee and Andrew are knackered. ‘Tilda, their proud big sister is happy, although she was initially a bit disappointed because she was expecting a little sister as well as a little brother. After she met them she was fine.
Nanny, Mum, Finn (and Me), not sure why Sol missed out on getting his picture taken.
By the way Finn is called Finn because he is the twin that Aimee “knew” was a boy, and they already had chosen that name. Sol is the twin that “should have” been the girl, so he didn’t have a name when he was born. He spent a few days known as Twin One (he was the first to be born), before being named Sol, because he was born on the Solstice.
Other (non-baby) stuff
What else has been happening? To all intents and purposes lockdown might as well be over. As far as I can gather new cases of Covid-19 are nowhere near zero, in fact in England they may well be rising again, but the clown(s) in charge of our country are acting as if the disease has been eliminated. Communication has been confused to say the least. Pubs and restaurants are re-opening next Saturday (4th July) which BoZo will almost certainly try to dub as Independence Day.
Over the past week we had about half a million people on the beach at Bournemouth. This caused the Police to declare a major incident. BoZo told us to use our common sense. They (and the Liverpool fans celebrating winning the Premiership) all took their lead from the common sense that Dominic Cummings displayed back in April. How the authorities plan to enforce the distancing requirements on pubs I have no idea, and I suspect that they don’t either.
Liverpool became Premier League champions on Thursday, without actually having to kick a ball. Manchester City lost to Chelsea to leave Liverpool with an unassailable lead. I haven’t watched much of the football since it restarted. Partly because I’m not that fond of watching football on television, partly because I’m not that interested in The Premier League and also because the artificial crowd noise is just that, artificial. It is just random noise. Yes they ramp it up if there is a goal, but you don’t get the round of applause for a bit of good defending, or the collective gasp when a shot goes just wide.
Two wonderful new baby boys make all of this seem better. I know that Aimee and Andrew are going to have their work cut out looking after them and Matilda, we will do what we can to help.
We moved some furniture back into the bedroom. Getting the mattress back up the stairs was a challenge. It was bad enough getting it downstairs when gravity was helping. Putting the bed back together also proved to ba a bit of a challenge as well. We managed to reassemble it then noticed that the sides were the wrong way round. We left it, but I knew that it would bug me.
We had our monthly games evening. Normally, we get together with four other couples to play board games (and eat, drink and chat). Catan and Carcassonne are the favourites, but obviously they are difficult to play over zoom. I’m sure that there probably is a way, but we haven’t worked one out yet. We have found some other word based games that seem to work. We had fun. Hopefully the next relaxation of lockdown will let us meet up in each other’s houses.
Day 62 Sunday 24th May
Lockdown relaxation now allows us to meet up with friends and family, provided we keep the two meter distancing. We met up with Diane’s son Ben, his wife and their two boys in Nonsuch Park for a walk and a chat. I played football with the boys, or to be more precise I was goalkeeper while Freddie and Jack spent half an hour kicking each other and occasionally kicking the ball instead. I was the first time we had seen them since lockdown started.
Nonsuch Park
Nonsuch Park is what is left of the grounds of Henry VIII’s Nonsuch Palace grounds.
After we arrived back home, the bed being wrongly assembled was still bugging me. I decided to put it right. Today, it all seemed simple compared to yesterday. I suppose when you have done a job once, the second time is easier, because you know the mistakes you made first time round and don’t make them this time.
Day 63 Monday 25th May
Another meet up with family. We took a trip down to the Devil’s Punch Bowl to meet up with Aimie. We hadn’t seen her since the week before the lockdown started. She is expecting twins sometime in the fairly near future. Diane insisted that we could not go for a long walk in case Aimie went into labour, and we had to get back to the car. We had a picnic (two meters apart of course) Aimie brought a rather nice cake that she and ‘Tilda had baked. ‘Tilda didn’t come. We thought that she might not grasp the concept of “social distancing”.
It was good to meet up with her after this time. Hopefully by the time the twins are born things will have relaxed enough so that we can go and see them.
Day 64 Tuesday 26th May
There has been a bit of a hiatus in posting. This has not been due to an unauthorized trip to Barnard Castle. It has mainly been due to the sudden social whirl that we find ourselves caught up in. Tonight was dinner at the allotment with Chris and his partner. Charlotte cooked us am excellent vegan supper. We brought the Prosecco and the crisps.
It was ten o’clock and almost dark by the time we left. Apart from being bitten by something or things, it was a lovely night.
Day 65 Wednesday 27th May
Quiet day. I didn’t have much to do work wise. Diane had a Zoom meetup with some of the girls that she went to school with. I find it remarkable that fifty years after they left school almost everyone in the class is still in touch with each other. While that was going on I took myself off to the allotment to water it.
Day 66 Thursday 28th May
I’m getting a bit fed up with lockdown, more than fed up with the mendacity and incompetence of our government but at least there is some good news today if you are an AFC Wimbledon fan
"We're going home!" On the anniversary of a key day in Wimbledon's history, we are delighted to confirm that the final construction contract has been signed. There's also news about a new minority shareholder. Full announcement: https://t.co/KyKy4Hm7Lt@TheDonsTrust#AFCWpic.twitter.com/xQXmZ8PXzI
“We’re AFC Wimbledon, and we’re on our way home” Hopefully our first game back at Plough Lane will be in front of a full stadium and not behind closed doors. The build is coming along.
Today should have been a pretty special day. It should have been the last game of the 2019 – 2020 season. We (AFC Wimbledon) were supposed to be playing Coventry, who would, possibly, have been champions elect, and we would, of course, have been safe from relegation. For the last game of the season, we arrange a hospitality meal before hand. This year the EFL had decided upon a midday kick-off for all League One games, I was looking forward to my brunch. Covid-19 and lock-down put paid to all that.
Above and beyond all that, today would have been our last ever game at Kingsmeadow*. Kingsmeadow has been too small for us for years, the ground only holds 4,850. We sell out the home areas most games. We can have a maximum of about 600 away fans. Not every team fills the away end, Fleetwood and MK usually struggle to bring 100, but some clubs, Sunderland, Portsmouth and Ipswich would bring 2000 if we had the capacity. The stadium and it’s facilities are tired, the sight lines are abysmal, especially from the Rygas terrace, The hot tap on the sink in men’s toilet at the Chemflow end hasn’t worked for years. I could go on. We will all be glad to move back to Plough Lane next season (whenever it starts) but Kingsmeadow helped us move from being a crazy dream in 2002 to being an established Football League club in 2020. A lot of people will shed a tear at our departure.
Every one will have their particular favourite memories of Kingsmeadow. Mine is a bittersweet one. It is our 4-2 victory over West Ham in the cup last season. It was also the last time I saw my friend Steve. He died suddenly a couple of days after the game.
It does seem a a bit of an anti-climax to think that the last game there was a boring 0-0 draw against Bolton.
Hopefully this lockdown will be over by the time Plough Lane opens. I would hate to think of Will Nightingale leading the team out for our first game to the sight and sounds of empty stands.
I will leave this video that the club made to commemorate our time at Kingsmeadow.
*It is possible that the team has not played its last game at Kingsmeadow. If closed door games are played either to finish this season, or at the start of next season, I could see them beingplayed at Kingsmeadow.
It is quarter to three on Saturday the 28th of March 2020. I should have been finishing of my beer and vegan pie. Getting ready to take my seat at Forest Green Rovers vs Cheltenham. No Wimbledon was planned for today. We were supposed to be away to Lincoln, but I wasn’t planning on going.
My future brother-in-law, Mick, lives in Stroud and supports Forest Green. He has been wanting us to come down for the weekend to go to a game for months. We had everything arranged for the last Saturday in October. Wimbledon was supposed to play Bury. However, the game was called off due to a waterlogged pitch. This weekend was the re-arranged date. Forest Green are English football’s only vegan club. All the food and drink sold at the ground is vegan. It is apparently very good. It is better than the food at most football grounds. Let’s face it, that is a fairly low bar to get over. I was looking forward to my vegan pie and spending the weekend with Mick and Tina.
Instead I am enduring my third Saturday without football. By the end of the season I am usually ready for a break from football. This is especially true after the tensions of the last two seasons. Having football taken away from me with nine games left to play feels different, unfair even. What will happen to the rest of the season is anyone’s guess. The seasons of all the leagues below National League level are finished. Tiers 7 and below have been declared null and void. This hasn’t pleased everyone, but I’m not sure what else to do. I think a decision needs to be made soon. The same should happen with all leagues from the Premiership on down. It won’t be long before this happens. In such a case, we will have to endure Liverpool supporters complaining. They will continue from now until the heat death of the universe, about how they were robbed of their first title in thirty years.
Another worry is how many clubs will survive this shutdown. Running a football club is a bit of a hand to mouth existence. This weeks gate receipts being needed to meet this weeks outgoings. This is especially true of lower league clubs. Some clubs, such as Southend and Macclesfield, were in a precarious financial position even before this happened. When (if) football gets started again we might see some very different leagues.
I think that is football dealt with, for now. But it does feel strange not to be checking my phone for updates to the scores.
We have put teddy bears in the windows. This way, when kids are out for their daily exercise, they can be “Going on a Bear Hunt”.
No trips to the allotment today, although we did buy some seeds while we were doing our food shopping. I went for a walk to get my exercise instead.
Dinner was a take-away curry to try and help the local curry house to stay in business.
I haven’t posted for a while, almost a year in fact. The current events have prompted me to dust the keyboard off. Writing helps me make sense of what is happening. I find it helps me to order my thoughts.
Like 99.9% of the world’s population, the virus known as Coronavirus, Covid-19, or SARS-CoV-2 has dominated my thoughts for the past week. This post will probably contain all the advertised, random thoughts, ramblings and a rant or two as well.
Football (and sport in general) the first casualty
Important things first. Football has been suspended, as have almost all other sports. All of cycling’s spring classics have been canceled. There is no horse racing, the Masters golf tournament has been postponed and the cricket season seem unlikely to start. Football should restart on the 3rd of April. I will be very surprised if it restarts then. I don’t see this being over or even under control until the end of June at the earliest. The footballing powers think the season can be completed. This is because the Euros have been postponed until 2021. I don’t see it myself. My feeling is that the season will be abandoned.
This also means that I have probably watched my last AFC Wimbledon game at Kingsmeadow. If we had known that our game against Bolton was going to be the last, we might have planned differently. We could have organized something special. Our new stadium, in Plough Lane, should be ready for next season. The work may be delayed, especially if London is put into full lockdown. For the time being, we have an opening date of the 29th of August. It happens to be my birthday.
When will I get to wear these again?
We had planned a celebration for the final game of the season against Coventry. But, it seems it is not going to happen now. We will just have to make do with this video that the club have produced.
The ground is too small for us. It is more than shabby. It can take forever to get served at the bar. The sight lines, especially from the Rygas terrace are horrendous. We know all that. It has been home for the past eighteen years. It has helped us grow from a mad idea into a professional club. We now play in EFL League One. We are still fan owned. Watch the video. Discover why some of us will shed a tear. Even though we are all glad to be heading back to Plough Lane.
I’ll leave my thoughts there for tonight. I will come back to them tomorrow. I will try to work out my feelings about what this virus means.
Because the new season is almost upon us, I thought I had better get this report of last seasons final game finished and posted
Campervan Adventures v2.1
I have, had two main subjects for my blogs recently. Wimbledon Away Days and Campervan Adventures. We are combining the two in this post.
I bought myself a campervan about a month ago (early April). Our final game of the season was against Bradford. It was a 17:30 kick-off, so that meant getting a train back after the game would be tricky. Getting the supporters coach would have meant arriving back at Kingsmeadow about one in the morning. So I decided to take the van and make an adventure of it.
We had given the van a try out last weekend after the win against Wycombe Wanderers. I took it down to Brighton for the night and it all went well, but this would be it’s first proper trip.
The plan as originally formulated was to have the van packed on Thursday night and leave my house about 9:30 so that I could get across to New Malden by 10:00 to pick up Diane (who would also have everything packed and ready) and be on the road north by 10:30.
Round about 11:30 I left Wallington
Diane was a bit more organised than me. We left her place about 12:30.
The journey north was uneventful. The Big Green Bus (BGB)* proved to be very comfortable and easy to drive. The traffic was fairly heavy with people trying to get away early for the bank Holiday. but apart from that no problems
We arrived at our campsite, The Esholt Sports and Leisure Club about half past six and found a suitable pitch. It’s an unusual site, in that it is run by the local cricket club and the showers and toilets are the changing rooms. It works though and it is reasonably cheap.
I don’t know how many Emmerdale fans read my blog, but Esholt was the village originally used as Emmerdale. We had a drink in this pub, which should be familiar to anyone who follows the show.
It is a friendly pub that serves good beer. There is obviously some Emmerdale memerobilia scattered around, but not that much that it feels like a theme pub.
We were up reasonably early on Saturday, because, althought the match wasn’t due to kick off until 17:30, we thought that we would like a look round Bradford before hand.
We found a reasonable pub for lunch, nothing special, but the food was edible and the beer was drinkable, then had a wander round the city centre. Because Bradford was a comparitavly wealthy place in the c19th it has a lot of impressive civic buildings, banks, churches and the like. It must be admitted that a lot of the banks are now pubs and a lot of the churches are discount furniture shops, but they still look impressive from the outside.
We decided to have a look round the Science and Media Museum. Entrance is free and it is worth an hour of your time. After which it was time to head off to the match.
The Match
Thanks to our win against Wycombe the week before, we were out of the relegation zone for the first time in 2019. Barring an unusual, but not impossible set of results a draw against Bradford would be enough to ensure safety. A win would have guarenteed that we were safe and even if we lost, provided the other results went our way we could still be safe.
So onto the game. Well it was probably the least entertaining game of football I watched all season. I suppose that Wally Downes had done his homework and decided that Bradford didn’t pose all that much of a threat (which they didn’t) and that we could settle for a draw and possibly get a goal on the break. I was a bit dissapointed, not least because this was Diane’s first experience of AFC Wimbledon and I didn’t want it to be her last. We got the draw that we needed and stayed a League One team thanks to a better goal difference compared to Plymouth. Squeeky bum time, not helped by the fourth official failing to display the board for added minutes, so we had no idea of how much injury time had to be played. The referee finally blew his whistle after what felt like about five hours of added time, jubilation and pitch invasions ensued.
The “highlights”.
Pitch invasion
We watched the celebrations for a while (but didn’t join in on the pitch). After about ten minutes or maybe quarter of an hour we decided to walk back down to the station to get the train back to Shipley. We had already decided to have a curry at a restaurant we had seen earlier in the day. The Shimla Spice does an excellent curry and some of the biggest naan breads in captivity, but does not serve alcohol so we had to celebrate “The Great Escape” with Diet Coke and water.
Sunday
Saltaire
We decided to visit Saltaire. Back in the mid c19th Titus Salt built a woollen mill by the banks of the River Aire. He was a philanthropist and also built a model village to house his workforce. The mill like many woollen mills in West Yorkshire is now redundant. It has been restored (or at least parts of it have) and it now has several interesting, high end, shopping outlets and a gallery dedicated to the works of David Hockney
1853 Gallery
The works on display were created on his iPad then printed onto large (A0?) sheets. I had seen them before at the Tate Modern Exhibition in 2017, thought they were wonderful then and still think they are wonderful.
As well as the mill and the village, Titus Salt also built what must be the flashest Congregational Church in the world. It is not up there with the likes of St Peter’s or St John’s in Valetta but for a Congregationalist Church, which are usually quite plain and functional it is out there.
The Church Outside
The church inside
Ilkley Moor
After we had spent the afternoon in Saltaire we decided that because we were only about five miles from Ilkley that a visit to Ilkley Moor (ba t’at) was more or less compulsory.
Ba t’at
With hats – it was quite cold
Ilkley from the moor
Cow and calf rocks
Cow and calf rocks
It was quite spectacular up at the Cow and Calf Rocks, if a bit on the cool side.
Monday
Monday and it was time to head home. We had a good weekend. The Wombles were safe as League One club for at least one more season. We had liked what we had seen of West Yorkshire (including Bradford.)
Hardwick Hall
We didn’t want to just blast our way backdown the M1 so we looked for somewhere that we could stop, have a bite to eat and a look round. Hardwick Hall fitted the bill. And because we are National Trust members didn’t cost us anything.
It was built by Bess of Hardwick,a remarkable woman, who became one of the weathiest and powerful people in Elizabeathen England.
Bedroom
Elizabeathen filing cabinet.
Bedroom
Hardwick Hall
After that we did blast back down the M1 .
*My other vehicle a Diahatsu Charade is known as the LLC, or Little Lilac Car because it is little and lilac coloured. So the obvious name for the Camper was the Big Green Bus, because it is big (compared to the LLC) and green.
Shrewsbury was the first away game that I had been to since Steve passed away. Normally if it was a fairly long trip I used to pick him up at the Sutton Post Office, give him a lift over to Kingsmeadow then we would have breakfast together at Fat Boy’s before catching the coach. (If it was a comparitivly local game we got the bus so we could go to the Watchman for something to eat after we got back and a bit of post game analysis.) I didn’t feel like breakfast on my own so I skipped Fat Boy’s and had breakfast at home before I left.
The coach trip up was fine. The players, possibly feeling guilty for some of the rubbish we have been forced to watch this season, paid for two coaches. So it was a comparatively cheap day out
I like a trip to Shrewsbury. They have neat modern ground that is usually at least 80% full. There is good atmosphere and the club make away fans welcome. Last year we found a pub about half a mile away for a pre-match drink, this year the club have opened a bar at the ground so we went there. They had one execelent beer on draught called Shropshire Lad, as well as sandwiches and pies. I would recommend it as a place for a pre-match drink.
The game it’self turned out to be a 0-0 draw. A reasonably entertaining 0-0 draw, but one in which we didn’t have a single shot on target, in fact we only had the one shot in total. Aaron Ramsdale, as he has so often, since joining on loan in January, kept us in it with an excellent goal keeping display. It was one of those games where you felt that we could nick this (with a goal in the third minute of stoppage time), but that would have been totally unfair to Shrewsbury.
Highlights??
A vital point in the #GREATESCAPE. We are still bottom, but now only nine points from safety. Then it was just the four hour trip back down the motorway.
A Scotsman in Suburbia 