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To the Smoke by Greyhound for Fisher's last game of the season, with Sevenoaks Town. As it was pouring with rain I asked Ben and Dan, via Twitter, to let me know ASAP if the game was called off - the reply came that the pitch was playable at the moment and no inspection was planned.
A sad sight greeted me at Victoria station - both Bagel Factory stalls there have followed their Waterloo sister, and the Victoria Ixxy's, into oblivion. The upstairs stall is whitewashed, partly boarded up, but the sink is still there on public view. Victims of the recession, no doubt, but it's a black day indeed when you can't get a bagel at all on a day trip to London. I had to make do with a Subway.
East Dulwich station was shut so I had to take a tube to Vauxhall - where a man was having a heated argument with one of the Underground staff over the former's son riding his scooter in the station - and then the bus to the ground.
Still pouring with rain when I arrived at the clubhouse, in time to see the last 10 minutes of Southampton v Coventry on the big screen, with Saints 4-0 up and assured of promotion. Joe and two other Fish regulars were in the bar; Joe quipped that my teeth were looking good. Soon afterwards Tim arrived, proudly wearing his Saints shirt. The London Pride tap gave only a little dribble and then stopped so I had to go for a pint of Bud.
Mark came into the bar from the boardroom, pointed through the window to the rain and the pitch, and told me with a grin that the ref had only arrived at 1.40 and that he'd persuaded him to let the game go ahead, telling him we've played in much worse (true). Mark observed with a grin that he'd been following my Facebook posts, and remarked that I have eclectic tastes in music. I readily admitted to that: "You can sum up my eclectic tastes in music like this: I have albums by the Sex Pistols and Katie Melua." On us discovering that we're both fans of classic rock and roll and pop oldies, I urged him to start listening to Dave Cash on Saturday evenings. A chat with Mark, Nicholas and Colin until five to three.
The Shed Choir were in full voice as usual. With a few new players having signed since I last attended in January, there were several new chants in addition to the old standards, but all were easy to join in. When the ref gave a free kick against us after one of our players had been fouled, we sang "Kent League refs are fucking shit", and the linesman in front of us turned round showed us the badge on his chest and said with a grin "I'm not a Kent League ref, I'm London FA." We gave him a cheer and a round of applause.
Fisher won 4-0. Millwall Dave joined us half an hour into the game, having come from the Den when the Lions' match ended - from his comments over the rest of the first half, he hadn't been too impressed with their performance in their 2-2 draw, but the news that West Ham had missed automatic promotion had raised his spirits a little.
Met Canadian Steve at half-time, and told him one of the women's matches I'd be seeing at the Olympics was Sweden v Canada at Newcastle. Steve said he'd have loved to go to some of Canada's matches; I told him there were still tickets going, but he said he'd be spending the summer backpacking. He thought Canada would have a tough job getting through their group. I asked if Kara Lang, from his home town, was still in the national side and he sadly replied that she'd had her career ended by an injury some time ago.
Dave had two mates with him, who came back from the bar at the start of the second half thinking of as many celebrity Millwall fans as they could. After exhausting the ones all of us knew, they moved on to other London teams. When they got to Arsenal, I couldn't resist mentioning my beloved Kate Lawler, whereupon Dave's mates revealed that they chatted up Kate and her sister Karen in a bar not long before she went on Big Brother. "Kate was nice, Karen was a bit of a bitch. They were well up for it," one of them reminisced; then, asked what happened, he admitted that they'd walked away and gone to talk to other girls! Epic fail. One of Dave's pals was attending his third Fisher game. In each of his first two we scored five, so after we made it four he was willing us on to score one more and keep his record intact. It wasn't to be, but none of us were complaining.
The comedy moment came when Joe chased after a ball that had gone over the perimeter fence, intending to kick it back to the players, only to land a kick square on Tim's son's buggy (thankfully unoccupied) and send it crashing to the ground. We all chanted the circus theme tune, as we do when anything comic happens on the pitch, and Mike asked if anyone had captured the moment on their phone, as it would be sure to be a massive hit on Youtube.
Said my 'have a great summer's at the final whistle, clapping the lads off as I walked round the pitch en route to the exit...
A sad sight greeted me at Victoria station - both Bagel Factory stalls there have followed their Waterloo sister, and the Victoria Ixxy's, into oblivion. The upstairs stall is whitewashed, partly boarded up, but the sink is still there on public view. Victims of the recession, no doubt, but it's a black day indeed when you can't get a bagel at all on a day trip to London. I had to make do with a Subway.
East Dulwich station was shut so I had to take a tube to Vauxhall - where a man was having a heated argument with one of the Underground staff over the former's son riding his scooter in the station - and then the bus to the ground.
Still pouring with rain when I arrived at the clubhouse, in time to see the last 10 minutes of Southampton v Coventry on the big screen, with Saints 4-0 up and assured of promotion. Joe and two other Fish regulars were in the bar; Joe quipped that my teeth were looking good. Soon afterwards Tim arrived, proudly wearing his Saints shirt. The London Pride tap gave only a little dribble and then stopped so I had to go for a pint of Bud.
Mark came into the bar from the boardroom, pointed through the window to the rain and the pitch, and told me with a grin that the ref had only arrived at 1.40 and that he'd persuaded him to let the game go ahead, telling him we've played in much worse (true). Mark observed with a grin that he'd been following my Facebook posts, and remarked that I have eclectic tastes in music. I readily admitted to that: "You can sum up my eclectic tastes in music like this: I have albums by the Sex Pistols and Katie Melua." On us discovering that we're both fans of classic rock and roll and pop oldies, I urged him to start listening to Dave Cash on Saturday evenings. A chat with Mark, Nicholas and Colin until five to three.
The Shed Choir were in full voice as usual. With a few new players having signed since I last attended in January, there were several new chants in addition to the old standards, but all were easy to join in. When the ref gave a free kick against us after one of our players had been fouled, we sang "Kent League refs are fucking shit", and the linesman in front of us turned round showed us the badge on his chest and said with a grin "I'm not a Kent League ref, I'm London FA." We gave him a cheer and a round of applause.
Fisher won 4-0. Millwall Dave joined us half an hour into the game, having come from the Den when the Lions' match ended - from his comments over the rest of the first half, he hadn't been too impressed with their performance in their 2-2 draw, but the news that West Ham had missed automatic promotion had raised his spirits a little.
Met Canadian Steve at half-time, and told him one of the women's matches I'd be seeing at the Olympics was Sweden v Canada at Newcastle. Steve said he'd have loved to go to some of Canada's matches; I told him there were still tickets going, but he said he'd be spending the summer backpacking. He thought Canada would have a tough job getting through their group. I asked if Kara Lang, from his home town, was still in the national side and he sadly replied that she'd had her career ended by an injury some time ago.
Dave had two mates with him, who came back from the bar at the start of the second half thinking of as many celebrity Millwall fans as they could. After exhausting the ones all of us knew, they moved on to other London teams. When they got to Arsenal, I couldn't resist mentioning my beloved Kate Lawler, whereupon Dave's mates revealed that they chatted up Kate and her sister Karen in a bar not long before she went on Big Brother. "Kate was nice, Karen was a bit of a bitch. They were well up for it," one of them reminisced; then, asked what happened, he admitted that they'd walked away and gone to talk to other girls! Epic fail. One of Dave's pals was attending his third Fisher game. In each of his first two we scored five, so after we made it four he was willing us on to score one more and keep his record intact. It wasn't to be, but none of us were complaining.
The comedy moment came when Joe chased after a ball that had gone over the perimeter fence, intending to kick it back to the players, only to land a kick square on Tim's son's buggy (thankfully unoccupied) and send it crashing to the ground. We all chanted the circus theme tune, as we do when anything comic happens on the pitch, and Mike asked if anyone had captured the moment on their phone, as it would be sure to be a massive hit on Youtube.
Said my 'have a great summer's at the final whistle, clapping the lads off as I walked round the pitch en route to the exit...
