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Nov. 1st, 2008 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71
Arrived at Westleigh Park just before 10 am to buy my ticket for the Brentford match. A few others were there too, but there was a slight hitch : the only other people in sight were Malc, Aly and their kid Kyle. Nobody was manning the ticket window. Malc made a phone call and established that Chris, who should have been on duty, was in bed with a cold. So Malc made another call to get someone with keys to come and get the tickets out of the commercial office, and sold one guy, who had to go quick, two of his own tickets, replacing them when the bloke with the keys showed up. Then Malc took charge of ticket sales for the morning. By 10.20 I had my ticket and sat back reading World Soccer while the rest of the Hawk hardcore arrived for the trip to Hayes & Yeading.
Dave was in a bit of a grumpy mood as he'd had no breakfast, and had been unable to get anything to eat in Tesco on the way to join us as the queues were too long. He kept calling out his craving for coffee until we pulled into a petrol station somewhere in East Hants to refuel; there was a roadside burger van across the road from the garage where Dave was able to get his coffee fix. John the driver inexplicably veered off the main road at Longmoor and took us along several winding country and back roads.
I hadn't heard from Jade since last weekend, so hoped this meant we'd made a clean break. No such luck. Just after noon, with the coach heading along the main road out of Surrey and into Middlesex, my phone bleeped. It was a text from Jade telling me to 'stop spreading rumours about [her] to [her] friends and family'.
FACT : I have not spoken to any of her friends or relatives for months.
She also brought up Voxgate I from nearly a year ago. After sitting reeling in disbelief for half an hour, I texted Vanessa to tell her.
We pulled in at Hayes & Yeading FC just after one, in pouring rain. Sat in the clubhouse with a Magners and a Milky Way watching Everton v Fulham. Poor Tracey hadn't been feeling too well - the bumpy and winding roads had brought on motion sickness - but she was OK by the time we'd been in the clubhouse about half an hour. At that point Simon came over and told her that it turned out John used to live round that way and had wanted to see some of his old haunts, but a few people had complained about the route so John had promised straight roads for the return journey.
Ness replied at 2.19. She hadn't heard any more from Jade and advised me to ignore her texts, saying she'd soon get tired of it.
Everton kept a clean sheet (good news for my Fantasy team as Lescott is my captain so his points count double) then it was time to head into the ground. Braving the rain, I made straight for the refreshment stall, where the two guys behind me in the queue turned out to be groundhoppers - and one of them was a Brentford supporter. I asked if he was coming down for the cup match and he said no, adding "You'll probably beat us."
With the queue, I got my burger and chips and made my way round to the covered terracing (on the other side of the ground) just a couple of minutes before kick-off. Finished my grub during the opening moments of the game, only for Mark to point out "Wilhelmus, you've got more food on your face than in your tray." That was the burger sauce. "Sign of a good meal, that," Malc pointed out.
The roof on the terrace kept the rain off, but didn't stop us being brass monkeys all afternoon. The highlight of a dull first half came after the Hayes fans bayed abuse at the linesman for (correctly) giving one of their players offside. Malc and Simon picked up on that, leading the Hawks fans in ironic shouts at the linesman like "The credit crunch is your fault, linesman" and "Global warming is your fault", which were then expanded to "It's your mum's fault for having you", then "It's your nan's fault for having your mum" and so on to "It's the monkeys' fault for evolving into your ancestors" from Malc. Simon met that with "That's if you agree with Darwin's theory of evolution. But if you believe in creationism..."
"Croatianism?" interrupted Malc. "No, it's not Slaven Bilic's fault!"
The linesman was pissing himself laughing.
Hayes put us under pressure for much of the second half, but superb defending from Elphick, Simps and Jay Gasson and fine goalkeeping from Scrivs kept the score 0-0. From then I would have been quite happy to come away with a draw.
Then with ten minutes left Gary Elphick headed a corner forward, and sub Danny Webb got his head to the ball and it sailed into the net. Amid the celebrations, it was only when Malc and Pete called out "Who's got Hawks sub?" that I remembered I'd drawn 'Hawks sub' in the Golden Goal. I made my way down to Malc to collect a cool £14.
Hayes equalised with a beautiful rocket shot but I wasn't too downcast, a draw would still have done me fine. Alas, a defensive lapse in time added on allowed the home side to nick a winner from close range.
I joined the procession of numb Hawks trudging through the rain to the bus. For most of the game we hadn't played badly, but the bottom line is that we still lost. A third of the way into the season now, I genuinely fear we could be heavily involved in the relegation mix.
As we climbed onto the bus, thankfully John had seen fit to put Radio 5 Live on, but the news it was relaying wasn't good : Felipe Massa had got pole for the Brazilian Grand Prix tomorrow while Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fourth. I'm clinging to the hope that the way his title dream slipped away a year ago will give Lewis all the motivation he needs to run one more perfect race. "Just to add some more shit to your day," Tracey announced, "E*******h won 2-1."
With Sports Report coming on as we pulled away from the ground, we could at least celebrate the news that Portsmouth had lost 2-1 at home to Wigan.
Simon held forth on the back seat with his ideas about tactics and team selections for the first half-hour or so of the journey home. "I should have been a football manager," he'd opined on the way there. He was also doing his best to get us to look on the bright side of the team's performance.
When Tottenham v Liverpool, the commentary game on the radio, ended with a 2-1 win for Spurs, one young boy near me, wearing a Portsmouth jacket and Portsmouth shirt, yelled "Hands up if you hate Harry Redknapp." His arm shot up...alone. Later, as we approached Southampton, he announced "Getting near Scumhampton." "SOUTHampton," Dave corrected him from the back seat. "But they're scummers," the boy objected. He was mystified to find he was the only Pompey fan on the bus. Dave added, pointing to Simon and Tracey, "They live in Southampton, so be careful."
"Do they support them?" the boy shot back.
"No, replied Tracey, "who have we just been to watch?" She paused, the boy offered no answer, so she finished "We support Havant & Waterlooville." He'll learn.
When we got to Westleigh the rain had faded to little intermittent drops just in time for my walk to the station. Always look on the bright side of life.
Tasty bacon roll at Popeye's kiosk by the ferry. Home to make a cup of coffee and watch TNA Impact.
Dave was in a bit of a grumpy mood as he'd had no breakfast, and had been unable to get anything to eat in Tesco on the way to join us as the queues were too long. He kept calling out his craving for coffee until we pulled into a petrol station somewhere in East Hants to refuel; there was a roadside burger van across the road from the garage where Dave was able to get his coffee fix. John the driver inexplicably veered off the main road at Longmoor and took us along several winding country and back roads.
I hadn't heard from Jade since last weekend, so hoped this meant we'd made a clean break. No such luck. Just after noon, with the coach heading along the main road out of Surrey and into Middlesex, my phone bleeped. It was a text from Jade telling me to 'stop spreading rumours about [her] to [her] friends and family'.
FACT : I have not spoken to any of her friends or relatives for months.
She also brought up Voxgate I from nearly a year ago. After sitting reeling in disbelief for half an hour, I texted Vanessa to tell her.
We pulled in at Hayes & Yeading FC just after one, in pouring rain. Sat in the clubhouse with a Magners and a Milky Way watching Everton v Fulham. Poor Tracey hadn't been feeling too well - the bumpy and winding roads had brought on motion sickness - but she was OK by the time we'd been in the clubhouse about half an hour. At that point Simon came over and told her that it turned out John used to live round that way and had wanted to see some of his old haunts, but a few people had complained about the route so John had promised straight roads for the return journey.
Ness replied at 2.19. She hadn't heard any more from Jade and advised me to ignore her texts, saying she'd soon get tired of it.
Everton kept a clean sheet (good news for my Fantasy team as Lescott is my captain so his points count double) then it was time to head into the ground. Braving the rain, I made straight for the refreshment stall, where the two guys behind me in the queue turned out to be groundhoppers - and one of them was a Brentford supporter. I asked if he was coming down for the cup match and he said no, adding "You'll probably beat us."
With the queue, I got my burger and chips and made my way round to the covered terracing (on the other side of the ground) just a couple of minutes before kick-off. Finished my grub during the opening moments of the game, only for Mark to point out "Wilhelmus, you've got more food on your face than in your tray." That was the burger sauce. "Sign of a good meal, that," Malc pointed out.
The roof on the terrace kept the rain off, but didn't stop us being brass monkeys all afternoon. The highlight of a dull first half came after the Hayes fans bayed abuse at the linesman for (correctly) giving one of their players offside. Malc and Simon picked up on that, leading the Hawks fans in ironic shouts at the linesman like "The credit crunch is your fault, linesman" and "Global warming is your fault", which were then expanded to "It's your mum's fault for having you", then "It's your nan's fault for having your mum" and so on to "It's the monkeys' fault for evolving into your ancestors" from Malc. Simon met that with "That's if you agree with Darwin's theory of evolution. But if you believe in creationism..."
"Croatianism?" interrupted Malc. "No, it's not Slaven Bilic's fault!"
The linesman was pissing himself laughing.
Hayes put us under pressure for much of the second half, but superb defending from Elphick, Simps and Jay Gasson and fine goalkeeping from Scrivs kept the score 0-0. From then I would have been quite happy to come away with a draw.
Then with ten minutes left Gary Elphick headed a corner forward, and sub Danny Webb got his head to the ball and it sailed into the net. Amid the celebrations, it was only when Malc and Pete called out "Who's got Hawks sub?" that I remembered I'd drawn 'Hawks sub' in the Golden Goal. I made my way down to Malc to collect a cool £14.
Hayes equalised with a beautiful rocket shot but I wasn't too downcast, a draw would still have done me fine. Alas, a defensive lapse in time added on allowed the home side to nick a winner from close range.
I joined the procession of numb Hawks trudging through the rain to the bus. For most of the game we hadn't played badly, but the bottom line is that we still lost. A third of the way into the season now, I genuinely fear we could be heavily involved in the relegation mix.
As we climbed onto the bus, thankfully John had seen fit to put Radio 5 Live on, but the news it was relaying wasn't good : Felipe Massa had got pole for the Brazilian Grand Prix tomorrow while Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fourth. I'm clinging to the hope that the way his title dream slipped away a year ago will give Lewis all the motivation he needs to run one more perfect race. "Just to add some more shit to your day," Tracey announced, "E*******h won 2-1."
With Sports Report coming on as we pulled away from the ground, we could at least celebrate the news that Portsmouth had lost 2-1 at home to Wigan.
Simon held forth on the back seat with his ideas about tactics and team selections for the first half-hour or so of the journey home. "I should have been a football manager," he'd opined on the way there. He was also doing his best to get us to look on the bright side of the team's performance.
When Tottenham v Liverpool, the commentary game on the radio, ended with a 2-1 win for Spurs, one young boy near me, wearing a Portsmouth jacket and Portsmouth shirt, yelled "Hands up if you hate Harry Redknapp." His arm shot up...alone. Later, as we approached Southampton, he announced "Getting near Scumhampton." "SOUTHampton," Dave corrected him from the back seat. "But they're scummers," the boy objected. He was mystified to find he was the only Pompey fan on the bus. Dave added, pointing to Simon and Tracey, "They live in Southampton, so be careful."
"Do they support them?" the boy shot back.
"No, replied Tracey, "who have we just been to watch?" She paused, the boy offered no answer, so she finished "We support Havant & Waterlooville." He'll learn.
When we got to Westleigh the rain had faded to little intermittent drops just in time for my walk to the station. Always look on the bright side of life.
Tasty bacon roll at Popeye's kiosk by the ferry. Home to make a cup of coffee and watch TNA Impact.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-02 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-02 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-03 11:57 am (UTC)You had the right idea in leaving town straight after the game, as the nearby pubs aren't all that welcoming. I've got a bit of a soft spot for Hayes & Yeading though - it's a good little setup down there, just a pity that the locals don't get behind the club enough.