eiffel_71 | Dragostea Din Tei

I’ve been wanting to go see FC Romania for years. Till now other calls on my time and funds always got in the way. This summer it looked like my chance might be gone, as the club hovered close to liquidation for several weeks, but happily AC1 Developments and AC1 Construction stepped in to save the club at the eleventh hour with a sponsorship deal.

So yesterday I set off for London where FC Romania were playing a friendly with Athletic Newham at the Bobby Moore Sports Hub in Dagenham.

My messages of support for the club online, and post on Facebook that I was travelling to the game, hadn’t gone unnoticed. I was sheltering from the drizzle in the bike shed outside the Hub when the club’s president/trainer Ion Vintila (I knew him by his FC Romania tracksuit with IV on) walked over to me. “You travelled from Portsmouth, yes?”

I put my food down and wiped my hands clean with a tissue to shake his hand. He thanked me for my support and handed me a yellow plastic card. It was a FC Romania season ticket. I thanked him effusively and he headed back into the hub.

I passed through the Hub front doors and turned into the cafe. A group of players from Dagenham & Redbridge were sat around one table. All around the cafe and the foyer football people were bustling around. A match from the Arab Cup in Qatar was showing on the TV screen. Alas, the cafe didn’t have decaf coffee so I settled for a can of cherry and vanilla fizz.

I saw a man in a Wycombe Wanderers coat. Guessing rightly that he was groundhopping legend Russell Cox I went over to say hello. He was there because he’d been let down for a lift to Ledbury; at least he was still getting a new tick here. The ground was the usual new-build community sports hub cum lower non-league venue with an Identikit small stand along one side, and a tiny stand and a covered metal terrace behind one goal. Pitch 1, which we were on, was the Sir Trevor Brooking Pitch. I was gratified to see, on the separating fence, a sign proclaiming Pitch 2 to be the Chloe Kelly Pitch.

Athletic Newham dominated the game and won 3-0. At the final whistle I said a quick goodbye to Russell and gave Ion a wave, then had to leg it to the tube station to be back for my social club in the evening. Made it home just in time to see the England v Switzerland penalty shoot-out.

First dress rehearsal with the amdram group today. Wardrobe Mistress Glyn pulled me up for my leggings only coming three quarters of the way down my shins. I promised to buy long black sports socks during the week.