[Albion] Away Suppport

[Berty23]

Home on Warwick. Watched the match on slightly fast forward for key bits. Amazing day. My 16 year old convinced me to go despite two long travel Sundays last two weeks with him and a daughter for her hockey. So glad we did. Lifetime memories. Incredible atmosphere. They were quiet for much of it but that was one hell of a roar when then thought they had the winner.

The chicken balti pie was tremendous.

 

[Eeyore]

Home on Warwick. Watched the match on slightly fast forward for key bits. Amazing day. My 16 year old convinced me to go despite two long travel Sundays last two weeks with him and a daughter for her hockey. So glad we did. Lifetime memories. Incredible atmosphere. They were quiet for much of it but that was one hell of a roar when then thought they had the winner.

The chicken balti pie was tremendous.

It would be the decent thing to show Warwick a bit more consideration and post after you've finished your activities with him.

 

[Berty23]

It would be the decent thing to show Warwick a bit more consideration and post after you've finished your activities with him.

Oops. Bit tired. Too much driving for one day.

 

[dazzer6666]

Just got home. M25 hold up for 30 mins due to ‘police incident’……..don’t even mind, still smiling

 

[Eeyore]

Oops. Bit tired. Too much driving for one day.

Lovely place to live. I did visit once, in 2014.

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

I’ll be home in an hour in Connemara! What a lovely day!

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

Back home in Manchester. Great game. End to end. Like a slug feast and we won!

Glad you enjoyed the slug feast - they only had pie or sausage roll when I got mine but it was great too

 

[Eeyore]

I’ll be home in an hour in Connemara! What a lovely day!

My word, did you fly to Shannon ?

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Back to Haywards Heath at midnight on the dot.

About 6 & a half hour drive up, 6 hours back.

Worth EVERY MINUTE.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Just got back to Brighton. 45mins spent charging made the journey a little longer. My son was the mascot today. A day we’ll never forget. Exhausted but euphoric!

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Just got back to Brighton. 45mins spent charging made the journey a little longer. My son was the mascot today. A day we’ll never forget. Exhausted but euphoric!

My last trip up there was the 4-0 defeat under De Zerbi. This was my third visit and first win.

I really want to dislike their club because of the sportswashing, and there is a lot you can easily hate about them. Smug Eddie. The fake tanned attention seeker Tindall. Joelinton, the massive snide. Bruno Guimares: gum chewing, whiney cheat. Burn, these days. Obviously the Saudi thing. The gamesmanship. And the atmosphere at their games is wildly overhyped: they're no different to anybody else when they're not playing well. Gordon's Princess Diana haircut.

But! SJP is my favourite PL ground. Towers over the place like a cathedral and there's no city like it anywhere in football. A one club town where the whole place is buzzing on a match day. And much as I really want to hate their fans for the Saudi thing, every single one I met today was just lovely. After the game, I didn't hear a single person having a dig or suggesting we were lucky, which is normally the routine for Big Club fans when they find themselves losing to little old us. As we walked back into the city centre to get some food, we must have had at least a dozen of them approaching us to say well done, or they hoped we'd go on and win the cup. One of them wanted to shake our hands: another wanted to say how much he admired the way our club goes about things. Every one of them wished us a safe journey home, which sounds all the better in the lovely Geordie accent.

I really want to loathe their club, but I can't bring myself to feel the same about their fans. Proper football people.

 

[Rougvie]

Remember when 14 of us flew up to Teeside Airport for a midweek League Cup game against Middlesbrough in the bleak midwinter of 2003.

 

[Guinness Boy]

My last trip up there was the 4-0 defeat under De Zerbi. This was my third visit and first win.

I really want to dislike their club because of the sportswashing, and there is a lot you can easily hate about them. Smug Eddie. The fake tanned attention seeker Tindall. Joelinton, the massive snide. Bruno Guimares: gum chewing, whiney cheat. Burn, these days. Obviously the Saudi thing. The gamesmanship. And the atmosphere at their games is wildly overhyped: they're no different to anybody else when they're not playing well. Gordon's Princess Diana haircut.

But! SJP is my favourite PL ground. Towers over the place like a cathedral and there's no city like it anywhere in football. A one club town where the whole place is buzzing on a match day. And much as I really want to hate their fans for the Saudi thing, every single one I met today was just lovely. After the game, I didn't hear a single person having a dig or suggesting we were lucky, which is normally the routine for Big Club fans when they find themselves losing to little old us. As we walked back into the city centre to get some food, we must have had at least a dozen of them approaching us to say well done, or they hoped we'd go on and win the cup. One of them wanted to shake our hands: another wanted to say how much he admired the way our club goes about things. Every one of them wished us a safe journey home, which sounds all the better in the lovely Geordie accent.

I really want to loathe their club, but I can't bring myself to feel the same about their fans. Proper football people.

The Sales Director I work with regularly is a Geordie. He’s texted me within a minute of the finish to say how well we’d played and good luck for the rest of the tournament.

Like you say, the atmosphere in the town on game day is like nothing else, the pubs are terrific (and cheap) and the fans friendly. It’s a bit gutting they went from bad owners to unpleasant ones.

 

[Change at Barnham]

"Gordon's Princess Diana haircut."

 

[Man of Harveys]

I couldn’t go yesterday but - once you’re up there after the long old slog - it’s the without doubt in my mind the best away day in the PL/FA Cup. Fantastic and walkable city, the locals very friendly and the ground so much at the heart of it all.

 

[Hotchilidog]

My last trip up there was the 4-0 defeat under De Zerbi. This was my third visit and first win.

I really want to dislike their club because of the sportswashing, and there is a lot you can easily hate about them. Smug Eddie. The fake tanned attention seeker Tindall. Joelinton, the massive snide. Bruno Guimares: gum chewing, whiney cheat. Burn, these days. Obviously the Saudi thing. The gamesmanship. And the atmosphere at their games is wildly overhyped: they're no different to anybody else when they're not playing well. Gordon's Princess Diana haircut.

But! SJP is my favourite PL ground. Towers over the place like a cathedral and there's no city like it anywhere in football. A one club town where the whole place is buzzing on a match day. And much as I really want to hate their fans for the Saudi thing, every single one I met today was just lovely. After the game, I didn't hear a single person having a dig or suggesting we were lucky, which is normally the routine for Big Club fans when they find themselves losing to little old us. As we walked back into the city centre to get some food, we must have had at least a dozen of them approaching us to say well done, or they hoped we'd go on and win the cup. One of them wanted to shake our hands: another wanted to say how much he admired the way our club goes about things. Every one of them wished us a safe journey home, which sounds all the better in the lovely Geordie accent.

I really want to loathe their club, but I can't bring myself to feel the same about their fans. Proper football people.

And that is why Newcastle is the ideal sportswashing vehicle. Everything about the city, club and fans is so likeable. It’s also why I can’t get past their willingness to be a patsy for despots.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

And that is why Newcastle is the ideal sportswashing vehicle. Everything about the city, club and fans is so likeable. It’s also why I can’t get past their willingness to be a patsy for despots.

Oh there is so much to dislike too, don’t worry. I’m not that easily mugged off Their horrible gamesmanship. The way they all thought Ashley was the worst owner in history because he <checks notes> didn’t spend much on the team. The fact that their idea of protesting against him was to, er, not really do anything. The media insistence that they are somehow more deserving of a trophy because they have a lot of fans. Those pissed up old expat Geordies in Magaluf singing that song about being “the richest club in the world”. The continued narrative about how “they love flair players” or “the number 9 role is so important to the Toon fans”, like fans of other clubs don’t also adore entertainers or good strikers. The dressing room selfies after beating teams like Southampton and Luton Town. Jason Tindall. The list goes on.

But yeah. The reaction from their fans to defeat yesterday was admirable from what I experienced, and that was a pleasant surprise compared to the sort of bitter stuff you hear from fans of many other clubs where they clock you approaching in your Albion scarf and start stage whispering amongst themselves about how both teams were shit today and they thought Brighton looked very disappointing and it was just a case of poor refereeing that cost their club the game.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

I do like that part of the world. Saturday, we took in Harrogate v Accrington - which was the most turgid game of football I've seen in ages - before driving another hour up the road to Durham. Dumped our bags and walked into town.

We got into town and it was CARNAGE. People everywhere. First pub has a bloke pissing in the doorway, 2nd is blaring out "Just can't get enough" at full blast and 3 dolly birds stagger out the 3rd in the shortest of short skirts absolutely shitfaced. It's not even half 7 FFS.

I'd booked a restaurant which we made our to and the bouncer on the door eyes my 14 year old and my mates 16 year old "You can't bring them in here, everyone is wasted" was his exact words. I explain that we are going upstairs to the restaurant and not the disco bar downstairs. I peered into the disco bar and sure enough there was a hen do that were absolutely on it. It didn't feel violent or edgy though. Just carnage.

The restaurant upstairs was ace. 2 for 1 cocktails from 20.00 onwards (Why 20.00 onwards?) and the best steak I've had in a while to a backdrop of cheesy disco tunes from downstairs.

It's not new news to anyone but they love a party and a drink in the North East.

 

[Hotchilidog]

Oh there is so much to dislike too, don’t worry. I’m not that easily mugged off Their horrible gamesmanship. The way they all thought Ashley was the worst owner in history because he <checks notes> didn’t spend much on the team. The fact that their idea of protesting against him was to, er, not really do anything. The media insistence that they are somehow more deserving of a trophy because they have a lot of fans. Those pissed up old expat Geordies in Magaluf singing that song about being “the richest club in the world”. The continued narrative about how “they love flair players” or “the number 9 role is so important to the Toon fans”, like fans of other clubs don’t also adore entertainers or good strikers. The dressing room selfies after beating teams like Southampton and Luton Town. Jason Tindall. The list goes on.

But yeah. The reaction from their fans to defeat yesterday was admirable from what I experienced, and that was a pleasant surprise compared to the sort of bitter stuff you hear from fans of many other clubs where they clock you approaching in your Albion scarf and start stage whispering amongst themselves about how both teams were shit today and they thought Brighton looked very disappointing and it was just a case of poor refereeing that cost their club the game.

Maybe I'll go next season, I have to get over myself at some point and stop missing out on a great away day

 

[Lady Whistledown]

It's not new news to anyone but they love a party and a drink in the North East.

Funnily enough, there wasn't much evidence of that last night. When they beat us 4-0 to qualify for the Champions League, however....