Those away day travels

The early morning alarm wakes u from your slumber, work again. No Its Saturday, its away day whoopee, your whole body suddenly finds the extra energy it never had all week. Your quickly showered and dressed, no not in Rupert bears trousers and shirt (oops sorry Burberry) but in the good old primark/jacamo specials (partly because Burberry don’t do FAT size). The away travel be it by coach, train or car is planned better than a military operation. Excitement leaps threefold when after scanning ur memory bank u realise its a new ground today, fantastic how will it match up to ours the great Proact (ok ours is shiny and new, and the best).

First mission on arrival at said destination or town centre of the days rivals is A) avoid their nutters and B) (more important) search out a Wetherspoon or Sam Smith pub for the much needed pre match shandy or 5, then after the 15th toilet break its off to the ground, the whistle blows and u can pretty much gaurantee the only thing the rival fans agree on is that the referee is a ######.

I score grounds on facilities or lack of, ie 4 sides is always a good start, leg room (well i’m 6ft 4in, Luton your grounds a ####hole, period, even Snow Whites mates would have problems sitting down) toilet with a roof on is always good too, and cheap but warm (not nuclear hot) pies always get top marks. Win, lose or draw the days invariably turn out to be crackers, theirs always one of u (usually me) who does or says something that stays in the memory banks for years after. Alas or hopefully you return to your town (as long as u don’t fall to sleep on the train or indeed miss it) for ur last shandy of the day, then kebab whilst walking home (unless the shandy has affected ur legs)

I miss my away day jaunts, hopefully i’ll be able to travel soon.I’m upto about 75 grounds I have visited, some have been the same team but their new ground, ie Swansea etc, my favourite away ground though I think still is Wycombes unless i’m allowed to count the Allianz in Munich but then again the mighty Spireites were not playing there that day.

Stu M.