A few weeks before Christmas I posted on here about a good mate of mine, a mag, but never the less a good mate, big Tony, larger than life, always up for a laugh. He had just been diagnosed with cancer, and told he had months rather than years to live. Sorry to say he lost that battle on Saturday 11th Feb just 3 months after his diagnosis. The funeral was on Friday 17th and a few of us travelled over from Stavanger for it. So many people, neighbours, friends and many, many guys he had worked with in the past, some from many years ago, turned out for him. Lots of mags and a few Sunderland supporters, and of course we had a bit banter at the pub afterwards. One Mag asked who they were playing the next day, I said â Who were you drawn against in the cup? Oh sorry youâre not in the cup are you!â of course, that created quite a few growls. But there were lots of comments about how well we were doing under MON, and the arsenal game would go
The silver lining bit:
Neither me or my other Sunâland mate, who had travelled for the funeral, get to matches that often so we had got tickets, werenât too sure about where to go, so we decided âsod the expenseâ (£40) and went for the Black Cats bar (Strongbow stand I think).
Absolutely magic, even free food (which was excellent), great atmosphere, great result. Just a shame I couldnât brag to my mate Tony afterwards.
BTW, I thought the crowd looked more like 30-31000 and the atmospere was great, had two kids with their father just behind us. When all the arsenal player kept falling over, one of the kids shouted at the top of his voice âget up you pussiesâ the crowd around us thought it really funny. His father asked him where he got that from, he said just heard it here!
Determined to get over for more games, not just the sad occasions.
The silver lining bit:
Neither me or my other Sunâland mate, who had travelled for the funeral, get to matches that often so we had got tickets, werenât too sure about where to go, so we decided âsod the expenseâ (£40) and went for the Black Cats bar (Strongbow stand I think).
Absolutely magic, even free food (which was excellent), great atmosphere, great result. Just a shame I couldnât brag to my mate Tony afterwards.
BTW, I thought the crowd looked more like 30-31000 and the atmospere was great, had two kids with their father just behind us. When all the arsenal player kept falling over, one of the kids shouted at the top of his voice âget up you pussiesâ the crowd around us thought it really funny. His father asked him where he got that from, he said just heard it here!
Determined to get over for more games, not just the sad occasions.
