I have been away for the last week. Did any of you notice? Anyway, on my way back from a research trip to Snowdonia, I happened to pass Wrexham's Racecourse Ground just minutes before their match with Alfreton Town. I pulled up at the lights and made a snap decision to attend the game with my son. I parked at a nearby shopping centre, handed my debit card to the missus and made a dash for the ground. The match was dreadful. It finished 1-0 to Alfreton. My wife spent a small fortune on 'a few new tops'. Have you ever decided to attend a random football match at the very last moment?
Strangely enough, yes i have Ponders. Some time ago (prob 20 years ago now) I was in Portugal on holiday when my next door neighbour Portuguese bloke informed me there was a very important local derby going on between SC Farense and Louletano and whoever won would get the freedom of the Algarve. Anyway, it was the most shocking game of football i've ever seen, ended up 0-0,full of foreigners falling over when getting touched, and trying to con the ref at every moment - a bit like the Premiership now then ! It took me 20 mins to find out which team was which, and i ended up leaving 10 mins before the end, to beat the 'rush' - all probably 1000 of the crowd.
Never actually stopped and paid for a match that i can recall but once in Australia I help start a game of football in surfers paradise that started with 5 backpackers at 4pm and went on for 6 hours, at its height it involved nearly 200 people of about 15 different nations. It became something of a event and the local and national papers reported it. I scored 3 early goals for the European side. The 2nd was probably the greatest goal I have ever scored.
In Switzerland about 25 years ago as a student I went to see Servette Geneva against Winterthur. On the spur of the moment. It was ok. Likewise in the north east on business in 00-01 went to Sunderland v Everton as a last minute thing. A guy I was meeting invites me to his box. It was great. It was the year that Phillips and Quinn were on fire.
Went to a game in Sydney a few years ago - God it was dreadful, bout the level of Welling United (wasnt the A-League but New South Wales' Premier Division)
