don’t always have time to throw stones. Especially when it is the Glass World stadium just outside Cambridge (well a long way out of Cambridge really, in a place called Histon) and they are too busy cheering on the mighty Saints in the play off semi final.
Now my play-off track record is none too healthy, I have form as the pundits say, and it leans towards the losing so I didn’t approach my trip to Cambridge with a particularly large bucket of optimism, more a small margarine tub’s worth. The omens though were good. Bacon fries had been sourced from the slightly dubious looking newsagents on Fleet Street. The pre-match fuelling, while following a fairly loose interpretation of the standard format, was close enough to tick the pork-and-bread-and-lager boxes. Although the face of the woman opposite me on the train did suggest she might have been veggie, teetotal and anti-football.
Anyway forget her; back to the omens – my taxi driver for the Cambridge station to Histon journey passed his driving test in St Albans and had lived in Leicester. Yes. Thank you. I do appreciate he might just have been saying all that in the interests of bonhomie and calming my nerves and none of it was true but it made me feel better. Or maybe he was distracting me from the fact that the taxi journey was costing me £15…EEK.
Although I probably should stop fussing about the taxi fare. Turned out we were blessed with the presence of one of our infamous Norwegian contingent…and it had cost PepsiCo a mere £270 to get to the game. Worth every penny or indeed krone as it turns out. The massive away support were on top form. We even had a drum…and a drummer who had rhythm…And while we were meeting our job description on the terraces, the team were doing the job on the pitch. A few nervy moments every time our two goal cushion became one, but they did it.
Through to the play off FINAL.
Cue mass celebration, excess hugging and beaming. All followed up with a journey home for seven in Davy Mac’s people carrier, and Stella provided by Hatboy – first class travel. And so to Chesham on Bank Holiday Monday. One more game to send the mighty Saints up and put the icing on my bank holiday birthday cake.
Of course he’s blurry – he’s travelled a long way and the photographer is tired and emotional…
Match stats:
Cambridge City 2 St Albans City 4
Attendance 768
No raffle tickets or golden goals, this is the lottery that is the play-offs
Bacon fries consumed 1 packet
Item masquerading as bacon cob: 1. An M&S american style pork flatbread sandwich
Lager consumed 3 pints lager (various)
Thing I Learnt today
This matters even more than I thought it might.
Come On You Saints
TLF