AWAY DAYS

(Nightmare journey on a Bank Holiday?)

 Two days before our trip to Moor Green the TV and Newspapers were full of “don’t travel unless absolutely necessary on Bank Holiday Monday” Well it was necessary, it was a new ground for me (135) and our 1100^th League Game. Don’t these people realise!

For anyone who doesn’t know my away travel routine by now it usually consists of an early start with my wife taking me to The Fleece in Penwortham were there is an exchange of cars and Martin takes over.

This early start saw a 9.15 departure from Ainsdale. I knew it was early as we saw the team coach going in the opposite direction along the Tarleton by-pass to pick the players up!

Armed with a full packed lunch for us both and a few emergency supplies in case of being stuck in the forecast traffic jams on the M6 we left the Fleece at 10.00am.

By the way, if the person out walking his dog by Booths near Cop Lane wondered why two strange looking lads were staring at him at that hour in the morning we were only trying to establish if it was a Southport shirt you were wearing. It was!

By 11.30 we were on the outskirts of Birmingham so it was a quick call into the Services to look at the maps on sale in the shop to see what there was around Moor Green for us to do to kill 3 hours. Not a lot was the answer. In the end we diverted to Bromsgrove to visit a lovely country park which helped pass an hour or so.

Martin is used to my obsession with football grounds by now but even he got a bit worried when I was leaning out of the window on the M6 trying to get as good a picture as possible of Walsall’s ground!

I don’t know about anyone else but I love away trips, spotting all the other fans going to games in their coaches and seeing if you can see any other fellow fans travelling down. I think we were a bit ahead of everyone for this trip.

We saw lots of Cardiff fans going to Wigan but not as many as we saw coming back when they were well and truly stuck in a traffic jam, a coach load of Hereford fans going to Northwich. We also saw Grimsby fans going to Wycombe, a bit of course I think, and the Kidderminster team going to Bury.

We got to the ground at 1.55pm with the intention of having a look around the town. Mmm, not much to see, even the Hall Green dog track, home of the Birmingham Puppy Derby was outside walking distance. We opted for the bookies but luckily I didn’t have a bet as both my selections lost.

We made our way to the ground and both commented on what a lovely area it was to have a football ground but I bet the rather upmarket locals hope they never see a big crowd.

The first thing that struck me on entering the ground was what a superb pitch it was, certainly the best away pitch I had seen since my visit to Rushden & Diamonds in August 2000.

It was £8 to get in and £1.50 for a rather decent programme that contained some good articles.

As for the match, it really was the classic game of two halves. We strolled the first half and were deservedly 2-0 up. After 60 minutes I turned to Martin and commented what a poor team Moor Green looked. I think their manager must have heard me because he brought on a sub who seemed to transform the game and with 10 minutes to go it was all square and Moor Green looked the more likely winners. Enter super sub Mulvaney making his 30^th subs appearance which puts him third in the all time NL subs list behind Gambo and Lee Furlong.

He really took the goal well having a lot of work still to do when receiving the ball, he finished it off brilliantly to cue wild celebrations from the travelling fans who felt they had got out of jail. Lee got a booking for over celebrating so those naughty away supporters must never celebrate a goal again with the players! What a stupid rule!

It was another healthy away following, too much going on for me to count but I was surprised that the gate was given as 371, it looked more like 250 to me. I think a lot must have stayed in the bar. Why anyone goes to a football match to stay in the bar mind you and not get behind the team is beyond me but then again I am tee-total!

On to the nightmare journey home? No problems and back in Preston by 7.30 for the pick up by the missus. I know several fans would have got home earlier than us as we saw you whizzing past us on the M6 but we always thought the speed limit on a motorway was 70 and not 90! Watch those cameras.

The Away Days report from Nuneaton will be in the Runcorn programme on Tuesday.