We’ve got a Ticket to Ride and we’ll be there

Well the winning post is in sight and we are 11 hours away from leaving on the final leg of our ten month escapade Man United and Grimsby Town scarves packed two hotels confirmed  and tickets in hand

On local radio this week only TV to go.

 

Wembley, Wembley so good we’re going there twice

It is now official barring unforeseen logistical problems we are off to Wembley in fact we are going twice in two days.

Thanks to our Fairy Godmother (he’ll kill me for that) Mr Football Matt and his network of like minded enthusiastic people who bought into the ethos of our journey we will be cheering our quarter final winner all the way to the winning line.
Two things that that have really surprised if not shocked me are firstly just how hard you have to work to keep something like this venture on track and secondly if anybody said to me that we would be paying £170 for two Final tickets I would have laughed my way to the Pawnbrokers, I really miss my watch.

When we were electronically introduced to Manchester United’s club secretary John Alexander I rather boldly told him that he needed us behind his team as we were ordained to be their lucky Talisman. You can imagine how stupid I was feeling when they were losing one nil to West Ham United two minutes into added on time when a certain Anthony Martial came into our lives along with his own anthem which goes a little like this …..
“Fifty million down the drain Anthony Martial scores again” due to the uncomplimentary nature of the content this chant it seems to be reserved for outside the ground. You would be amazed how many times it can be repeated during the short journey between Wembley and Stanmore a mere ten miles. When Manchester United fans discover irony they certainly get their teeth into it.
Thus the Talisman was activated, should they win the cup we have given permission for life sized bronzes to be installed next to the three whose names escape me out side the main entrance.

Lorna and I have leant so much on this journey some things good and some things bad.
On the good side our belief in the goodness of the common man / woman has been vindicated time and time again. On the bad side is the knowledge that at the higher echelon of the game, football no longer belongs to that common man and woman. The disregard to these people, our people, by the forces of television is an unacceptable disgrace which continues to the end with the possibility of Manchester United supporters once again not being home till the early hours of the morning due to “scheduling “.
It is regrettably a fact that at the higher levels television owns the soul of our great game and corporate owns its heart.
We look forward to supporting Manchester United at the final but the costs involved leave me mystified at how supporters the length and breadth of the country afford the loyalty of week in and week out attendance in the top tiers.

Those who have followed our journey know that my reason for putting finger to keyboard is humour I have lived and continue to live my life with humour as my number one ingredient. However I am capable of going on a rant for which I offer no apologies after all I am a typical Gemini. I get passionate when I see commitment and I get passionate when I see abuse in all forms.

At the beginning of this lament I mentioned us visiting Wembley twice well with the despondency I am in danger of having with the higher levels of football, we are going back to basics on the Sunday by rejoining the ranks of Grimsby Town to cheer (we need to wear the scarves one more time to be cost effective) them on at the final of the F A Trophy against Halifax Town both as I write, of the National League. With an earlier match for the F A Vase between Morpeth Town of the Ebac Northern League Premiership and Hereford United Champions of the Midlands Football League Premiership and guess what ?  with no Television we will back in Yorkshire way before the witching hour. The cost? £12 each and £1 for under sixteens for both matches.

We have done our sums and estimate that we could have gone on a Caribbean Cruise for two weeks for the same money that we have spent getting two hundred miles in our own country (we did go to Wales on the way). Would we change or do we regret a penny spent ? No way, it has tested us, frustrated us and exhilarated us but most importantly it has confirmed “us” as what matters most.

The Rise and Fall of Lorna Foyle

Wembley Part One

The arrival

I have always been extremely proud of my wife but over the last months my respect for her has gone completely off the radar. You have to live with her to know and witness the pain that she goes through everyday due to a severely deformed arthritic ankle. Does she complain ? Yes of course she does does she moan and whine no she doesn’t. This madcap venture of ours has proven far harder than we ever imagined. The pure logistics of traveling long distances with critical time restraints, fitting in eating, parking restrictions, hundreds of steps to encounter in and outside football grounds. All these things are easy when you are young and in prime health. But when you are sixty-seven And definitely not in prime health they take a bloody miracle to achieve and I am in awe of what she achieves and endures every day.

Yesterday she went not just the extra mile but far enough for her to be in today’s London Marathon, however and there is so often an however. She also overstepped the mark as you will find out presently………

sitting pretty but not for long

Our trip to Wembley with our now traditional visit to our local Wetherspoons for breakfast with those logistics I mentioned earlier it is important to get at least one good meal in peaceful surroundings. This accomplished we set off on our wayward journey to Wembley via Coventry. Why Coventry? Well returning to paragraph one we have a poorly mobility scooter which is regrettably now needed which was manufactured in Coventry and has gone home for some TLC so that it can perform its duties without coming to a halt every hundred yards like its owners.

So with scooter deposited we rejoined the madness of the M1 motorway to find our way to Stanmore where we and as it turned out five thousand other people dressed in red and white and mainly blue and white had also had the same brainwave, with the adjacent car park full two hours since we set off in search of a haven for our little Suzuki Wagon R, both mindful of the salesman’s words when we purchased it second hand, remember he said you are buying a “town car” these were not built for motorway driving ok. Well we have just completed forty thousand miles of mainly motorway driving and achieved speeds in excess of seventy miles per hour (seventy-four to be precise) down hill of course. It just takes a year or two as the owner of a Wagon R to get used to people’s obsession with overtaking then with the pretty certain knowledge that they will be driven by someone of senior years with far to much time on their hands.

It took us a matter of two minutes and a quarter of a mile to find our selves parked on a residents front drive and an acceptable fee transferred to his pocket.

Now the day really begins, fifty steps down to the train platform which is dotted with red and white amongst a flowing tide of blue and white. Successfully negotiated Wembley was but four stations away though kick off was a mere four hours away and breakfast five hours since.

For those who follow us you will know how hard I strive to ensure that the standard of the meals that we have whilst jaunting is of a high standard and just how much I constantly fail to fulfil this agenda. Well today I won ! A short walk out of Wembley Park tube station resides the long established (1997) Moulin cafe foreign by name and foreign by virtue of all the staff being of different nationalities and the majority of the customers being “Scouser”. Not put off by the fact that the majority of the items on the menu ended with chips there standing proud at the top were the the following:- Roast Chicken potatoes and fresh vegetables £6.95p and Steak and Kidney Pie potatoes and fresh vegetables £6.95p two little gems which turned out to be of a high enough quality to grace any Michelin Starred school canteen. Perfectly timed and accompanied by endless hot tea what could have been better? With a slightly younger couple on an adjoining table adorned in blue and white conversation soon flowed in good spirit which is definitely noticeable amongst the older generation of opposing football supporters.

Food covered off to find our seats.

Our view will it last?

This is our first experience of being in the heart of a large number of away supporters in a sellout match and I did give thought to what we have seen on tv over the last years but put it to the back of our minds as everyone began to take their seats.

Who else could befriend a Manchester United supporter with a flat batter only to find that he owned a wool shop in Chesterfield and now has a friend for life wool supplier.

With the appearance of the teams reality struck home that it would be at least forty five minutes until our backsides were to see our £50 seats. As the bottom tiers of the whole ground stepped back twenty years to the days when we did stand out of choice for £4.

My admiration for Lorna just went up another notch, we can all go the extra mile when we have to it is the way we do it that separates us.

The first half was all Manchester United and surrounding fleeting friendships were forming some I hadn’t quite realised had developed more than I had realised. The expected goal arrived and was celebrated enthusiastically but orderly.

We want to be together

The second half was a complete turnaround with Everton going into overdrive the east end of the ground was silenced when Everton won a penalty. Once again David De Gea showed why he is world class as he parried Lukaku’s shot wide of the goal.

It was a further twenty minutes of end to end football before the ball ended up in the United net and would you believe it not from an Everton player as Chris Smalling guided the ball perfectly past an exasperated De Gea.

The match continued at pace with the thought of an extra thirty minutes “standing” looming then in the ninety third minute all hell broke out. A few supporters to the right of Lorna had become excitable jumping up and down on the metal flooring much to the annoyance of those around. As the ball hit the back of the Everton net Lorna hit the floor with three men on top of her, two of which would not be out of place at a WWF event. The surrounding crowd came on mass to her assistance. Now I did mention earlier about overstepping the mark I was rather alarmed as the first two bodies were peeled off Lorna and given a verbal bashing by me, l am sure I heard the last man to regain his feet say thank you to her. This on its own would not have attracted my attention it was when after thirty six years,and from her still horizon position I swear she asked for a cigarette. Now this should be the time for a little compassion as she was clearly bruised and shaken had she not decided to snog both the men in front of her in her slightly delayed goal celebration.

Celebration time

If all the events getting to and in the stadium were not enough we still had the daunting journey back to our car. I wouldn’t say that Lorna was struggling on our track back up to the tube station but we were spotted by a team of police medics who called us out of the crowd to a parallel walkway specifically installed for those with walking difficulties. Now she was in her most embarrassing position being physically assisted by a good looking triathlon competing police medic. It did have the advantage of us being directed to a side entrance and within three minutes we were being whisked northbound in a carriage of chanting United supporters and slightly beleaguered yet complimentary Everton supporters. I have to say that if I hear the chant ” fifty million down the drain Anthony Martial scores again” one more time I will implode.

The sharing day had still not ended as we encountered two Everton supporters sitting on the garden wall waiting for their driver who had took the tube south instead of north.

Having succeed with food up to this point the decision was made at the last second not to join the thousands making their way back to the motorway but to drive further into London, what a great decision as within a mile we came across a busy but not full Pizza Express and would you believe it half the restaurant was made up of United supporters, with not a mention of Anthony Martial.

Leaving the restaurant happily fed and watered at ten o clock we headed to a still busy but moving M1 motorway and a remarkable journey north arriving home tired,bruised and proud at one o clock.

Fifteen matches done one to go God willing.

3,300 miles traveled

24 cups of Bovril purchased

14 scarves

7 teams adopted

1 heavily dented bank balance

With no help available with finding tickets will we finish this Bucket List Journey

Hammers left on their Eels

Just about recovered from our longest round trip yet to the FA Cup sixth round replay.

Our day started with another radio interview this time one of our own local stations BBC Radio York. Being Wednesday it was market day in Knaresborough and we had to abandon our now traditional start to F A Cup day with a visit to the “Spoons” for a Full English as we could not get within parking distance of it. Plan B was Mr Morrison similar priced which is not really important to me of course. Lorna doesn’t do baked beans with breakfast so ordered extra mushrooms I wouldn’t say that there were a lot on her plate but there certainly wasn’t mushroom for anything else.

Today we decided not to drive to London because the logistics of then getting to the Bolyen Stadium are to great for us. There is no local parking anywhere near the Ground and tube travel is only recommend for the bravest. So we are drove to Old Trafford to get on one off the “free” coaches supplied by Manchester United to the match. After a pleasant journey and a stop for a gourmet motorway lunch we arrived at West Ham where all the coaches were parked in a very narrow cul de sac that runs down the side of the ground. The West Ham stadium is situated in the heart of East London with housing and shops right up to its doorsteps and even at five thirty you could feel the tension in the air. The reason for using this thoroughfare for the coaches is so it can be sealed off by the police as it contains the turnstiles for the visiting away supporters. This would have worked fine except we had tickets purchased from West Ham and our seats were as far away from the coaches as they could be.

After our class breakfast and Michelin starred lunchtime baguette it was time to seek out food again. Next to our coach prison car park was a fish and chip shop who’s queue snaked it’s way down the main road like a frozen conga. Next door was a pie and eel shop yes you did read that right a pie and eel shop whose queue also zig zagged down the road like well like an eel I suppose. All was not looking or sounding good as a melodic rendition of “We’re forever blowing bubbles ” came ringing out of the local public house. Three eateries and three no,s it harder than Britain’s got talent. Then a lifeline on the opposite side of the road was a dodgy looking Kentucky Fried Chicken knock off at least the pictures behind the counter looked appetising and at £4 for three pieces, chips, a drink and a table and chairs what could possibly go wrong?

Well actually nothing the chicken was freshly cooked the chips were chips in fact football fayre at it’s best and it was real coke not rolla cola.

Filled with the finest East Ham cuisine time for a photo stop with the “Hammers Heroes of 66” and off to find the way in. I do not know wether only away supporters are looked upon as possible terrorists but we were surprised not to have our bags checked buy any of the four stewards located at the entrance that we used. Think you might just need a little more staff training here West Ham.

Numerous stairs dealt with our seats were on the front row of the stands second tier, between the halfway line and the goal with a great all round view. I was sat next to a lady of my age wearing a claret and blue scarf who was with what I assume was her daughter who was wearing a dedicated West Ham scarf. I decided to come clean at this point. There is a historic hatred between northern and southern football teams and none more fervent than a match involving Manchester United so the wearing of club colours is for the very brave or the insane. Hence our red and white livery homed securely in my bag. The one thing we knew for sure as the crowd grew in size and volume was this was no place to get excited about the wrong team. It did pass through my mind looking at Lorna and reflecting on past matches if we would last ninety minutes without verbal and physical abuse. Back to coming clean, I engaged the lady next to me in conversation and rather naively told her I had something to show her at which point I unzipped my bay and flashed her. The response was instant as she unzipped her bag and flashed me. Guess what.? We were both flashing the same thing. She was a closeted Man United fan forced to wear claret and blue by her brutal daughter (well that’s my opinion).

Contrary to media opinion it was plain after a few minutes that the Reds had come for a result and there was now the distinct possibility of three of us ending up in tier one the match continued in this vein. I think it was about ten minutes into the match that our cover was possibly blown as a certain person finds it hard not to get emotional. A good first half ended with the apprehension of getting back to our coach on our minds as we were informed that we had to be back within fifteen minutes of the final whistle. After eight minutes of the second half it happened! A certain Marcus Rashford entered the West Ham penalty area with ball and …… It was in the net. My hand immediately shot into the air to return the rising body next to me. What followed is something I will never forget as three people began to exchange glances completely unsure of what to do or say. It is one of the hardest things to ask anyone to do, suppress emotions but we just about got away with it well for eight minutes anyway when the ball entered the net again. This time we were ready and sat motionless along with everyone else in the stand simply making satisfied eye contact as this meant that we would be able to get out of the ground early to get round to the coach.

Unfortunately West Ham didn’t like that idea and decide to score now what do we do.

My mind went back to time when I was working in the shipyards in Glasgow with a German engineer and we found ourselves in a city pub watching a World Cup qualifier between Scotland and Australia. Scotland scored and the place erupted apart from two people, this did not go unnoticed as I was tackled by a slightly inebriated fan who asked why we were not celebrating to which I rather stupidly revealed my heritage at which point I was asked if my colleague was also English and I made another error by revealing that he was in fact German. We never did see the rest of the match as we were advised it would be in our safest interest to leave whilst the atmosphere remained jubilant.

Back at West Ham we now had many dilemmas, an equaliser would mean extra time and possibly penalties, staying to the final whistle would mean a real problem circumnavigating the ground. Five minutes from time West Ham had the ball in the net and extra time loomed, fortunately for Manchester United this was ruled off side and with two minutes of normal time remaining we started what was to prove a hair raisins walk back to the coach.

From the moment we emerged from the bottom of the staircase our direction was the opposite one to everyone else’s,it took two minutes for us get separated and a minute for me to find a distressed looking head bobbing up and down in the tide. We made our way better down the main road due to its width the shock came when we arrive at the street where we were parked. Again we had the full force of exiting home fans but the amount of foot and mounted police officers was overwhelming. The atmosphere in the street was extremely volatile with riot snatch squads running between incidents. With our way barred by a wall of police facing up to a wall of excited and inebriated Manchester United fans we asked for assistance. One officer shouted to a colleague for him to help “two old people” get to their coach. It was only the sudden movement of the rear of a police horse that shot us sideways towards the coach door that stopped the front line being strengthened by two pensions.

Well saw him come on pitch did he get a Kick?

With coach fully loaded we left in a police escorted convoy to travel back to Old Trafford. Our journey was uneventful apart from a long delay in the roadworks on the M1 due to tree fellers, no it is not the old Irish joke, there were two locations along the motorway were teams of guys were hanging out of trees with chain saws in hand. With nothing else of great interest we duly arrived back at the car park at 3.00am and with quiet roads we were home at 4.30 am tired and content

FROM THE THEATRE OF DREAMS TO ANOTHER BOLYEN DEMISE

Just how close can we park

To those that follow our journey apologies for not reporting on our visit to Old Trafford. We have to say a big thank you to them for supplying tickets and car parking. We often read about them being the biggest club in the world but you have to visit and get a little look behind the scenes to appreciate the size of the operation. When we receive free tickets we try to return the gift by purchasing something from the club shop, so we are the owners of two rather smart scarves let’s hope that we get good use from them.

It’s big here

We are goal line technology

As for the match a draw was the fair result though we could really do without an extra trip to London.

Next one Bobby Moore

Since our great visit to Old Trafford we have once again been in limbo as to wether we would be able to attend the replay. We have both been ill for a number of weeks having had two courses of antibiotics each and still no where near fully recovered. Manchester United were unable to help us directly with tickets which we fully understand as their allowance is so small. They did however contact West Ham on our behalf and we are delighted to say that we were able to purchase tickets direct from them. Manchester United and Thomas Cook Sport have also come up trumps and we are travelling by coach from Old Trafford to Upton Park with the bulk of Manchester United supporters traveling to the match.

We are grateful to both United’s for helping us continue our journey though we may only be able to wear our colours until we arrive at the ground as our tickets are situated deep into the home supporters and somebody has already demonstrated her physical enthusiastic support in prior rounds.

It will be forty-nine years and three weeks on Wednesday since my last visit to The Bolyen Stadium in a year that Aston Villa were relegated deja vu and I got the job of going up to the bar in a shady West London Pub to get drinks for five sheepish looking sixteen year olds trying hard to look older.

No pub on this visit in fact the car park is most likely the limit of our allowed travel, l do miss having the freedom to change ends at half time and park the car in the street next to the ground.

Almost Curtain Up Time

We are just about to leave for our visit to the “Theatre of Dreams”  though I believe it has a different name amongst our friends in the South.So are we once again about to witness a tragedy  or a comedy? A few years ago this would have been a pretty sure fire banker but with West Ham on the ascendence and United still in transformation there are no long odds available on this result.

We are really looking forward to our visit as Manchester United have been so supportive of us right from our first contact with them. A big thanks to club secretary John Alexander.

As is our way when someone does us a courtesy we try to respond so it looks like a visit to the supporters shop and yes you’ve guessed it. Two new scarves for our collection to be purchased.

We had a full page article in our local paper this last week which we really pleased with I think it helped that the journalist Dan Windham is a self confessed Man United Junkie many thanks Dan.

I had my hearing aids repaired this week so if i do end up sat next to Sir Alex I might just be able to decipher some of the conversation. I wonder if he has a Knex set of his own.

Playing it safe today I have just cooked a full breakfast, tonights meal I cooked yesterday ready and I have a restaurant sorted out in Rochdale en route what could possibly go wrong this week?

Can not get my head round the fact that they do not sell Bovril at Old Trafford oh well have to have a Lancashire Latte instead.

United we stand derisive they fall

The curtain has come down on our Salop Days as the music fades away, though wether the Taming of the Shrews was a comedy or a tragedy is open to discussion. In earlier blogs I refereed to Grimsby and Cardiff and not least Shrewsbury as selling themselves to the Devil in the guise of BT Sport and Welsh Television for their total disregard to their supporters in their lust for financial reward. Well on Monday night Shrewsbury Town took the gold medal in avariciousness. Because of anticipated television viewing figures they installed a metre high wall of electronic advertising screen round three sides of the pitch. These constantly streaming walls are a scourge of most if not all of modern Premier League Stadia. Shrewsbury Towns 9000 capacity stadium, as nice as it is, was not built with this technology in mind. Hundreds of supporters particularly children and including us had their evening ruined by their view of the pitch being obstructed by this solid wall.
Shame on you Shrewsbury by either being so greedy or for bowing into pressure. If you had a conscience you would refund ever supporter in rows A and B who suffered the indignity of this enforce imposition. I am convinced that it had an affect on the team who do not play with this type of constant bombardment of live media streaming, as they seemed to be caught like rabbits in the headlights all night.
I was very vocal about Cardiff City getting its just rewards for its total disregard for true football supporters and now I say the same of Shrewsbury Town.
For us it was a very sad and disappointing ending to what had been a expensive but enjoyable and at times stressful association with the club.
So for the future we fully intend to complete our quest though despite our energy we have been surprised that at these stages a journey it now relies heavily on the assistance and support of other people of whom we are grateful. We now wait again to see what day and at what time the mighty television companies allow the game to be played so that we can start the campaign to acquire those elusive tickets.
Apologies for the rant the whole reason for blogging this journey was to pass on in humour our exploits and yesterday was no exception for regular readers and that does not refer to one bathroom habits only the frequency of ones strength to be bothered to read the ramblings of an ageing old curmudgeon, you will remember that our last journey was not a great culinary hit with my beloved co traveller. Time to make amends, so ok it did start out similar well to be honest it was exactly the same, but cheaper. Surely filter coffee is better for you than cappuccino there less milk for a start. Mid journey I thought we had made a wrong turn and were driving down Route 66 when we experienced our first Costa Coffee Drive Through which we made a complete pigs ear of when before driving off we both realised that we needed the toilet so ended up inside the coffee house with our coffees going cold in the car. Journey almost complete we called at the offices of the Shropshire Star to obtain an edition of the publication that we appeared in, job complete it was time to find lunch.
There is a pretty certain way to ensure paying a lot for food and that is to follow a brown sign in this case to “The Huntsman” at Little Wenlock. Why do these restaurants not understand that slates go on roofs cheese platter boards are for displaying cheese and that a “pie” is not topped with mash potato. Furthermore a soda and lime is not priced the same as a bottle of Bollinger. And was it worth stopping there ? Yes lunch was excellent despite the holes in the roof and my wallet but you know, she’s worth it. Lunch complete time to check in at the hotel regretful I can not find anything to complain about, yet. Big room, huge bed and beautiful Spa centre plenty of Ying there must be a Yang somewhere.
Next on this mad journey a trip to BBC Radio Shropshire to visit our airwaves friends Vicki and Adam who are broadcasting live this afternoon. We were welcomed like life time friends and soon found ourselves sitting in front of two microphones and back on air we went. Goodbyes made we returned for a rest and await our taxi to the ground.
I have alluded to our disappointment with the seats at the ground not just for us but for hundreds of men, women, girls and boys who had paid good money, ours were “complimentary” but believe me this was no compliment. The game? Poor. The evening? Poor. The result? Sorry Shrewsbury good. Our last memory they do sell good Bovril and we will have to hold onto that memory as we have been informed that they do not serve it at Old Trafford.
So back to the hotel to find the Yang. What we hadn’t appreciated when we checked in was that the hotel was undergoing a massive upgrade and that we were actually in the annex and that reception had been temporally located at this end of the hotel. After a ten minute hike involving thirteen sets of double doors and four separate flights of stairs we found a deserted and unattended bar by which time Lorna was in so much pain that we about turned and limped all the way back to our room to make sure that we were fully rested as next to the bar, you might just be ahead of me here, yes the breakfast room was situated.
Our stay at the Mercure Allbrighton Hall was excellent despite the inconveniences and we would return.
So to the future we have the scarf and I am delighted to say within ten hours of contacting Manchester United we have received a very positive response from them and BBC Radio Manchester so fingers crossed to us actually completing this venture.

It’s just another Manic Monday

Monday 22nd February

Well thanks again to television coverage it is F A Cup day for us and we are on our way back to Shrewsbury for the fifth (tenth for us) round match with the mighty Manchester United. Surreally we already know where we will be in the sixth round. If Shrewsbury win back we go to play the rather classy West Ham United and of course if Manchester United win its Old Trafford either way we are happy.
We may just be back on the radio latter today as Adam and Vikki the hosts of the afternoon show have asked us to call and say hello. So we are armed with sweeties for them and the supporters.
Decided to reduce the stress tonight and have booked into a local hotel and ordered taxis to and from the ground.
Will we get to wear these scarves after tonight or will the red and white one sent by the colour blind Amazon packer finally see the light of day.
See you later

Sill on course

Hey Shews you didn’t let us down la la la la la la la
We had our closing blog all planned as the hours ticked away
You see no one wanted to talk to us no one wanted us to play
The newspaper they asked for pictures to help them fill a page
We happily gave these to them and we didn’t ask for a wage
They wrote great things about us yes they really did us proud
You see all we really want to be is back there part of the crowd
Still phones and the super highway were as silent as the night
Our hopes of completing our journey were not looking very bright
When last we needed assistance there was a kindly northern man
He liked what we were trying to do in fact I think we have a fan
But life’s work is ever changing when your career is in its prime
Always put family first and foremost as there’s no reversing time
Alone down the road we ventured not knowing what lay beyond
When out of nowhere a voice appeared it was James yes Mr Bond
So eloquently he was spoken as he quizzed us both that’s L and M
Our answers seemed to impress him he laughed well now and then
He said he had listeners waiting you’ve a story that needs to be told
Yes on the radio live we did go our adventures to tell the station fold
Still phones and super highway were silent and time it was passing
It looks like the end is finally here as we are just not into harassing
When last we stood to watch United two young lovers holding hands
We saw Best, Charlton and Dennis Law how they thrilled the stands
When you need a knight in shinning armour to help with your crusade
It’s nice to know that there is one in the north where his home is made
We thank him most sincerely for his perseverance in answering the call
You see thanks to our adopted football club we shall go to the ball
Let us hope the Gods are with us and true fortune keeps us in the mix
We can go through all this agony again as the Shrews go into round six
Our voices will be raised high and our scarves we shall proudly wear
With Wembley Stadium in our sights well we still might just get there.

Malcolm and Lorna still going to Wembley

19th February 2016

We are not beat yet

A big thanks to our Daughter Jenny and her niece Super Spurs fan Sophie who have both been busy today rallying to our cause.We are still no nearer getting a ticket but we now have Her Majesty on our side. We received a phone call tonight from James Bond, those of you with a good memory will remember that we met Ian Fleming at Grimsby Town. you could write a book about this or even better make a film.

James is in fact the head of sport for BBC Radio Shropshire and wants us to go live on air tomorrow afternoon around about 4-15 pm to tell our story. no one can say that we are not giving up without trying so let us hope it helps.

Bovril has had a significant part in our blogs. Jenny contacted Manchester United today who may be interested in us if they win but her contact did tell her to tell us that we need to find a new refreshment as they do not sell Bovril, is it ok to drink Pimms in a cardboard cup ?

Time for an early night and a gargle and see what tomorrow brings.