"El equipo está, para grandes cosas...
si seguimos humildes y trabajando y no perder esa esencia"
Oswaldo Sánchez
My Matchday was planned precisely, trains and bus times all planned with precision, as I left home that morning the last thing the breadknife said was “you know what happens with best laid plans, they don‘t go to plan” as always, of course, she was right.
My day began with the 8.45 to Aberdeen, the train I was taking to Edinburgh arrived over half a hour late, so this naturally had a knock on effect, meaning I missed to 1045 train from the capital to Glasgow, but I did make the 11.15 ok. I then arrived in Glasgow where I took the 31 bus to Mount Florida, again catching the next bus at 12.15, so I finally reached my destination at 12.30, giving me plenty of time before the big kick off.
After a brief look around the stadium, my next port of call was Cathkin Park, the former home of Third Lanark, where I had a look around and took some pictures to put on to the website. I then met up with 100FGC squad no.81 Jamie McQueen, finding him standing at the top of the stairs at the main entrance, doing a bit of celebrity spotting. After meeting up with a couple of this fellow Queens fans we headed off in pursuit of a pre-match drink, but predictably everywhere was full, so in desperation of booze we ended up going to the off-licence for some cans, drinking them behind the offy, taking us back to our teenage years. We were just polishing off our cans when two polis appeared on push bikes, they must have been in a good mood as they ordered us to confiscate the drink, and move on our way letting the four of us off with the £40 on the spot fine for drinking outdoors in public.
My train home was at 6pm to meet the 7pm train from Edinburgh back to Newcastle, these were the only trains I could get home, if I missed the 6’o clock train then I was knackered, meaning either a night in Scotland or having to hitch it home. I boarded the bus to get back to the train station at 5.10pm, but after 20 minutes we only progressed about 20 yards due to the large number of fans walking on the road and stopping the traffic. I looked at my watch it was 5:33, I only had one option and that was to alight the bus and run like the clappers all the way to Queen Street, when I asked the bus driver to let me off and I told him what I planned, he looked at me in disbelief. It’s a good job I’m a seasoned jogger because I did the 2 mile run in 20 minutes arriving at the train station with 5 minutes to spare, by then I was drenched in sweat, red faced and receiving funny looks from everyone, apologies to the lad I sat next to on the train because I must have stunk, I’ve learned to never get a bus in Glasgow again, after a similar incident with Glasgow traffic when I went to St. Mirren.
To rub salt into the wounds the train home from Edinburgh arrived 20 minutes late, it was a nightmare performance from National Express, at least First Scot Rail are reliable, but I suppose on reflection it's all a part of my makes up my matchday adventures and all part of the amusement.
And so my 81st and last game of the season, what a great one to end with, a fantastic stadium, a thrilling game and a great day out, now I need to recharge my batteries and have a football free summer and return for the 2008/09 season, raring to go with more of my ground hopping adventures.
Links-http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,19764,11065_2988856,00.html
My Pictures from Cathkin Park here.
Ground no.174-Hampden Park - Matchday web album(20 pictures)
Related article at Pitch Invasion;http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/05/28/the-ghost-stadium/
Ground no.173 – Metcalfe Park – Matchday Web album (13 pictures)