Epic Match Day Journeys

[sirbrian]

Saturday 30 April 1977 - Wrexham 0-0 BHA

Two special trains went up. On the way up there was a suicide at Rugby coming back the windows shattered in one carriage and then the engine broke down. Got back in Brighton Station at about 1:30 in the morning.

Any other tales about epic journeys ?

 

[Napper]

Reading away when we lost 3 - 2 , trains cancelled and missed through alcohol. Only just got the last one back from Gatwick. Got home about 1:30

 

[Wardy]

Blackpool away a few years back. It was during the fuel crisis, my mate had just enough petrol to get there. We got there took 3 days to get enough petrol to risk coming back. Would not have been so bad but the pleasure beach was shut do to lack of fuel.

 

[Hiney]

ANY of the Seagull Special journeys in the mid to late 70s had the potential to be 'epic'. The rolling stock was always the shittiest and the locomotives were not exactly state of the art.

I remember one Horrendous journey back from Oldham in 1978 when the front three carriages of the train all had their windows smashed and the wind HOWLED through the train for the whole journey back

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

Tottenham away, FA Cup, 2005,

I lived in Carlisle at the time and was going to fly from Prestwick to Stansted for the day. Got up at 5am, to find two feet of water at the end of my street.

After spending two hours trying to get out of Carlisle, I bit the bullet and drove through another two foot puddle somewhere. As I drove through the Dumfriesshire countryside in the dark, my electrics conked out. Because of the water. Used my lights on half beam for about 30 miles until the sun came up.

Got to Prestwick 30 mins after my flight took off. Spent 40 quid on buying a ticket for the next one.

Arrived at Stansted. The train to Tottenham Hale broke down at Harlow Town. Got to the ground fifteen minutes before kick-off.

Was getting texts all through the game along the lines of: "Is your house OK?" Shit, I thought.

The flight back from Stansted to Prestwick attempted to land three times, the weather was so bad. When we touched down at Prestwick, the pilot got a round of applause.

Drove home via Glasgow (a massive detour so it would be trunk road all the way) Got back to Carlisle to find the power to the entire city out, and my road cut off by floodwaters (though thankfully not flooded itself). Knocked on a mate's door at 1.30am. Slept until 6am. Walked to work.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Albania away in 2001. Originally booked to come home the day after the game via Thessaloniki, but Olympic decided a week before to cancel the Thursday flight so put us on the Friday one with a hotel accommodation thrown in for the Thursday.

Arrive at Tirana airport on the Thursday to catch the flight to Thessaloniki to be told by Olympic Airways officials that we are going back to England on the Thursday and there is no accommodation for us. Instead we have to get a flight from Thessaloniki to Athens and then one from Athens to Heathrow, which is a pain as we have originally booked to go to Gatwick.

Arrive at Thessaloniki airport to be told the Athens flight is delayed, when we ask who long we are met with shrugged shoulders and a lot of don’t knows from the staff. It turns out that the Thursday was the day the new Athens airport opened and the new air traffic control system was not working properly. Eventually our plane arrives, get to Athens airport about 3 hours late to see the Heathrow flight is at present on time. Time for boarding passes, still no call and no Olympic airways staff around. About 90 minutes later one shows and tries to claim there was never a flight for Heathrow at the time shown on our ticket, cue arguments. In the end a bus appears to take us to the plane and goes past all the Olympic planes and to the far end of the airport and stops by a Macedonia Airways plane. Load us on, a good 2 hours late now and set off for Heathrow (flying back over Albania on the way).

Arrive at Heathrow for the Captain to tell us that no luggage was loaded on to the plane, so spend an extra hour at Heathrow filling in forms so eventually our bags might return. Bag arrived on the Sunday and the Taxman had his delivered to his local pub!!!

 

[Guinness Boy]

Albania away in 2001. Originally booked to come home the day after the game via Thessaloniki, but Olympic decided a week before to cancel the Thursday flight so put us on the Friday one with a hotel accommodation thrown in for the Thursday.

Arrive at Tirana airport on the Thursday to catch the flight to Thessaloniki to be told by Olympic Airways officials that we are going back to England on the Thursday and there is no accommodation for us. Instead we have to get a flight from Thessaloniki to Athens and then one from Athens to Heathrow, which is a pain as we have originally booked to go to Gatwick.

Arrive at Thessaloniki airport to be told the Athens flight is delayed, when we ask who long we are met with shrugged shoulders and a lot of don’t knows from the staff. It turns out that the Thursday was the day the new Athens airport opened and the new air traffic control system was not working properly. Eventually our plane arrives, get to Athens airport about 3 hours late to see the Heathrow flight is at present on time. Time for boarding passes, still no call and no Olympic airways staff around. About 90 minutes later one shows and tries to claim there was never a flight for Heathrow at the time shown on our ticket, cue arguments. In the end a bus appears to take us to the plane and goes past all the Olympic planes and to the far end of the airport and stops by a Macedonia Airways plane. Load us on, a good 2 hours late now and set off for Heathrow (flying back over Albania on the way).

Arrive at Heathrow for the Captain to tell us that no luggage was loaded on to the plane, so spend an extra hour at Heathrow filling in forms so eventually our bags might return. Bag arrived on the Sunday and the Taxman had his delivered to his local pub!!!

Urgh! Certainly beats the 5 hours back from Carlisle that time when we'd stayed in Lancaster for the weekend. The train wasn't delayed but I was so hungover from the night before I couldn't drink anything (this was 6.00 at night) and the strains of the Taxman singing Bright Eyes and Tiffany was enough to make the 5 hour journey feel more like 15.

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

Urgh! Certainly beats the 5 hours back from Carlisle that time when we'd stayed in Lancaster for the weekend. The train wasn't delayed but I was so hungover from the night before I couldn't drink anything (this was 6.00 at night) and the strains of the Taxman singing Bright Eyes and Tiffany was enough to make the 5 hour journey feel more like 15.

Ahh, yes. The 'let's stay in Lancaster, so we get to Carlisle dead early and spend the day drinking' trip!

 

[Uncle Buck]

Ahh, yes. The 'let's stay in Lancaster, so we get to Carlisle dead early and spend the day drinking' trip!

Trouble was we were spannered when arrived in Lancaster at 5pm on the Friday.

Something about Oaf, fire and curry house springs to mind....

 

[Thimble Keegan]

Carlisle United a few years back when we drew 0-0.

We got the train up which got severly delayed and we did not arrive into Carlisle until after kick-off. We had to grab a taxi to Brunton Park and the cabby put the local radio on so we could hear the commentary on the way.

We got in with just under 30mins gone so we watched about an hour of football and then had the long train journey all the way home.

Once I went up with Kev's Caravan's to the Friday night game against Wrexham where we won (and went top of League 1 if my memory serves me correctly). We got caught in traffic and arrived there so late that the away turnstiles where shut. We had to go into the main stand where stewards escorted us to the near enough the touch-line and walked us around the edge of the pitch and into the away end.

Albion & England forever.

Thimble Keegan
Littlehampton BHA

 

[sully]

A few years back going up to Macclesfield. It was shortly after the Hatfield train crash and massive flooding everywhere.

It was difficult to get information on what trains were running, and it turned out that it was completely random.

I had arranged for a mate to pick me up from Crewe, as he lived in Alsager, but I forgot my mobile, so wasn't able to update him with our progress, which was painfully slow.

Having left home at about 5 in the morning, we got a train at about 7.30 from Euston, which crawled all the way to Crewe with a diversion around Birmingham and arrived at about 1.30. A quick phone call, and my mate was on his way to pick us up and we made it to the game with just enough time for a quick beer first.

After the game, we decided not to risk trying to get home that night, so stayed in Alsager. We checked the bus times into Crewe in the morning and set off on a curry and beer crusade.

In the morning, we left early (about 6.30) to get the first bus, which never turned up. After nearly an hour, a bus arrived and took us to Crewe station. The first train to London on the monitors was at 1.30pm!

Another slow and painful journey back to London followed, but luckily we managed to pick up a train to Brighton as soon as we got to Victoria. Must have arrived home late evening rather than early hours, as I don't recall it being a particularly late one.

And all for a boring 0 - 0 draw!

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

Something about Oaf, fire and curry house springs to mind....

How did I know THAT was coming??

 

[Uncle Buck]

How did I know THAT was coming??

One of your finest moments, along with Apples falling asleep into his Vindaloo whilst the carpet was ablaze....

 

[Cian]

Return from the Millennium Stadium. Police tunnelled towards the station, had to go in the West & Valleys entrance, stay on the platform for a few hours, then bugger off back in to the city of sheep for some alcohol when it had quietened down, left at midnight, got a ferry at 1:30, got to Ireland around 7:30, train, then food, then train, collapsed in the front door at about 11am.

But my f*** it was worth it

 

[bhaexpress]

Rochdale 2001. Flew from Austin Texas via Dallas to Gatwick. Train from Gatwick to Watford where I met up with a mate who drove to Rochdale. after the game was so knackered I fell asleep all the way back to Sussex.

 

[Starry]

The game was meant to be on November 25th 1999. Away Vs Spartak Moscow.

We flew from Egypt (where we lived) to London three days before the game.

Drove from London to Leeds.

Flew on the travel club from Manchester to Moscow. Via Frankfurt.

Got to Moscow and it was cold.

Went to the training session the day before the game, frozen ground, cancelled.

Our hotel had no heating, well it did, but unless the governor or something came on TV and gave permission it wasn't allowed to be turned on. It had no lift and we were on the top floor. It was -17c.

Actual game was cancelled because of the weather. Drank lots of vodka and froze our arses off. All that way for nothing.

Flew back with official party. Game vs Spartak rearranged for six days later, to be played in Sofia.

Stayed in England and watched us beat Southampton 1-0 to go top of the league. Two days later boarded another plane and flew to Sofia. Ridsdale gave us £100 refund for the aborted Moscow trip and then another £50 because we were insane enough to fly to Sofia as well.

-6c in Sofia. We lost 2-1 to Spartak.

So, a week later and having gone via London, Leeds, Manchester, Frankfurt, Moscow and finally Sofia we got to see the game.

We fly from Sofia back to Egypt via Paris. Then back to Leeds a week later for the second leg which we won, Radebe scored on the night and our away goal saw us through.

 

[the wanderbus]

we missed the coach back from spurs in 1977, walked to seven sisters bunked on 2 trains to get to victoria. bunked on another as far as oxted where there was a replacement bus due to engineering, jumped over a fence and hitched to dormansland then walked towards T wells hitched another lift in a brand new jag, got dropped off at strawberry hill ,Eridge & was almost immeidiatly picked up by a neighbour who dropped us of outside the rose &crown crowborough about 20 minutes before the coach we were supposed to be on arrived!

 

[pasty]

The Hereford match - coming home.

Minibus with 16 or 17 of us in it. Stopped at a pub just outside Hereford, got the beers in, and started a bit of a sing song. Got asked to leave or sut up, so carry-outs were purchased and back into the bus and on to the next pub. That whole exercise got repeated a few times, but then it all gets a bit hazy.

I remember the minibus breaking down a couple of times on various motorways, the last of which I think was the M4 near Reading. I remember climbing to the top of the embankment to have a wee wee, and falling arse over apex down it through loads of bushes managing to scratch all my arms to buggery. I also have a vague recollection of wandering around the nearside lane of the motorway like a drunked idiot, to inspect the results of someone hurling their guts up out of the minibus window!

The AA were called and offered to tow the van, but could only take the driver and one other I think. Again a bit hazy, but I am fairly sure the minibus driver was a Palace fan who didn't actually go into the game. Anyway, long story short (too late), ended up getting a cab from Reading service station back to Brighton for about £130 or so between five of us. Got home about 7am.

Somehow though, I really didn't care.

Edit - I didn't know everyone on the minibus, so if anyone here happended to be there too, please could you fill in any details you may recall

 

[ATFC Seagull]

France v Ireland October 2004

Informed by the FAI that I was lucky enough to have a ticket 3 days before the game, got a last minute flight from Birmingham to CDG.

Went out drinking Friday night in the name of a mate's birthday, went home, had a shower, got the 5am train from Aberystwyth to Birmingham International. Had a few beers and boarded flight about midday, arrived in Paris around 2ish. Made my way to a well-known Irish pub to watch England beat Wales, then eventually made our way up to the Stade de France.

Watched game with hazy memories, after which noticed I had lost my Metro pass. Jumped the barrier, made our back into the city-centre to the aforementioned pub, drank till around 4am, at which point went on an hour-long trek looking for cabs, and eventually wound up at Charles de Gaulle for an hour-long sleep on a bench, before getting the 7.30 flight back to Birmingham and then train back to Aberystwyth.

 

[butchy]

Scunthorpe last week on the way home the ticket inspector tried to charge us a £140 fine for having the wrong railcard. He had transport police waiting for us at Doncaster and he confiscated our tickets and railcard. The train stopped at a litle village called 'crowl' and we just snuck off the train. We somehow managed to evede all police at doncaster and get back to brighton with no tickets. Got home at 1.30. Also met Kazim-Richards at donny on the way home and had a little chat!