Blog: A Football Weekend

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I had an EXTENSIVE weekend this weekend just gone, one from which I am only just starting to recover.

It all began on Saturday afternoon when I met with my old pals Mr R Hare and Mr M Guest for a PUB STROLL. Every year we discuss getting us (and if possible Mr P Myland) together for a JOLLY, but had so far only managed it once when we went to the Peaks a few years ago. This year Robin suggested that we get together to go and see Peterborough United play in the final of the PRESTIGIOUS Johnstone's Paint Trophy, and though Mileage couldn't make it (his excuse: he was taking his son to the game. Pah!) the rest of us DID gather in A Very Cheap Euston Hotel on Saturday, ready to ROCK.

The hotel looked like it had been built in the 1930s and been left pretty much untouched since - which isn't to say it was PERIOD or VINTAGE, it was just a bit old and knackered. We had a single room each (with just room for a single bed and sink) with shared toilets, but it was at least CLEAN, and also CHEAP!

We set off for a pub stroll, stopping first at The Lamb and then popping into The Charles Dickens Museum for a LOOK. It was Quite Good (I should be saving this GOLDUST for Tripadvisor really shouldn't i?). Things soon went AWRY however when we found THREE pubs, all in a row, were SHUT. It would be FOUR, if you counted the pub we accidentally wandered into the back of which was clearly set up for a nearby wedding party!

Still, we eventually found our bearings, had an EXTREMELY spicy curry, and retired to our tiny bedrooms fairly confident that we would sleep WELL. We DID, until approx 8am when the cleaners came and knocked on the doors! It felt like we were in a GENTEEL PRISON or something, so much so that I was ASTOUNDED when I saw a young couple walking down a corridor - surely that's not allowed?

We had Perfectly Pleasant HOTEL BREAKFASTS, then went to St Pancras so a) Guesty could have a go on the piano b) we could have a Reasonable Cup Of Coffee, then STRODE next door to see the AMAZING Treasures Of The British Library exhibition. It was, and always is, GRATE!

After a while I was called away to meet my PARENTS - my Esteemed Step-Father had got tickets for him, me and my little brother, so I said my farewells to the other two (as it was unlikely we'd find each other at Wembley, it is BIG!) and I went to collect them. We sent my Mum off to The Olympic Village, where The Score Of My Game took her on a tour of the environs, then it was HO! For WEMBLEY!

I was surprised to find that getting to Wembley was PEASY - it's almost as if the transport system has done this before! We had some fancy seats up near the Royal Box, so could look over and try and spot Sir Alex Ferguson, but mostly we watched the GAME! As I'm sure everyone is aware from the extensive media coverage of this PRESTIGIOUS game, it was the final of The Johnstone's Paint Trophy between Peterborough United and Chesterfield. I was a bit confused to start with, as Chesterfield were playing in pretty much EXACTLY (from a distance) kit as Posh. I spent a good five minutes thinking "Britt Assombalonga has lost a LOT of weight. And height. And changed colour" before my baby brother corrected me, just in time for Posh to SCORE. Phew!

It wasn't the best game i've ever seen, and it certainly wasn't the THRILL RIDE that we had in 1992 when King Ken Charlery won for us, but it was PRETTY DARN GOOD. We were winning at half time, then let a goal in (before I came back!), then went down to ten men, and then scored a penalty, and then there was quite a lot of jumping up and down and shouting and a lot of Peterborough Faces looking even more confused that they usually do. We'd actually WON something! Not a play-off, but an actual TROPHY!!

It was all VERY EXCITING, especially when they came up for the trophy and Darragh MacAnthony (owner) and Darren Ferguson (Manager) had a BIG HUG. We staggered out and staggered back to the tube (which again was dead easy to do) for a family do back at St Pancras. By this point I was EXHAUSTED (for some reason I was feeling "tired", even tho I had had the aforementioned good night's sleep hem hem) and also DAZED. I couldn't quite believe it and, to be honest, it only really struck home when I watched the local paper's video about the day. It happened!

Hopefully we'll be able to go BACK later in the year for the play-offs - if it happens I'll try not to go on an all day drinking tour the day before this time!

posted 1/4/2014 by MJ Hibbett

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