Yes ladies, gents boys and Girls it is back. Here is the first of away days with Murph.

I decided not to do Sunderland and this is my first awayday of the new season, I hate early kick off's! now I've got that out of the way. Up the M6 I went and I didn't see a single fellow bluenose, I guess with it being on telly and in the middle of the holidays it wouldn't be a bumper away support, unlike last years cup game. One good thing about starting the season so early (clutching at Coca cola straws here) is not having to share the motorways with 'rent-a-fan' glory hunting United/Liverpool/Chelsea fans from all over the country.
I arrived early as I was expecting  the roads to be busy as the papers and web sites suggested, the only traffic problems were caused by the number of Police vans,I wanted to get a good parking spot so I could make a quick get away and  not wanting to be stuck in that stupid compound having things thrown at me and found a spot at the hotel by the ground.
I was one of the first in the Harvester pub at opening time 10.30!! drinking non alcoholic beer, I sat in the sunshine feeling very lonely for an hour, not a bluenose in sight and only Stokies for company.
It gave me the opportunity to read the paper and watch the increasing numbers of Police turning up van load, after van load, lots of overtime for Staffordshire's finest.

The Harvester was boring and so was the hotel next door, where about 10 bluenoses had found a drink without difficulty, how different to the cup game when it was 5/6 deep at the bar, in fact the barmaids were so bored that they kept asking if I wanted another beer! as I was still on a non alcoholic binge, I declined (driving)
I went to the Power League centre and found a few bluenoses, then I went to the ground, the Police presence was so over the top, I kept tripping over spotty young coppers on picket duty, while the older (and bigger) coppers were in the many vans about the place, I strolled in to the compound and a bobby said 'hello' to me, which was nice and bumped in to MIB Dave and Ben, selling badges and MIB's.
It was all very quiet, not many blues and loads of Police outside the ground, inside those who had made the journey were in full voice under the stand, drinking and singing KRO, under the watchful eyes of, yet more Police.

The Stoke PA bloke was trying to rev up a poor Stoke crowd with 'come on Stoke' repeated over and over, he wasn't having much success and as the teams came out, it was the 1800 or so 'noses who were making most of the noise, which they kept up for most of the first half singing various songs at the 35 or so chavie Stokies in the same section on the left (where all the racist chants came from last season, for those who remember from last season) except this little band were being laughed at by the bluenoses. 'shall we build a fence for you?' sang the blues and all they could respond with was the Tom Jones classic 'Delilah', which was soon drowned out by a very good rendition of KRO. This bunch of no marks, were trying to look hard from behind the massed ranks of Police and stewards,in fact one of the better chants aimed at this bunch was, 'you've got more stewards than fans'
As most of you know, who bother to read my stuff, I don't do a match report, I concentrate on the fans' experience, but if I was going to make a comment on the footie, it wouldn't be printable! think 'same as last year', with the ball hoofed even more than last season and the midfield so deep that it looks like a school playground, with so many players around the ball. The blue fans started singing 'Brucie, Brucie sort it out' as the half time whistle went.

At half time the concourse beneath the stand was as full as last year, when we had 4,000 tickets, except that the shortfall in bluenoses was made up by lots and lots of Police and most of them seemed to have cameras..songs telling the boys in blue where they could stick the cameras were filling the air and for a change the coppers just laughed.
I moved away, as there was plenty of space,  from the main body of bluenoses as there is only so many time you can hear KRO...and can I remind the younger noses, that it is.... we're 'OFTEN' partizan...and not 'off to' partizan. I don't mean to be picky.

The Forse, as you all know by now, missed from the spot, I think the goalie was actually waiting for the ball as he dived to the right so early, 'me thinks' he watched the Sunderland video!  Taylor made a good save and that was about it as regards to football, in truth, it was a pretty boring game.
Some bluenoses got a bit agitated when the penalty was missed and wandered down to the front, but the coppers ignored them and carried on filming..'we're on candid camera' sang the blues fans
The over the top Police presence made them the best 'firm' of the day and with many local derbies and the Cardiff game next up, I suppose we had better get used to it.
I escaped as the gates were being closed and was back in the 'shire and in a pub, with a real beer at 3.35pm, not bad going, so we are still unbeaten and with 7 points in the bag and two clean sheets, why am I so down beat? I thought Nafti had a good game breaking up the Stoke midfield play and Dunn had a couple of jinky runs, when he came on and that's your lot.


KRO
murph

Keep Right On