DAY 1


Hi all and welcome to the Worldnet report for the 2005 tournament.


We have all hopefully seen the pre-tournament report and we have already worked out that just about everyone is responsible for us not winning the tournament. Only a few can claim that they had no bad contribution to the team and thus the results and those few weren't even at the tournament! In fact they might have been at home being told what to do by their girlfriend?
Or they might have been overseas watching LCFC lose 5-1 or they might have been getting drunk - Luke - on some holiday - Luke - letting every single member of the squad down - Luke - although for the life of me I can't think who that might be - Luke might be able to shed some light on that one?


Once again everyone made their way to Leeds for the Annual Tournament although we had been told last year was the last time it would be played there. So with it being the 6th time in Leeds no one had any excuses for being late - especially Paul McCudden who despite staying at Leeds (and he must have been wanting to leave the in-laws as soon as possible) always seemed to be the last one there over the last few years. As it was the team arrived in dribs and drabs. Once again Paul McCudden was the last one to arrive and we were happy to see him - how stupid were we? Phil Bray and the team mates he gave a lift to arrived, some of them still looking a bit funny from the G-Force of the journey up. So we had a squad with people getting changed all over the place. Fortunately the games for us were being played on the pitch nearest the pavilion and that was easy to find.



We all got ready and warmed up the usual way. Damo and Nick Bray had their smoke, Kev tied his hair band at the back, Chris Foster stood around looking all important, Paul McCudden had a chat with Stevie P about work (fascinating),Damo having finished his smoke went and found a mirror to look in, Al (a late signing for the squad) went off to look at the goal and decide where he was going to tap in his 15 goals for the day and calculating exactly how far out he would be, how hard he'd kick the ball, whether he'd send the keeper the wrong way, how exactly he'd celebrate each individual goal,calculate how many goals that would take his tally in 2005 to, work out how many goals that would take his tally playing in Blue to, work out how many goals that would take his career tally to, work out how oh bloody hell you get my drift. Phil Bray still seemed to have his foot on the accelerator pedal, Chris Stenson was inspecting everyone’s cars looking for business, Coops was trying to walk in a straight line and not succeeding, Bernie was trying to convince his girlfriend that the pot of Vaseline was to stop grass burn and Andy and Steve Barwood were wondering what they'd got themselves into!
A typical pre-match warm-up and as we watched other teams run about with their warm-ups we felt pretty tired and some, felt old.
The team for the first game had been decided and we expected a win to set off in the right direction. Two wins was what we needed and we'd pinpointed our first two games as the best opportunities to do so. Phil Bray announced the side and no one listened to him, most were talking or just mentally getting themselves ready. Al on the other hand was looking at the opposition team’s keeper and imagining him on the floor as Al turned away in triumph scoring his hat trick. This dream turned into a nightmare when he found he was on the bench.

Game One - Vs Swindon


The squad for the first game was Steve Barwood in goal, Kev B at right back, Damo and Chris Foster in the middle of defence, Phil Bray at left back. The midfield had Bernie on the left, Chris S on the right and Nick Bray and Paul McCudden in the middle. Up front was Coops and Lee Stone. Everyone else sat down on the sideline to support the whole team in the game, everyone except for Al who was concentrating intently on Lee Stone and Coops ready to analyse everything they did and in his mind was ready to point out exactly every little mistake that they made because he, as a totally recognised striker, would have done better.
The game started very competitively and it was soon clear this was going to be a tough and close encounter. Everyone would have to be at the top of their game to win this. That was a little too much to ask and unfortunately not enough players were. In fact we can already start blaming people for losing us the tournament. The game was flowing from side to side and there were plenty of half chances but most players were doing their job well defensively. Some were taking their defensive duties a bit too far. Paul McCudden guilty of a challenge that Danny Grewcock would be proud of (if he played footballthat is). Paul dived in late to try and block a clearance with what looked like a two footed lunge over the ball. He obviously denies this but I don't believe him. Let's face it the only reason he missed and didn't get sent off is that he couldn't hit a barn door at 2 paces on Saturday. The Swindon team had a few shots from a distance but Steve had positioned himself well in goal to collect the ball easily every time. As the first half went on however, the IF's started to get more play and get more confident. And with that, the chances started to come. Bernie found himself clear on the left after being put through by Lee Stone. If someone had actually realised that Bernie very rarely looks up and yelled "time", he might have tried a shot with his right foot and missed horribly, as it was, he played the ball beautifully across the face of the goal and a very hungover Coops was no where in sight. As the Leicester fans all went "Oohhhhhh" on the sideline due to it being so close, Al could be heard mumbling. No one knows exactly what it is he said but apparently it sounded something like "mumble mumble mumble I mumble would mumble got mumble that" The chances kept coming. Coops got through and held off a couple of players with his breath before slotting the ball beautifully into the side netting. It can't be helped but he thought it was a goal as he was seeing two of them. Coops then missed another glorious opportunity to score when he aimed for the goal on the right only to realise that this time the real goal was on the left. He was having an absolute mare and already it was looking like we had a target to blame. We continued to push on and this brought another chance. The ball fell to Chris Stenson out on the right and he played the ball back inside to Paul McCudden. That was Chris Stenson's first mistake of the tournament! Paul McCudden had the majority of the goal to aim at but instead decided to blast the ball straight at one of the opposition players when everyone was expecting him to score! That was everyone else’s mistake!
The half drew to a close and it was 0-0 but we'd definitely had the better of the game so far.
No changes were made in the second half - that was Phil's first mistake of the tournament!
Unfortunately we never got going in the second half and we never managed to have as many chances as we had had during the first half. Swindon came back into the game a lot and started to cause a few problems to our defence. We struggled for coherency (big word) and Paul McCudden was playing well well well well well well well below his normal standards which isn't saying much really. Chris Foster seemed to be fouling the opposition every time they got the ball. The Swindon players were quite furious that the referee wasn't giving them any decisions as Chris (being slow and hopeless in the first place) just managed to get his foot in at the last minute. As they came forward they had another shooting chance. The ball was played into the box and it turned into what the kiwis would call "a big lolly scramble in there." There were people diving everywhere as their strikers attempted to get a shot on goal and our defenders were doing everything to stop it. Steve in goal was throwing himself in front of the ball as well. In the end by some miracle Damo got his fat Elvis frame in the way and managed to clear the ball. It was a close call though. Unfortunately despite the amazing surprise of this opportunity for Swindon we never learnt and they came back again. This time Chris Foster never got away with it and the referee signaled a free-kick after Chris had professionally taken out one of the Swindon strikers. We lined up the wall with the tallest player on the side of it and everyone marked up. The Swindon player took the free-kick and due to the extreme lack of power it surprised our keeper who absolutely pathetically flapped at the ball as the ball went into the back of the net. 1-0 to Swindon and we had someone to blame which was excellent as it wasn't me. Time for drastic measures and this meant taking Chris Stenson off (and he deserved it for passing the ball to Paul McCudden earlier) and bringing Al on. Also taking Kev B off and replacing him with Andy Barwood. We changed to a 3-4-3 formation and very attacking. We needed a goal to get something out of the game. At this point we'd take a draw and hope for other results to go our way. After the chances we had in the first half we expected to have enough chances to at least equalise. Unfortunately for us what chances there were fell to Paul McCudden. The first of these chances was when Paul was put through by a beautiful pass by Lee Stone, the ball was running across the view of Paul McMiss left shoulder meaning he had loads of time to line up a shot with his right foot. He also had loads of time also to pick out the left corner of the goal as it was a perfect angle for him. Now the Paul McMiss of old would have buried it easily. On this occasion he put the ball well wide. In fact it wasn't even close. Now to be fair to the useless bugger, no one appeared to yell "time" to him - but we'd already worked out that he could have had all the time in the world - he still would have missed. The second of these chances was helped by Coops when he was off on a run and he was about to get through to have a one-on-one with the keeper when the Swindon defender blatantly took him out - a la Paul McButcher from the previous tournament (if he tried it this year he would have missed). So we put aside the disappointment of Coops being taken out (and realised he would have aimed for the wrong goal anyway) and everyone expected! Paul McBack-Pass was ready to put the ball into the corner again having done it so many times before. He stepped up, everyone held their breath (except for Al who was trying to tell Phil Bray to give him the chance as give him a chance and he'll take it), Paul McSlip calmly went up to the ball and passed the ball straight to the keeper. The disappointment was evident to everyone but that was soon replaced by astonishment as the keeper fell on the ball like he was playing some game in slowwwwwwwww motion (yes,the free-kick was that bad). The keeper grabbed the ball, then kinda stood for 2 seconds before falling on his knees which seemed to take another 5 seconds. He then followed this by a very slow fall onto his stomach and on top of the ball which took another 10 seconds. He lay there for effect as he obviously thought Paul McPower shots were amazingly stron and quick and the save was the save of the century. He then took an eternity to get up and his kick up field was shite but that didn't matter - he had made a save that counted and it looked great! He was going to keep a clean sheet and they were going to win. I would have liked to have seen him in a penalty shoot-out! Anyway the game went on and time ticked away. Paul McMiss was not called upon again to blow any good chances and Al was running around trying to look good and obviously be on the last man so he could score from 5 yards out as he doesn't score many from a distance. Unfortunately he never got his chance to shine and show the World what a truly fine footballer he is. The referee blew the final whistle and we'd lost 1-0.

A piss poor result made all the more disappointing by the fact that Paul McRubbish was completely awful. Coops had badly let the side down although to be fair to him he was seeing two sides currently and they were a bit blury. Steve Barwood had let the side down by slapping the ball into the net - if we wanted that we could have put Stevie P in goal. Chris Foster had let the side down by giving away the free-kick that counted. Damo let the side down because of his fashion sense. Phil Bray let the side down because he picked the side and included Paul McCudden in it. Nick Bray let the side down because he is a Bray. But that was okay - there were still two games to go and we had time to recover and still qualify.

Only one problem - our captain kept picking Paul McMiss-Pass in the team.

So after relaxing before the second game and watching a couple of Scottish sides play eachother and realising that Paul McBrummie didn't actually have that bad an accent at all it was time to prepare for game number two. Once again everyone did their warm up routines. Damo and Nick Bray had another cigarette. Damo then followed that up by doing his best Elvis impersonation. Nick Bray on the other hand followed the cigarette up by eating a nice and healthy grisly hamburger. Chris Foster was busy looking at (I mean reading the articles of) a rather dodgy looking magazine. Phil Abbott was trying to teach his son and daughter how to kick a ball which is tragic because he doesn't know how to do that himself. Stephen Barwood was busy trying to catch the ball and hold on to it. Al was off still looking at the 6 yard box and deciding how many he was going to score especially given the fact he knew he was now starting the game and also given the fact he'd said to Phil Bray, give him one chance and he'll take it. Phil Bray was trying to gee everyone up for this important game and at the same time was off apologising to Nige and Derek for the first, second, third, fourth, fifth. sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth times for them not getting to start one of the first two games. Coops was still trying to walk along the sideline of the pitch unsuccessfully and he was now getting to the point where he could almost see only one and a half goals. Paul McCudden was off chasing the ball as he kept misplacing his warm-up passes to all our team mates. Chris S was still off looking at everyone’s cars. Stevie P was busy just trying to get up off the ground.

Game Two - Vs Everton


So the team was announced with a few new starters for this all important game. Stephen Barwood in goal, Phil Abbott at right back, Stevie P at left back. Damo and Chris Foster in the middle of defence. Lee Stone was on the left wing and Bernie on the right. Andy Barwood was in the middle of the park with Paul McWhatishedoingthere and up front was Coops and the raring to go Al. Not a bad side if Andy Barwood could manage to cover for Paul McHe'sdisappearedagain. The game kicked off which is always a good start I feel. It was a pretty tough first half with the IF's once again having the better of the play. Defensively we weren't tested too much which is bloody fortunate as we had the flapper in goal and fancy Dan in front of him. Fancy Dan managed once again to just get his foot in at the last moment when required. He also managed to try all the fancy crap and then stuff up - but he always seemed to time that right when Damo had been really lazy and just managed to be there behind him to cover for his mistakes. At the other side of the field Al was having a mare and no one was passing to him (and rightly so!) To compound this Coops was still seeing things and misplacing his passes. Having said that he was still doing a lot better than Paul McLongpass. It seemed unfortunate that with Andy Barwood doing a very good combative job in the middle of the park, the ball kept falling to Paul. He then (almost) did the right thing, he took the ball a few yards forward, looked up and looked where to lay the ball off. On two to three occasions with Bernie extremely free in space on the right and yelling for the ball Paul McBadpass hit the ball way too long and it went for a goal kick. If he didn't do that Paul McShortpass hit the ball too short and the Everton defence got to it easily. Bernie did get the ball on one occasion just on the outside of the area. There was a load of players in the area and Bernie managed to keep them away from the ball by some miracle before laying the ball through to Lee Stone. Unfortunately Lee was well offside and that was very poor when you consider he was looking across the line. After the ball was played through and the ref blew the whistle for offside Bernie looked at Al who was standing there with his hand in front of him showing exactly where the ball should have been played back to him. Al obviously was going to take that one chance and thread the ball through about ten players in the box as well as beat the keeper. So we made it to half time and the score was still 0-0. We were confident that if we kept playing the way we did the goals would come.

There were no changes initially at half time but there were plenty to come in this game. Once again we started well in the second half. We allowed very few chances at our end and fortunately Stephen in goal didn't have much to do. Most shots were from a distance and pretty easy for our goalie although after the previous game we weren't expecting much from him so we had to be on our guard anyway. Chris Foster did one of his usual pissing about fancy passes to the opposition but we managed to cover for him yet again. We continued to push on and sure enough we got our chance. It is a complete surprise though who the chance fell to. We managed to win a corner and both centre halves went forward for it with a couple of players covering. The ball came into the box but was half cleared and came out to very near the edge of the box. Standing there was Damo and boy did he look surprised! He didn't know what to do so decided to have a shot. Well kinda anyway, what he really did was swing his foot at it. The ball hit him on the shin, rolled down his leg and his follow through meant that he managed to kick the ball towards goal. Amazingly the ball settled in the top right hand corner of the goal and we were 1-0 up. A great goal by Damo who has obviously been watching a few videos on Steve Claridge! (I think Damo claims it was a "crisp volley") 1-0 up and time to go for it. Nick Bray came on to replace Stevie P and play left back although god knows why. Coops then had a great chance to score a second goal but his shot hit the crossbar. As it was, we were all happy he was getting closer to the correct goal. Paul McBackpass came back again and did a brilliant run down the left, he beat a few players and came into the box. In the middle of the goal was Al waiting to put one away with his one chance, but Paul obviously not really liking Al, decided to go himself and passed the ball straight to their keeper. Paul McI'mgettingboredofthis wasn't finished yet however when after another attack he made yet another misplaced pass. This was time for Paul McCudden (or for now, he who must not be named and will from now on just be called P) to get off the pitch and Phil Bray went for someone who could pass the ball. On came Chris Stenson and he was pretty damn surprised to be playing in his favoured position. So on we pushed for that all important second goal and after an inspired decision to bring P off by the captain, it paid off with Chris Stenson playing a lovely ball through to Coops. Coops now had a clear run on goal and a one-on-one with the keeper.
Excellent, he puts them away in his sleep - and as he was still pretty much asleep he must have had a good chance. The keeper came out. Coops pushed the ball forward and everyone groaned as he played it well in front of him. Fortunately for us the keeper was a bit slow and Coops was getting a bit of pace back. He made it to the ball first and put it relatively wide but got to it with an open goal to play at. Phil Bray was already celebrating but Chris Foster was still holding his breath! Coops got it on target though and we were 2-0 up. At some point in the half and I have disgracefully forgotten when, we won another free-kick. With P off the field Al stepped up to take it and score with his one chance. He hit the ball straight at the wall and it was a pathetic free-kick. I'm guessing that means he probably needs more than one chance then. We weren't satisfied with that either and continued to look for more goals. Goal difference might have come down to it in the end. And not long later it was 3-0. This time Chris Stenson played a great pass through the opposition defenders legs (which he maintains was deliberate) to Al. Al had plenty of time to size up the situation and with the keeper already well off his line he chipped him with a pretty impressive finish to make it 3-0. Now those who knew Al (which wasn't many of us), were already looking thoroughly disappointed. What the rest of us weren't to know was those that knew Al were thinking - that meant we weren't going to hear the end of this tonight! 3-0 up and time for another change. Fresh from apologising to Derek for the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th time, Phil Bray apologised to Nigel Ritchie for the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th time and then subbed him on. Bernie making way for Nige. To take him off meant that Phil thought the game was well and truly safe. We still wanted more goals though and there was still time. With time ticking away we had time for the first Jamie J moment of the weekend (although you wait, there was an even better Jamie J moment the following day).
Al had the ball and was attacking when the Everton midfielder went in for a challenge. Now it didn't look all that bad to me but apparently it was over the top of the ball and Al got a pretty nasty knock on the ankle. Al (who is featuring quite a lot in this report) decided it was time for a bit of Greek influence to come into it and Antonis, John the Greek, Notis and a.n.other (whose name I've unfortunately forgotten) would have been well proud of him. The wail of pain as he was hit in the challenge was piercing and about as high pitched as the Greeks can make it. He lay on the ground looking like he had just been shot and looked like he was going to burst into tears. Excellent stuff and it made us seasoned WN campaigners all reminisce about past dives and theatrics.
Now to bring Jamie J into this twice over, Bernie brought some water out to Al just to show some willing to help a bit. Al said "That's not going to $%^%$^ help is it", so Bernie should have then offered to use the water to wash the dummy that Al had just spit out. Then with the referee trying to tell Al to calm down and look at the ankle Al was going on about it being broken and how he couldn't feel his leg and how he couldn't move and oh my goodness I'm starting to cry now. After an attempt to give Al some support he just threw the toys out of the pram as well and said in a very childish voice "I'll just carry myself off the pitch". Now I'm still not quite sure how you do that but never mind. He hopped off the pitch and fell to the ground like a felled tree. He then sat there mumbling about how horrifically injured he was and how his season was over before it started. Also how he'd only score 50 goals this season now or something like that. Our esteemed captain was obviously concerned as instead of seeing to his injured player, he subbed himself on for Al! Now with Phil Bray on the pitch the game went to pot and Everton almost scored a consolation goal. They attacked and the ball went just inside our goal box. With the ball bouncing and players converging from everywhere on it, Stephen was very brave and came out for the ball, instead of getting the ball he ran into his brick of a brother. Another injury call and this time it wasn't quite so dramatic. The ball had also managed to be cleared for a corner. So as is always the way Bernie ran all the way over there with the special water only for Stephen to get up and get back in goal. What a waste of time that was. The IF's managed to clear the resulting corner and pushed on up the field. Now came the most significant moment of the day so far. Nige touched the ball!! So okay, it was for a throw in and yeah the referee blew the final whistle as soon as he threw it in, but he got to touch the ball. Perhaps Phil would stop apologising now? Nah, didn't think so. Now I have to mention Phil Abbott because I haven't yet and I'm going to take the piss out of him for a later game. He had a stormer of a game at the back winning everything and not even needing to use any of his "Oh Sorry" body checks. Game two was over and after a 3-0 win we were all feeling a lot better. Except for the career threatened Al of course who after seeing a St John's Ambulance person got up and started walking around like very little had happened. To give him some credit (and that's hard), he did have a pretty big bruise on his ankle.

That left more time to relax and watch the key game. Celtic Vs Swindon. Swindon managed to inflict on Celtic their worst loss in WN history and as the goals kept going in everyone around me was trying to calculate what this would mean. It was all a bit of a farce really. If Swindon scored now and if the sun rose from the north and if Paul McCudden could pass a ball and if Damo could stop looking so damn surprised then all we'd need to do is draw with Celtic. Or was that we'd have to have a score draw 2-2 being best or is that 1-1? or why don't we just forget about all that and win the game because then we'd probably qualify no matter what! Anyways the result went our way and we now just had to draw with Celtic apparently to go through with a better goal difference.

So with this important game going ahead we all got back to our pre-match routines. Damo and Nick Bray had their cigarette followed by Damo going off to find another charity wrist band to wear. Nick decided he was still hungry and had a nice fat dripping hot dog this time. He's a healthy bloke he is. Chris Foster decided to get in on the act and had a nice hamburger as well, just to make himself nice and fit for the coming match. Phil Abbott was still trying to teach his son and daughter how to kick a ball although it appeared they were losing interest by now and were more interested in sleeping. Stephen Barwood was still busy trying to catch the ball and hold on to it. Al had amazingly recovered from his badly broken ankle and was now ready to score another goal with the one chance he was given. Phil Bray continued to do his best to gee everyone up for this (yet another) important game and at the same time was pretty surprisingly off apologising to Nige, Derek and Stevie P for the (I've completely lost count the number of times and being an accountant I can't count anyway so I'll do what I usually do and make up a figure so it was) the twentyfirst, twentysecond, twentythird, etc etc etc apology for them not getting to start / have enough involvement in one of the first three games. Coops was by now walking straight which was a relief - unfortunately for us that didn't make any difference anyway, he was still crap. P had given up chasing the ball after misplacing his warm-up passes. He just sat down and shut up for 5 minutes which is an amazing event in itself. Chris S was still chatting to me about his great passes that set up the goals in the previous game and trying to make sure I'd put them in the match report (they were complete flukes!) Stevie P gave up trying to get up off the ground and just lay there stunned that P had shut up for a change.
Great warm-ups and we had to win it from here.

Game Three - Vs Celtic


So the starting line up was: Stephen Barwood in goal, Nick Bray at left back, Damo and Chris Foster in the middle of defence, Phil Abbott at right back. The midfield had Bernie on the right, Lee on the left, P and Andy Barwood in the middle. Up front was Coops and Al. The game started as expected. We knew that Celtic would throw everything at us. Apparently they'd done some equally ridiculous calculations and found out that they needed to win the game to progress to the main draw. There weren't a lot of chances in the first half with both defences on top. We were determined not to let a goal in and to qualify for the extra few hours sleep. There wasn't much to report on in this half but Lee Stone did manage to win a free-kick not far out from the penalty area. In fact had it been a few yards further forward it would have been a penalty. The Celtic players were not happy with the ref for giving the free-kick as it appeared Lee had jumped over the challenge. I agree with them completely - Lee, next time let them chop both your ankles off will you?
Unfortunately with P not able to hit a bard door and Al unable to put his money where his considerably large mouth was, nothing came of the chance. This meant it was 0-0 at half-time and more of the same required. Al was replaced by someone at half time as he hadn't scored yet and we went out determined for more of the same. Unfortunately P continued to have a mare and after yet another missed pass everyone began to wonder whether it was time for him to go and get his eyes tested. Our coach by this point had had enough and pulled P off and replaced him with Chris Stenson (who incidentally was still going on about his great passes in previous games). The game seemed to look like it might come down to a mistake or two to make a difference and unfortunately we made more mistakes than them. With the ball played down our right and bobbling about a bit all we needed to do was clear it. Unfortunately our right fullback took a swipe and completely missed it (perhaps he thought he was in front of goal?), the ball fell to an advancing Celtic striker who had a shot. It was well saved by the legs of Stephen in goal but unfortunately the ball fell kindly for another Celtic player and he put it away to make it 1-0 to Celtic. Now we had to push on and score to qualify for the main draw. We did that and got a chance after some good work by Bernie on the right. He managed to attack down the right and keep the ball showing great strength with one of the Celtic defenders grabbing hold of his arm and shirt. Eventually the referee blew for a free-kick. We took it quickly and it was completely shite. Perhaps P was back on the field? Fortunately for us the ref blew up and asked us to take it again. much to the disgust of the Celtic players. So Lee stepped up and hit the ball straight at the wall. Fortunately for him it ricocheted off the top of the wall and into the back of the net. 1-1 and we just needed to hold on! With Celtic now the team with more desperation they pushed on. Unfortunately they took the lead again not long afterwards. Once again it came down our right, this time Bernie never followed the attacking midfielder the whole way into the box and after a goal mouth scramble and another good save by Stephen the ball fell to the left midfielder who blasted the ball in. Amazing that - not the goal like, Bernie admitting it may have been a tiny bit of his fault. Amazing indeed.
Anyways this meant total desperation for the IF's now in a game that was constantly changing. And with this desperation Phil Bray brought himself on?????????? Anyway, he replaced Phil Abbott and it became a back three. Al was brought back on as well although I forgot to write down who he replaced. We were desperate but we weren't that desperate. P was left on the sideline. Once again we pushed on and gave everything for an equaliser. This left us open at the back and Celtic almost took advantage of that. One of their strikers was through and our defender (probably Phil Bray) took a swipe at the ball. Of course he was really slow and the ball had long gone but he would have collected the Celtic striker if the guy hadn't jumped out of the way. But unlike the first half when Lee got the free-kick, the referee gave nothing. The Celtic supporters on the sideline went ballistic! And absolutely amazingly, appearing from a pitch over the other side of the ground was a Watford player. With him he brought two bottles of water and he was demonstrating wildly! I have no idea what that was all about? The game didn't have longer to go and the final whistle was blown. We lost the game 2-1 and with it, our chance of winning the tournament had gone.

Now who to blame - well I won't bother because you all know it is your fault.
We were pretty gutted but looking at it we had played some very good sides and we had played well. There was not a lot to be ashamed about unless you were Paul McCudden of course. We could be happy with how we'd battled and Swindon and Celtic both knew that they'd been in a heck of a game.

Now we had the evening to look forward to and that sprung some surprises.
We had an early start on the Sunday to look forward to as well.



So with the end of that game everyone made their way back to Fawlty Towers or whatever hotel / place they were staying at with a view to meeting back at the Skyrack Pub at a certain time.
Surprisingly the showers all seemed to work okay and the rooms were in pretty good nick which makes a bit of a change.
Everyone once again had their warm up routines for going out with Damo needing a bit more time to look in the mirror and make sure his look was just right. The team made its way to the pub in dribs and drabs. Much to everyone’s surprise P never made it to the pub at all – apparently he missed the turn-off or something?!
Damo’s hair was looking pretty impressive and apparently it only took him a few minutes to sort out. Most others were ready for a night out. Al had been working on his vocal chords in practice and was pretty confident he could talk about himself all night without too much trouble.
Chris Foster was perfecting the “I’m very important” look.
Phil Bray was off apologising to Nigel and Derek although I can’t work out why?

Now everyone stood around outside and had a nice chat about stuff and the team showed how well everyone got on together which is a great thing.
Topics of conversation were LCFC, Al, The Ashes Test Series, Al, Rugby, Al, Family and Friends, Al, the days games, Al, who we’d play the next day, Al and even more conversation about Al. Oh and everyone was talking about how bloody awful P was and how he’d completely let the side down and should never be trusted again.

I enjoyed it and managed to talk to most people, although as the night wore on (and I’m talking 30 minutes in already) I started to drift further and further away from Al because to be frank he was rather boring!!
As it was Lee Stone did the honours for the team and took the brunt of the conversation for the first hour as Al reminisced on what a great season he’d had and what a great player he was. Chris Stenson, Stevie P, Nige, Derek, Kev & Sue were also on hand to join in on the conversation but it wasn’t long before as a group they slowly but surely moved away inch by inch until they could happily have a conversation of their own.
Obviously knowing Al well and having heard it all before Chris Foster, Nick Bray, Stephen and Andy Barwood, Damo and Phil Bray were all out of airshot already.

After a few drinks we moved on to the Fish & Chip Restaurant all walking along in a group looking like a bunch of very rough individuals - excluding Sue obviously.
The good news is the Restaurant did have a licence and everyone could drink. The bad news is the Restaurant was a little bit up itself and whereas if you went down to a chippy you could get fish and chips for 3 or 4 quid, here it cost 15 quid!
The even worse news was Stevie P was having mushy peas with his meal and I was rooming with him!
After a nice meal especially as Al was at the other side of the table we moved on to the nearest pub and everyone had a few drinks. Then on to the next pub and the pub after that and the squad was already splitting into two, the oldies and the youngsters (excluding Phil Bray of course). As we visited more pubs these groups got split and one group eventually ended back at The Skyrack (the oldies) and the other group ended up in town doing the Chilli Vodka Roulette.
Of course being a part of the oldies I can't tell you what happened from there but the stories were flying about the following morning.
The youngsters ended up at Flares Nightclub and encountered a number of ladies who were that pissed that they even liked Al! In fact there is a very strong rumour someone in the griup brought back one of these "ladies" back to the hotel with them. Coops who couldn't score to save himself earlier was apparently having better luck although he may not have wanted that. And Damo was proving the most entertaining for the group as he was said to be in a permanent state of surprise!
From what I've heard everyone made it back to the hotel by about 2.30ish which was impressive when we had an 8am start the next morning against Ipswich.