Best fans in the world (part 2)

First of all I must print a correction to my last blog. AFC Bournemouth didn't beat Burton Albion in the last game of the last season to gain promotion to the Championship. But we beat them the last game of the season the year before to gain promotion from League 2 to League 1. Apologies for that.

It would appear that I wasn't the only one talking about the fund raising by Bournemouth supporters to pay for the away fans coach travel. The story has gain interest in the media.  Our local paper covered the story. They lap stuff like this up and are always on the look out for potential stories that will interest the readers and sell more papers.  But the BBC picked up the story and was on the BBC website. I believe a few national papers also ran the story. Even the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera interviewed someone from the Bournemouth Echo about the story.

Its amazing how this story went from local to international is such a short time. In my opinion it shows how much the media loves a good story and how hungry they are for them. One time the BBC invited comments from people on train travel and I sent it a (cheeky) comment about how us train spotters had been getting hassle. The BBC queried my comments and I told them about how I got kicked off the platform at St Pancras in London for train spotting. They ran the story. That afternoon I had phone call after phone call from various newspapers and radio stations. BBC Radio Scotland wanted me for interview the next morning on their breakfast show. About five minuets before I was due to go on air they called to say that they were not going to run my story as Paul McCartney had just announced that his then wife was expecting. Apparently that was a bigger story. 

The moral of the story is that it doesn't take much for a story to go ‘viral’ as they say these days and equally quickly for it to disappear again..

And in case you are wondering, the re-arranged match has been played. At half time some of the Burton fans did a circuit of the pitch carrying a banner thanking the Bournemouth supporters for their generosity.  We applauded them. It was football supporters getting together and I’m glad I witnessed it. It’s a pity that both teams couldn't progress to the next round. Both teams would have benefited greatly from the fourth round tie against some club called Liverpool. ITV thinks this will be a good match as they are going to show the match live. Looks like all media channels want a bit of AFC Bournemouth at the moment,  

Best fans in the world?

The FA Cup third round is an important day in many football calendars. In previous years I've dreamt that my team, AFC Bournemouth, would reach the third round and be drawn against a 'big' club. Usually we'd go out in rounds ones or two and so that big prize of a exciting third round tie would never be achieved. However 30 years ago we did reach the third round and did get a ‘top’ club, namely Manchester United. I was there to witness that game. Man U were the cup holders at the time and nobody gave little Bournemouth a chance. But even top teams have a bad day especially on the mud bath that was our pitch at the time. As the Mail on Sunday put in the next day 'The FA Cup, so hard fought for at Wembley last May was thrown away in the mud at Dean Court'. You see, Bournemouth won the match 2-0 and if you ever visit my place, I'll willingly show you the video of the match.  But reminiscing of something that happened 30 years ago isn't the main subject of this blog.

AFC Bournemouth won promotion to the second tier of English football for only the second time in our history last season. Being a championship side we now get a bye in the FA Cup straight to round three. Dreaming of a big tie we got drawn in round three against Burton Albion. A team we beat on the last day of the season last year to secure promotion to the Championship. The cup match should have been played last Saturday but you may have noticed that the weather hasn't been too good of late to say the least and an hour before kick off the ref called the game off.  Most of the Burton supporters would have already arrived in Bournemouth by this time and so what do you think was the reaction of the Bournemouth supporters? Point at the Burton fans and laugh. Tell them that they 'might as well go home' or other such banter that is dished out during the match on the terraces. Yes we are proud to be 'southerners southerners southern-eeeers' who are 'sea sea seasiders'. We live a lovely part of the country away from the 'northern slums'. By the way we consider 'The North' anywhere from Reading upwards!

Anyway back to our reaction to Burton. Well quite simply, we remember how good their stewards and fans treated us when we won promotion last year and this was a chance to thank them. An AFC Bournemouth fan set up a webpage to collect money to pay for coaches to bring the fans down for the rearranged match. They had already forked out money once, it would not be nice for them to have to do it again. Last I heard the webpage had received around £3000, more than enough to pay for all the fans coaches. Any surplus money will go to charity. The spirit  of being part of the football community has reached beyond this small clubs and the webpage received some donations from around the country and abroad. Football fans have long had a bad press but hopefully those days are behind us. For the moment I'm holding my head high and saying that I'm proud to be an AFC Bournemouth supporter because I'm amongst some of the best fans in the world. 

What a match!

AFC Bournemouth - a team on the brink over being relegated to the football league. A new manager comes in. Well he's an ex-player who was on the coaching staff anyway. He becomes the leagues youngest manager. He makes a signing. Big Steve Fletcher. A player we released a couple of seasons ago, even though he was our longest serving player. He's been playing at Crawly Town in some non-league that will soon include AFC Bournemouth if they don't do something and soon. Could this guy be the spark to re-ignite our season. Well if yesterday's match was something to go by. Yes he can!! I entered the ground about 15 mins after kick off, after selling my half time draw tickets. We were already one-nil down, to top of the table Wycombe Wanderers. You could hear a pin drop in the Bournemouth end. We all knew that if the fact of a new manager and star player returning wasn't going to do anything then that would be it. We might as well give up. Even goading from the Wycombe supporters didn't bring the Bournemouth end to life.

Luckily the players didn't give up. Are these the same players that have been playing so badly of late? They seemed, well interested in playing football again. They wanted to win and a superb free kick, made even better by the booking of a Wycombe player when he was lining up the wall, made it one all.

Goal mouth action again, and joy of joys were two-one up. Now it was our turn to sing. Wycombe just seem to fall apart. Then it was half-time.

Comeon lads we've got to win the second half. Wycombe soon made a double substitution. Sending a message from the bench. Quite what that message was I'm not really sure. But it made no difference. From my angle it was a superb lob that made it 3-1 to Bournemouth, later BBC Sport gave it as a deflected cross that happened to beat the keeper. That was it. Wycombe huffed and they puffed by they could not break down the Bournemouth defence. Who were for once, playing a full 90 minutes of football, rather than the normal 80. Well be played a 4 minutes of 'injury time', don't know how as the trainers weren't on the pitch once during the second half. But final whistle came. We shouted. We clapped. We were happy. Oh it felt good. You know those who don't go to football regulary won't get it. Yes we have had some rubbish games of late. But when you eat nothing but spam all the time. You really appreciate when you have steak one in a while.

Busy Weekend

On Saturday went to Aldershot for a AFC Bournemouth match. We got a draw. It was a relief to come back from 1-0 down, but we should have made the chances when we had them in the first half. Used one of my free train tickets I get with my annual season tickets. Made the most of it by travelling on some lines that I’ve never travelled on before, namely Aldershot-Guildford and the two lines from Guildford up to London via Effingham Junction. Didn’t think much of Aldershot as a town. Neither did my friend Gill who was hoping to get some shopping in.

Today Sue and I decided to have a day together and went down to Titchfield Haven. Added a couple of birds to my 2008 Hampshire List, namely Sandwich Tern and an Osprey. Both of which went into my Life List as well. Unusual sighting of the day must go to one of the Kestrels who was attacking a couple of magpies. No idea why it was doing that.

Long time, no blog

Gosh, its been such a long time since I last blogged. Sorry about that all. Just haven't felt like putting thoughts down on paper, or screen.

So what's happened since I loast blogged. Well AFC Bournemouth have got themselves relegated. But the way they ended the season was fantastic. Showing such committement and getting into a position where they could have saved themselves. I'm proud of you lads. Unfortunatly the scum (aka Soutampton) didn't get relegated. How unfair is that!

Bought a new laptop PC. Sue and I have been wanting one for ages and I saw a new one for around £200 so had to get it. Working OK. Execpt openatc.com doesn't work, neither does my aircraft database... *sigh* and I've forgotten my password for Ancestry.co.uk.

Talking of famliy tree, been in contact with a releative down in Oz. She has kindly send me copies of quite a few birth,marriage and death certificates of family members.

Had the odd trip doen to Blashford Lakes to do some bird watching. My Hampshire list is now 92. Though the Lessor Spotted Woodpecker that I keep trying to see down at the lakes is still avoiding me. My birdwatchers yearbook also contains lists of British Dragonflies and Butterflies for the first time. As the butterflies seem to be making an appearance of late I thought I'd start to try to identify them. First into the book this year was a 'Green-veined White'. Saw it in the garden today. One down, 58 to go!

going senile?

Football again today with the visit of Swnasea. Who are pushing for a play off place. Again travelled by train and again went from the Down line into Platform 1 at Brockenhurst, which got me so excited last week. As this the engineering work at Basingstoke is due to finish this weekend, and the trains back to normal next week, I don’t think that this routing will be repeated soon.

You may have noticed that I’m avoiding talking about the match. Well the first 75 mins were great, going 2-0 up. It really shut yup those Swansea fans. Then they scored two and we ended up being the quite ones. OK a draw is better than most of us really expected before the match if we were going to be totally honest. Let’s just hope that we already have enough points to stay up.

I did do one worrying thing on the way home. After football Sue always picks me up from the airport station car park. As they train I catch doesn’t normally stop at Eastleigh. However, luckily the train I was on did stop at Eastleigh. You see I just totally forgot to get off at the airport station. As we were pulling out I looked across and could see Sue in the car in the car park. Oh s**t, I thought. It did worry me that I could forget to do something normally like getting off a train. OK the two girls in the seats in front of mine were getting on everyone’s nerves by constantly taking photos of themselves, and I was busy pulling faces behind them hoping that when they get home and get the photos onto the PC they could see me. But that’s still no excuse for getting off the train with your caring fiancé having come to collect you.

Down line to Platform 1

Most of the time engineering work of the rail network are a pain in the backside for passengers but not today for me. Whilst complete closure of Basingstoke station has meant a timetable re-jig, its helped me in that I don’t have to leave so early to go down to Bournemouth for the footie. I did get excited when passing Northam we went onto the up line to go though Southampton Tunnel, something I think I’ve done before but not that often. However than was totally eclipsed later when the train went from the down line into platform 1 at Brockrnhurst. Now that is something I’ve never done. Brilliant.

Oh and the footie was a 1-1 draw. We needed to win that match really to make sure we were safe.

Catch up

Another while since I blogged, again many apologies to you all.

Tuesday was a sad day, off to the funeral of Sue’s Uncle. Even though I only met him a couple of times it was still an emotional day. I guess seeing the people I’ve met from Sue’s family being upset, will affect me.

Wednesday. Band practice with my new drum sticks bought off eBay. They are OK. We didn’t play too well tonight. Our timing was all over the place, of course being a drummer that’s down to me!

Thursday – Been thinking about our geocaching of late. Sue and I haven’t done much of it recently. We currently on 441. I suggested that we try and hit 500 by the end of the year. And to my surprise she agreed. Still it sonly about 6 a month, surely we can do that.

Friday, After speaking to Charlie yesterday about the bands timing, he suggested I buy an electronic metronome. It arrived today. Hopefully once I’ve worked out the number of beats/min of all the songs we do, Timing shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

Saturday. Sue’s off to her parents to deliver Mothers Day gifts. I went to football. Normally I catch the 11.07 train from Eastleigh and change 2 or three times on the way to Pokesdown, but today was different. We are playing Millwall, who’s fans have a bit of a reputation. So I walked to Southampton Airport Station via Lakeside Country Park. Picking up some more birds for my Hampshire list on route. E.g. Greylag Goose, Great Crested Grebe and Coot. My Hants list is now on 24. Anyway back to the football. Decided that trains from London were a no no. I know that I’m perhaps over cautious, OK there is no perhaps about it. But I just want a quiet life. So Down to Brockenhurst by a Virgin Voyager, and a new one for me. Then onto the stopper to Pokesdown. Glad to say that we won 1-0 but I’ve never been so nervious at a football match for ages. I don’t know why. Just really wanting the team to win. Train home was full off Millwall supporters but luckily no trouble.

Yeovil, Sue, Floor Tom and Judith

Football on Tuesday night was another defeat for Bournemouth. 2-0 to Yeovil Town. I think we played well but just didn’t score. Yeovil to their credit worked hard all night, closing players down, fighting for the ball. Looks like Bournemouth’s going down this season. I hope not but it looks that way. On a positive note my Matchday Draw Tickets sales are on the up, sold 70 tonight.

Sue was supposed to meet her brother and his wife yesterday, but he messed her around. The thing is he’ll get away with it as she won’t mention it to him as she doesn’t want to disrupt family harmony.

I went to band practice last night. I have recently bought a new drum off eBay, a floor tom and I was desperate to try it out. It was good and produces a good sound. Been wanting one for ages as I felt it was hold back my drumming not having one. So hopefully now I can really improve.

Quiet day today. Was given a DVD at the football on Tuesday of the TV programme that Judith was on. She is one of the Matchday Draw Ticket sellers, like wot I am. She was on a relocation programme, as she has plans to emigrate to Australia soon. Chatting to her she said that she wasn’t entirely happy with the programme. She said that they made her look worse than she is on some issues and said at the end that she wasn’t going to emigrate. She still has plans to emigrate, just waiting for the visa to come through. Also they only mentioned about her husbands jobs and trying to sort out his career in Oz. No mention that she works full time and about her career. Will let you know what I thought of the programme tomorrow. That is if we watch it tonight.

Booking fee

Earned lots of fiancé points today but making sure that I obtained tickets to see Ricky Gervais in April. That’s Sue’s favourite comedian.

What annoyed me was the £2.50 booking fee. That’s per ticket. £5 just for the privilege of using their computer system. A system I help write. Disgusting.

Apart form that it’s been a quite day. Off to football tonight to see AFC Bournemouth play Yeovil Town. To think a few seasons ago we were two divisions apart. Fingers crossed for a win

Ugly Sod Me 4 AFC Bournemouth 5

Back on to trains today , off to the football.. went for the Romsey-Totten stopper to get me one stop to catch the fast train. Luckily we had one of the units just transferred from TransPennine. So it was a new units for me both in terms of seeing it and riding on it. Then on to a Virgin Voyager for one more stop, and luckily yet another unit that I hadn’t ridden on before, Southampton to Brockenhurst was yet another new one, My god a Hat-trick of new units, haven’t had that for such a long time, seeing as I’ve ridden on most of them now, its getting more difficult to rid eon new ones. Anyway, feeling pickish at Brockenhurst so we into the shop to buy a chocie bar (yes I know I’m trying to give them up but its hard, anyway the odd one here and there is OK. Girl serving was on the phone to someone and wasn’t going to hang up just because she had customers to service. She did thank me quite a few times during the transaction. The person she was on the phone to must have commented about this as I heard her day to him/her, how she likes to be pleasant to customers and that customers think she is so polite, I nodded me head, even though I though she was rude to carry on conversations like this.. There you go she said to her friend, he thinks I’m polite. I walked out, just as I got to the door I heard her say to her friend, ‘Oh I was only like that ‘code he was ugly and I felt sorry for him. Well thanks a bunch. That’s one shop I will never go into again. Anyway stopping train awaits and yes it was another new one. Four in one day , unheard of.. Then to football .Bournemouth we were already two nil up when I got into the stadium, we took Leyton Orient apart and won 5-0. We’ve struggled to get wins this season so a 5-0 nil put us in dream land. Also sold 81 of my Matchday draw tickets, a record for recent times. So apart from the unfortunate incident at Brockenhurst a good day all round.