Following the draw which gave us the plum tie against Tottenham my mates and I rushed to book some leave and awaited the ticket news. We were dismayed by the news that there were only 905 tickets and that there would be a postal draw for tickets among season ticket holders, but the Gods smiled on us and we got the three tickets we needed. All be it that they were nowhere near each other! Or the fact that the postal draw was under-subscribed and there were spare tickets anyway. This was a classic case of a club being short-sighted. If Tottenham had allowed 2000 tickets, they would all have been sold.
Anyway, on the Tuesday night we settled down to watch the Celtic v Liverpool with the obligatory pizza, garlic bread and alcohol. Not a bad game. On Wednesday morning we loaded up my car, put the five C-90 cassettes in the car and filled up at Tescos. "320 miles from London, its sunny, we have no cigarettes and we aren't wearing sunglasses - hit it!"
The drive down was uneventful, although the planned lunch at a Tesco restaurant at Northampton was thwarted by the fact that they were renovating it! This led to the little tableau of the three of us squatting next to a shopping trolley park, eating sarnies and drinking coke! We got to the Travelodge at Ilford at 15:20 and after a short coin tossing competition the sleeping arrangements were arranged. Curiously, I seemed to end up with the double bed ;)
We had brought down some home made red wine (very nice) and so after our first drink we caught the tube to Oxford Circus. Now, by some strange quirk of fate (over which we had no control) this is right next to Soho and so we had no trouble finding somewhere to drink, "The Moon under the Water" to be precise. Very nice it was too. After this quick pint, we caught the tube out to Seven Sisters and started to walk towards the ground. On the way up the High Road, we were shouted at by some Deckchairs at a pub and so we joined them for a quick one before continuing (via a MacDonalds) to the match.
In order to make us feel at home Spurs had put a Pouney lookalike on steward duty at the gate, but strangely there were no programme sellers to be seen! Once inside the lobby area we spotted Martin Protest Hudson and said hello. Then we headed for our seats and the first thing that struck you was how clinical it felt, then you realised that someone had nicked their North Stand! We had to move a few times before we got three seats together that no-one else had tickets for, but we eventually ended up at the rear, left of the Carlisle block, with four coppers and a police photographer for company.
There was yet another "Diana 1 minute silence", although a Carlisle fan vocally expressed his disagreement at it. A sentiment I agreed with. Still, it turns out that this was Spurs first home game since her death, so fair enough. Barely had we got our singing voices out, when Spurs scored a quick goal! Now, the home fans went wild and, for a few seconds, we were stunned; but then the Cumbrian spirit came through and we drowned out the lot of them! This really set the tone for the game, it was a lot like Brunton Park of late with the away fans outsinging the home fans. All the old favourites were sung, along with some new ones. "Mervyn Day's Blue-White Army" got a quick rendition, mainly (I think) as a protest at the lack of information from the Club following his recent dismissal. I was particularly surprised to hear my own chant "Cumbrians, we are Cumbrians" making a stronger presence. This was one that I had suggested (jokingly) to the mailing list a while back and I first heard it at the Sunderland pre-season game.
When we went 2-1 up, the atmosphere was incredible - it was like we had won the Cup! The Spurs fans were stunned and when we started "Francis out" and "Sack the Board" chants, they joined in! There was a very attractive Carlisle fan (Andrea? Anthea? Angela?) in front of us, though, and she seemed to ease some of the Tottenham fans' grief. There was then a rejected penalty appeal for Carlisle which met with some disappointment for the WPC next to us. It turned out that she was an Arsenal fan! With Carlisle leading at half-time, the buzz was memorable. At least, we were buzzing!
However, all good things come to an end and in the second-half Spurs got on top and equalised, then took the lead. At this point their fans seemed to find their voices and we replied with "You only sing when you're winning" and "We're only second division". Still, at the end of the game, 3-2 to Spurs was not a bad result and it set it up nicely for the return leg.
After buying a programme in the club shop, we wandered back to the tube station, got back to Oxford Circus and headed for the "The Moon under the Water". After several offers of "some nice girls" we got there, had a quick pint and witnessed the quaint London tradition of stamping on pint glasses. Afterwards, there was time for a quick pizza and during this we decided that, rather than bomb back up to Carlisle the next day, we would go via Alton Towers!
On the tube back to Ilford poor Alan had the misfortune of sitting next to two inbred "Deliverance" men whose entire vocabulary appeared to consist of some anatomically extravagant sexual references towards some women in our carriage. Squeal, little (male chauvinist) piggy. After some more red wine in the hotel room we retired for the night in anticipation of the Alton Towers jaunt, only for the calm of the night to be shattered by me shouting "Did you see that!!" in my sleep. Presumably reliving one of the bone crunching Spurs tackles.....
Breakfast was a big fry up at the "Baker's Oven" next to the Cheshunt Tescos, where I filled up with diesel and we bought lunch as well. With some excellent navigation from Ian we arrived at Alton Towers at 13:35 and discovered that if we waited until 14:00 it was half price. Naturally, we waited.
We went on the Black Hole, Corkscrew (twice), Enterprise, The Blade, Ripsaw (twice), Nemesis, New Beast, Ripsaw again (Alan and Ian only - I watched and laughed :), Runaway Train (twice), Congo River Rapids and finally the Log Flume, for which we bought the picture. Front to back the usual suspects are Alan, Ian, and me (Dave).
After a quick pizza, we all got changed into dry clothes, ate our sarnies and bombed up to Carlisle in time to catch Top Gear.
All in all, an excellent two day trip, and all achieved for the princely sum of £75. A bargain!
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