Perfect Day

Charlton v ITFC November 30th 2013

That was no away game, that was an away day - well almost, I got up at 7.30am on Saturday morning and went to bed at 5.30am (I think) on Sunday morning.

It was time to unwind a little after a months work fundraising for what was a successful "Borussia Martlesham F.C. Race Night" at The Norbridge on Friday night and it was also the last day of Movember, hooray some would say.

I tagged along for the day on "Max' s jolly boys outing" something that I had looked forward to, if not with a little trepidation.

Sharon, dropped Max, Ben and I at Jack's Cafe where we met up with Mark for a "full house" before catching the train to London. We managed to get four return tickets to Liverpool Street including a travel card for £74 - bargain, I was expecting to pay about £41 each!

Full house

We met Dale at the station, who was still hungover after the race night (that boy never knows when to stop!) He was staying overnight and going to a 21st birthday party, hoping to get lucky no doubt.

The train was packed, but I did manage to find myself a "reserved" seat, leaving the boys to stand in the gangway drinking Dale's train beers, an early escape I thought to myself!

Train beer

Once we arrived at Liverpool Street Station we headed straight to London Bridge where we met Mat, Josh and Ben's brother Seb in the Old King’s Head. I remember going in there before a Millwall game a couple of seasons ago and feeling very uncomfortable, today was less hostile, perhaps it was because Millwall were away at Leicester?

"Where are you Eddie?

Countdown

After several beers we moved on to The Market Porter where we met up with the final part of the jigsaw, John. It was about two o'clock when we left Dale, who by know was looking a little worse for wear and made our way back to London Bridge station for the short train journey to Charlton.

Sitting on the train to Charlton I realised how much Max has grown up. There were a lot of gobby, pissed up Ipswich fans on board, singing and punching the overhead lights and as we sat watching them and Bens look of disgust Max came out with the very profound lines "That's why you never wear colours to an away game, just remember, everyone knows who they are, we could be anyone".  "Very good” I replied. “You'll have write that down, I'll use it in my blog". He sent it to me as a text message, straight away.

There were plenty of police on duty when wee arrived at Charlton, those gobby fans were having a "few words" as they walked along the platform - it must be difficult for a policeman to show such levels of restrain at times.

We arrived at the ground with about five minutes to spare, just enough time to visit the gents before kick-off, (the beer was working itself through the system by now).

I'm so glad that we weren't late to the game as most of the action took part in the opening ten minutes or so. Ipswich went at the Addicks from the kick-off forcing Ben Alnwick into a string of early saves. Tommy Smith scored the only goal of the game with a header from Aaron Cressswell's corner in front of the very noisy 2,600 plus travelling fans.

That was to be the only goal of the match, we dominated the first half but as usual couldn't make it count and the home side dominated for long periods after the break, but to be honest they never really looked like scoring either.

Three points away from home

It's funny because if that had of been a home game I would have left the ground slightly disgruntled. It was far from a classic, but a resolute performance and an away win with a clean sheet is never a bad thing.

It was time to head back to London Bridge, this time to the Bunch Of Grapes. After a couple more beers Mat, Josh & Seb went their separate ways whist the remaining six of us headed to Brick Lane for a curry. We were lured into the Bengal Cuisine with the promise of "Two pints of Cobra, Popadoms, any starter, any main and rice, £10 each." Bargain! When we ordered Naan breads we were told they were extra - tight bastards!

Bunch Of Grapes

Bengal Cuisine

Magnum P.I.

The charming toilets inside The Ten Bells

As we were finishing the meal Ben quipped "That was nice of the chairman to buy dinner." I just smiled but then challenged Max to get the whole meal for £60 including the Naan's "If you do it I'll pay, if not we'll go six ways." Off he went and returned with a smile on his face, so I gave him my credit card! I didn't mind I'd had a good day out with the lads.

On the way back to Liverpool Street we stopped for a drink at The Ten Bells in Spitalfields - the pub associated with two of Jack The Rippers victims.

It was 10ish when we got to the station, Josh left us and made his way home across London to watch Match Of The Day in his pants! Our train home was delayed and as we sat on it we were informed via the tannoy of a mechanical error and advised to switch trains - which we did.

All day long the boys had taunted me that once back in Ipswich that they were taking me to Bowmans, I was adamant that I was catching Superoute 66 home, leaving the night life to them.  Due to the delays it was 12.40am when we finally made it back and there were no buses to catch. "Go on boy" they said "Alright but I'm not paying to get in anywhere!

I can't remember the last time I was out so late in Ipswich - changed a bit since my day. There are certainly a few sights for sore eyes, including me with my Movember moustache (how I wish I could have shaved it off!)

We got chatting to three women in the smoking area, as it turned out one of them , Abbi was at Kesgrave High School with the lads. She was out with a couple of workmates and as they left I invited her to stay with us - we were going to the Wine Bar next!

The Wine Bar

My new best friend John

Back home!

We eventually got a taxi home at 4.30ish and after putting on a bit of Bob Marley and opening a beer I got a phone call from Sharon, who had been asleep directly above us. she was seriously pissed off with me for making such a row, I thought that we were being quiet!

I did make my peace with her on Sunday, but I'm not sure I'm forgiven quite yet!

I've had a few flashbacks since Saturday, I think the funniest one so far is giving out Ben's business card to a girl on the train home, telling her what a nice lad he was, just a little shy. Turns out she was Paul Taylor's girlfriend!

I found this on my phone on Sunday morning - made me laugh!

The football might well have been forgettable, but the day will live long in my memory - thanks lads for knocking thirty years off life for 24 hours!

Charlton 0-1 Ipswich

                                                Smith 5

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The playlist:-

Perfect Day by Lou Reed - sometimes I really struggle to think of a song, I could have easily chosen ten plus for this blog. Max picked this one before we even left home, "If we win you should have this, the original version - Josh loves Lou Reed."

Hair of the dog, but not the lip. Back to reality in more ways than one!