A month or so ago, myself and a few of the Liverpool supprters from the forum decided that we would all get together and travel to Anfield to watch Liverpool and indulge in a bit of drinking.
Kinboshi selected the match that we would be attending....v Birmingham City on saturday 22 september. Tickets and accomodation were soon sourced and travel plans made. As i live in sleepy Norfolk,travel to anywhere is a pain in the butt but after a whole day of trawling t'interweb i managed to sort out tickets and planned my journey using various trains, buses and cars.
Accompanying me on my journey was my nephew Nathan. A very quiet 17 year old lad who has always longed to visit Anfield, home of his adored Liverpool. Kinboshis choice of fixture filled our hearts with optimism of a goal packed afternoon .
4.15 am Saturday morning, and we are on the road. Nathans brother has agreed to drive us the 85 miles to Peterborough where we will catch the first of many trains on our journey.Traffic, as expected at this time of the morning, is nonexistant and we whizz through the miles arriving at our destination at 6.00am. Our plan is to take the 6.50 from Peterborough to Birmingham, and then take another train from Birmingham to Tamworth where Kinboshi will pick us up and drive us to Liverpool.
After a coffee and some toast we make our way to platform 3 where our train is waiting for us. We join the 20 or so other passengers on the platform and wait for the train to open its doors....and wait...and wait. 6.40 becomes 6.50, becomes 7.00 and it is about 7.10 when the alarm bells inside my head start ringing.i make my way to the office to enquire why we are not being allowed to board and i am told that due to the non arrival of the guard, the train has been cancelled. Great !(thank you Central trains) At this point i have 2 options........jump on the train now leaving platform 2 , change at x , change at x , change at x arrive Birmingham at 13.30 or wait for the 7.50 and Hope that a guard turns up..........option 1 is a no go so we wait for the 7.50 with fingers crossed.
This train arrives on time and , with guard on board, departs on time. One small problem..we will not be able to make our connection to Tamworth.After texting Daniel (kinboshi) and explaining the situation he offers to pick us up from Birmingham , an offer that is gratefully accepted. 10.00 am we pull into New Strret station and true to his word, Dan is there and we hit the M6 northbound to Liverpool..
The journey passes in a blur of bad beat stories and we arrive in Liverpool to meet up with
Scouse(formerly known as Jizzemm) to collect our tickets and from here we drop the car off at our accomodation.A quick phone call to blondeite Digger later, and we are in a taxi on our way to the Penny Farthing pub where Guiness can be purchased for £1.75 a pint happy days. Although not the classiest of pubs ,anywhere that you can buy a round for less than a fiver whilst at the same time being offered paperback books , ciggys , watches and extra strong mints at bargain prices has to be +EV.
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