With a school night trip to Crewe having to be ruled out, albeit reluctantly, we felt we deserved a Saturday awayday to somewhere within our established radius of being no more than an hour by train outside London. So it was to the ‘delightful, picturesque’ (or so we were led to believe by absolutely no […]
A sign that I saw in one of the bars in which we sheltered from the winter drizzle amidst Bilbao’s mazy and narrow streets of the Casco Viejo (Old Town), said it all: “Dear Tourist please be aware that you aren’t in Spain, nor are you in France, you are in the Basque Country”. It […]
Mention the words “Tartan Army” to pretty much any football supporter, not just from the British Isles but anywhere in the world, over the age of 30 and it will instantaneously conjure up certain memories and images. Of the “well-refreshed (or “blootered” to use the appropriate colloquialism!) hordes”, that used to descend on Wembley on […]
Originally this post was going to be all about Mrs Football Nerd’s and my trip to Colchester on our first bona fide away day of the season, but as a result of our Interim Head Coach’s understandable decision to stand down, it feels completely right to also give some thoughts to the position in which […]
With Orient not having been in action since Wembley, some seven weeks previously, and Mrs Football Nerd and me starting to feel the full effects of football-watching withdrawal, there was no way in this world that we could resist a trek into deepest darkest Essex for the O’s first pre-season engagement of the summer. The fact […]
This season’s ‘off-season’ (if there ever truly is an off-season for football obsessives?) has provided me with an intriguing opportunity to compare and contrast the spectator cultures and experiences of two distinctly different sports in unusual contexts. First up, Mrs. Football Nerd and I headed off to New York City for our almost-perennial holiday visit […]
After Our Kid’s epic journey to Kiev for last season’s Champions League Final (https://football-nerd.org/2018/05/30/all-the-way-to-kiev-a-guest-piece-by-our-kid/) he of course had to be in Madrid for this season’s final, this time he was accompanied on the rather more straightforward journey by our father, Roger, although securing tickets was going to prove to be much more of a challenge. […]
There aren’t many times in my life when a 2:35am alarm is greeted with excitement, but as I got myself up and ready I knew the next 24 hours plus was going to be the maddest and most surreal thing I had ever done in the name of football. Amazingly I was not alone as […]
On Wednesday morning I will board a flight for a mammoth odyssey that will see me cover in excess of 5,000 miles in 24 hours for a European Final in a country that is three time zones away, to which the majority of the season ticket holders at the participating clubs can’t actually get to, […]
Just like the reported 800 to 1000 British football fans who travel to Dortmund every home game, I couldn’t tell you why or even what I expected, but ever since I witnessed in person the magical allure of the very special fans of “one of Europe’s last great romantic football clubs”, I was already hooked. […]
