This is 'The Football' part of the blog. I know, I know: it's not in the title. I suppose I could have called it: 'The Body, The Voice, The Chase, The Football and The Boy'. But sometimes you just kinda know that you need a snappier title 😊 Football, however, will appear on a regular basis.
Something remarkable happened in December 2021: my beloved Chesterfield FC (aka The Spireites) made it through to the third round of the FA Cup 😮 This is an occasion that, a bit like my bus on a freezing cold winter evening, does not come along all that regularly. When this happens, there are lots of posts on the Chesterfield FC chat forum about who we're gonna play. The third round is important because that's when the big boys (Premier League) come out to play. We're non-league at the time of writing but we're all confident that 2023/24 will be our last as a non-league outfit: League 2, here we come. Anyway back on point, an away tie at a big club generates much needed revenue, and excitement for the Spireites. And they don't come much bigger than Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Get in!
My little sis is also a Spireite, so naturally we planned on going together. And making a weekend of it. At 09.01, to be precise, we jumped on the St Pancras bound train in Sheffield – cos that is where I live – and off we went. We'd treated ourselves to first class; after all this WAS an occasion. Five minutes into our journey and the train manger made an announcement, which went something like: "Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Our next station stop will be Chesterfield, where we are expecting the train to get very busy. There will be ..... football fans boarding the train". The 'football fans' was said as though they'd insulted her mother and was met by a huge cheer from sis and me and bemusement from everyone else around us.
The train did get busy; it was standing room only for the most part. There was no 'at seat' service but free refreshments were available to us if we could make our way through the entire length of the train to the buffet car. "You'll never get through", said train manger. "Sure we will" said sis and me. And off we went, shimmying through the hoards of singing Spireites, with everyone shifting up to let us get our cuppa. Football fans are actually great: just misunderstood by some 😆
Arrived London, checked into hotel and found a grand little cafe for a pre-match bite. At said cafe, I ran into an old school friend whom I hadn't seen for years and had a catch up. And then off to Stamford Bridge. This was all happening at the time of Covid, of course, and you needed to show your Covid pass to get in. The stewards were absolutely brilliant. They didn't make a song and dance about anything, just checked the passes and waved us in. I've been going to football for 45 years, and I've been to some big grounds, but when they briefly dimmed the lights on a cold winter's afternoon before the kick off, I was completely mesmerised; that memory will stay with me for ever.
We were 4-0 down at half time and then 5-0 down in the second half. All we wanted was a goal. I looked skywards for hope and, not long after, Kabongo Tshimanga's shot was saved by the Chelsea keeper and Akwasi Asante calmly slotted in the rebound. We went quite, quite mad. Never have I been happier to lose 5-1. We bumped into a London based friend after the match and had a few drinks at a street bar before returning to the hotel, where we sat in the bar until 2am chatting with our fellow Spireites. There are the days that I, as a football fan, live for. May there be many more.
We were pretty tired next morning so we headed to Covent Garden for coffee before journeying back up north, where we know we belong.
GREAT, GREAT WEEKEND!