Having been an SCG member for a few years now, experienced the F1 in Melbourne and the Indy Cars on the Gold Coast, visited Lords twice, really my only other unfilled dream remained seeing Premier League football. This, you may remember, was achieved last November when we went and saw Fulham play Blackburn. But to be honest this only partly fulfilled my dream. At the age of 10, as Craig Johnston made his way on the world footballing stage, I bought a second hand copy of Shoot magazine at a school fete and become a Liverpool fan. They were the pull out poster team for whatever month the issue was from and that poster adorned my bedroom wall throughout my childhood. I remember watching Liverpool beat Everton 3-1 in the 1996 FA cup final which began my love of watching football in the middle of the night. One of the coolest, but slightly strange things about livng here is watching sport during the day, more convenient, but lacks the self satisfaction you get from the effort you need to put in to be able to follow your team from half way around the world. Which brings us back to Fulham, which isn't my team. Nor is Blackburn for that matter. So, the reality of Premier League football was only partly fulfilled by our visit in the Autumn. The team I most wanted to see was Liverpool. Hamish, who I work with at school, is also a big Liverpool fan. He managed to see Liverpool play against West Ham, but unforunately Liverpool lost 1-0. When Liverpool made their away visit to Fulham's home ground, Craven Cottage, the cost of 240 pounds for one game was prohibitive. But when Hamish and a couple of his mates, Blunt and Little Andy, dreamed up the idea of becoming season ticket holders at Fulham, the chance to see Liverpool, Manchester Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and big name players like Lampard, Torres, Gerrard and Ronaldo, live seemed to good to miss. So the four of us have become season ticket holders and will be able to see up to 2 games each month, travel plans allowing.
v Arsenal 23.8.08
Fulham's home season kicked off against front running team Arsenal. Arsenal lead for much of last season, but ultimately finished 3rd. Still, they have a young talented side, while Fulham have looked to rebuild their team after almost being relegated to the next division last season, only a last day victory from 2 goals down saved them. They had also lost in the first game of the season to Premiership virgins Hull, 2-1. As the other guys (the self named Geezers) were pre-disposed at the Reading Festival, Krystle come for her second and possibly last?? game of football. I had told her if the score was 4-0 to Arsenal at half-time we might leave early, and I was expecting an easy victory for the visitors. Instead, we got a close and thrillingly tight contest that ended with a surprise, but ultimate;y deserved victory for Fulham. As we were sitting with the Fulham diehards, it as hard not to get caught up in the emotion of a victory over their more successful London rivals. If the rest of the games this season are as good, it will have been money well spent.
From our seats looking down the touch line. The guy standing up in a suit is
Fulham boss Roy Hodgson
Surprise scoreboard
The seats are located in the corner, but close to the ground
Looking across the stand at the hopeful Fulham faithful
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