Game Twenty - Oldham away

18th October 2008

You know sometimes when your personal life doesn't appear to be going the way you want, distractions are needed and what better distraction than an away day with the one consistant thing in my life. Leicester City. Whilst the players may not be consistant, and the manager changing more times than I change my underwear in the last couple of years (ok, maybe a slight exageration), it is still the club that gives me hope, picks me up when I'm down, and sometimes helps to put major issues into perspective. If I take the time to look back at what it has done for me then sometimes I feel that it has really shaped my life and made me into the person that I am. The people that I have met, the time and expense spent on them, and the way the club has always been there for me on the other side. Friends and aspects of my life have come and gone but rain or shine, there has always been a match to look forward to... a light on the horizon and the aticipation of how we'll be feeling after 90 minutes of action. One team, one dream.


Anyway so now that the philosophical mumbo jumbo is out of the way, we can get back to the day itself. Due to the sheer lazyness and the expense involved in the train, it was yet another journey on the mighty Fox Travel. Of course the advantage of that being that I could sleep and act anti-social for the whole journey. The stuff dreams are made of! As with the usual FT journeys, I was asleep before we even hit the motorway and didn't wake until the services - it worries me how well I can sleep so well in such a cramped environment. Nothing of interest at all happened throughout the services or the rest of the journey.... in fact the only memorable thing was waking up and getting confused that we appeared to be up some moors and then seeing a sign saying we had reached the summit of the highest motorway in Britain. Now if that's not something to write home about then nothing is!

We arrived at Boundary Park in good time and me and Jimmy left the coaches and headed down the road to the pub to meet up with some of the other Foxes Talk regulars who were stopping for a drink. It turned out to be the busiest pub in the world and spent the whole time in there holding me breath so people could squeeze past.

After that we made the short walk back to the ground, stopping at the Ree Ming chinese chip shop and had Lisa explain to me that the best chips had to have fluffy middles. If you ever bump into her, make sure you ask her for the international symbol for "fluffy middles". It will change your life forever.

The ground itself is your standard league one ground to be honest with the outdoors concourse and one larger stand compared to the two smaller looking ones. The stand to our right is mid-way through revelopment so was just a building site in front of the car park. Im sure there will be one or two smashed windows before the season's out.

The game itself turned out to be quite eventful. I squeezed into the back row alongside Jimmy for it and watched as Fryatt missed a glorious chance, Dyer missed an open goal and Big Steve headed against the woodwork. Oldham offered little going forward and another three points on the road looked a possibility as the referee called time on the first half.

Half time was all about Lil' Dave and his thermals. Two scarfs (including my Ivory Coast one - theif!!) and Tommeh's old school hat. With this look he could almost be the new Bernie or at least some kind of future mascot!

As appears to be the theme with our season, we started the second half well and some good work down the left saw the ball pulled back to Dyer who fluffed his shot when we were ready to celebrate. The boy was for once living up to his name!

Soon after though a free kick was awarded on the right.....

...... the ball was swung in and Kisnorbo rose..... and missed...... and there was Big Steve following up to smash it home with his head. 1-0. Commence carnage! I soon had an Lil Dave jump on my back and when he'd let go, I turned to see everyone seem to be lying on the floor behind me and JME standing there, looking confused having been a good two rows and seven seats away before the goal went in. Interesting to say the least!

After the goal, we proceeded to sit on the back foot and allow Oldham back into the game. It seemed only a matter of time before they scored and when it came it was a peach. Whittaker collected it on the edge of the earlier and curled a beauty past Martin into the top corner. From our position you knew it was in from the second it left his boot.

From then on there wern't many clear cut chances althouth Oldham looked more likely to take the three points and so when the final whistle came we were happy to take a point back to the East Midlands.

I knew that car park would be a bugger to get out of but the amount of Oldham fans who left early to make sure they could get away was pretty shocking. The queue had already built up before we'd even left the stand.

Boundary Park - Traditional old ground. Good set of fans and a nice place to watch football. Love it! I certainly wouldn't begrudge seeing them getting promoted at the end of the season (so long as its with us and not in our place).

The journey home.... very much like the journey there and gave me time to listen to music and watch the world go by deep in thought and admiring the views (in a manly way of course).

And so that was the latest trip in the league one adventure and the start of the busiest period of football we'll have this season. Every tuesday and saturday for about four weeks in three different competitions..... combine that with random trips to Manchester City and Arsenal and you'll see me asleep at work before you know it. Two home games in a row to follow now and lets just hope we can bring some of our away form to the Walkers and see the week out with 6 points. COYB!