Morecambe weekender

Friday 10th August

The fixture list had been kind to us, with an opening game at Morecambe. This was their first game in the football league and promised to be a special occasion. We decided to make a weekend of it.

Chris & Olly came down on Thursday night enabling us to get an early start on Friday morning. We picked up Kieron in Milton Keynes and had a trouble free journey north.

With numerous phonecalls from we established that there was nothing to do in Morecambe, so we detoured to Blackpool for the afternoon. After getting lost and going the wrong way up a one way street we parked up and headed onto the prom.

Blackpool was very run down and although one hotel was a bit classier than the rest. We decided to return in April when Barnet were at Accrington.


We went into the arcades and then played some air hockey.

Freak!

We thought about going up the tower but it was a bit of a climb, so instead we played football on the beach.

Silky skills on display.

Kieron fancied the bird in the purple top.

Eventually we decided to head on to Morecambe. It wasn't that long a journey, although an astonishing ammount of beer seemed to vanish during it. The trip took longer than expected as somehow we managed to get lost between Lancaster and Morecambe, ending up by a sewage plant.

Into Morecambe, we parked up and headed to the hotel. Andy, Big Dan & Mark were also staying there.

Back out again, for beer supplies. Aldi was just shutting up so we went instead to Morrisons, which I remembered as being just slightly less crap than Aldi. How wrong I was. Morrison's has been totally transformed and is now amazing.

Pissed freak!

Morecambe was a bit deserted for a Friday night, apparently Lancaster is a more happening place. Still, we found a few Barnet fans around town variously enjoying themselves or suffering one or two mishaps.

Saturday 11th August

After an excellent breakfast, we kicked off with a walk along the beach. Morecambe has a very picturesque front, with the Lakeland fells stretching out into the distance.

The statue of Morecambe's most famous resident.

Prior to the main game of the day, the Barnet supporters team played Morecambe supporters team. Amazingly, there was only one dropout from the Barnet team, although a few others were nursing hangovers.

We took a more leisurely approach and watched from the sidelines.

Barnet conceded the first goal.

Barnet conceded the second and third goals as well. Manager John Hunt was helpless.

Tony got one back from the penalty spot and Hunt tried to rescue the game by bringing on super-sub David O'Sullivan.

We left a few minutes from the end, with the score at 3-1. A late flurry of goals made the final score Morecambe 5 Barnet 2. We headed to the ground. There was a great chip shop around the corner which did an excellent plate of peas.

We got into the ground fairly early.

Always wanting to outdo everyone, John bought three programmes while Sam risked his life on a burger.

Kick-off was delayed 15 minutes due to the big crowd, but this just helped the atmsophere build up. As the teams came out we held up a banner welcoming them to the Football League, because we are such nice people.

The contest was a bit unfair seeing as Morecambe had twice as many players as us, but nonetheless the Bees bossed the game and how we didn't win I'll never know. It finished 0-0.


Afterwards it was back to the hotel for a few quiet beers.

In the evening we headed back to the Station pub for some more grub. There were masses of Barnet fans in there. A twelve year old kid chucked all over the floor of the pub. You shouldn't laugh.

Sunday 12th August

On our final morning we headed again down to the front.

We played a few more games , including a really easy bowling one where got a strike each time. This won us lots of tokens which would have entitled us to a plastic toy had we not given them away.

After a visit to Morrison's for some high quality supplies it was time to head off back home. With a bit of traffic on the M6 we diverted down the A50 and M1. After dropping the guitarrists off I was back home.

Another top weekend. Cheers fixture computer.