England Legends Vs Wales Legends (For the John Hartson trust)

Thursday night was the night of ITVs big annual charity Legends game. This year it was in aid of the John Hartson trust for Testicular Cancer. The other big bonus was it was to be played at Pride Park Stadium. Former Rams Captain Robbie Savage was coming back to PPS for one night only to captain the Wales team.

Luckily Joe and Abbie got given some free tickets from their football training at DW. So we didn't have to buy tickets. I am a bit worried though that as the club gave away so many free tickets, Just how much money did John Hartson make for his charity?

Debz and Carl picked me up about 6.30 and we drove to PPS supposedly early enough to get a place in the DW car park but there were queues as it was and there weren't actually any free spaces but Carl managed to find somewhere to park that wasn't actually a proper space but it wasn't impeding on any other spaces. When Ange & Rob and Emma and all the kids arrived Ange wanted to go eat. Id already had some tea so I just stood and waited while they scoffed. I am no good with Subway anyway I would go as far as saying I have a phobia - Im not phobic of the food but the actual ordering process. I had panic attacks the last time I tried to order a sandwich in there myself. When they finished eating we made our way over to the ground.

We were seated in the East stand upper parallel to Ange's normal seats.

There wasn't many people there. They were only using the East Stand. In the west stand were a few people but they would have been families mascots etc. Of course all the Exec boxes were full. As we were taking our seats there was a Gospel choir assembling to sing the national Anthems and then it wasn't long before the announcer announced the teams and they were coming out of the tunnel

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The Gospel version of God save the queen was a bit unusual

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Our only problem was I am obviously in need of new glasses as I couldn't hardly make out who the players were and Debz had forgotten her glasses so she was no good. We also couldn't hear the announcements properly so that didn't help with who the players were. I could make out Sav obviously and Gary Speed also for Wales.

It was a good match. Very competitive and no one was going easy. Mind you as for taking it easy - Ian Wright proved that he certainly didn't have it anymore. Remember his great pace? Nuh! He could hardly run 5 yards without falling over exhausted. Where as Steve McManaman and Stan Collymore loked like they were still in there Spice boys heydays.

The Ref was Dermot Gallagher. He got some boos. And randomly the lino on our side was Colin Murray. Now, this wasn't announced and we didn't even notice - It was the guy sat behind. Much to my own surprise I actually Squeed a little and then got all excited. Thing is Colin was so busy doing his job that he never actually turned our way and as I was so excited this is the best photo I could get of him

There were lots of changes during the game. John Hartson himself kicked off but then went off again. He came back on briefly when Wales were handed a penalty to take it but as I said no one was giving anything away and Dave Beasant in the England goal easily saved it. I think he could have let it in if he had wanted to and maybe he should have.

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At half time Harry Redknapp came out to choose someone from the crowd to play in the second half. They chose 5 lads who had brought their boots but I am sure only one of them played. He was really good and for saying that he was playing with and against top celebs and legends He did himself proud.

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There were 6 goals scored altogether. All for England. Which is great but I think that Wales should have at least had 1 goal. I am not sure exactly who scored the goals. I think it was 2 for Collymore, 2 for Seth Johnson, 1 for Ricky Whittle and 1 for Darren Campbell. I may be wrong though. I have yet to watch the TV coverage that I recorded to see what I missed :)

After the game Ange and the kids planned to go round to the players entrance. They went off quickly but as I am not able to climb down over the seats I got left behind. When I finally got out of the row, I had no idea where they were so I decided to just make my own way round to the players entrance. I then bumped into Rob and Carl outside the concourse and Ange rang me to ask where was I.

I made my way round to the Players' Entrance where there was already a hefty crowd waiting.

RANT ALERT!!!!!

The one thing that stopped me being an In Person Autograph collector is the Professional Autograph hunters - Traders! They have no consideration for the real fans and kids that really want to to meet their idols. They push and shove people out the way, kids, adults and old people alike. Then they shove their books in the faces of the stars whoever they are and then "Can you sign these 10 pictures" I just got so angry that I wanted to punch them or push them all over. This is why I no longer have the motivation to get in there anymore. Yeah there is a little bit of regret that I came home with nothing but I wasn't going to get pushed around and hurt for it.

RANT OVER!!!

There was a lot of waiting. We could see the stars inside. I spotted Jeff Brazier going upstairs and I spotted Savs boys several times. Then while we were all looking the other way, Steve McManaman sneaked out the main entrance but soon the crowd was all over him. Thanks to Beth for her persisitance Steve stopped with the crowd and they all got their stuff signed photos taken and Ange got a book signed for her boss.

Joe Calzaghe got mobbed to the proportion that he couldn't get into his car. Several of the welsh team walked past me without me even having a clue who they are. Then Jamie Baulch walked past me and it wasn't until 30 mins later I realised who he was. Then I felt bad. Gary Speed stayed true to his name as he tried to make a quick getaway. he did sign and do some pictures but I don't think he actually stopped walking once. I tried my hardest to get a picture of him...

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Dave Beasant was very good but no one seemed interested - was it cos he is a former Red Dog?? (See later, I don't think so)

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As I said, I didn't amke an attempt to get autographs or photos with the celebs but I was on hand to get photos for the others.

Colin Murray was lovely chatting and signing and having a laugh with people as well as having phots taken. Debz got him to sign her ticket and I took this lovely picture

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Dean Saunders made me go a bit weak at the knees. He has improved with age. I met him before - In 1989 in McDonalds where I worked but at the time he was with Mark Wright (The real one) and I was rather star-struck (Ooooh Mark Wright) Today though Dean Saunders is really a bit of alright (oo-er)

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One star that caused a stir was Stan Collymore. This I don't get. He was booed on the pitch even though he was an England player and scored 2 games. He was also a Red dog  That should be enough to give him a wide berth but for some reason my sister loves him so we fought through the crowds and she persisted in poking him until he had his photo taken with her

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Darren Campbell came out of the main entrance on the phone and refused to sign for anyone. Miserable git! Idris Elba came out with an entourage but no one bothered him - I guess they didn't know who he was. I didn't until I watched some of the ITV4 footage after. Now Ian Wright went down in my book cos he got his big massive car brought all the way up to the entrance so that he didn't have to deal with the fans BOOO! thats not good!

One thing I haven't mentioned was Being shafted and thinking my hero was there but he was a big fat Fake!! I was promised England and DCFC Legend Oooh Mark Wright but all I got was a wannabe from Essex. At least someone was happy

I didn't get the chance to compose a proper photograph that Emma could treasure and use for FB because he was being dragged off by some Bimbo Bodyguard. I do have to admit it he was quite handsome and he did seem a little overwhelmed by all the attention - don't worry lad, You'll soon be wallowing in it.

We stayed until about 11pm. It was late enough and the kids all had school the next day. Ange had work and I had to be up for my course.

It was a great night out though. A great match and hopefully they made a lot of money for  John Hartson

(Please read part 2)

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Football Football

It's that time of year that there is always football of some description. We know this because It will be Bill's birthday this week and the England team are always playing on or near her birthday. In the even years it is in tournaments but in the odd years it is always qualifying games for those tournaments.
Luckily this year it isn't actually on her birthday so it means that we don't have to organise her birthday celebrations around the game. In fact, ironically it was Bret's birthday this year that collided with an actual game.

Last Saturday England played away in Kazakhstan and it was only shown on Setanta. Debz had invited me to hers to watch it but the weather was horrific so we opted to stay home and listen to it on the radio thru the TV.
England won 4-0 quite easily so no worries there.

Wednesday night the game was live on ITV so we made a night of it. I got Pizza for tea and we all had a bag of sweets each.

It was great to see the team play so well against a team of part-timers and they walked it with a final score of 6-0.
No more England games until September now.

More football last night when I went up to Mackworth to watch Joe play for his team Mackworth St Francis. Ange offered to drive us up there so Bill and me went down to meet her outside the church where Abs was doing dance. Ange drove us up there and dropped us off before going back home and picking up Rob.

I love watching the under 8s. It is supposed to not be competitive but it so is! The trainers are constantly shouting instructions to the team as well as the parents and this one parent who was (To me anyway) very annoying. I don't know how they cope with it week in week out. These poor little kids are running their arses off out there doing the best they can and they just have this constant ranting.

It does get very tense though and I did become wrapped up in the drama. You know the Ooooohhs and Aaaahhhhhhhs as chances are missed and tackles are made and great saves too.
They played 3 games of 15 minutes and Joe was fantastic.

After they finished playing they had a penalty shoot out which ended at 1 each.

When they were finished we all managed to squeeze back into Ange's car and she took us back home.

No more footie for a while now tho, I think.

A Young boys dream

Monday night was a dream come true for my young nephew. His under 8s football team were playing a special game at Pride Park.

Tickets were £2 and kick-off was 4.15pm and there was also the promise of free Curry.
Zoe had offered to give me and Debz a lift up there so I got to Debz about 3ish and then Zoe pulled up at just after 3.30pm.

When we got there Joe and his team were taking penalties on the pitch in the actual full sized goals. They were all really excited and we turned up just in time to see Joe put one away.

The pitch was split into 2 smaller pitches so they would have 2 games going on at a time. Joe's game was being played at the pitch on the North stand side so we went and joined The others in the West stand seats near the front. The stand wasn't full of people but people would be coming and going as the evening went on as there were lots of games happening.

It was so emotional to see Joe and his team come out of the Derby County tunnel onto the Pride Park pitch.

The team they were playing were pretty useless and Joe's team were all over them. If it hadn't been for their big goalie I am sure it would have been about 8-0 in the first half. It is incredible how good Joe's team are. They play like a team. Great passing and moving and thinking like a team not like you would expect schoolboy team to be all running after the ball.

By half time I was exhausted, I don't know about the teams on the pitch.
Then they changed ends and play began again. In the second half they played much better and the opposing goalie didn't have a chance as the goals went flying in.
The poor Mackworth goalie had been bored stiff so he was swapped out at half time to play in the outfield so he could get a touch at the ball. The new goalie also got bored pretty quickly and we were giggling at him slowly edging up the pitch but then panicking when it looked like the ball might be coming back.

One by One the goals flew in and Our Joey also scored one. The rubbish announcer bloke kept making comments about both games that were going on but kept saying that our game was still 0-0. So we all shouted out that it was 4-0.

By the final whistle the score was 5-0 and how proud were we of those fantastic talented kids.
There was lots of debating over who scored all the goals and the children seemed to be so nonchalant about it while the parents were all jumping up and down.

The next couple of hours we just sat around watching the other games whilst we waited for the presentations.
The children got quite bored but I was quite in awe of being in our wonderful stadium and having it just there to wonder around as I wanted.

Finally the Curry was announced and Debz and I joined the queue.

We got 2 chapatis and a dollop of curry on top. I think the idea was to make a kind of a wrap with it but it was just too messy. Ange managed to wrap hers up without making any mess but Debz and me managed to get it all over our hands and down our coats.
After our curry Debz suggested we go and see if we could have our pictures taken with the Steve Bloomer bust. Unfortunately it was cordoned off so we couldn't stand next to it but we could take our photos of it.

I didn't get any photos of the presentation as I stayed back to let all the parents in to see their children. It was a bit overwhelming I think as the winners were presented their trophies by Tom Glick from Derby County and the head of the Derbyshire FA.

After the presentations were over we headed off home.