A Free Day Out
After winning the competition last year it was finally time to go and watch West Ham for free, courtesy of Coca Cola (other fizzy, teeth-rotting beverages are available), as the tickets arrived last week for the game against Tottingham Hotspur. Trying to find someone to go with proved to be more difficult than I’d thought.
My sister, being a Spurs fan, was my first choice but she was going to be out of the country on business so couldn’t make it. Next on the list was @phileasphil but he was working and couldn’t swap his shift. My mackem-supporting friend, and comedy cohort, was looking at houses so that was him ruled out and my Spurs-supporting work colleague wasn’t keen on sitting with West Ham fans. Some people can be so picky!
After trying some other people I thought I’d found someone on Thursday but he then cancelled on the Friday as he didn’t realise it was an early kick off. I frantically tried everyone else I knew but at this stage most people already had plans and as the game sat right in the middle of the day it really screwed up your day. So on Saturday morning I headed off to White Hart Lane on my own.
Due to the Victoria line being closed for engineering works, getting there was a bit more awkward than it shoud have been. Instead of being one train and one tube journey, it ended up as three trains and a bus!
But all my connections ended up being smooth and I got to White Hart Lane in about two hours. On the way up I’d decided that I would try and sell the extra ticket I had to a tout and hope that it could be put to some use by someone. So as I made my way to the ground I listened for the “any spare tickets” call of the lesser spotted ticket tout and after finding one and doing a bit of haggling, sold the ticket for £40. It was worth £50 and he’d probly sell it for more but I was happy with £40.
After a couple of quick stops for food and a beer (and being given too much change. Result!) I got to my seat and settled in for the match.
And what a match it was! I have never seen a more exciting nil-nil draw in my life. Both teams played attacking football and although Tottingham hit the woodwork three times, they couldn’t find a way past Rob Green. We had our chances as well: Carlton Cole’s one-on-one against Gomes, Mark Noble’s overhead shot and Demba Ba’s shot that Gomes just managed to push round the post all could have resulted in us nicking a 1-0 win.
Overall I’d have to say that Spurs probably deserved to win but we did well to take a point from a ground where we haven’t won since 1999. The result was made all the sweeter by Jermain “Judas” Defoe missing a few chances including an open goal from about 5 yards out.
And what about the other ticket I had? Well the tout sold it, because just before kick off someone came and sat next to me. I was really tempted to find out how much he’d paid for it but bottled asking him.
