Preston v Forest FA Cup

Bit of a strange day out, this one. Still suffering the effects of chronic man-flu, an early morning taxi to stand out in the cold of The Spot’s car park wasn’t top of my list of things I’d rather be doing of a Saturday morning, but the reward was the promise of a decent coach trip to an away game rather than the vacuous geriatric experience of the official coaches. Two and a half hours of the ‘Inbetweeners’ coupled with a DIY bottle of vodka and lemonade before we arrived at our drinking destination. This was the first difference to the official journey, as they usual spend their hour stop off in some dry non-descript motorway service station. The pub was going to have food laid on for us as well as extra staff for the coach-load of eager drinkers. And I’m sure that pub did, just not the pub we turned up at. “Has it been done up ?”, someone asked; “Is the bowling green still round the back ?”, asked another, to a negative response. Oops. Never mind, they served beer, tick, food for those that wanted it, tick, and live football. Tick. Is there such a thing as the “wrong pub” ? Maybe not. The Grapes in Wrea Green, certainly not the “wrong pub”.

The game itself was pretty poor. The last time I went to Deepdale, three sides looked ok, while the stand we stood in was scheduled for demolition, seemingly while we were in it. The new stand that has replaced it seems half finished, and for a team of Preston’s rich heritage, remarkably tiny. A single tiered half stand, with some executive boxes at the back, topped off with a concrete shell for that added ‘unfinished’ effect. Preston took the lead towards the end of the first half, by which time Forest seemed to have given up bothering. A half time drink just finished in time to see Paul Anderson equalise straight after the break, Lewis McGugan mis-controlling from six yards when hitting it first time was surely the better option, before Luke ‘BetterThanKelvinWilson’ Chambers stabbed home the winner in the last minute. The Preston fans reacted as if they knew this was coming, and went home quietly.

Party time on the coach home, some memory inducing cans of McEwan’s Export purchased to assist the journey home. That was the plan. A phone call 10 minutes into the journey home revealed my bag had been taken by mistake and I was left with a female’s overnight bag. I didn’t look into it, but was pretty sure pants & a toothbrush were more likely to be found within than four more cans of McEwan’s Export. Ah well, all adds to the story for years to come. And I won the first goal scorer sweep, so not all bad. LuckyCol continues on into the New Year.

A few of Alcazar’s finest enjoyed in a surprisingly packed Fox & Crown late on Saturday night rounded off an enjoyable day all round.

I’ll be using the coach again, no doubt, enjoy the mystery tour of pubs along the way, but I’ll make sure I label my bag better in future.

Or change my name to Mr Adidas.