“A last minute goal, can you imagine it?” – my words to Nick in 89th minute.
Game day number two – and as we all know, it was a huge improvement – as a spectacle for England fans and as a day experience for all.
The plan: Paris to Lille by train, check in at hostel, drop off bags, go to get train to Lens for the game!
Bad news first off, we had to wake up at 5:30am (thats 4:30am BST) to get our first train at Paris’ Gard Du Nord station. We talked the 1.5 miles from our hostel and got there in plenty of time for our 6:40am train. Not much time for sleep however as it was only 65 minutes to Lille.
Arrive at our hostel just after 8am, and strangely enough there was a radio crew to the right hand side of the entrance. It was none other than BBC Radio Five Live. After a small while we were asked to do some interviewing, which again I jumped the chance at after our previous appearance on Channel Five news. The others this time, were not too keen. Still that didn’t stop me.
We were first asked to sing a rendition of Three Lions (being a singer in a band, I was all up for singing on national radio – just didn’t imagine it being with a bunch of England fans singing Baddiel And Skinner). Then I was asked what our predictions were going to be. I said that “Gareth Bale was going to make Kyle Walker cry today”. How wrong was I?
Now prepping for Lens which was a 17 Euro train journey. One part of it was to be prepared for the drinking ban that was set in place, now the thought of starting 9am frightens me but that didn’t scare off Coatesy and Nick.
When we got to the station it wasn’t the best organised. No real guidance but we soon figured out that the queue going around the station wasn’t for tickets, it was for trains. The train was short and sweet – and we were for the game.
Now to kill some time before kick off. But what is there to do with a drinking ban….
Oh wait, it seems as though that was a myth – there was no drinking ban. As seen here in the picture above. We had a good few drink at this bar (which was basically someones back garden).
In a way it didn’t make any sense to have the game at Lens – it was in a small town which has less people in it than the stadium has seats. Still, we eagerly anticipated the game.
The English and Welsh showed solidarity after arguments from trouble making Russians (or so reports says – again we show no trouble), with chants such as “We’re England and Wales, we’re England and WALLLLLLEEEESSSS, **** off Russia, We’re England and Wales!” – not the best chant I’ve ever heard. Everyone was in good spirits. One man said to me that it reminded him of Notting Hill Carnival.
All in all – IT WAS EVERYTHING I DREAMED THESE GAMES WOULD BE!
I wont go too much into the game but we dominated the game, again Wales tactically were brilliant – especially in the first half. There was something in the seconds in the build up to the free kick by Bale which made its way to the back of the nets where I knew it was going to go in. I knew! In fact I believe I turned to Coatesy and said “****, this is going in”.
Half time was horrible – with the Welsh fans singing “England’s going home” – it looked like a possibility.
Still Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge came on and he made a different – not just because they both scored. Roy Hodgson went for it the second half, it’s exactly what we wanted.
The winning goal? I glad you asked. I was emotional, not going to lie. The place went mad. We hugged each other for a long, long time. Trigg got a bruise on the back of his leg (which he moaned about for days). At one point I thought Nick was going to fall of the railings to held on to him.
We sang “Please don’t take me home” for about 10 minutes after the game. It was the best moment I’ve ever witness at a football game.
We got food and drink after the game. Seven euros a pint again, but for once we didn’t care. It was worth it. Trigg foolishly said to a quite precarious looking male “Oi mate, thats my drink” (it wasn’t) after leaving it on the side in what he thought was a mix up. This guy had already taken the mick out of me because of my southern accent. Luckily he took it in good spirits and said sorry. To be honest – I thought he was a goner. Trigg soon claimed he didn’t like Lens too much… I wonder why.
The train station in Lens going back to Lille was a disaster. We went for a train at 8pm – there wasn’t one for another two hours or so. Thats a lot of waiting around – especially as bars were starting to shut. So we got an Uber cab.
If you’ve read the other articles in this series – Uber has become a regular occurrence. For all it’s bad press, it was our life saver on many occasions on this trip. We paid 59 Euros, which considering the distance was good enough for us. The only weird thing is that when we got to Lille he knew all the places to get the “women of the night”.
We politely declined and spent the rest of the night in the hostel bar.
A last minute goal, imagine that?
