Trips

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Over the years the players have enjoyed many trips both in this country and abroad; the first jaunt was back in 1989 to Amsterdam. I think the WAGS at that time where told it would be a "one-off trip" - how wrong we were! Read on.....

1989: Amsterdam
We went over to play a game with a local team arranged by Vim & Ruud, who where dutch mates of ours. As always, the first night was spent on the town getting bladdered. Having upset about 20 of the locals, the night ended with a few of us being locked up after a fight outside the police station .... yes, fighting on the steps of the local nick! The next morning it was off to play the match against this team who had stayed in the night before. We had a head count of fit players and managed to get 11 on the pitch - the others being too pissed or having battered bodies. At half time we were 3-0 down, however I think it took 45mins to get us going because we won 4-3. Never to be forgotten.

Sorry we have no photos.

1992: Morecambe
The Morecambe trip became a twice-yearly event. Yes we all know its a shit hole, but its our shit hole. It all started back in the 70s when a few dockers would head up there on the piss, and over the years lads from all over Liverpool have joined them making it one of the best days of the year. Long may it continue.

1994: Ostend
We travelled by train and ferry to Ostend; it seemed to take ages (no Easyjet then). Wrighty did the longest footy quiz you have ever heard....Zzzzzzz. Richie Ackers was telling everyone he was the party animal and top drinker until he was spotted taking his beer from one bar to the next under his jacket. We also did a day trip to Bruges, which was OK.

1995: Dublin
The club flew over to Dublin to sample the local boozers and night clubs. It was a weekend stay and with no football match involved it proved to be another pissed up few days. As I remember, England beat Australia in the Rugby Union World Cup semi which upset the Irish (why do they hate us so much?). One of our lads, Mark Hammill, was so pissed up he got lost at 4am and couldn’t find the hotel so he phoned his brother Chris back in Liverpool to see if he knew the name and address of it, and somehow he did….lacky baarsted. We took a day out to go racing at the Curragh, which by the way is in the middle of nowhere!

1996: Newcastle
A trip to the toon and the big market, always good for a laugh. We stayed in the 4 star Copthorne Hotel which was far to good for us! Played a game in Gateshead, which I think we won! Then did an afternoon's Karaoke before going off to the big market. We have since been back to Newcastle on many occasions as the nightlife is so good.

1997: Milan
We went to watch the Milan Derby - I seem to remember Paul Ince playing and the game finishing 1-1 - the atmosphere was electric. However, that was it 'cos the nightlife was crap! No proper bars, just all that coffee bar shit (you will notice not much sight seeing in these stories).

1998: France (World Cup)
Five of us hired a motorhome and some others slummed it in tents - we got to see loads of games including England v Argentina. The weather was fantastic so we had some time out on the Spanish coast between games. We went to Saint Tropez and got the motorhome stuck in a narrow street, 100 cars behind us beeping their horns. We lost our deposit on the van because some Tunisian twat threw a bottle through it during the battle of Marseille.

1999: Barcelona
It was FC Barcelona's centenary year (not that we knew) and we got tickets for the game v Real Betis. When we arrived in the city Tony Almond gave us a guided tour as he has been here many times before, but he fucked up so much we named him El-Bluffo. Also we were sitting outside the SMELLY BAR and John, who was having trouble with the lingo ordering his drink, asked Tony to order it for him. So in his best Spanish he said "gin & tonic pourvavour" - tosser! Defo had one of the best impromptu drinking sessions on that trip down on the beach.

2000: Holland & Belgium (Euro 2000)
After paying loads of money on the black market for tickets in France we decided to buy shit loads off the internet. So we paid over £3000 for tickets and tried to flog them over there. Jay & Mickey got arrested for touting but nothing came of it...phew! The Dutch where great. We stayed in Amsterdam and went to Eindhoven then stayed in Antwerp and watched as the water cannons came into the square soaking all the hoolies. We were there when Shearer scored to beat the Germans...so sweet! However, the Belgians treated us like shit - will never go back there again.

2001: Magaluf
The lads did Magaluf a few times thanks to Stellios' £50 return. Just pure piss-ups, did manage a 5-a-side in the middle of the day...never again. As you can see, flowered shirts where flavour of the month.

2002: Canal boat trip (Chester)
Something you might not think of doing, but this was loads of fun. We hired two boats and cruised the canals around Chester stopping off at loads of boozers. The boat only goes 4mph so its very relaxing (unless some twat is throwing water over you).

2004: Portugal (Euro 2004)
Stayed in Albefera for the footy. We were on the main strip when all the footy hoolies kicked off again (does it follow us?). I think it was that trip Frank's career as a human weightlifter took off! Oh, and Wrighty had to share a room with Big John 'cos Franks tells lies.

2006 Germany (World Cup)
Great trip this was. We stayed in a little German town called Detmold and travelled to the games from there. The Germans ran a great tournament. The trip to Frankfurt on the train was great fun, we took over a first class carriage and sang the Stan Boardman song "eye eye yippie" all the way. One day we knocked together a good barbie on the grass outside our digs. Earlier when we were struggling carrying the beer to the BBQ, a German bloke stopped his car and gave us a lift home...who said those Germans are all Kuntz.

May 2007: Jay's Staggie (Magaluf)
A five day trip took us to Magaluf in Majorca. After the usual room soaking pranks we got down to the staggie on the Thursday night. The lads told Jay he had to wear a Nora Batty dress and later on a “BORAT MANKINI”. We have to say that the day must rank as one of the best ever. Maybe not for Jay!