Back in the saddle like an upside down jockey. Thin in numbers but resolute in our termination to push on we met at St Pancras station with minutes to spare before our departure for Kent. A thoroughly pleasant journey it was too, fully working toilets, air conditioning and melon provided for snacking not a beer in site all of which made me feel old and depressed!
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| Boojzwar |
Arriving at the station, our recommended daily vitamin intake taken care of, it was time to head to the stadium pick up our tickets and find a bar to cheer ourselves up. Now normally at this point of our adventure there was general arguments about the google mapping which usually ended up with us asking a local. However as we were now big leagues we availed of the signs directing us to the ground and even had a concerned local come up, without being asked, and confirm the signage was correct. Bonus.
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| Moments before we took on the World Strong Man Atlas Stone Event |
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| Is this the way to Priestfield, Yes. |
About 30 mins of f@cking about saved we arrived in nice time to pick up the tickets and have a wander in the Mega Store and boy did it live up to it's prefix. It was Mega. As Gills fan I would have to say you had no excuse for not having your house decked out in, bears, bedsheets, curtains (including tie backs), leather goods, clocks, bathrobes, computer mice and I could go on but I won't. Browsing complete we retired to the bar for a pint.
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| If They have a Double I'm getting One |
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| Say Whaaaaaaaaa! |
The bar was cracking wall to wall TVs showing the Blackpool Championship game and a thoroughly decent pint. It was a sports bar done well and wasn't too busy perfect place to sup a few pints before taking our seats for the main attraction. Despite thinking I had got us decent seats a few rows back from the touchline we ended up right down in the second row which although didn't give us the best view of the match did mean we seen plenty of the Mascot, cheerleaders and Peter (100% winning England record) Taylor himself.
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| Tommy Trewblu |
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| Peter Taylor |
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| Tommy less than impressed with the talent show. |
The first half had plenty of endeavour but lacked goals. It was the typical type of game you would expect at this level with no more than half chances throughout. As you would expect Kevin Davies "put himself about" and there were plenty of "lumped" balls. Preston had a decent travelling contingent and they probably helped give the away team the edge in the first half. But aside from that literally nothing to write home about.
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| "Mmmmmmm, this is a tasty Burger". |
In more exciting news we had a had a serious burger challenger. Punching way above it's weight on the dreary afternoon dan saff. As usual here is a quick review of the half time snack scoring system: Culinary expert 'S' will be the taste tester. Pies, being the traditional food of choice, were to take priority but due to lack of lower league pies a burger has been substituted. Food will be rated out of 5 stars. 1 being poor, 2 being average 3 being good 4 being very good and 5 being excellent.
An extra "+" will be awarded for the serving of bovril. The maximum score is "5 +".
Score - 4.0 +. Over to our correspondant for the low down:
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| Get In My Son |
"Unless
you're a celiac the first thing that touches your lips when you tuck into a
burger is always the bun. But it is fair to say that most burger buns are often
the average burger's weak link, despite the fact that the bun can really make
or break a burger. Those two slices of bread play a fundamentally important
role as holder of the burger together, and can also add some all-important
flavour and flouriness to the overall taste experience. On this occasion, and
for the first time on our clamber up the league ladder, I was delighted to see
a bun that really did its job. It was solid but not hard, tasty but not
artificial, and big enough to hold the burger contents in place but not so big
it dominated everything else. In that sense it actually accentuated what could
potentially have been a poor meat patty, since the beef in this particular bun
was quite small and looked overdone. Think of a supermodel with no clothes on
and you get the idea of what I'm trying to convey - without the exquisite
make-up, expensive jewellery and designer finery there's really nothing there.
On its own this patty would probably have been equally skinny and lacking in
personality, but as it was dressed in the metaphorical equivalent of a Vivienne
Westwood frock it was elevated from potential three star status to a solid
four. This is not to mention of course the decent quality of dressing and
condiments provided, plus the welcome dose of meaty Bovril. All in all this was
an enjoyable experience and given the context (burgers at football games), I
was very happy to have its contents inside my stomach."
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| The sun is beating down and the wind is shooting through the stadium. Hello football lovers! |
Fed and watered we took our seats for the second half. The Sun had decided to join us and the players re-emerged into what was shaping up to be a nice afternoon. Thankfully the football also improved and it was only 3 minutes later we had our first goal. Much like our burger bun Preston had added a bit of meat to their sandwich and took the lead through a fortunate, if deserved, goal. Kevin Davies, who had looked a step up all afternoon, took a throw in on the right hand side to Keane whose hit-and-hope shot went through the keeper took a deflection and nestled like a nesting bird at the back of the net. Game on.
The Gillingham fans hoped that this would be the kick up the arse they needed to wake up. Indeed it was the Gills that looked the most dangerous in the next 10 mins drawing a fine save from the visiting keeper. But again a bit of a lumped ball allowed Preston to run at Gills back line before a pull back to 17 year old Brownhill who slid the ball across the keeper. Gillingham pulled a late one back with a header from Kedwell and a chance for the equaliser which was headed straight at the keeper but in reality it was the second Preston goal which ended the game. Peter Taylor was not to have his triumphant return just yet.
So off we trotted away from Prestfield into the night and back to the Capital. Not a bad game but by no means top 5 of what we have seen but the set up from the stadium to the pitch and burger to the bar was noticeably better than elsewhere will we see the trend continue? Will our intrepid adventurers ever reach the top? Will the taster lose the burger pounds? Tune in next time to find out...
Regular stats below.
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| 4 it's the magic number |
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| The divil in in the detail |
Ticket price - £20
Beer Price - Pint Guinness £3.50 in stadium sports bar.
Burger/Pie Price - £2.5 . 4.0+ star rating.
Crowd - None given estimated 2398
Score 1-2
Facilities
Bar - Yes 9/10
Food - Yes
Stand - Yes All seater. No official attendance but in the region of 5,000.
Programme - Yes £3.00
Fanzine - No
Club Shop - Yes Megastore Shirt £39.99
On a side note the after party wasn't bad back in London check out those swings below. Think in 90mins we completed 2 holes of Pebble Beach and that's without the usual walking malarky. It's the taking part that counts right?
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| Hooked beautifully round the tree onto the green. |
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| Like stealing a putter from a baby |
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| Fooled by the realism S attempting to walk to the green. |
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