Hartelpool - Real Football. Real Supporters.

After our epic second German trip it was time to come back down from the dizzy dancing of So gehn die Bochum for a 300 mile drive to Hartlepool on a tuesday night. Is that devotion or what?! (Some would call it plain stupid)

What was actually stupid was that I'd had a prang in my Fiesta a few weeks before and was still travelling with the damage! After a stop off at the Services we got to see the great look of the car.

We also got to inspect Lil'Daves atire for the evening. Leicester shirt as usual but something a lil' different..I'd brought the scarf's from Germany back..The mob walking to the 'Stadium'
And here she was...A bit of free advertising for Tom....After Suuuper Steve put city infront, a somewhat dubious penalty was awarded to the home side and Joel Porter (Mr.Hartlepool) scored after winning it himself.

A lovely dive by Bruno Berner was enough to con-the-ref deep in the second half.. Steve picked up the ball and scored from 12-yards out. We thought we'd done it... Picked up three points. But like good old Leicester we couldn't hang on. A fantastic goal by Monkhouse meant the points were shared.

A bit of a bummer bit still 19-Games-unbeaten! This was the best stuff since the early 70's! So we weren't so down beat after the match.Jager Time!

Scarfes time!A stop off for a bite to eat on the way home revealed jamie's femine side.Yep, that is actually a salad bag from McDonalds...!

I was dead and seriously wondered why I agreed to drive just days after coming back from germany... I may have fallen asleep behind the wheel. *

* I Didn't actually. This is called - 'Face Drive'.

You may remember all entries to the blog finished with a picture of Dave... Well this one doesn't, but its close enough....Dave's cat gets the blue army fever!

Germany '09 - Return to Ze Motherland.

The excitement had been building for some months, since late 2008 when the trip was sorted out and booked, confirming we had 4 (yes FOUR Foxes!) plus 8 Bees & 1 Tree (Forest fan!). This would be the biggest group we'd had on a German trip, and also the largest contingent from Leicester so far. Hopefully it'll increase again come the summer & our next planned trip.





Our trip began a day earlier than everyone else as we had to make our way down to London on the Thursday. My trip started with a fine British ale:

Also joining me on the trip from Leicester were the two debutants, Potter & brinner

Ramp also joined me for a second time, someone should have told him we were going to Germany not Poland!

A good ol' game of cards on the train too. Somehow we lost the cards and they never made it out the country We got to St.Pancras, where the usul photographs were taken!After checking in at our hotel we headed out to the pub. We found a good old English pub and played a traditional English game of darts!Obviously we had to do some English activities before going all continental on you!

After quite a heavy drinking session in the pub we only got to sleep at about 3am, the main problem being that our Eurostar across the channel was leaving at 5:55am!

Somehow, we managed to wake up (well, I say we, Potter just stayed up the whole night!) and hauled ourselves over to St.Pancras, which wasn't busy, for once!

We also left with enough time to put potter through some embarrasment After a seemingly short trip on the eurostar we arrived in Brussels. We decided that before we hit the Belguim beer, we'd try one of Brussels other famous treats. Waffels!

We found a nice Hagen-Das cafe just next to the station and sat down, this tunred out to be a fatal idea! When the bill turned up we found out that we had just paid 25 Euros for 3 waffels and a bit of iced cream! We also had to make a visit to our favourite vending machine in Europe, to fill up on nosh & important liquers for our journey to Koln.

We were booked on the Thayls (Belguim express) train to Koln. Brinner caught up on his FrenchHe then decided to try the cheer beer we got from THE vending machine: The result:Potter found a friend.......Ramp tucked into his Desperados...

The Stella factroy at Leuven:And it wasn't long before we arrived at Koln hbf
We met up with a few familiar faces from our last trip (Chris & Ollie) as well as a new face - Graham (Left on picture). We were soon in the local pub.

When we visit a new city it's fairly un-often for us to get cultural and start taking pictures of buildings, but Koln's Cathedral deserved it!After a short, local train ride to Duisberg, we met up with everyone else who had flown in, bar Peter who would be flying in after the match. Oberhausen was the next stop down from Duisberg Hbf and this was the location for our first game of the trip!

Rot-Wiess Oberhausen vs St. Pauli

Niederrhein Stadion:


The St.Pauli team coach!

The stadium was different to any other german stadium I'd visited before. Apparently this is a typical lower divison stadium.The scoreboard was amazing!

After our visit last year to see Pauli at home, we were obviously going to go in the away end. This and the fact that most of us are lefties anyway -Bar ramp, of course! (Pauli are famed for being a Left wing club, in fact the most left-wing in the world). Pauli fans:

The Oberhausen Ultras were different to any other fans I'd seen. They chose the seated section as their home isntead of the 8'000 capacity terrace at the other end!

The flooglights were quality:
The Sankt Pauli fans had brought a good contingent from up north with them. Taking into consideration the fact that a round trip is 440 miles (Leicester's longest trip is to Carlisle which is 460 miles). We were originally gonna go in the section with their Ultras but it got so rammed I could hardly move to take a picture! They filled this section and also had a couple of other blocks. I'd estimate that over 2'000 away fans turned up.
It was bloody freezing, so fair play to them!

Anyway, to the game. And right from the word go, there was something intresting to see! A Female ref!!
And before long the home fans had something else to cheer about ! They scored!After 20 minutes, they'd made it 3-0!Pauli gave themselves a glimmer of hope by getting one back just before half-time. This also kept up my German Football law of averages of 4 goals a game. The guy who scored the goal was acually an ex-Bochum player -Filip Trojan - he linked nicely to our sunday gsame as well, as he has signed for Fc Mainz next season! Who would have thought one man could link all three games!At half time whilst I visted the little boys room, (which was basically a muddy slope with a hut at the bottom of it, with that hut covered in German Ultras stickers!) I left my camera for the posers (after taking a few with myself in obvs!)Gays:



The 2nd half started similar to the 1st with lots of chances and a fair amount of sloppy play. THE RWO fanswere enjoying themselves anywayMaking his debut for St.Pauli was Davidson Drobo-Ampem, a 20 year old Ghanaian. Didn't think he played well, but he deserved a mention for his name & the fact he looks like Alvin Jarvis!He was brought on as a substitute, also on the bench with him was David Hoilett, an 18 year old Canadian loanee from Blackburn rovers. Watch out for him!

Pauli won a penalty late on, and our man Trojan finished it off, but 3-2 was the final score.Party time for the RWO fans:
Despite the result, It was also party time for us, as we headed to Bochum to meet up with the German lads. After a few beers in the pub, we headed to Riff club. What a fine night this was, shame we were too busy with the german women and moshing to seven nation army to take any photo's!

We didn't get back to the hotel untill 5am, so we were all a little fragile in the morning, but the drink carried on, regardless.





We hit the Brinkhoffs outside the hotel where we all, eventually re-grouped. From there it was a short walk accross the city to the pub near the stadium.
Being hungover, tired and already feeling the drink, we all found this cat hilarious for no aparant reason!

The Brinkhoffs outside the stadium was already guarded by police even though hardly any fans were around.

We were met by some more Friendly German faces!After a few beers, we moved onto the shots. Kummerling, Jager and these were in order. BEST SHOT EVER!Soon the anthems were out and so were the scarfes:So, full of spirits (and in high spirit) we set off for the ground!Bochum v Schalke then.

Game numero two!It was also the big derby for Bochum. Schalke were the next city north (gelsenkirchen) and this was the Ruhr Derby! There fans started to fill the opposite end hours before kick off. Around 8'000 of them (If not more) were expected! !The Bochum team warming up, our man Sestak closest to the camera:The Bochum fans warming up

What they thought of Schalke!Soon over the tannoy the anthems were out, first You'll never walk alone and that was followed by the "bochum anthem". The scarf's duly followed

The teams were soon out and the noise levels rose from both ends Megaphone time!
The Schalke team was put out on the big screen. Kevin Kuranyi (22) was starting. I'd been raving all the way there how shit he was!As with anything I say, It comes back to bite me. Early on, the donkey scrambled in a parry from the goalkeeper, Fernandes, to put Schalke 1-0 up.But Bochum were not put down and the derby atmosphere carried on. Bochum pretty much dominated and by the end of the first half had 13 corners to Schalke none. Shame most of them struggled to cause any real threatGerald?Beer, football and terracing? (And Gerald!)
So the first half was done. The enemy went in 1-0 but we were confident we could get something back. Off to erm...fill up on beer and sausages!

Early on in the 2nd Half, a thundering strike from ex-Schalke man Mimoun Azaouagh swerved into the top corner to level the scores and send our fellow fans on the terrace bonkers! The schalke fans hadn't given up hope either! But their hope wasn't rewarded, and the home fans got what they were after. A goal mouth scramble lead to Christoph Dabrowski putting the ball into the net to give VfL a 2-1 advantage
The game was excellent and with Schalke looking for an equaliser it became even better. A good old fashioned hambags scuffle duly completed itOur man Sestak takes a poor dive. Shame on you Stani!
The final whistle

The 04 Fans weren't happy. A smoke bomb ended up on the pitch!However, at our end of the stadium, the fans were obviously much happier. As were the players who got ready to do the victory dance! "so gehn die Bochum"Picture time! THe original group of the Official supporters group 'VfL Britain'The away end soon emptied!Time for one last sing song, with scarf's...obvs!So it was back to the pub where we hit the drink again and celebrated the derby win, GERMAN STYLE! Brinner was soon repeating the previous nights antics by mingling with the nationals women!

We all got exceptionally drunk!

Potter though was clearly having trouble keeping the beer down. So we took him back to the hotelWhere he continued to be sick. Everywhere [Warning on these next photo's]We left him to sleep...in his own sick, of course!Brinner was still in high spirits, and was still doing the "So gehn die Bochum" dance!
After an infamous visit to the laufhaus we retired to the hotel around 3am. An early start was in order for our sunday game...

Tom went for a Magnum

although we opted for something a bit stronger!

We travelled through munster before arriving at our destination of Osnabruck

Who wouldn't find this funny after a beer?

Danny Dyer would be proud of a mob like ours!

Vfl Osnabruck vs FC Mainz 05

After a short walk from the Hbf we arrived at the Osnatel stadium. A nice ground set in a local neighbourhood, outside were little fan tents selling food, BEER and merchandise.

We got on German TV

Unfortunately we weren't in the main Terrace, we had to settle with the terrace at the opposite end of the stadium, next to the "Kinder Tribune". The main Tribune looked a lot better than ours with lots of flags and a bit of noise.

Our quieter terrace:

Noiser terrace:

Kinder tribune:Luckily for us we had the away fans of Mainz next to us so they would provide the soundtrack for most of the game. A good following too, for a sunday in the snow! Their team chasing promotion (Which they would later get!)

The game was actually pretty good, but I doubt I'll remember it for that....It'll always be remembered as a cold, snowy, quiet game with possibly the single worst view at a football match I have ever seen, I mean come on!At least there was some interesting players to get excited about. First off, we have the Burkino Faso international striker.... Aristide BanceHe is better known as "Guinness" - 'Black body with a light head'...

Also we had Stephan Wessels in goal for Osnabruck!

Osnabruck also this fine specimen:Darlington Omodiagbe was what they called him.

Anyway, enough of the awesome players...Back to the match and it wasn't long before we saw what the Bundesliga (Or the 2nd Bundesliga) is all about. GOALS!

Osnabruck nipping infront early on through Gaetano Manno, funnily enough, an ex-Bochum player!

Our man Guinness had picked up a knock and clearly wasn't feeling up for it. He was subbed and probably went back to the bar for a pint of his namesake..

Shortly after his departure Mainz starting showing why they were looking like the team about to go up. An equaliser through Markus Feulner (Recent signing for Borrusia Dortmund)

Sotuh African internation Delron Buckley then scored a superb goal on the half volley to fire Mainz into the lead

The 2nd half was a bit quiet, but half way through Mainz picked up a penalty and Slovakian International (over 90 caps!) Miroslav Karhan picked up the ball to make it 3-1.

And that ladies and gentleman is how it finsihed. Mainz looking up whilst Osnabruck were definalty looking over their shoulder at relegation.

Our trop to osnabruck was definately a memorable one but mainly for the wrong reasons. Terrible view, freezing cold and a lack of atmosphere, with the away fans providing the only drum beats.

But I could well imagine Osnabruck to be a bit of a better place to go on a bit of a sunnier, warmer day!...And after the match we moved to the back of the emptying terrace and it shows that there is a good view! We all headed back to the train station where we would split up and go our seperate ways home. Luckily ours was by far the best way to go home!

We had one last group photo and said our goodbyes. Same again next year please.

We travelled back to Bochum, with Chris, Olly, Pete & Tom..Who had clearly had enough!Whislt Tom slept we decided to get back on it, with some gold ol' fashioned Jager's, accompanied by the glasses we..erm...Borrowed from the bar the previous night! The train ride was pretty normal untill we came across this:

Yep. Thats a genuine parrot..On a train...With its droppings too. Nice.

As we got nearer "home" we had to say by the the rest of the bees! As they were flying back home whilst we stayed an extra night. It was an emotional goodbye....

We decided that after a heavy weekend on the beers we would havea quiet sunday night in.

That was, untill we visited the shop. And bought beer.

Kummerling was in order.
Jager too!

A quiet sunday night in. German Style:

We were all very drunk and therefore automatically hungry , so at 1am on a sunday night (well if your being pedantic its monday morning!) we set out for a pizza. a 5 minuite walk from the hotel we got ourself stone-baked pizzas. Lovely.

Next morning was a fragile start, an early start at that. Our train leaving for Koln...Where we actually started to wake up.

Ramp takes on the Kid bar.

And our impressive ICE Train turns up. Taking us all the way to Brussels at 330km/h! Everyone soon fell asleep!

And woke up in a different country! Belguim. And more importantly the capital! Brussels!

We soon found a bar the was serving beers at lunchtime. Infact it was the same bar we went to last year, and we went there for a particular reason...KWAK!

We were soon drunk and back on our way.....To the same train station we had been at sober just a few hours ago! We borded our Eurostar and headed back to Ing-er-land. There was a stop off at Lille..Where Brinner got the chance to step onto French soil for the first time. The Eurostar can tend to be a little bit boring when your going through the tunnel. So I came up with a genuis plan to get into the Record books.

We rounded up all our spare Euro change....and bought some Gin.

We were going to be the first men to drink gin whilst under the English Channel. Surely?

As you can see the Gin tasted...well I'm sure you can see how it tasted.

And there is our proof:

So, back in London...And potter (looking very German) found his favourite shop!

Whilst we started on the beers we'd bought on the Mainland.

And after a relativly short train ride back to Leicester we were home sweet home.