Sunday, 17th of March 2013 - A
Singaporean abroad
I woke up as early as 8 that day. West
London had been raining throughout the night. In fact, the whole time since I
got here. However that did not dampen my spirits as I went down to the hotel
lobby for breakfast. I had checked into one of the hotels in South Kensington
& that, being the hotel of my choice as it was just a few tube stations to
Fulham Broadway where Stamford Bridge is. West Ham was playing away & after
months of scrounging for tickets, a mate from Twitter finally managed to sort
it out for 55 quid which was a bargain as it was a highly-anticipated fixture
against a top side.
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| Fulham Broadway Tube Station |
I left the hotel at about 1 o’clock &
made my way to the tube. It was packed to the brim as most of the fans are
already on their way to the ground as well. As soon as I disembarked, the
opposite train started to pull in. I could hear loud singing but could not make
out what it was. I stood still and watched the furor as the fans started to get
out. “I’m forever blowing bubbles…” Now, that’s strange. Why were the Chelski
fans singing our anthem? And as the train emptied out, 6 grown up men stood in
the carriage, arms outstretched. ”Fortunes always hiding, I’ve looked
everywhere. I’m forever blowing bubbles. Pretty bubbles in the air”! The door
train doors closed as they finished the last verse & it sped out of sight.
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| 6 West Ham fans in a full trainload of Chelski supporters & still standing. Class! |
I went out of the station and turned right
down the streets. Ticket touts were already around asking me if I needed
tickets. I asked how much & one replied,”80 pounds. It’s for good seats,
Sir!” I said ‘no thanks’ as courteously as I could & continued. I had a
quick lunch at the local chippy while waiting for my mate to arrive. Word got
around that we were to meet up at ‘The Cock Tavern’ which had been used as a
meeting point for as many years now. A few seasons back, the West Ham was
ambushed in that same pub when some Chelsea fans attacked the pub & used CS
gas. This season, it was a no-no as I walked past the rows of pubs & almost
all of them had ‘Home Fans Only’ signs on their windows plus 2 burly bouncers
in front of the door. If that was not enough, there was a police van parked
every few meters covering all major road junctions.
I met & got to know some of the other
West Ham in that pub & 2 hours before kick-off, some of the West Ham
started to get a bit loud. Although there was no trouble, I could see that the
landlord was starting to get nervous & he soon began chucking out some
fans. Then another. And another. Until you could really count yourself who was
left. I was also one of those ‘ejected’ as he said I kept going out for a smoke
every now & then. What was wrong with these people, then? As we regroup to
find another watering hole, an argument was breaking out. A police car stopped
in front of the bar to attend to the commotion.
“He’s throwing us out for no reason, Sir!
Obviously if he keeps doing that, it’d kick off soon mate” pleaded a
bald-headed Hammer.
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| Ejected, we walked on to Stamford Bridge |
“It’s
his pub, we can’t do anything, lads”, the copper replied as he shrugged his
shoulders. Even the Met Police can’t help. Another group walked out and crossed
the street. “See ya at the ground, boys!” they shouted as they began to sing
some funny songs about Lampard being fat. I started to laugh. West Ham was
taking the piss & nobody was doing anything now. With the other West Ham
pub being miles away, we thought it’d be best to wait near the ground in hope
of meeting other groups of West Ham. (The talk going on in the pub was actually
some of the lads had arrange to meet at Victoria & whilst they were there,
they stumbled upon another group of Spurs who was playing Fulham at home. Calls
were being made to see if there were really any fighting going on between the
two but of course, we did not hear anything beyond that).
Whilst
we went out apparently, mounted policemen started to standby near the Cock
Tavern to round up the remaining West Ham to take to the ground.
We were allocated the upper & lower
tiers of the Shed End. The match kicked off at 4 o’clock sharp
& I’m sure I don’t need to go to details on how the match on. The only
highlight was Frank Lampard scored in the 19th minute of play which
was his 200th Chelsea goal. And 5 minutes into the second half, Edin
Hazard scored a beautiful goal which even some of the genuine football fans
standing near me admitted was a terrific one. The other highlights were the
coin-throwing incident when John Terry wandered near the away supporters end.
Spirits were high on that cold afternoon as we sung at the top of our voices to
urge the team forward. There was the odd West Ham counter attack but it all led
to nothing as the minutes trickled. A loud cheer went up as the Tannoy echoed
that 41,639 fans were at today’s game. The referee blew for full-time soon
after & we awaited to be escorted by the police to the station as the home
crowd slowly dissipated. My first away game with West Ham finished on the blue
with that loss as we were hovering just 6 points above the relegation zone as
we go into the international break.
Check out this picture of the guy in red
jacket taken off the West Ham Facebook
site. J
Written by M. Redzuan, aka Wan Shah
