A Subway breakfast in a toy car, expensive pints in London, and directions from Arnold Schwarzenegger… it’s AFC Wimbledon away!
Three tales from County fans who witnessed our first ever game at the new Plough Lane
Thursday 2 February 2023
Dear County fans, Stopfordians, and anyone else joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Thursday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore. The website will have a very strong Tranmere flavour over the next few days, but today’s ingredients are more jellied eels and liquor, as we look back at County’s first ever visit to the new Plough Lane, 40 years on from our last trip to the old one. Thanks to Harry Bruckshaw, John Edgerton and Stuart MacKinlay for sharing their tales from the capital with us.
Back in November, many readers will have heard the devastating news regarding a lifelong County fan whose wife has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. A fundraising event, to raise money for ongoing treatment as well as supporting a young family, has been organised for this Saturday at Our Lady’s in Stockport. There’s now just 13 tickets remaining. Let’s get these sold over the next couple of days if we can. Contact details are in the image below.
Finally, today’s edition is sponsored by Greenshoots Yoga. A big thank you to Claire, who runs yoga and mindfulness sessions for children, young adults and families. Most County kids are brought up on a Saturday afternoon can of Coke and a packet of crisps on Castle Street, which there’s nothing wrong with at all, but yoga is probably a little more conducive to their development. If you’ve got your own little County nippers, it’s definitely worth giving Claire a call to see what it’s all about. You never know, get them into yoga from a young age and they could be banging in the goals for County when they’re older!
Des Junior
🎶 “We go to all the away matches, by bus, by train, by car. And we get so pissed before the game, we don’t know where we are.” 🎶
A lyric from a classic County song gave Des Junior a little bit of inspiration for this regular feature - why have one away day review when you can have three! So for every away game County play (well, unless it’s like Plymouth on a Tuesday night), The Scarf My Father Wore will be sending three intrepid reporters out into the unknown to share their tales from motorways and train stations across the country.
Harry Bruckshaw travelled to London with Crofter Coaches.
Up: 6:30am.
Clobber: Lacoste T-shirt accompanied by a bright pink Stone Island overshirt (you can’t miss me on the highlights I’m sure!).
Before: I drove to Edgeley, picking a mate up on the way, then headed straight to the Crofter for the coach.
Outbound: Journey there was decent. Had a good laugh on the bus with all the usual faces and a good sing-song. Stopped at a services along the way before getting into London and having a few at a pub called The Hope.
Breakfast: Didn’t actually get any breakfast until we had a stop-off on the way… does a can of cider count? If not, then a Subway breakfast!
Destination: Didn’t see much of the place to be honest, although we stopped at The Hope where a round of drinks that would cost £9.50 in the Crofter cost me nearly £20. London, eh?
Visitors: Away end wasn’t too bad, with an unrestricted view of the lovely office blocks at the opposite end. I didn’t get a look at the facilities as the queues were so big I didn’t bother.
Us: County fans were great as always. Taking 1,200 to south London is great support even if it only cost a fiver to get in.
Them: Very odd, the Wimbledon fans. Had to have the atmosphere created by a man (or woman) in a Womble suit banging a bin lid.
First: Stood behind the goal and tried my best to get the atmosphere going, not the easiest when they don’t let a drum in their ground.
Half: Went to have a look at the food and drink offerings, saw the queues and immediately went back into the stand.
Second: I did a bit of moaning at the ref as we all did.
Post-match: Straight onto the coach which was parked directly next to the exits which was handy.
Inbound: Journey home felt like a long one. Getting out of London is always the worst part, especially with 6,000 Sunderland fans up the road at Fulham, so traffic was a bit slow.
After: Grabbed a bite to eat from one of Edgeley’s Michelin star eateries before dropping a couple of lads home.
Bed: Pretty much as soon as I got in. I was shattered on the bus but didn’t want to end up on Twitter’s ‘Away Day Sleepers’.
Coach: £35
Ticket: £5
Subway: £6
A round of drinks: £18.80
TOTAL: £64.80 (not too bad for a London away day!)
Away day rating: 6.5/10. Would have been higher if we’d won.
It’s probably easier to take a trip to the moon than catch an Avanti train to London at the moment. Fortunately, however, John Edgerton had a straightforward trip to the capital last Saturday, along with his son Jack.
Up: 5am. We had a tram to catch in Bury just after 6am into Manchester, before the train.
Clobber: Standard jeans, T-shirt and jacket.
Breakfast: Sausage barm and a coffee from Greggs.
Outbound: Not a bad journey at all. We thought it was going to be busy with all the train cancellations but it was very quiet.
Destination: Just the same as all other parts of London, but seemed more expensive in the pubs for a pint.
Visitors: I thought it was a decent ground with a good away end, even if some didn’t. Facilities were OK, better than some we have been to, but for a new ground the toilets could have been better. The atmosphere was nothing like our normal away games with the drum not being allowed in.
Us: We were OK, although we’ve been better at other away games.
Them: Quiet.
First: I’d expected a big win, so I was stood in shock at what was being played in front of us, including that penalty from Hippolyte.
Half: Sat and rested my feet.
Second: Same as the second half, but questioning certain decisions from the ref and our football.
Post-match: We had a train to catch at 6.30pm, so we headed straight for the underground, which was a good 20-25 minute walk.
Inbound: Just like the journey down, nothing much different.
Bed: 1.30am.
Train: £72 for me and Jack
Tickets: £10
Food and drink: Lost count, but it was at least £7 for a pint in London. Inside the ground, it cost me £17.50 for a hot dog, pie, water and a pint!
TOTAL: At least £106.50
Away day rating: 7/10. Only due to the pub crawl around London.
Not many of the Stockport Sippers Society headed to London last weekend, but Stuart MacKinlay drove down to the capital with Don (meeting up with southern member Bob once they’d arrived) to tick off AFC Wimbledon’s new ground prison.
Up: 7.45am.
Clobber: A white Sippers top, black jeans, black trainers, County bobble hat.
Breakfast: Went to Reg’s in Banbury on the way down, a cafe similar to Sivori’s.
Outbound: Great journey. No hold-ups, but four and a half hours of driving which is a long time. Planned the route using a brilliant app called Waze, with Arnold Schwarzenegger giving us directions.
Pre-match: Spent a bit of time around Wimbledon and Tooting. Nice place, plenty of pubs and bars. Had a drink in The Trafalgar, where we also parked the car for free, which was a result.
Visitors: Plough Lane? More like Porridge Lane. The new ground is really disappointing. From the outside it looks like a soulless tennis stadium, while inside you’ve got big horrible walls at the away end. Loved all the Wimbledon flags with their history, though, and they had great support.
Us: A great turnout from the County fans but in terms of the actual support I thought we were quite flat. We don’t seem to be able to function without the young lads and the drum. It was a shame to see some of our idiots looking for trouble and kicking bins over.
First: Lots of fans were preferring to queue up for food and drink which rather annoyed me. And I’ve no idea why Hippolyte took the penalty. Should have been Collar.
Half: Large queues for food, which meant lots of grumpy old men. Expensive, too. Merv would have fainted at the price for a Guinness.
Second: Wimbledon were the only team in it, we were poor. Only Hinchliffe, Wootton and Collar played well. The question I would ask Dave Challinor, is why has he sold or loaned out all of our creative players, such as Crankshaw and Whitfield. We don’t have any attacking wide men anymore.
Inbound: The journey home was dark and wet. Didn’t like it one bit.
After: Got back home at 10.45pm. Had some fajitas and watched Match of the Day.
Petrol: £92
Ticket: £5
Breakfast: £6.95
Drinks: About £6 for a pint, £3.50 for a Coke
TOTAL: £113.45
Away day rating: Only 6/10, as we didn’t have enough Sippers on the trip. The old Plough Lane was a proper ground, this new one is like a prison. I’m glad I went, but I don’t think I’d bother again.
So there you have it folks, three tales from AFC Wimbledon away, and it’s a victory for… THE TRAIN!
If you’re going to Harrogate next week and you’d like to share your tales from Yorkshire with our readers, drop us a message.
How was your own day out in London last Saturday? What did you make of Plough Lane? And what would you order from Subway if you were having that for breakfast? Click on the button to leave your comments.
Take the kids to yoga
Now, you might not have thought of doing this before. But Claire Ash from Greenshoots Yoga runs fantastic yoga and mindfulness sessions for children, young adults and families. During term time, yoga and mindfulness classes for children take place every Friday at St Paul’s Church Hall in Heaton Moor. It’s £8 for children aged 8-12 (4.30pm - 5.25pm) and £7 for those aged 5-7 (5.30pm - 6.15pm). Claire also runs parent and child sessions a couple of times each term. The next one is on Friday 10 March, also at St Paul’s, from 4.30pm till 5.25pm. It’s £14 for a parent with one child, or £18 if you have two children.
On this day in 2019
Now that Crewe’s out the way, travelling Hatters are already making plans for their next away day, which will be County’s first ever Football League trip to Harrogate. We have actually been to Wetherby Road as a Football League club, with Connor Jennings’ penalty securing victory back in August in the first round of the League Cup. We’ve also been to Harrogate on this very day, back in 2019. Incredibly, we were a division below them at the time, but Jim Gannon’s men caused an upset in the FA Trophy, as goals from Adam Thomas, Frank Mulhern (2) and Matty Warburton sealed a 4-2 win and a place in the quarter-finals.
Here’s something you should definitely do in February
Buy tickets for The County Comedy Quiz at Bask!
The Scarf My Father Wore editor, Des Junior, absolutely loves a County quiz. He’s alright at compiling County quizzes as well. Rightly or wrongly, he also fancies himself as a bit of a comedian. On that note, The Scarf My Father Wore are delighted to team up with Bask to bring you The Comedy County Quiz. It’s a proper County quiz, with some fantastic prizes on offer, but our aim is to crack you up with some of the questions along the way.
We’ve also got special guest Paul Jones joining us. The former County defender, and Bolton Wanderers legend, will be speaking on the night, as well as handing out the prizes to the winners!
Click here for our full list of things you should definitely do in February!
Never mind Google or Yell.com, we’ve got you covered
STOP! That got your attention, didn’t it? Just a quick one… I’d hazard a guess that at some point in February, all of our readers will use Google or Yell.com at some point looking for a particular product or service. But before you do, please have a quick look at our own directory to see if we have what you’re looking for. A number of great businesses support The Scarf My Father Wore,allowing us to publish great content every day, so let’s send a few enquiries their way in return.
Click here to have a look at all the businesses in our directory.
Photo of the day
Gresty Road, Crewe
Here at The Scarf My Father Wore, we like to publish wholesome feel-good content, which will hopefully put a smile on your face, and give you something enjoyable to read in among all the doom and gloom you’ll find elsewhere on a daily basis. (As I write this, the BBC News website is covering a rise in interest rates, British Gas agents breaking into customers’ homes, and Mason Greenwood getting away with attacking his partner.) But I’m sure this will cheer you all up, a photo of 8-year-old Betsy Fletcher - daughter of one of our subscribers, Mark - enjoying her first ever County away game at Crewe on Tuesday night. Before the game, Betsy - who plays as a striker for County Ladies Under-9s - predicted her favourite player Kyle Wootton would score. We’ve asked Betsy if she’ll write down Saturday’s lottery numbers for us as well…